I nod slowly. “That makes sense. I’ve already felt that happening.”
“What?” His gaze snaps to mine.
“My magic hasalwayssought you out, Severin. From the first day. You’re like a magnet for it. And after the feedings, that feeling got stronger.” I offer him a small smile, but he doesn’t smile back. “What’s the problem with that?”
“The problem,” he says slowly, “is that it could become permanent. Your magic could fuse with me in a way that won’t fade. And it could...” He trails off, lips pressing together, a muscle flexing in his jaw like he’s biting back the rest.
I’m too surprised to ask what he was about to say. I blink, settling back into the chair as I work through what he’s told me.
Permanent.
Before, the thought of my magic being bound to or pulled towardanythingpermanently would’ve scared me, made me run as fast as I could in the opposite direction. And maybe it still should. But somehow, I can’t find it within myself to fear this. I let it sit in my chest, turn it over this way and that, but no matter how I look at it, the fear doesn’t arise.
If anything, I feel... content. Safe. Like this is exactly what’s supposed to happen. My magic certainly feels like it wants to continue pulling toward Severin, and now that I’ve let it, everything feels easier. Even my energy sphere. All of it.
I don’t want that to change.
I meet Severin’s eyes again. “Okay.”
His crimson eyes narrow. “Okay? Is that all you have to say?”
There’s an edge to his words that I don’t appreciate, a sharpness he’s never spoken to me with. But when I reach for that thread in my chest, the connection running through my blood, I know his behavior for what it is: fear.
Slowly, I push to my feet. Severin’s gaze follows me as I round the desk, coming to stand next to him.
“What do you want me to say? That I’m scared? That we have to stop? That I don’t want to be bound to you?”
His jaw works, and he says softly, “That’s what I would expect.”
I venture a small smile. “Then it sounds like you don’t know me at all. Which I know isn’t true.” Reaching out, I let my fingers find his chest, and as I close my eyes, I feel our heartbeats aligning. “You feel that?”
Even with my eyes closed, I feel him nod.
“Is that really so scary?”
He reaches up to put his hand over mine, pushing my fingers more firmly into his chest. But then something changes in him; the connection between our hearts’ rhythms stutters. I open my eyes.
“I do know you,” he whispers. “And I know you’re fearless, Maeve.” His lips pull down at the corners, and he wraps his fingers around my hand, removing it from his heart and returning it to my side. “That’s why I can’t let you do this.” His voice tightens.
My heart thumps once, hard. For a moment, I hope I misheard him.
“What?”
“You’re young, and I have no business stealing your magic from you, taking your freedom in that way.” He flicks his gaze away from mine. “In more ways than you realize...”
“Stealing my magic?” Now a sharp edge is creeping into my voice. “You can’t steal something that’s freely given.”
“But you shouldn’t be giving it so freely.”
I take a small step back, crackles of lightning dancing in my veins. “That’s not your call to make.”
He clenches his teeth, muscles in his jaw and throat straining. I wish I could draw my lips along those muscles, kiss away their tension. But I don’t imagine that would help. Not right now.
“No,” he says. “Perhaps not. But I get to decide when to feed and from whom. And I won’t feed from you again. Not when it could bind you to me permanently, in ways that can’t be undone. In ways that will change everything.”
His words send a shock of frigid ice through my veins, and my storm magic surges, making my fingertips tingle. The spot where Severin last fed from me, right over my collarbone, aches in time with the beat of my heart.
And I realize just how badly Iwanthim to keep feeding from me. Not just because of the rapture that comes after his venom floods my body, but because of how close it makes me feel to him, because of the connection between us when his fangs are in my skin and my blood is being shared. The thought of not getting to experience that again makes me feel hollow inside.
