5. ~Kai~
~Kai~
Ah, back in the heart of my power.
It was invigorating beyond belief.
I could feel it coursing through me, and I reveled in every moment of it, savoring it rolling through me and infusing me.
The muted glow from the pot lights I’d installed in the cave walls gave off a soothing effect that assisted with my focus.
As did the magically-generated music of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony echoing through the space.
It energized me, and intensified my hand flourishes of power as I worked my magic with sure, graceful movements.
It was me in my element.
Potions galore lined the shelves I’d fashioned into the rough stone of the dark gray cave walls surrounding the space on all sides. Ancient volumes, as well as more modern takes on magical puzzles and mysteries, were arranged neatly on cabinets over on one side of the space.
Adjacent to that was a wall of levitating spellbooks.
Several belonged to me and contained spells I’d created over the years.
While others belonged to fallen magic-wielders that I’d managed to acquire through great effort and pains.
That was largely because the acquisition of magical knowledge was carefully controlled, especially for Academy students.
The last thing that those in power wanted was people getting their hands on advanced, dangerous, and volatile information, like I had.
Unfortunately, for them, that was what I did best. Gathering know-how, finding workarounds to obstacles that seemed insurmountable to others, and generally finding alternatives to outright magical prowess.
While I couldn’t match those at the top of the supernatural food chain, like Mia Snow, Cornelius Martel, Jaxon Silver, or Ryker Morgan, through sheer power alone, there were other ways to stand tall against that perceived superiority.
Knowledge was power. And it was often greatly overlooked.
Except by one person who I’d grown fond of since he’d started teaching here.
Professor Gabriel Morgan.
He wasn’t as powerful as his son, Ryker, but he’d been able to hold his own amongst the greats several times over, all because of his extensive and arguably unmatched knowledge base.
Meeting somebody like him and discovering all that about him and his inspired approach had actually been the catalyst to me stepping up my own quest in that respect since I’d started at Maven Academy.
Because I’d realized that it had been the key to protecting myself and my family, something I’d become rather obsessed with ever since I’d found out the truth about what had befallen my parents years ago when that monstrous Immortal, Draco, had risen.
They were powerful in their own right, but beings had come along who’d totally eclipsed that might and they’d almost perished right there on their own home turf of the Maven Coven, all because they’d found themselves at the mercy of more powerful beings.
I wouldn’t allow that to happen again. Not to them. And certainly not to me.
And what I was doing, what I’d spent years doing in this lab that I’d created twenty minutes from campus, had been geared toward that goal.
Something like that befalling us had become even more of a possibility with the hybrid experiments that had been taking place in the shadows for the last few years, something that had harmed Nyx greatly.
Those behind it, Chimera Circle, were creating beings of great power that threatened to destabilize the balance of the supernatural world, that proved dangerous to us all, if they were able to control their creations, as was their endgame.
The fact that the Guardian Movement had been unable to put down Chimera Circle was beyond disturbing.
Yes, they’d located, raided, and stopped several experiment facilities and arrested many involved.
But they hadn’t been able to actually bring down Chimera itself, nor its leaders, because they operated out of pocket dimensions and had multi-pronged security procedures in place that made it near-impossible for them to be found.
The hell I was going to put my safety and wellbeing in the hands of others.
I took control. I owned it. And I certainly didn’t cower behind others for protection.
Speaking of cowering, thanks to Ariana’s foolish misstep during her party, I could now extend my experiments with a very precious new ingredient.
I strode to the long, stone table in the far corner of the space that was covered with my alchemy equipment and apparatus—beakers, goblets, chalices, vials, and burners, all pieced together intricately with the shimmering rose-gold tubing I’d fabricated.
I picked up the vial of my magic that I’d prepared earlier, then conjured the vial of her silver magic that I’d hidden. I stared at it as I levitated it.
I hadn’t really taken it to blackmail her. I had no intention of outing her little spell to anyone. It had actually impressed me. Especially considering her usual head-in-the-sand stance, her wasting her immense power away, and being an ungrateful bitch about it.
I’d merely needed access to her magic for my own purposes.
Not that it hadn’t helped that she’d believed the blackmail aspect.
It had been the nudge that she’d needed all this time.
And the opportunity that I’d needed to finally pull her to me before it was too late.
Before she was lost to me.
Lost to us all.
Focus!
I extracted two droplets of her power and added them to my magic, which I’d spelled to specifically withstand the force of hers, similarly to how I was able to nullify her power when we got carnal.
I watched with bated breath as the silver solution reacted with mine.
The rose-gold liquid brightened and essentially formed a wall against hers as it fought to penetrate it and overwhelm it.
Promising.
Very promising.
But then it began to bubble.
Her silver magic sparked, miniature lightning bolts shooting out throughout the container, driving into my magic.
It ramped up until it fucking exploded, hers completely obliterating mine.
The beaker shattered, glass and solution spraying everywhere.
I quickly extracted her magic with a sweep of my hand and returned it to the vial containing more, then I hid it away again.
“Fuck!” I yelled, slamming my fist down on the stone table.
I’d really thought I’d had it then, that I’d managed to find a counter to her power, a fucking shield against it.
It was supposed to have been the beginning of something incredible.
But I was obviously missing something.
I needed to know more.
The secrets involved in her heritage. Artifacts, symbols, ancient texts. If I could do this and unlock the greatest power in the universe, I would be completely unchallenged by anything or anyone.
And that was worth everything.
I fisted my hands down at my sides.
I just hated when things didn’t go according to my well-crafted plans.
But with Ariana’s magic, there were more layers to it than I was used to there being with any other magic-wielder’s power.
It was rooted in something far deeper and much more complicated because of the Celestial aspect of it.
I’d thought that, with her having only ever lived on this mortal plane, that it wouldn’t be much of a factor, all the while she was rooted here, but that had clearly been an oversight.
Or , perhaps, something had changed recently.
Like her reaching magical maturity. Did the Celestial Plane now have a greater hold on her?
Fuck it. It was one thing countering her magical influence against me personally, like I’d been able to do twice now, but this… messing with the heart of her power and its full potency while separated from her control and will, too, and in its purest form, was another thing altogether.
I needed to continue my experimentation with my special ability against her, while also looking into this now as well.
Doing so in a sexual way like I did with Nyx was the safest way.
The only other alternative was having her unleash in a violent manner, which was far too dangerous given her raw power.
Not to mention, she’d never go in for doing things that way, with her hangups about losing control.
I’d actually been surprised that she’d gone in for the sexual aspect.
Fuck, had she… it had been incredible.
“Mmm, there it is. So fucking slick. So fucking needy.”
“Yes…”
“Good little slut… succumb.”
She’d completely surrendered to being sexually dominated by me.
Not just dominated, but degraded.
I hadn’t intended to take it that far.
I’d planned on approaching it mildly, but we’d just… brought out something in each other. As soon as I’d seen how much she’d taken to me calling her slut and tormenting her, things had taken a turn.
“Fuck, yeah. Choke it down. So fucking filthy and depraved. Keep going. Eat my fucking cum while you leak all over the floor and hump the fucking thing like a bitch in heat.”
“I… I can’t. It’s… too… much.”
“Beg me to sink these thick fingers inside your ass and I’ll stop the device and feeding you more cum.”
“I hate you.”
She thought she hated me, but that was beyond bullshit.
She hated that she got off on what I did to her. She hated what I brought out in her sexually. And how much she fucking loved being my dirty little slut.
I shoved my hand through my hair and sucked in a couple of calming breaths as I found myself getting hard far too easily just from recalling that night.
It had been several days since we’d had any contact, yet what had happened was still so fucking fresh, still deep in my head… and other places.
It wasn’t normal for me to be impacted emotionally by anything or anyone.
The only exception was Nyx and the friendship we’d developed, the fact that I’d actually let myself care about him and to help him with his complicated set of needs.
But this thing… whatever the fuck it really was… with Ariana Martel, was much more unstable than that.
And, yeah, it was fucking unsettling.