Page 74 of Veil of Shadows

Another shuddering breath left him, filled with so much fear that it nearly encompassed me completely. “I thought I wouldn’t get you back.”

I pressed my palm to the back of his hand, needing to feel something tangible. “Thank you. I almost didn’t. I was so disoriented, not sure which way to go, but you pulled me back.” Frowning, I added, “But how did you know I was in the Veiled Between?”

“I felt it when you left.”

“You did?”

He nodded. “I couldn’t sleep. I was lying on the couch, staring at the ceiling, and then your aura shifted. A crackle of magic came from your collar, and then a huge release of magic came from your body.” He sucked in another breath. His words were still too fast to be considered calm. “When I called out to you, you didn’t respond, so I came to your side. And—” He huffed out another breath. “The magic around you felt exactly as it had when you traveled to the Veiled Between for my calling.”

My lips parted, and my jaw dropped. Memories of the strange way my magic had been acting with Jax so near, yet so far, lingered. “I think I traveled there in my dream. My magic was being...strange.”

“Has that ever happened before?”

“No, but I’m stronger now. The last time I traveled there so easily was before this was placed on me.” I trailed my finger along the collar. “But I was definitely disoriented, and I was at risk of becoming lost. I don’t have enough experience there without the collar to know my way back easily, but hopefully in time I will.”

But another starker, and more resolute fact, barreled into my thoughts. I would never know anything more about my mother. And I could never ask about Bastian on my own. Both required being able to do callings for myself, and only a lorafin queen could conduct her own callings. But I would never be able to, because of the collar.

A breath shuddered out of me. Forever, I would be caged. There was no changing that, and the last thread of hope that I’d held onto that perhaps one day I could be the master of my own destiny, snuffed out of existence.

My lips quivered, and tears sprouted in my eyes.

Jax’s palm skated gently over my cheeks. “Why are you crying?”

“Because I’ll never know.” I recanted what the semelees had told me, that I still wasn’t their queen. “I can’t do a calling for myself, Jax. They confirmed it. I’ll never be able to do a calling without the aid of another’s magic.”

He lowered himself to my side, his weight dipping the mattress as his touches remained soft and gentle. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

I shook my head, then dried my tears. “I kind of assumed as much, but to have it confirmed...” My hands were still shaking, but I forced them to still.

“I’m sorry,” he said again. A tingle of his magic washed against my skin as he continued his soft, soothing motions.

I ran a hand along the cool metal encircling my throat. A flare of Jax’s residual magic still penetrated it, and I turned myattention toward that, anything to keep from reliving what the semelees had revealed. “How did you use your magic to elicit my collar?”

“I blasted pulses of my sensory magic into it. It was the first thing that came to mind.”

“I’m glad you did. It obviously worked.”

He huffed in amusement, and for a moment, we stayed silent. In the dim nighttime lighting, our gazes locked together, and our breaths mingled. Slowly, he inched closer to me on the bed.

“You should go back to sleep. I’ll stay close in case you accidentally travel to the Veiled Between again. I can help you find your way back if you need it.” He lay only inches away in nothing but loose pants, and his large fingers curled around mine, holding my hand. A moment of bliss barreled through me. He was so warm. I curled into him more.

He scowled. “You’re freezing.”

He grumbled in displeasure, then wrapped his arms around me and pulled me against his chest. Hot skin met my frigid limbs. He swore silently under his breath and ripped the covers off the bed and encased both of us in them.

The heavy weight of the blankets settled around us as his hands ran up and down my back, using friction to warm me further, then a pulse of magic hummed around him.

His entire body heated to an unnatural level, and I knew that he’d pulled on his command of the elements. The air in the room warmed too, and Jax’s body turned into molten fire.

Closing my eyes, I sank into him even more. His skin felt like a burning rock. It was bliss, and some of the tension radiating through me lessened as my chilled skin began to warm.

“That feels so good,” I whispered.

He didn’t stop. His hands continued their wandering movements, and his magic settled into a constant cocoon of cloud-like warmth as though flames blazed from him.

Minutes ticked by, and slowly, the chill left me, but that only made me aware of how closely we lay to one another.

I felt every hard inch of him. Every sculpted line. Jax’s body was huge and muscled, and I tentatively ran my fingers along his abdomen.

---