Page 256 of Blade of the Nightking

“It’s beautiful.”

“And what do you think of me?”

The question caught me completely off guard. I hesitated, painfully aware that the wrong answer could be taken as either an insult or an invitation.

“You've been a wonderful host,” I managed at last.

The hand behind me shifted. His fingertips found the nape of my neck, lightly grazing my skin. I remained where I was.

“There is one thing left I haven't shown you, Elowen,” he said, his voice sinking to a low, velvety murmur. “Something I've been looking forward to.”

I swallowed, forcing down the unease rising in my stomach.

“What is it?”

An unctuous smile darkened his mouth. “Me.”

His hand tightened around the back of my neck. Before I could react, his magic unfurled.

It struck like a tidal wave. Invisible force swept through me, gliding over my skin before sinking deeper, past muscle and bone, reaching toward the very center of my being. It felt wrong—violently, instinctively wrong.

The sensation tore me backward through time—to the Aethereum, to Aedric's power reaching into places no one had any right to touch.

Every instinct in me rebelled. Something sacred was being breached. It wasn't my body he was reaching for—it was something far more intimate. Something that belonged only to me.

I tried to pull away, but there was nowhere to go. His hand closed around the back of my neck like a vise as his power continued its inexorable descent, probing ever deeper until I felt it touch the sleeping heart of my own magic.

No.

Panic flared.

No, no, no⁠—

But my magic didn't understand. Ever hungry, ever curious, it stirred. Like a snake sensing the first tremor beneath the earth, it uncoiled with eager fascination, winding instinctively toward the foreign presence that had invaded its domain. It reached for his magic before I could stop it, brushing curiously against it, circling it, tasting its shape.

Horror hollowed me out.

Stop.

I threw every ounce of will I possessed against it, desperate to drag it back, but it ignored me entirely, enthralled by the vast reservoir of power before it.

Thalassis inhaled sharply, his pupils flaring wide as he felt it. Every trace of his charm vanished, replaced by a cruel, avaricious hunger.

I swung at him, but his hands closed around my wrists before the blow could land. He held me fast as light erupted beneath my skin, writhing with a will of its own.

"Yes..." The word escaped him in a ragged whisper, reverent enough to make my stomach turn. "Yes, Eidra."

I strained against his grip.

"Bond with me." His voice dropped to a hushed rasp, enthralled not by me, but by the force coursing beneath my flesh. "Bond with my power."

His breathing hitched as my magic grazed his again. His eyes fluttered shut for the briefest instant, an obscene moan catching in his throat. "Together… the Tides will be the most powerful Court in all Elantis."

“No!” I cried out.

Another wave of his magic drove into me. I fought back nausea, desperately trying to reel my magic back in. His head tipped back slightly, a shudder of pleasure running through him.

"So wild," he breathed, his voice thick with awe. "Gods..."