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His arms wrapped around me and pulled me more securely onto his lap. “We will practice how to change form, Little Cat,” Zaide promised. “You are clever. I’m sure you’ll learn quickly.”
My heart warmed at his faith in me.
“How is it you keep manipulating the effects of my magic?” Daithi asked, looking emotionless as ever. I lifted my shoulders in a shrug but thought it was odd of him to ask.
“Perhaps it isn’t magic at all. Perhaps it is fate,” Zaide told him softly. I turned to see his gaze locked on the skin of my shoulder. He nuzzled it, and I stiffened in surprise.
He’d always been affectionate and kind, but sitting partially naked on his lap with him nuzzling my shoulder made me realize,He likes me. Cares about me. Wants me.
I wasn’t sure what to do with that. I cared about him, loved his attention and affection, but knew nothing about relationships or love or sex. I had a lot of trauma to work through, and with how handsome he was, he could get anyone in any realm. He didn’t need me.
Charlie frowned and then yawned dramatically. “Well, this has been exciting. But I’m actually exhausted, so I’m going to get to bed.” He looked pointedly at Zaide and me and added, “I think you two should talk about that secret he was keeping.”
CHAPTER24
ZAIDE
“You don’t have to tell me the secret if you don’t want to,” Clawdia began as Charlie and Daithi shut their doors, leaving me alone with my soul pair.
A soul pair I’d lost twice yesterday, first to kidnappers and then to her witch, and then lost her again today when she chose to be a cat again.
After hearing her story, I knew how traumatic her past was. I understood why she didn’t want to be human, but I regretted not telling her about our connection. Perhaps it would have given her something to hold on to.
I hugged her closer to my chest and pressed another kiss to her bare, soft skin. She shuddered. “I do have to tell you.”
“Is it … bad?”
I shook my head. “No, Little Cat. I don’t think so. But you may have a different opinion.”
She looked up at me, her head tilted back against my chest to stare into my eyes. “What is it?”
I took a deep breath. “We came to the human realm for a reason. Do you know what that reason is?”
“You were looking for a person called Margaret.” She frowned, confused, but then I saw the moment her light behind her eyes switched on. “Me?”
I chuckled. “You.”
She twisted so her legs sat tucked across my lap and her cheek rested on my chest. I could see her frown when she said, “I was a cat.”
I shrugged. “You were not always, and you are not now.”
She nodded, and the tendrils of her soft hair brushed my bare chest. I restrained a shudder. “Why were you looking for me?”
I sighed, brushing a hand over the soft skin of her leg, and told her of our past. “My race were once powerful beings. But greater powers punished us for our power and arrogance by tearing our souls in half and tossing them across the dimensions, never to find each other again. We have no power of old, only our strength. We live as half beings with a hole where our other half should be. You are that other half. My soul pair.”
She digested that for a long moment as my heart raced and my stomach jumped.
She is not screaming or running from me. That is a good start.
“What does that mean, exactly?” she asked slowly.
My tongue felt thick in my mouth, and I swallowed nervously. “Many millennia ago, our souls were one. We were a titan living in Tartarus, with the power to alter the fabric of the universe.”
“But titans don’t have that power any longer?”
I nodded. “Because our souls were split, our power was split too. Daithi thinks you hold the titan powers but can’t use them.”
“The power won’t come back now that we are together?”
