AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Using magic is a risk. But right now, it seems safer than the alternative. Better to give Gabriel Thornber some clue as to my location than to be dragged to him.
I tighten my hold on Chris’ arm, close my eyes, and let my power flow. Even through my fear, it gives me a wonderful sense of release. When I let go a few seconds later, he’s frozen in place. I stroke a finger over his lips so he can at least speak.
“Let me go, please. It’s not the Thornbers who asked Lavinia for a favour. Your family want to bring you home.”
“They wouldn’t. They know why I can’t go back to Mannith.”
“They need you. However much they miss you, they wouldn’t normally ask. But they’re desperate.”
He’s not got any body language to play with and can barely move his eyes, but something in his tone manages to convince me. I stretch out a trembling arm and make a scooping movement as though dragging my magic back out of him and towards me. He crumples to the floor as his muscles come back online.
My lien mark flashes red, bright enough to be visible even under the rings.No. No no no no no. Is it enough to allow Gabriel to track me? It’s a one-off and he’s hundreds of miles away, but I don’t like those odds.
Having risked everything on breaking my magic ban—seemingly needlessly—it’s tempting to carry on and melt the skin off Chris’ bones for having dared to put me in this position. The London Coven probably wouldn’t be overjoyed with me, but they generally put a practitioner’s right to safety over a human’s right to life.
I take a deep breath. I’m not that person. “Get out.”
He grabs onto the bar stool and pulls himself back to his feet. “I swore I’d do this.”
“You’ve delivered your message. Go and get your little pat on the head from Lavinia. I’ll take this up with my mother.”
He heads into the hallway and towards the door without further objection, his movements jerky like someone who’s pushed themselves far too hard in the gym.
“I wasn’t acting under sufferance tonight, you know,” he says, opening the door. “And other than hiding my allegiance to the Coven, I wasn’t pretending to be someone I’m not. Until that last ten minutes, I’d been having the best evening I’ve had in months. I don’t suppose you’d like to meet up again when your business up north is finished with?”
“Seriously, get the hell out of here before I do something I regret more than I already regret this entire evening.”
Once he’s finally gone, I collapse onto the sofa. The red glow has already faded from my finger, thank God, and Gabriel Thornber does not appear to be bursting through the door. I ought to call Mum right now and find out what the hell’s going on. Instead, after five self-indulgent minutes of moping around, I stand up, strengthen the wards around the house, then bury myself in case prep, using work to drive everything else out of my head.
When I allow myself to sleep, it’s inevitable I have yet another of my recurrent Gabriel Thornber dreams. There are three broad types. Sometimes, it’s a straightforward, vivid re-enactment of the night he imposed the lien. Sometimes, it’s one I’m basically too embarrassed to admit to. Tonight, it’s once again the version where he tracks me down and takes my power, as he’s perfectly entitled to do under the terms of our bargain.
* * *
Once again, I’m walking along a deserted street at midnight. Once again, I turn a corner, into a narrower street, and he’s there.
“I only want to take what you promised me. You know full well it’s breaking all the rules to resist a lien.”
If you use magic to try to escape your deal, the universe will turn your own power against you and kill you on the spot. The same thing happens to any friends or family who try to help you. If you don’t use magic, then fate will kill you anyway over weeks or months. Strike you down or waste you away. And, while they’re waiting for that moment, the one who imposed the lien is perfectly entitled to kill you for breaking a fairly struck bargain.
“I’ll honour the Old Ways.”
“Thank you.” He wraps his left arm around my upper back to keep me in place, presses his right hand against my sternum, taps his fingers three times to open a channel, then closes his eyes. Mine slam shut in response.
There’s a gentle pressure at first, along with a sense of my muscles contracting. I breathe steadily and attempt to zone out and pretend this isn’t happening. There’s a voice at the back of my head screaming that I ought to resist. Punch him. Try a magical attack. Run for it. Or just beg him not to do this. But that’s human thinking. He can stop whatever spells I attempt. He’ll show no mercy. And ultimately, if I tried to prevent this, by all our rules and customs, I’d be the one in the wrong.
There’s a chill building at my chest. At first, it’s like running my hand under cold water. Then it’s more like pressing an ice cube against my skin. It’ll grow and grow until I feel like I’m running through the Arctic in a bikini.
He’s taking my magic.
Of course he is. That’s the whole point of the bargain. But the sudden thought makes me panic. Against my better judgement, I snap out of my semi-trance and attempt to push his hand away. I succeed only in turning the unpleasant but bearable coldness of a semi-voluntary magical transfer into the shocking pain of one in which I’m not cooperating.
I scream, like Bren screamed the night I made the bargain to save him. Some of it’s from the pain, some from the horror of what’s happening to me. The fact that I’m losing my magic and the fact that I’ve lost. Only his firm hold on my back is keeping me standing.
“Sadie, try to relax. This has to happen. But it doesn’t need to hurt you.”
“Stop, please.”
“I’m merely taking what I’m owed. You could have let me have your brother’s magic instead, all those years ago.”
