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Had her magic started affecting her?
We should’ve come back sooner.
Flames broke out over my arms, and I shivered as I shook them out, trying not to panic about their sudden presence.
It was easier to keep them shut down entirely, than to shut them down after they’d appeared.
Still, after a few seconds of focus, I managed to wrestle them back into submission.
“Hey, Little Bird,” Odin said, giving Dove a grin as if he hadn’t been lost to his thoughts for the last few hours. He squatted down, opening his arms for her. She practically glided over to him, no longer bouncing like she had been a few weeks ago.
“Hi,” she whispered back, hugging him fiercely tight. He hugged her back, just as tightly.
“You’re quieter than usual,” he remarked, still holding her.
I looked at Harper, and frowned at the grimace I found on her face and the crease between her eyebrows.
“The magic is really loud,” Dove said softly.
My heart sank.
Harper bit her lip.
Odin acted as if her response hadn’t fazed him, though I knew he had to have been hurting for her too. “You’ll get used to it. I’m sure Storm has been helping you, right?”
“Yeah.” Dove sniffled a little. “Can you carry me?”
“Of course.” He scooped her up and set her on his shoulders as he straightened smoothly. His hand didn’t reach for mine as we stepped inside the castle—and mine didn’t reach for his either.
“What’s going on?” I asked Harper, the words low enough that Dove wouldn’t hear.
“Sirus said that her magic has settled in,” Harper said, equally quietly. “She says it’s loud, but it doesn’t seem to be affecting her hearing. Ayla and I think it’s some form of sensory processing disorder—she’s been getting overwhelmed really easily when a lot is happening, and me or Sirus have to take her out of the city or into the sky and hold her until she calms down. The physical touch helps. It seems to ground her, which is a relief. But the city is loud, and it’s difficult for her.”
Shit.
Harper added, “Sirus is hoping Quake can teach her how to use the stone to silence her surroundings. To go underground or create a tent or something. She has so much power, but when she gets overwhelmed, it’s like she can’t even connect with it. He says it’s normal, that it’s like that for all of them. That when the power feels stronger than you do, it becomes slippery and difficult to manage.”
“Fuck. I’m so sorry,” I whispered.
“Me too. We’ll figure it out, though. We have to.” She gave me a quick, tight smile. “How are you?”
“Eh. Mated, but… things went to shit a few hours ago.” I watched Quake, who was now a long way ahead of us. We’d gone up a flight of smooth stone stairs already, so I figured we’d reach the others soon. “This is a dumb question, but are we allowed to call our kings by their real names in front of other people? I thought it was kind of a secret thing.”
“Sirus doesn’t care. I’m the only one allowed to call him his name to his face, but he told me he doesn’t mind if I call him that around other people too. It seems weird to me, to call him Sirus when we’re alone, and Storm when I’m around everyone else.”
I nodded.
“Ivy and Tariq rejoined us here, and she’s doing the same thing now, with his name. Just don’t call him Tariq to his face, and you won’t have any problems.”
“What about Ayla and Flood?”
“She’s learning sign language as quickly as possible, but still trying to figure it out. She calls him Zoran, and doesn’t care if other people do too. They’re… friends. She friend-zoned him way back in the Aboa, and he hasn’t tried to get out of the friend-zone or anything as far as I can tell.”
Huh.
“Maybe after they can communicate more smoothly,” I said.
“Maybe.”
