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I felt her fingers caress the back of my neck, and somethingchanged.
The sensation of the collar on my neck didn’t change, and I still observed the world in the same manner. Chloe’s closeness produced the warmth in my chest that it always did…but it seemed to bemore.
I could still feel the inferno of my magic, but there was something else there now. Something soft, that twined around me like a cat.
“It worked!” Chloe said.
I blinked as I felt the soft, feline-esque magic pulse, and I realized it was Chloe’s powers. “What?”
“I returned the bond!” Chloe said. “I can feel it now. I made a direct line to you, tied toyourcollar. It worked!”
For a moment, I held her closer—shocked at her success. “How?”
Chloe squeezed me tight, then released me so she could back up and beam up at me. “Two ways. Firstly, Truck. Because Truck is cursed, more of my shadow magic is active whenever I use him, so I can see it for more than a heartbeat and reach for it. Secondly, wild magic gave me the hint. I kept trying to reverse engineer what you’d done for me, but I hear wild magic whenever your magic is active in me. It made me suspect that mingling our magic was what I should be shooting for.”
I rolled my shoulders back as I tried to track how things felt different. “It makes sense you would have to use a different method, given that you aren’t an elf.”
Chloe exhaled, her smile relaxed. “I’m just so glad it finally worked! Thanks, by the way, Truck. I’ll see you next time?”
Destruction made the alarming “woo-woo” noise, before it started glowing, then disappeared—returning to storage, taking Chloe’s armor with it so she was once again dressed in the practice clothes we’d donned for the journey.
With her face visible once more, I could read the shy joy in Chloe’s eyes as she grinned up at me. “Can you feel anything?”
“Yes. Your magic is very different from my own, I can easily isolate it.” I paused when I again felt her soft magic twine around me. Carefully—I was half afraid it would shy away from me—I mentally reached for it.
Through the collar I could feel the link to Chloe—which was just as beautiful and warm as she was. Rather than flee, Chloe’s magic flooded me, rumbling in a purr.
After a moment it disappeared, but not without an affectionate rub.
No wonder she’s had trouble making the bond—her magic is surprisingly responsive, butfast.
“Any day, you two,” Aristide shouted to us from the all-terrain vehicles. “Take your time. It’s not like we’re missing out on the party of the century or something.”
Chloe laughed, and the pleasant noise made the wild magic around us twitter and sing. “We’re coming.” She grinned at me before walking toward the all-terrain vehicles.
I watched her approach my friends, a peace I hadn’t experienced maybe ever before making me relax.
Charon bowed to her as she got closer. “Your Majesty.”
“Are you really going to keep calling me that, Charon?” Chloe asked.
“You are the queen of Calor Villa—my queen, the life partner of my king,” Charon said.
“What he’s saying is, ‘yes’,” Ker interpreted.
“Believe me, we’re all thrilled,” Aristide said. “We’ve known for centuries Noctus needed something—we just didn’t know it was a pint-sized shadow.”
I raised my eyebrows at the declaration, but said nothing—he wasn’t wrong, after all.
“I’m not that small,” Chloe said. “You are just all really tall.”
I prowled after Chloe. “Don’t worry, you are the perfect size to make you an armful,” I said before I swept her up.
Chloe squawked as she wriggled in my arms. “Noctus, put me down!”
Laying a slow kiss on her neck, I considered her demand. “No, I don’t think I will.”
Chloe alternately stammered and gulped, then abruptly turned into her cat form.
Unfortunately for her, I could start to feel it when she tapped her transformation magic thanks to our complete bond, so it was an easy thing to adjust my hold and tuck her even closer to my chest in her fuzzy and undeniably cute cat form.
This made her hair puff up, and she turned back into her human form. “Noctus!” she said, scandalized.
“Look at it this way, Chloe,” Ker called to her with a cackle. “You’ll never have to sleep in the sink again!”
THE END
