Chapter 11 #2
“No,” I replied, though I couldn’t help the full grin that was on my face now, especially as he moved his lips into what was a fake frown. It didn’t matter though, because his eyes were dancing with mischief, and the air between us seemed alight with energy.
Was this what falling in love felt like?
Was it supposed to happen this fast?
I felt my body leaning toward his and immediately snapped myself away, turning my attention back toward the water where the green fish had appeared once more, though he kept his distance. He, too, was skeptical of the man beside me.
“Tell me, Milo, do you believe in weighteds?”
“Weighteds?” I had never heard the term before. I pressed my lips together, the effort to keep my gaze forward a challenge.
“You really weren’t raised in the coven.”
The spell between us broke as he reminded me of the fact that my parents had hidden this entire world of magic away from us.
Apparently, my non-responses didn’t stop him. “There is an old legend—one from when readers were fewer and seekers were more plentiful on the continent.”
This caught my attention, and my chin swiveled toward him. To my relief, his gaze wasn’t on me, but on the water, where the green fish had come closer, as if he too was listening raptly to Leif’s tale.
“It was whispered behind closed doors, because of the way seekers have always been prided by their covens. But the legend is this . . .” He paused to glance over our shoulders before once again directing his piercing gaze toward me.
“For every reader, there is a seeker, and their talents call to one another. So much so, that they can’t stay away.
They are fated to end up together. Once they come within visual distance of each other, they find themselves drawn, as if by magic, to one another.
The bond is so powerful, they won’t allow themselves to be separated, or the other one to be hurt . . .”
“You mean like soulmates?” I winced at how harsh my voice was as it interrupted his tale with the outdated term.
“Something like that.” His deep blue eyes searched my face and I noticed he was leaning in again. I hurriedly shifted my weight to the side, trying to fight the energy that was between us.
“Wait,” I gasped. “But Collum said that anyone can learn to read the language. Doesn’t that mean that there would be too many readers for the number of seekers?”
“Correct.” His lip twitched at the corner. “I believe everyone has a weighted—someone they are destined to be with.”
I shook my head. “But Collum said that seekers were born with a little extra gift, something to allow them to sense magic in a way that goes far beyond reading. The math doesn’t add up.”
Leif’s twitching lip turned into a smirk as his eyes bored into mine. “Have you ever thought that maybe your cousin doesn’t know everything? And that perhaps seeking is a skill that can be trained too?”
My head spun, the two thoughts battling in my mind.
But I wasn’t one to back down from a mental challenge like this easily.
Once upon a time, before the portion of my life where I was a slave to Viscount Adis, I had been studying mathematics at the university.
“Are you suggesting that seekers can learn the affinity?”
“I’m suggesting that there are far more seekers out there than we think. Individuals who need to learn to listen to that little voice that nudges them in certain directions.” He was so cocky as he said it, something immediately made me suspicious.
“But then, couldn’t a seeker also become a reader and the other way around?”
“Yes,” he replied simply. So simply, that my suspicion piqued.
“But then it wouldn’t matter whether someone was a reader or a seeker then, everyone has a weighted regardless.” Everything was finally connecting in my mind.
“You really are smart.” Throughout our conversation, I hadn’t noticed that he had shifted closer to me, and now our thighs nearly touched.
His breath tickled my neck. I felt as if something stretched between us, pulling us to one another.
“Perhaps magic heightens the ability of one to find the other, and perhaps when one is merely a seeker and the other only a reader, they find themselves more compatible than those who have mastered both, or neither.”
My gaze flickered to his lips, which were now much closer to mine than they had been when he started the story.
“What are you doing?”
The sudden sound of a third voice jolted us both out of the trance we had been in, both of us spinning to face the owner of the voice, which was none other than Astrid, her arms crossed over her chest.
“We were just having a chat.” Leif beamed, confidence lacing his voice in a way I could only dream of.
“You know the rules.” Her voice was firm enough that I had already pulled my feet from the water, not bothering to dry them before slipping on my socks and the boots I had been issued upon my arrival here. Leif didn’t have any of the same urgency; his feet still dangling beneath the water.
I was halfway to Astrid before either of them spoke again.
“Viscount Adis doesn’t own me.” The words were Leif’s.
“That’s debatable,” Astrid shot back.
I rushed through the exterior door, the dark interior of the compound swallowing the rest of their conversation.