Page 42 of Reforging Onyx

Shane finally cleared the finish line, and stats appeared on the screen. The wolf had finished in seventh, far behind Onyx’s first place. It wasn’t the worst, but given that there had only been a total of thirteen cars… Onyx might’ve poked fun at Shane if the topic of their conversation hadn’t been so serious.

“Keeping… pets… isn’t all that unusual anymore,” Shane continued. “Pet is sometimes the best option available for marked humans.”

Onyx’s eyes narrowed as he looked at Shane, and he snapped, “I’m not a marked human.”

Whether the world at large accepted that he was still a witch or not, and despite his doubts, Onyx would always insist he was… strange as it was because he’d hated being a witch since he’d ended up with the rebellion.

“No, you’re not a marked human,” Shane acknowledged. “But you’re an enslaved supe, which is about the same thing. And if you don’t think that comes with a worse set of options, it does. There aren’t many of those, and almost all of them are broken. Very broken.”

Onyx shuddered. He could imagine. If people saw owning supes as a point of pride — and he imagined they did — they were too dangerous to have unbroken, which was one of the reasons he kept thinking that Dominic was going to push him too far and shatter what little remained of him.

“What’s it like, being a witch?” Shane asked.

Onyx sank back against the couch as Shane changed the topic. “I dunno,” he said, considering. “With my magic, it’s like… everything is fuller, freer. Like I can just say a few words and make so many things happen. I can call fire and it obeys. I can call light and it’s less dark. I can even shield a location from detection. I can do so many things, and I…”

He was not going to cry. He wasn’t.

“It really sucks not to have my magic,” he mumbled.

Shane nodded in apparent sympathy, asking, “What’s it feel like when you make fire?”

The question caught him slightly off guard, and he frowned thoughtfully. “It feels like…” He closed his eyes, imagining he was able to call fire in that moment. “It’s exhilarating. It’s like slow heat building up in your hand, except you know how dangerous it is. But you keep doing it anyway, because it’s addictive and it’s fucking beautiful, and it’s deadly, too.” He sighed. “I don’t know. It’s just exhilarating.”

“It looked really damn impressive too. There was no mistaking the open admiration in Shane's voice.

Onyx smiled at that, preening a little beneath Shane’s comment. “Yeah. Used to scare the shit out of people.” His smile faltered. “But it was good because I could… do things, you know? I could help out and keep everyone safe.”

Well, everyone he gave a fuck about. Everyone else could — literally — go die in a fire somewhere.

“Did Dominic say when he was going to take you back there?” Shane asked.

Onyx shook his head. “No, and I… I don’t know. I didn’t exactly react well to being re-collared, so I’m not sure if he’ll make me wait,” he said unhappily. He poked at the joystick, starting to set up the next race without much enthusiasm for the game.

Shane glanced at Onyx. “Bad? How bad?”

Onyx scowled. “It wasn’t that bad,” he muttered. After all, Dominic had ultimately ended up sucking Onyx’s cock, so… He guessed it couldn’t have been too terrible. “I just wanted some space, and he didn’t want to give me space, so he pushed and I freaked out a little.” He shook his head. “I didn’t try to kill him or anything.”

He would have if he could have.

Wouldn’t he?

“You might not have to wait for long if you ask him to go,” Shane replied, accepting the same car options and waiting for Onyx to start the next race.

Onyx nodded, but he didn’t know what the cost would be — or what he’d be willing to pay to be able to touch his magic again, to feel the heat of fire on his skin and smell the scent of burning wood or anything else.

That was the scary thing, wasn’t it? That he’d do nearly anything to have it again?

He selected his own car and started the game again. “He’s like… I don’t know. The dinner party was worse, honestly.” And Shane had to know that, since he’d been needed to help calm him in the aftermath.

Shane nodded. “He’s what?”

“He’s needy,” Onyx said of Dominic, his voice hushed, making Shane blink at him in apparent confusion.

Would he get in trouble for saying something like that? Possibly. Did he care? That was the real question, wasn’t it?

“Anyway,” Onyx said, wanting to change the subject just in case. “You’re doing better at the game.” He smiled at Shane, though it was a little flimsy around the edges.

“It’s a fun game,” Shane said. “But I am still trying to figure out what the heck is with all of this… stuff. How does any of this even work? I mean, I’ve figured some of it out just by getting hit by it.”