AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I want to say you’re right. I’m sorry.”
I stood there, waiting for abut. Expecting him to dump this back on me somehow.
“That’s it?” I asked.
“Yes. That’s it,” he said, dropping his grip on me. “I agree, I need to own some of this situation.”
I crossed my arms, waiting another minute, weighing the situation. A, he was at least owning some of the current circumstance. B, the way forward would be easier if we were getting along. C, I had no idea what to do without him.
I looked back in the direction of the house, just so I didn’t make it too easy. Rolling over at the first sniff of an apology might set a bad precedent. How would he act in the future if it was that easy to mend things?
Then again, I didn’t want to be too tough. Apologies from Kaden were a novelty. I’d have to cut him a little slack just for getting the words out.
I looked back at him. “I’ve never seen you levitate anything before. Can I do that?”
“Our power is only nondestructive in small amounts.” He tossed the stone to me. “You’ll be able to do it too by the time we’re done. You’ll be able to do a lot of things.”
I nodded and then said, “Okay, so what’s your plan?” I took a few steps, circling him, eyeing him up in awhatcha gotkind of way.
He turned with me, treating me to the same look. “Our best chance of defeating Herrick is if we can join our power together.”
“Well, that shouldn’t be a problem. Didn’t we already do that before?” He was building this up as if it were going to be such a problem, when we already had part of it in the bag.
“No. I took control of your power. It’s a completely different thing. We need to merge and direct it with the same intention. I’m not sure how exactly to go about it because I’ve only heard stories.”
Stories? The last time he didn’t know what to expect was when he marked me, and we both know how that turned out. We should probably call it quits now before something even worse happened.
In spite of all my better instincts, I said, “Well, how do we plan on doing this?”
“I want you to come at me with everything you’ve got.”
“I’ll hurt you.” Although I wasn’t as worried about that at the moment.
“We’ve done this before. You didn’t hurt me, if you’ll remember.” He was smiling, taunting me enough to make me want to try.
“You need to remember that I’m different now. You don’t know what I've got going on at this point.”
“I’ll absorb it. We’re connected. Your magic can’t kill me.”
I punched him, and it definitely didn’t feel anything like what had happened with my grandmother.
“Yeah, wow. That was really…something.” He scratched his jaw.
What it waswasmortifying. What the hell? I could feel power sizzling under the surface, and I’d punched him like a sissy.
I punched him again, without his asking. He looked down at his stomach and then looked at me, raising his brows.
“You’re afraid of what you are, and you can’t be. We don’t havetimefor you to be. Herrick is going to sense you’ve finished transitioning, that we’re mated. You’ve accelerated our timeline, which means his timeline as well. He knows he has to hit us now, or he has no chance.
“I’m the ruling Kradix of Nowhere. What I am pulses through Nowhere, and leaks out to every place connected to it. We’re mated—there’s a shift in the feel of all the energy, and he will feel it.”
“How can that be?” Some of the stuff he came up with didn’t seem as if it could be true.
“You know how you felt the shift in the energy between us? How the pull grew stronger the moment you transitioned? All magic has a signal, and you changed that signal the minute you transitioned.”
I punched him a little harder, just because he had to bring up my finishing the transition. It always came back tome. WhatIdid. I punched him again and again until my arms got tired and I was winded.
“At least you’re putting a little effort out. It’s not much, but it’s a start.”
