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She stopped battling the truth, that whether she liked it or not, this damn power was here to stay. She sighed heavily against Thorne’s chest as he caressed her arms and her back then embraced her. Well, there were worse things that could happen to her than to have a warrior like Thorne holding her, keeping a vision from dominating her mind, and just anchoring her until she could figure things out.
She closed her eyes and while still inside Thorne’s mind, she let the truth of obsidian flame come to her.
Truth.
Her truth, no one else’s.
That she had carried the stripes that belonged to someone else, even when she was a child and her father had whipped her. She had borne the pain of someone else’s fear and loss and suffering.
She had felt Sister Quena’s whip so that others wouldn’t have to. She had done it willingly because her resistance to instruction had been the woman’s greatest frustration and Marguerite’s only weapon against her brutality.
But the result had been her own disconnection from others, a deep fear, even resentment of connection. She hated being touched or embraced by others. Only Thorne had been allowed in.
Yes, these were her truths.
Out of those truths came a singular understanding: She had to allow Thorne to breach the barrier of her obsidian flame power, to allow the connection, so that she could access that power.
Had she been avoiding this moment? Yes.
Would breaching this barrier alter her life forever? Probably.
Thorne? she sent.
Yes? How close he felt when she was in his mind while communicating telepathically.
I need you to do something for me but it’s not going to be pretty.
Anything, sweetheart. And this was the truth about Thorne: No matter what request she put in front of him, his answer would always be the same.
Maybe that’s what made this moment tolerable, maybe even possible.
I need you to pierce my obsidian flame power, to open it. And don’t ask me how I know this is what you need to do, I just know.
Okay. But … uh … how do I do that?
You need to follow me back into my mind then you need to dive very deep. Just dive and dive, go with your gut on this one, until you find my obsidian flame power. Then break it open. I can feel it pulsing and waiting. But you need to breach it in order to release it.
* * *
The evolution of powers among Second ascenders was always a mysterious experience. Thorne knew nothing about obsidian flame except that it had enormous potential, like splitting the atom, and now Marguerite had asked him to pierce hers, to open up her power.
This was no small thing—either that she had asked him to do it, or that he would be doing this for her. He valued that she trusted him, but what would the result be? More power?
Would she then draw even farther away from him, be more inclined to leave him, to live on her own, to pursue her own interests because now she would have more power?
The selfish part of him resisted, held back. To do this thing, should he even be able to do it, would change their relationship. He could feel it deep in his heart, in his soul, in his spirit.
Power always changed things.
But in his two thousand years of ascended life he had come to understand at least one thing: When a new power emerged, the best course to take was always to go with it, take it to its limits, explore every damn facet, and work it, work it hard. To do less would always leave the ascender open to the enemy. Always.
So he set aside his own self-interest and followed Marguerite’s instincts.
He pulled back and met her gaze, staring into those beautiful brown eyes. He took a deep breath. “Ready?” he asked. He was in tune with her instincts and he could tell this was going to be difficult, very difficult. When she had said “pierce,” she meant that some part of her obsidian flame power had to be cut open in order to be engaged.
“I’m ready. But as soon as I pull back into my own mind, do what you need to do as fast as you can because I won’t be able to hold the vision for long.”
“Got it.”
He felt her leave his mind but he followed in tight formation, right on her mental heels, and moved with her back into her mind. The vision loomed and he felt her pain as she once more expended the energy to keep the vision from crashing.
He closed his eyes in order to focus on his internal quest. As he took in the breadth of her mind, he saw the dark aperture. Just as she had told him, he dove into the tunnel, mentally moving as fast as he could
He flew down deep until the tunnel became very dark, obsidian black, no light escaping, But he pressed on. Her memories wanted to fly at him, from every angle, to drag him away from his purpose, memories that mostly looked like the Convent. Sometimes even his own image, his body moving over hers, would show up, but he ignored it all until from the blackness emerged a pinpoint of light that grew larger as he flew toward it.
He could hear Marguerite shrieking now but he somehow knew that it wasn’t the vision causing her pain; rather it was his journey, as though this flight down this long tunnel had hurt her. He could now see the sheath that needed to be pierced—and whatever her current pain, this would be infinitely worse, as though her obsidian flame power had needed to be cloaked until exactly this moment.
* * *
Marguerite had never known such pain. She felt as though Thorne had taken a flame torch with him and just burned her mind up as he went. The only advantage seemed to be that while he made this journey, the vision lumbered above her unable to crash down as it usually did, maybe because she was in such pain.
Hold on, came from deep within her mind. Uh-oh, this was about to get worse.
She grabbed Thorne’s arms and dug her nails in.
The penetration was ferocious, a blinding stab of pain that made her earlier shrieks sound like kitten meows. But his first effort wasn’t successful.
Oh, shit.
This shield is tough. I’m sorry, Marguerite, I’ve got to try again.
Just do it! She sank her nails harder, probably too hard, but Thorne held rock-steady.
This time when he punched, her arms spasmed, but at the same time she felt the barrier break apart. She also heard Thorne from deep within her mind holler, Holy shit. I’m on my way out. Look out.
This time, however, the pain was gone and in its place was a kind of euphoria she’d never known before, a rising stream of pleasure that rushed up through her mind and kept rushing until she saw stars and more stars, until she was looking at the universe above her, the entire galaxy spinning around and around.
She didn’t know how long it was before she came back to earth, or back into her body, or whatever this was exactly, but when she did she knew something had changed. The power she had always experienced as a Seer felt more rounded and complete, certainly bigger and stronger and just there, omnipresent.
