“You’re one to talk.” He flexed his hands. Then he stretched his arms toward the sky. “Let’s go for a run.”
“Run?” I blinked. “Haven’t I done that enough?”
“Well, you won’t agree to any other blood-pumping activity, so...” He trailed off. “I want you to run, Edira. But this time, I’m going to alter the earth to create obstacles for you to either dodge or take control of on your own.”
“So, you’re intentionally going to try and trip me,” I growled.
“Yes.” He smiled. “You don’t have to play along, of course. But this is the only magic you’ll get out of me today.” He pulled my hands up in his, and his fingers lazily touched both of my palms. Calm. Intentional. Both a threat and a tease. “Feel the magic down our bond. You should be able to tell when I summon it. You can either grip it and shift its purpose, or choose to simply avoid it.” He circled me slowly, coming to a stop behind me and pressing the palm of his hand to my lower back. “Now, go.”
His words released me, and the excitement that had been mounting in my muscles suddenly exploded. I tore off through the courtyard, my booted feet thudding loudly against the pavers until I hit the rolling lawns. Dew showered the air like glittering fragments of light. My heartbeat roared in my ears, and that feeling of anxiety completely died. A wide smile took over my face, and I savored the burn of my breath.
I didn’t know if it was Rorik’s emotion or mine, but I feltalive. Like I’d been holding my breath for hours and suddenly my airways were clearer than they’d ever been. Like this was my purpose. This was the way to my future free of death. A carefree laugh bubbled up from somewhere deep in me, and while a quick glance over my shoulder revealed that Rorik had already disappeared—tore off in his own direction to likely watch and judge with a smirk of his own—I swore I heard his answering chuckle.
His magic crested in my chest first. It was a sudden swell of static, like the tension in the air before lightning strikes, and then I felt the ground rumble. Reverberations shot up my legs and threatened to send me sideways, but I kept my balance as I launched into the forest. I took the winding path we’d ventured down before, and trees clambered around me as their branches, thick with leaves despite autumn’s wishes, blanketed out the sun. Mist curled along roots, and moss climbed over every rock and strip of bark, but I wasn’t scared. Not like before. Something about the woods felt familiar now, like Rorik’s magic made me one with the earth.
I felt every ounce of magic he summoned deep in my bones.
At first, he started small, sending a few stray rocks tumbling down the path or causing branches to snap abnormally toward my face. I dodged without thinking, anticipating their movements by the flux of his power within me. Then came the vines shooting through the forest like snakes. They flung toward my ankles, trying to snare me as I ran.
You won’t be able to dodge those.Rorik’s voice sounded in my mind. I couldn’t see him in the dense woods, but rapidly growing plants nipped at my heels. As I rounded a bend on the path, the trail gave out to nothing but unmarked forest floor. I tripped over a boulder and scraped my hands along the rough stone, barely rolling out of the way as the vines shot into the woods. If Rorik had wanted, he could’ve commanded them to drag me kicking and screaming to his feet right then and there. But they simply went limp against beds of pine needles and fallen leaves.
Try controlling it.Even in my mind his words were a whisper. Pushing myself to my feet, I scoured the woods. My ears strained in the silence, my heart hammered in my throat, and my hands stung with the sticky warmth of blood. Still, I smiled. I breathed. I searched for my heartbond with Rorik and relished the comfort of its magic. I was still reaching for it with my mind when Rorik struck, and time slowed.
Before, I’d merely felt his magic snap through me, but this time, I kept my focus on our bond. I needed to understand how it manifested so I could do the same. It was nothing more than a ripple down our current. A single teardrop in the golden stream that barely echoed through its surface, but I saw it. So when a monstrous root tore through the earth at my feet, I already knew it was coming. I thrust my hand forward at the same time I called to Rorik’s magic in my mind, and it rushed through my blood like I’d torn down a dam. It flooded to my fingertips, and I flicked my wrist to the side, bidding the wayward root to do the same.
And it did.
With a shuddering groan, it gave in to my command and went flying into a tree trunk with a heavy thud. Elation and shock hit me with the same force, and I squealed as his magic—our magic now—filled me to the brim.
And then something smooth wrapped around my right ankle and gave a definitive yank. Before I knew it, I was flat on my ass, and Rorik was standing beside me, laughing as a dark vine rubbed along his calves like a proud cat.
“You celebrated too early,” he said, devilish smirk on display.
“Can’t you just compliment me?” I glowered. I tried to tap into our bond, to find the source of magic he was using to control the vine loitering by his feet, but I couldn’t grasp it. He seemed to sense me rooting around for it, though, because his grin only deepened, and his eyes sparked with a sense of knowing.
“Nice try.”
An idea bloomed in the back of my brain. I settled into my frustration, letting him think he’d won while quietly searching for another thread of power down our bond. “So, you only let me control that root because you wanted me to.”
I focused on the individual currents twining through the river of gold, and I felt his magic running beneath it all. Finding the source was a lot like finding the right thread; the longer I centered myself, the longer I focused, the easier it was to find a stream of magic that I could harness. I pictured it twining around my fingers and gripped tight.
“You have a way to go before you can fully wrest control from me. And even then, it will come down to a matter of will.” He crouched down before me and let his hands loosely dangle about his knees. “And I don’t think you’ll ever be able to shake me of that.”
When he bit his lip to keep from laughing—again—I struck.
Our magic coursing through me, I summoned a root from the depths of the earth and sent it rocketing toward his center. It erupted from the soil with ease and lassoed him around the torso, yanking him backward until his spine cracked against the thick trunk of a tree. Then I looped it around his center again. Just for kicks.
Rorik’s eyes were wide as he stared at me. Slowly I stood and stalked toward him, doing my best to imitate his lopsided grin. I only wished I had the fangs he did to really sell the look. When I stopped before him, I pinched his chin and angled it up just like he’d done to me at the beginning of this exercise.
“What was that about willpower?” I asked.
Heat exploded in his gaze, and all at once his glamour was stripped away. Impossibly deep beetle-black eyes stared at me as twin horns pushed through his locks, right at his hairline. A golden luster spilled across his skin, and elongated sable nails clicked against the bark of the tree. His wings were still suppressed behind his glamour, but I had the feeling if he broke free, he’d summon those, too.
He smiled, all fangs and dark intent, and his words were a deadly whisper. “Who captured who?”
My smile slid away. “What?”
The same vine from earlier was on me in a breath, wrapping tight around my thighs, stomach, and just beneath my breasts. It slid against my skin in an unbreakable binding as it lifted me off the ground and brought me inches from Rorik’s face. Our breaths intermingled, and my brain stopped functioning entirely. I could feel him everywhere. Down our bond. Through his magic seeping from the vines into my skin. With every ragged skitter of his breath. My pulse roared in my ears as an unbearable want simmered low in my stomach. This close, I could smell the delectable fragrance of his magic. He was oakmoss and bergamot, fresh rain and the hint of pine, the faint undercurrent of a rose right before it fully blooms. He was the very earth that surrounded us, and he’d somehow rooted himself deep within me.
