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“It’s deeper. This is more than even my brother and I are. Like sharing a mind.” His words were solemn, cold even. I didn’t like it.
“And that’s dangerous?”
“It requires you to have absolute trust in me. They call it soul walking, but it’s really access to your mind and magic center. Those two things combined are what is considered to be your soul. Once in that place inside you, I could destroy your magic, and create madness in your mind. I can’t kill you, but the damage I could do would make you wish you were dead.” He blew out a long breath.
“Why would anyone do such a thing?”
“In the old world, before the kingdoms were united, there was dark magic. Now we understand there is no real good and evil in magic. All magic comes from the Goddess. It’s the intent of the magic wielder that changes its character. When the kingdoms were formed, these practices were outlawed to bring order. It’s thought the practice was developed for healing magical bonds, but it’s so invasive and open to abuse, it was made illegal, and all records of how to brew the potion and successfully carry out the process were destroyed in the unification. Along with many other archaic methods which were used for ill intent.”
It was a lot to take in, and I had so many questions, but I mostly wondered how he had the potion. “How did you get it?”
“Not all records were successfully destroyed across the kingdoms, Sol. There are those who have painstakingly collected fragments of information over time to properly catalogue the history of magical practices. They believe in the importance of preserving history but recognize that certain information must be kept in safe hands. I have a source whose family have been the safe keepers of magical history for centuries.”
“Kiera?” I knew it as certainly as I knew I could trust him absolutely.
“How did you know?” He looked taken aback.
“She told me she has a passion for healing magic and said that many answers can be found in history. It was just a hunch.”
“No one must know.” He looked panicked. “If it becomes known she has access to such information?—”
“I would never tell a soul. Kiera is my friend,” I assured him.
Nyx relaxed slightly and returned his attention to the potion. I watched him battling over what was right.
“Will it hurt?” I asked. It was the first question in a long line of questions I had, but they all came down to trust.
“According to what I’ve read, not unless I try to do harm.” He turned to face me. “And you have to understand, Sol, that I could never do you harm. And even if I could bring myself to, as your bonded flyer, I would be hurting myself by hurting you. You can trust me with your life.”
I looked into his eyes, not wavering in my conviction. “Did my death dive not prove to you that I know that now?”
Nyx pinched the bridge of his nose.
“We should do it now.” I’d decided, and I didn’t want to wait.
“You should think about this,” he protested.
“I have thought about it. Tell me how it works. We need to figure out what’s wrong with my magic.”
He stood and paced. “If anything goes wrong?—”
“We have to try.”
He came back and knelt before me, taking my hand before he placed the dark stone into it.
“What’s this?” I asked, turning the stone in my palm.
“If we are breaking old magic laws, we may as well break harmful artifact laws, too. This is a night stone.”
I studied it. It was smooth and rounded like a pebble, and the color of night so dark it seemed to absorb light.Tiny flecks of silver, like stars, shone from within the inkiness.
“Remember, we talked about dampening with Rakan? This stone is able to store dampening magic that has been siphoned. But night stone is found only in the First Kingdom. It has dampening power of its own, so when it’s used by a siphon to store the dampening magic of a fae, it can be deadly. It’s illegal, forbidden magic. It could easily get into the wrong hands and cause untold harm.”
“What do I do with it?”
“I want you to hold it while we soul walk. If I do anything that is harming you, if I change in any way… if anything at all goes wrong, you rub it between your hands. The heat alone will activate it. When it warms to the touch, you press it to my skin to connect with my magic. You don’t have access to yours, so you have to use mine. When it connects to the power, it will surge, dampening all magic around it, and cutting off my magic and the soul connection. You’ll be safe then.”
“And you?”
