"I didn't know Stellan's wife was dead," I murmur, once she has unchained me and is half asleep on my chest. The bedsheets are smudged in my blood. "But it doesn't change my opinion of him."
"He's a good man, Rex, and I need him on my side."
"I'll send a guard to release him, but I'm not allowing him through the palace gates."
She nods brightly whilst running her fingers over the deep cuts on my arms, dark red streaks of blood running over my wrists and biceps. "Whoops."
"That's all you have to say on the situation? Just 'whoops'?"
She laughs, her face flushed with genuine happiness. "Yep! Are you going to get me back?"
"Yes, love, I'm going to ruin you in return. In our downstairs bedroom, perhaps.”
“Yes, sir,” she mumbles, standing up with an indecent smile on her face. "We have shit to do. Will you show me one thing? One little thing I can do with my powers before the war? Even if it's tiny?"
"I'll have a look in the library if I have any spare time, which is unlikely.”
* * *
It isforty-eight consecutive hours before I take any kind of break from work, and I take two precious hours to sleep and two hours to honour Renna's request of finding something she can learn to do with her magic.
She sits cross-legged on my desk as I sit on the chair opposite her at three in the morning. Narrow shards of moonlight streak in through the trees and plants in my study, piercing us both with silver light. Ever so quietly, she whispers an enchantment I'd shown her, clicking her fingers. A small spark forms at her fingertips and she sighs in frustration. I think she was hoping that when her powers came through, all her abilities would too. But it doesn’t work like that—just because she has a paintbrush, doesn’t mean she can paint. In a few years, she’ll be a very powerful woman.
"You'll get there."
She does it again, and the very same thing happens.
"Really focus on it, Rennalya. Focus on channeling your energy into your fingertips."
"What does that even mean!" She complains, arms outstretched. "You're used to having magic. I don't even know what my 'energy' is, let alone how to channel it into my fingers!"
I place my hand on my chest. "That warmth, that fire you feel in here, focus on shifting it through your arm. It'll take practice."
She takes a slow breath, and I know she is doing it right because the orange glow to her eyes gets a little brighter. She clicks her fingers and gasps, a tiny marble-sized flame floating between her fingers. The grip of my fingers on my thigh increases to agonising. I loathe fire.
"Good, now lower it over the wick of the candle," I instruct her, watching her do it with bated breath. She engulfs the wick in the flame, watching the candle light.
"Yes!" She exclaims, throwing her arms up in the air and screaming as she topples backward off the desk. I make a shit attempt at pulling her up but with us both laughing like children, she just tugs me down to the floor instead.
I snake my hand down to her behind, squeezing her lush curves. She’s wriggling beneath me and I hum in delight, spreading her legs with my knee.
“Oh my days, you're insatiable! Rexxan! We're doing important research here!"
"Fuck the research."
"Once I've done this, you can obliterate me."
She sure knows how to motivate a workforce. She does it again, the orb a little bigger this time. She is careful to keep her distance from me, knowing my relationship with fire is very strained. Just watching this is making my burns surge. It's yet another sign that this woman is bad for me in every way, and it's yet another sign I'm going to ignore.
"When you’ve mastered this a little more, you can put it on the end of a sword or a spear to make your weapons flame."
"Holy shit! I'm...I’m very cool!”
"Oh, gods. Maybe our age gap is too big," I declare, in denial that she'd just said that out loud. She lets out a loud laugh, closing her fingers to make the orb vanish.
"Thank you for this. It's really helpful," she whispers, and I kiss her gently. And when I pull away, the same warm feeling in my chest is reflected in her eyes.
But today I don’t run from it, I just kiss her again. This feels…right.
