Page 24 of Muse

"That's all right because I wasn't really asking you anyway. I was thinking aloud."

“Oh.” I lowered my eyes, embarrassed.

“Look at me, girl. Are you a muse, or are you a wilting flower?”

I snapped my eyes up to meet his. “I am a muse.”

He leaned over the armrest, filling my personal space with the tangy scent of toadstools and vinegar. His eyes were milky but intense, and he inhaled slowly.

I felt it before I saw it – an unpleasant prickly sensation of something being pulled out from within me. It colored the air between my mouth and his, glittering wisps of magik.

Instinctively, I flinched and pulled back.

"What are you doing?" Herve asked, which was the exact question I wanted to ask of him. "I need to draw out your magik since you could not show me."

“I… I wasn’t expecting that,” I replied uneasily.

"And I wasn't expecting to have my time wasted today." Herve grew haughtier and more exasperated as he spoke as if losing his patience with a spoiled child. "Do you want to have a starring role in next season's festivals or not? Are you a muse, or aren't you?"

“I am a muse,” I repeated and nodded.

“You wish to continue then?” he asked pointedly.

I wanted to say no. I wanted to leave the lucenition as soon as I sat down beside him, and especially when he began pulling my magik from me.

Magik may have been something I shared with the enchanter and something muses gave to the kingdom during our conductions. But that was it exactly. Magik was something that wasgiven– this wastaken.

But Adora would never forgive me, and she would never understand why I said no and ruined my lucenition with Herve.

So, despite my own reservations, I forced myself to say, “Yes. Let’s continue.”

He smiled and leaned closer to me so his lips nearly touched mine as he drew my magik from me. The warlock's eyes glowed with an otherworldly brilliance as the stolen magik intertwined with his own.

This was not the first time that I had experienced this. Growing up, my mother had been a disgraced muse, and I had been just a child. Neither one of us had a title then – that would eventually be bought and paid for by my work – so to get lucenitions, I had to prove my worth.

For years,thiswas how we got by. Conductions when I could get them, but more often than not, the gold coin only came Adora's way after a warlock or enchanter drank of my magik. That had continued until my sixteenth year after we'd gotten our titles, and I could finally secure conductions on my own merit.

I thought I would never endure a "lucenition" like this again. As Herve drained the light from me, my stomach twisted in revulsion.

I stood up, abruptly ending the exchange. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to waste your time, Warlock, but… I have to go.”

He called after me, sounding angry and annoyed, but I gathered the length of my skirt and hurried toward the doors.The warlock's assistant was waiting and opened them for me, and as soon as I was through, I started running.

Chapter 16

The tears had dried on my cheeks when I reached Soren's house, and I had managed to slow my heart's racing. I hadn't told him about the lucenition with a warlock beforehand. I wasn't sure how he would feel about me pursuing engagements with other enchanters. But I couldn't deny Adora, so I had simply avoided saying anything about it at all.

Soren answered the door wearing pants and an open kaftan, exposing his bare chest and stomach. On any other day, I would've been excited to have an opportunity to take that in, but today, I felt nothing but the guilty nausea that twisted my stomach since I sat with Herve Chaunter.

“You’re early.” Soren hurried to close his kaftan and cinch it with a belt.

“I’m sorry. I haven’t kept good track of time. I’ll leave and come back.” I started to turn around, and he put his hand on my arm to stop me.

“No, that was just me apologizing for my attire by way of explanation.” He stepped back and opened the front door wider. “Come in.”

“Are you certain?” I asked.

“I have never been more certain of anything in my life, Izzy. Please, come into my house,” he replied with a wry smile.

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