I just need to focus on my powers first.
Chapter 16 - Heinrich
A shiver of discomfort passes through my spine as I stand near the kitchen window, watching Annika as she trains with Sophie and Anastasia. The healer of the pack has also been losing her magic abilities because of the demons and her alpha losing his power, but it’s slowly beginning to return to her as she stands in place of me, and fire and earth magic combine in a lethal vortex outside.
Simply having Annika around has allowed me to regain partial abilities, no longer needing to strain my brain for a semblance of telekinesis to move the smallest object, but rather am able to move boulders again. On the ground, not flinging them through the air, but it’s a start.
It seems that Annika's training this past week has allowed me to recover some of my strength, and while I’m grateful for this, I can’t help but feel like something is still missing.
Of course, it is, I think glumly as I sigh and turn my back to the window. I’ve been giving her all the space she needs, and while the demons have been quieter than usual, it’s just meant that I’m often at home, having to dodge her at every turn.
Even the hunt for the demon portal has been leading us to dead ends, and we’re losing hope of ever finding it. While the council remains adamant to keep pushing forward with the hunt, Damian and I both agree that we’re just wasting our time.
Where we suspected it would be, we’ve found nothing. The whole area of the mountains was swept with a fine-toothed comb, but no portal leading to the underworld was found. As the alphas, we agreed to remain focused on Annika’s training, since the vision Sophie had not only shown the portal, but the three witches who would seal the gates for good.
We haven’t even figured out who the third witch is, let alone found the full extent of Annika’s fire magic. But as a flash of red flame passes the window, I glance over my shoulder, a smirk of satisfaction and pride curling my lips, because a boulder on fire is flying through the air.
Annika and Anastasia’s powers have been combined successfully, proving that fire and earth can become one.
I turn back to preparing dinner, knowing that Annika will be done with her training session soon, and I’ll get the opportunity to ask her if I can step into training tomorrow. As my fated mate, it’ll make more sense for us to train together and combine forces.
While she’s able to do this with Anastasia, I am the alpha, after all. I am the reason the members of my pack have powers and the ability to wield earth magic.
It would only make sense.
***
I lie awake in bed late at night, tossing and turning, staring between the ceiling and the wall, feeling so pathetic because, naturally, I did not ask Annika to join her training session tomorrow.
Feeling like a complete idiot for not having the courage to ask her the simplest question, I blame my hesitation on the mere fact that she requires space.
Even if the space she needs has nothing to do with her magic, and everything to do with what happened the other night, when I made passionate love to her.
Truthfully, I’m afraid of what happens when we combine our magic. Already, the mate bond hums in unrest, pulling metoward her, drawing me to her like she’s a forcefield that won’t let me have peace until we’re one again.
I can’t even imagine what it’ll be like when we use our magic together, earth and fire turning into the deadliest combination—not just to the demons, but to the fire that burns between us.
“Fuck…” I mumble under my breath, wiping a hand across my face before throwing my feet off the bed and climbing out. That echoing pull in my chest is what takes me out of the bedroom and into the hallway, where, to my surprise, I find Annika walking toward me.
She stops when she notices me—perhaps my breathing, or the mate bond that hums beneath her skin, making her aware of my presence—her eyes meeting mine, full of soft, glittering warmth, lively as if she couldn’t sleep either.
It’s nearly impossible to imagine that we’d hardly exchanged many words at dinner, except for a few “okays” and “fines” staring into her eyes now as she pauses a little distance away, the adrenaline from the day long gone, bleeding into the quiet of the night, into something that feels almost forbidden.
“Annika…” I breathe, my voice almost exposing my surprise to find her outside her bedroom at this hour.
“Heinrich…” she returns, almost breathlessly as she bats her eyes at me in the most innocent way, but in her warm, chocolate-brown eyes, I see no traces of surprise, as if she were seeking me out purposefully.
“Is everything alright?” I ask, mentally chastising myself for another flat question like those at dinner, which will get us nowhere.
“Y-yes,” she says, nodding to the end of the hallway. “I, er—I was just going to the bathroom.”
When she lowers her head, I nod slowly, and just as she’s about to walk past me, realization hits me like a freight train slamming into me at full speed.
There’s no reason Annika would need to use the bathroom down the hallway, because her bedroom has an ensuite bathroom built in.
Just as she’s about to pass and the gentle, natural wind blows her sweet scent into my airways, I catch her wrist to stop her. She gasps audibly, turning slowly and lifting her eyes to meet mine.
“Is there something wrong with the bathroom in your room?” I ask, my voice dropping an octave lower.
