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Liath nodded, when I explained how I captured the sparks with my mind and showed them what to do and where to go. However, he told me this wasn’t how he healed himself when he did Blood magic. He didn’t see any sparks—his method was more direct.
“I just command the wound to heal and it heals,” he told me. “But you do what works for you, little bird. Magic is different for everyone.”
I did as he said and continued to work with my “sparks.” Now that I had learned to see them, I could find them everywhere there were happy and positive emotions. But my best source of magic turned out to be me—the number of sparks I could generate when Liath and I were “practicing” my magic together seemed to grow every time. I just wished I had a way to store them somehow and use them later instead of having to make or find new ones every time.
Of course, Liath had to cut or prick himself every time he did a spell or a working—if he wasn’t using pleasure magic with me—so I supposed that was simply how magic was. If you were using your own magic, you had to generate it or find it every time. It was a price I was willing to pay—I was just so happy to find out I wasn’t some kind of Royal dud, as I had believed all my life.
But though I was glad to have it, so far my magic seemed only good for positive things like healing and reviving. I didn’t see how I could use it for any kind of death or destruction—I would need it to be, though, if I was ever to find Quill’s murderer.
Even in the middle of my joy, I hadn’t forgotten my big brother—I was going to avenge him if it was last thing I did. I had even been considering another trip to the Pool of Seeing. I had thought of some questions that might lead me to the killer in a more round about way, since the Pool seemed unable or unwilling to show me the murderer outright. But for the time being, I was content to work on my magic.
Despite the fact that I still missed my big brother, my time in the Unseelie Court was one of the happiest periods of my life. Liath and I were growing closer and closer—which wasn’t difficult to do when we spent hours in each other’s company, exploring each other’s bodies. The big Unseelie warrior was the ideal husband—he was always kind and never cruel to me. He was patient and protective and a wonderful lover…though he still insisted on taking things slowly.
“We have to work up to certain acts, little bird,” he explained when I pouted because I wanted to do more. “We need to hold something back to help your magic grow.”
Having magic for the first time in my life—as well as the unconditional love and approval of a male I was beginning to fall for—made me incredibly happy. I also loved my growing power. It felt like I had looked inside myself and found a live coal glowing at the center of my heart—and now that I had found it, I could use its heat to keep me warm or do a hundred other things. I walked everywhere surrounded by clouds of the sparks of my own pleasure and joy—which only I could see, of course.
And then Liath decided to take me to the Mortal Realm.
“Are you sure it’s safe?” I asked for the hundredth time as he took out his moonstone dagger and prepared to cut a passageway from the Unseelie territory to the Mortal Realm.
“Of course I’m sure, little bird. I used to go there all the time with… I used to go there all the time,” he finished, leaving me with a confused frown. Who had he gone to the Moral Realm with and why didn’t he want me to know?
Before I could ask those questions, Liath muttered a word of transportation and pierced the empty air with his dagger. He drew it down sharply, creating a black rift, just as he had on our wedding day. Then he took my hand and we walked through it, out of our own world—and into another place entirely.
18
“What is this place?” I murmured, looking around me with wide-eyed wonder. The Mortal Realm was so busy—and so loud! There seemed to be music blaring everywhere and people were shouting and dancing and laughing and drinking. There were glowing signs on the walls that must be magic. One said “Bud Light” and another said, “The King of Beers.” I wondered where this king was and how he proposed to rule over all the malt beverages of the world.
“This is amazing!” I looked around me.
