If only it were that easy.
Avery continued to siphon,the wound closing even further. Her eyes moved back and forth under her lids as if she were stuck in a trance. With each passing second, he felt his power draining. Was she using it? Stealing it? Channeling it? It didn’t matter; his magic was leaving him, pouring into her as if shewere a bottomless pit, a river that refused to be dammed. He wouldn’t let this little witch take any more than she already had.
“AVERY,” he screamed her name into her mind.
Shadows erupted around him, but it wasn’t him controlling them anymore. The shadows, the ones that had obeyed him for years, started to slither around him, a golden thread inside them pulsing in time with their heartbeat. His breathing became ragged, shoulders moving up and down as if he had scaled a mountain. Never in his life had he been so powerless.
The shadows caressed him, like a lover’s kiss. But what confused him was that if she had control, why not hurt him like he had hurt her? Why not use them against him? Instead, they continued to encircle them, wrapping them in a blanket of power. Worst of all, it feltsafe.Instead of fighting, he gave in, letting her invade him like no one ever had.
He towered over her, close enough to see the pulse fluttering in her throat. What little control remained was sliding into full collapse. What was one more slip? His gaze dropped to her mouth, and he closed the distance. Before their lips could meet, the connection severed. Avery’s eyes snapped open.
He didn’t move. “How did you do that, witch?”Felix tried to keep his voice controlled despite the tightness in his chest.
“I have no idea,” she whispered.
Frustration bubbled up through him, and he took a step back. Once again, he was left with a string of questions, stumbling around in the fucking dark like he was about to be blindfolded and fucked.
And at the center of it all was the witch. She was everything he couldn’t control, and that scared him more than anything.
Avery’s familydidn’t say a word to each other as they ate. The only sounds were the crackle of the fire and metal scraping on plates. It was slightly depressing, to be honest. This is how they lived? It was so different from what he was used to back at the den. Every dinner was rowdy and full of laughter. A pang of sadness went through him; as much as he liked being alone, he missed his den.
Candlelight flickered along the patterned wallpaper, thorned flowers twisting around different beasts. It was fitting for the family, except for his little witch.
Compared to Avery, her family looked like vipers sitting around the dark wooden table. She looked nothing like them. Avery was innocent. Doe eyes rounded and large, and her hair falling in soft brown waves. Her family’s eyes, however, were deceptive. Still blue, but a viciousness lurked on the edges. Their bone structure was severe, black hair as straight as swords. All three of them put his teeth on edge.
Felix remembered the matriarch’s name as soon as he saw her. Eleri Alarch, the High Councilor, had been in some of his mission briefings. Her posture was rigid, as if someone had shoved a fire poker up her ass and left it there.
Avery’s sister, Wren, was the same. They were dangerous creatures, the power rolling off them palpable enough that he could almost lick it. Eleri had been pushing her witches into shifter territory, trying to find what, he wasn’t sure. What was worse, though, she ignored him, seeing him as a regular familiar in his cat form. He still wasn’t over how much it irritated him. So instead of being a good familiar, he resorted to being as obnoxious as possible.
Felix sat within striking distance of Avery, close enough to intercept if anything happened. Like her own personal guard dog, well, guard cat. He also sat close enough to her food so that a few of his hairs made their way into her pumpkin soup. A small revenge for earlier, but a satisfying one.
Delicately, Eleri stabbed her braised chicken, each cut making his fur prickle. It didn’t stop him from trying to steal a piece of chicken from Avery’s plate, though. The food piled high on the table had his mouth watering, even though he had just eaten an hour ago. Why was it always goddamn chicken that tempted him? He wondered if Avery was made of chicken, and that’s why she was simply irresistible. He pawed at the plate, trying to steal a piece and run away with it before Avery slapped his paw away.Rude.
“How dare you come between a man and his chicken?”he said into her mind.
“You’re not a man right now, are you?”
He narrowed his eyes at her. “Touché, witch.”
“Gwyn, darling, how are your studies?” Eleri said, her voice so cold it could have frosted the windows.
Gwyn practically glowed under the attention, blue eyes shining under the candlelight. “Exceptional, Mother. Professor Salin says I’m advancing faster than any student he’s had in decades.”
Avery choked mid-swallow while Gwyn sent her a scathing look.
“As I would expect, you’re well on your way to receiving the first familiar of your year,” she said, sporting a smile that withered toward her eyes. Then, her gaze slid to Avery, head tilting like a viper.
“And, Avery, how are things now that youfinallyhave a familiar?”
The scrape of silverware died; the sisters also turned their full attention to her now. Avery swished her wine glass before taking a long sip of the merlot. “Fine.”
“Fine,” Eleri repeated, the word turning sour. “Care to elaborate?”
Felix’s ears flattened. The urge to claw her eyes out was pulsing through him in time with his thumping heart. The goddamn bond made something as simple as an insult set his teeth on edge.
Gwyn spoke for her, fork twirling between her fingers. “I heard you couldn’t even heal a basic cut. Professor Bran was telling Mother all about it.”
Wren lightly slapped Gwyn on the shoulder as a warning rather than a reprimand.
