She stares at me, her eyes widening with a mixture confusion and awe. Solace holds her hand out, running her fingers through the tinges of red and gold hovering above us. "I can feel it. I've never felt anything like this from you before. It’s like when we had just entered the shadowlands, that first evening fighting off that creature."
"What's happening to me?"
Solace sits up against the headboard, pulling me up to sit against her. She wraps her arms around me from behind, holding me securely. "I've always heard that as you meet another magical signature, yours could change. That exposure to different types of magic can alter your own, make it stronger, or shift its nature. But I think everything we thought we knew is wrong."
I lean back against her chest, trying to calm my racing heart. "What do you mean?"
"Princess, I shouldn't be able to hear you in my wolf form." Her voice deepens a little, her heart still beating fast from what we just did. "Mindlinks don't work like that. They require a mating bond or pack bonds, neither of which we've officially formed. You shouldn't be able to break an Alpha's command. That's not something any Omega should be capable of, no matter how strong their magic. I shouldn’t be able to soothe a heat spike, no matter how skilled I am at pleasing my princess. And I shouldn't be able to feel your magic like this, so clearly and powerfully. These things don't make sense according to everything we were taught."
I turn in her arms to face her. "Wait, what do you mean about my heat spike?"
Solace tightens her arms around me as she runs her nose along my temple. “Princess, only an Alpha should be able to soothe your heat and the symptoms that come with it. You should still be in pain but you’re here, in my arms.” One of her hands comes up to cup my breast through my dress, the other resting on top of my thigh, dangerously close to my pussy. “I think it means that you're more than what Valoria believes an Omega to be. I think your magic is something different, something rare. And I think whatever is pulling you forward, whatever you've been feeling since we entered the Shadowlands, it's connected to this change."
"And whatever this new signature is," I say slowly, trying to process. "I can feel it stronger now. Like it's calling for me. Like it recognizes what I've become."
Something is calling to me, and now that my magic has changed, that call has intensified. It's no longer a gentle pull but a insistent demand, resonating with every cell in my body.
I reach for my mother's dagger where it sits on the small table beside the bed. The moment my fingers close around the hilt, I feel it warm in response. The metal thrums with energy,vibrating in time with my own magic. It's never responded to me this way.
"It recognizes you," Solace breathes. "It's responding to your changed magic."
A cold fear settles in my stomach, cutting through the lingering heat. "Sol, what if the magic I'm being pulled toward is not the one I should be chasing? What if I'm walking us straight into danger? What if this pull I've been feeling isn't meant to help me but to trap me?"
She cups my face in her hands, forcing me to meet her eyes. "Then we face that danger together. But Kaia, I don't think this pull you're feeling is malicious. I think it's something important, something meant for you. Your magic doesn't feel dark or corrupted. It feels powerful, yes, but also pure."
"How can you be sure?"
"I can't be," she admits. "But I trust you. I trust your instincts. And I trust that whatever is calling to you, you're strong enough to handle it. We're strong enough to handle it, together."
I set the dagger back on the table and turn fully into her embrace, burying my face in her neck. "I'm scared," I whisper. "I'm scared of what's happening to me, of what it might mean. I'm scared that I'm leading us into something I don't understand. What if my mother gave me this dagger knowing what I'd become? What if she knew about this magic and was trying to prepare me for something?"
"Then she trusted you to be strong enough to face it," Solace murmurs, her hands stroking soothing patterns on my back. "Your mother was brilliant, Kaia. If she left you that dagger, if she trained you the way she did, it's because she believed you'd need those skills. She believed in you."
Solace’s words break me a little because either we’ll find what I need to rule my kingdom or we’ll return and I’ll have to give up the only woman I’ve ever loved. "I just don't want to lose you," Isay, my voice breaking. "If something happens to me because of this magic, because of whatever I'm being pulled toward, I don't want you caught in the crossfire."
She pulls back enough to look at me. "You're not losing me. Do you understand? I'm yours, Kaia. Completely and utterly yours. Whatever happens, whatever this magic means, we face it together. You don't get to protect me by pushing me away. That's not how this works."
"You're infuriatingly stubborn."
"I learned from the best," she says with a small smile, clearly referring to me.
I can't help but laugh, even through my fear and confusion. "I love you. You know that, right?"
"I know. And I love you too. More than I have words for." She kisses me softly, gently, a promise rather than a demand. It’s been too long since I heard those words from her. "Now, let's get some sleep. Tomorrow, we can try to figure out what all of this means. But tonight, let me just hold you."
I nod, laying the dagger back onto the nightstand, the hilt offering one last warm pulse against my palm. Solace tightens her arms around me, guiding me lay down on the mattress after flipping off the light.
"Sol?" I whisper into the darkness.
"Hmm?"
"Thank you. For believing in me. For not treating me like I'm fragile or broken or wrong."
"You're none of those things, Kaia. You're the strongest person I know. And whatever this magic is, whatever you're becoming, I'll be right here beside you. Always."
"Always," I echo, and finally, finally, I let sleep pull me under.
Solace
