Chapter 22 Taera
Taera
My ears ring and my eyes blur with tears brought on by the pain, the classroom tilting around me. My body feels scraped, ravaged, and still I refuse to believe the worst of it.
“I have magic?” I whisper.
“Well, yeah,” Annie says. “You’re a source.”
She has to be lying. I can’t be one of them. I will never become one of them. My breathing snags in my narrowing throat. Blond hair blurs in front of me, but I stare right through it all. It’s only when wetness cools my cheeks that I pinch my eyes shut, willing everything gone.
All of this has to be an elaborate illusion.
Annie is murmuring something comforting, but her voice warps. I try to breathe, but my throat is tightening.
A soft, feminine voice is muttering, “Get her out of here. I’ll deal with Koroy.”
I’m being lifted out of my seat and carried out of the room.
I faintly recognize that it’s him—the mage who brought me here.
I thrash against Nikolai’s hold, but he doesn’t let me down.
I have to keep fighting, otherwise I’ll cry.
Or worse, I’ll give in and surrender to him in exchange for some twisted semblance of comfort.
Icy air bites my face, and the numbing cold is welcome. My arms are shaking, and my breath puffs in front of me as the air grows colder and colder. The glassy corridors pale around us, fading blue. When my fingers start to sting with cold, I start to panic.
“F-freezing,” I say.
“At least it’s not blood glass again.” Nikolai’s voice rumbles against me. I try to push away from his chest, but the chill saps my strength, and my attempt is weaker than before.
I go limp in his arms, slump against him, the only warmth in this frozen hallway. When thick flakes of snow start spiraling around us, I press my face into the heat of his blue robes. The scent of sage eases my terror, and I’m disgusted with myself for letting him affect me.
“Almost there,” he says, and then we’re stepping through a familiar obsidian door. White flakes whirl inside the room, coating his new black sheets in frost.
My eyes widen, stinging with cold. “How is there s-s-snow here?”
“You had to be powerful,” Nikolai grumbles, carrying me straight through the second door to his bathing chambers.
Instead of steaming with heat like before, the huge tub droops with great curving icicles. The surface of the bath warbles, frozen solid, a warped glassy slab.
I gape at the impossible sight.
“Close your eyes,” Nikolai says.
I pinch them shut, panicking and gasping for frantic breaths. I don’t trust him.
“Breathe, Taera.”
I try. My lungs flutter.
“Breathe.” He carries me forward, and I hear the rumble of water. There’s a splash, and the shifting of muscle beneath me.
I don’t know what I expect, but it isn’t this—
Steaming hot water envelops me, taking my weight. My body goes boneless and a sigh whimpers out of me.
But I’m still in the magician’s arms.
My eyes fly open.
Nikolai has seated himself—robes and all—inside the huge tub, with me on his lap.
I jolt upright, splashing and scrambling to the far side of the tub.
Both our blue robes billow out around us in the water.
Even fully clothed, bathing is… private.
My insides itch with how improper this is, and I gawk at him, ready to leap out.
But my eyes catch on how his wet gloves cling obscenely to his fingers.
I stiffen. How am I going to get out without my robes clinging to my entire body like that?
“Just calm down. Once you relax, I can leave.” He clasps his hands behind his head, reclining into the bath with an indecent hum of pleasure.
Relax?
With him here?
“What are you doing?” I sputter.
He tips his head back against the lip of the tub, closing his eyes. “Bathing,” he says lazily. “With you.”
“Why—why in the desert—” My face feels too hot, both from embarrassment and from the steam off the near-scalding water.
“Right now, my will is stronger than yours. If I leave, you’ll turn the water to ice.”
“But… it has to be an illusion,” I say.
“A dangerous one.”
I can’t believe I’m even talking to him right now. In the bath.
“How can it be dangerous if it’s not real?” I squeak.
He cracks an eye open. “You don’t think it would be dangerous to find yourself trapped in ice, unable to move, while your body stops providing blood to your extremities?”
“Illusions can do that?” I whisper. I didn’t think illusions could physically harm me. Despite the warmth of the water, I’m chilled.
His face is maddeningly serene, cheeks flushed from the steam. I can’t stand it.
“Shouldn’t we be in class?” My voice is high-pitched.
Nikolai smirks. “Yes.”
“Won’t we get in trouble?” I look down at my arm again, touching the spot where the magician grabbed me. I understand now why Nikolai always wears gloves.
“Annie took care of it for today, and tomorrow won’t be as bad.”
I shiver, the heat of the bath at war with my own trepidation.
“Does it always hurt?” I ask. “The… magic?”
“No.” His tone sharpens. “You’ll work with me from now on. I won’t hurt you.”
My shoulders loosen before I catch myself. It worries me how I find any comfort in the idea of working with him. Less than an hour ago, he laughed with them, laughed at me, abandoning me to the pain and humiliation. So why would he—
“I don’t want to,” he mutters.
“Master Koroy made you?”
“Until exams. Three and a half weeks.”
I sigh, scowling down at my hands and how they waver beneath the surface of the water. I want to ignore him, but since he’s stuck with me here, the logical thing to do would be to try to get some answers.
“Are you a source?” I ask.
“No, Taera.” He chuckles, surprising me. “I’m a conduit.”
I stiffen, trying not to react to his dazzling smile. He’s still a monster behind the glamorous mask.
“Is Jezebel?”
He grimaces. “Stay away from Jezebel. She’s pissed that I sponsored you.”
A knot twists inside me. If she thinks I’m encroaching on her territory, she could be dangerous. “Are you two… in a relationship?”
Nikolai barks out a laugh. “What gave you that idea?”
I blink. “The way she touches you.”
“A lot of people touch me.” His eyes catch mine, amused, and I flush. “Speaking of, while I’m flattered you seem to enjoy bathing together, I do have things to do.”
My stomach flips, and I gawk at his brazen words. Fortunately, I’m spared from having to reply.
A knock from the hallway makes me jump, sloshing water over the edge of the tub and onto the glistening floor.
“Who’s here?” I ask.
“They want to meet you.” Nikolai smiles, standing up and out of the water. His wet robes cling to him—explicitly.
I avert my gaze, cheeks burning. I do not need the exact outline of every part of his well-formed body etched into my memory.
“Who?” I ask.
“You didn’t think Annie helped you for free, did you?” he says, stepping out.
My heart sinks.
“But I’m not—” I risk a glance at Nikolai. His robes, moments ago plastered to him, are now completely dry. I didn’t even glimpse a towel.
“How did you—”
He grins. “Step out and I’ll do yours.”
I lift myself a few inches out of the water, the blue robes slick to my skin. Scowling, I drop back down. “Absolutely not.”
“Suit yourself. Towels are over there.” Nikolai leaves the room, the semiopaque door clicking shut behind him.
Quickly, I step out, strip off the drenched robes, and grab a fluffy towel, wrapping it around myself like armor. But my clothes are still a sodden lump on the glass floor. I scowl down at it.
“Hey, Niko!” Annie’s exclamation is muffled by the door, but I tense.
“Annie, Omi,” Nikolai says. “Come on in. Taera will be out in a moment.”
No way am I stepping out there in a towel. I drape the soggy fabric over the edge of the tub and perch on the rim, crossing my arms over my chest. I’m not moving until my robes dry.