Chapter Leo
Leo
“Do you want to try it with me?” Elysia issues the invitation with a small smile curving her lips.
His little hand is out so quickly that Leo isn’t the only one to catch his breath. Leo wants to pull his little hand back and stop her from touching their boy. Stop him from using a power he shouldn’t yet have.
She doesn’t hesitate, an eager smile on her face. “May I do the same?”
Skye just shakes his hand in a hurry-up manner.
The second their hands touch, Skye glows golden-orange, with streamers of purple from the tips of his hair to the soles of his blue-socked feet.
When he’d touched Gideon outside, the dusky glow had been faint—only really visible because it had been the middle of the night.
But this lights up the room like a sunrise.
Elysia gasps.
It’s over in a second—tears on her cheeks, and a hand over her chest.
“My dear. Are you alright?” Ignatius murmurs, a gentle hand on her knee.
A glass of water and a plate with chocolate chip cookies appear in front of her, and Gideon slips behind the couch again.
Humming what sounds like the same cadences as thank you, Skye snags two from the plate, offering Elysia one.
“Oh, yes. Thank you, Skye.”
He pats her knee and settles back up into Jay’s chest, allowing their alpha to rub his nose on the top of his head. The scent of patchouli is strong, but it’s tinged with the sweet notes of summer neroli.
“I’m alright. Perhaps we should talk about this later?” She looks at Skye, who is offering a piece of his cookie, minus the chocolate chips, to Tsuki.
Leo isn’t having any of that. “I don’t mean to sound rude, but if it concerns him, then he gets to hear it.”
Jay agrees. “He deserves to know when things involve him.”
It makes Leo proud to hear his Alpha so quick to back him up, when just a week ago it had taken a lot of convincing to get him to come around—that the boy deserved to be part of his future, especially after so much had been out of his control.
Eventually, Jay had let himself be convinced.
Not because he’d stopped wanting to protect Skye from the world, but because he’d realized that sheltering him from the truth was its own kind of harm.
He’d apologized, admitting that his own upbringing had made him want to shield the boy from life’s harder truths.
He understood now that sometimes, ignorance wasn’t always bliss.
It had ultimately made a big difference in the boy’s trust.
“Alright. Skye, you are very strong. While we both have a Biometric Affinity in common, it’s quite different.
I must say that the process is quite distracting for the person experiencing it.
Even then, I could tell you are using several strands at once—Biometric soul magic like mine, as well as something else entirely.
I could also feel you using my magic to power your own. ”
Skye points at Grayson and the sleeping Rosie.
“He’s using other people’s magic?” Luca asks. “Like…when we were in Florida?” He whispers the last part, worry coloring his tone.
Skye frowns. He didn’t need to know who Withers was or what he’d done to see that Luca is horrified. He whines, jumping down from Jay’s lap and into Luca’s, hands on Luca’s cheeks. “Woo is sad?”
The scent of rancid neroli becomes stronger with his distress.
Luca sniffs, pressing his forehead to Skye’s. “No, baby. I’m worried.”
“I’m bad.”
There’s a quiet commotion of growls and murmured no’s. But Skye only has eyes for Luca.
“No!” Luca shakes his head, giving the boy a gentle squeeze. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to make you think I thought you were bad.”
“Not bad at all.” Elysia finishes her cookie and takes a sip of water, placing her glass back on the side table. “I can confirm without a doubt that you are not stealing power. You’re…harnessing it. You don’t have your own power right now, so you borrow ours.”
She hesitates, and without a doubt, Leo knows he’s not going to like what comes next.
“There’s something else…I think he has a—”
“Stop!” Nix says abruptly, on his feet.
Rosie startles in his arms and begins to cry.
It’s a more subdued version of this afternoon, settling the whole pack into high alert. Low growls mix with voices asking questions and soothing the crying baby.
“Quiet!” Jay barks.
“That feeling is back, and it’s making me crazy. Can you feel it, Gray?” Nix asks with a shudder.
Grayson closes his eyes, a frown on his face. “Yeah, I mean, I keep The Plain on low these days, but when I let it out, I can feel it now that you said something…like a sliver under my skin.”
“Yes! What is that? It got a lot worse when Elysia was talking, and then it felt like if I didn’t stop her, it was going to get a whole lot worse. The two feelings aren’t the same. Like one has really bad intentions, and the other doesn’t.”
Nimue frowns and speaks for the first time. “You said this isn’t the first time you felt this way, Nix?”
“No. When Grayson called you, earlier today when Gray was at The Guild, and then just now were the worst; but if I’m honest, I’ve felt…antsy for a while.”
“What’s changed?” Nimue asks. “Aside from your growing family.”
“You’ve been feeling off this whole time and not said anything?” Finn accuses.
“Well, I just thought it was that Gray has been spending more and more time at the Guild with The Plain dialed down. And his Time studies make him so tired.”
“It’s draining,” Grayson agrees. “I’m sorry, Nix. I’d fix it if I could.” He kisses the side of Nix’s head in apology.
Draining? That’s a word that pings all of Leo’s instincts hard. “You feel worse since starting them? How long? A few weeks, right?”
“Yeah. It took a while for them to try to figure out if what’s going on is Time-related, and the lessons are to determine if it’s worth going to the Academy or not. I think the decision rarely takes this long.”
“Not at all,” Nimue answers with a shudder. She spent four years in Switzerland before they determined her Affinity was more a Biometric Talent than a Time one when she was fourteen. “It’s unusual that they’ve been undecided this long. It means your efforts are—”
“Stop!” Nix says again, this time doubling over with a groan. “Every time you—ugh. Stop talking about it. Please.”
Ignatius leans forward, and when Nix is leaning on a pale Grayson, he asks, “You said it feels like a sliver, Grayson. But is there an emotion attached? Magic is not free of our intentions, no matter how we try.”
“Exactly,” Elysia agrees. “When Skye—” she stops with a rueful glance at Nix before starting up again, “I could feel his good intentions.”
“Most of us get used to ignoring the user’s intentions, the way you would ignore the accent of someone from a different country, as long as it didn’t interfere with your understanding, right?”
“How did I not know that?” Grayson asks.
“Most instructors wouldn’t think to mention it, because magical children come to the feeling amongst their peers organically. But you’re already an adult.”
“Let me get this straight,” Gideon growls. “Someone is using magic to act upon Grayson’s magic, and Nix is feeling it, too, because of the nature of their bond?”
“Yes!” Ignatius says with enthusiasm, happy someone has been able to follow along. “I dare say Nix is a bit more…sensitive…to The Plain as well. When Nix describes it, it sounds like an active force. Would you agree, Nimue?”
“I would. And it sounds like it could be ongoing, if Grayson has been feeling drained. How I wish we had Sasha along. Perhaps it’s a leeching spell. Perhaps someone at the Guild is attempting to monitor Grayson’s output?”
“I can’t detect anything physical. Although…” Grayson pauses, frowning. “Today was the first time I lost control of it during my…last lesson. My…she…”
“That’s the second time you’ve avoided saying her name,” Gideon growls. “Today in the car, when I asked you what was wrong, and just now. Why is that?”
“It is? Why would I do that? I can say her name. It’s—” Grayson looks surprised. “What the hell?”
Gideon leaves and returns with a pink Post-it note and a muffin. He hands the note to Ignatius and the muffin to Luca to break into small bites for Skye, who immediately stuffs his cheeks like a chipmunk for winter.
“Oh. I see. Nimue, do you know her?” He passes the note to Nimue.
She raises her eyebrows, her lips twisting in a grimace.
“I do. Our community is small, and she would be about my age. If I remember correctly, she had a low-level Affinity with a slight Earth Talent. Something to do with metallurgy. We were at the Academy together, although she was a year behind me. And if I may say so, a bit of a bully.”
She shakes off the uncomfortable memory. “We ran in different circles, as I’m not much of a joiner.”
Ignatius pats her knee. He must know exactly what put that expression on his friend’s face. “Oh, dear.”
“Did you say Metal Talent?” Grayson stands up, patting his pants until he finds what he’s looking for in the front right pocket. “Like this?”
The small metal carving of a crow sits in his palm. Its beady black eyes glint in the light of the living room, and even from his position half a room away, Leo can feel its malevolence.
“Grayson, my boy, give that to me,” Ignatius says carefully, as if speaking with a wild animal. “Gideon, if I could bother you for some salt and a candle?”
“What is it? Is it dangerous?” Luca asks.
“Perhaps we should move the children to another space? To give the experts a chance to work,” Elysia murmurs. “Skye, do you have any storybooks? I feel like I need a bit of a rest and a read.”
“Woo,” Skye says, climbing down and pulling Luca toward the nest/playroom at the end of the left-wing hall. “Grrr, too.”
Rowan disappears into the laundry room, appearing in his person form, dressed in sweats and a T-shirt. “I’m coming.” He accepts the still-fussing Rosie from Nix. “Finn, can you bring Mari?”
“Sure thing,” he agrees reluctantly. “The food will be here in thirty minutes. Call me if you need me.”
“You’re a good man, Finn,” Nix calls after him.