Page 21 of Blood So Brutal

“You are. I can feel it.”

I dipped my head to hide my smile. “My magic can feel yours through the bond. I promise you, I’m not doing anything on purpose.”

She rolled her eyes and scoffed. “It’s distracting. If you want me to use my own magic, put yours away.”

Even though I wanted to remind her that the entire point of the bond was to share magic, I kept my mouth shut. I was keeping my mouth shut about quite a lot of things lately.

She was going to fucking hate me for it.

“Fine.” I held my palms up and took a step backward, giving her space to breathe. “I’ll put it away. Try again.”

I pretended not to hear the slur of curse words beneath her breath. She let her eyes flutter closed, her dark brows furrowing in concentration as she tried to summon the magic.

Wind picked up around us, the sky growing darker and darker. I forced my own power down in my chest as it reacted to hers. Hells, she was so damn powerful, and she didn’t even know it. She cut herself off, shoved her own magic down to be safe. To be secure, unseen.

I knew the feeling.

“Stop holding back,” I ordered.

She huffed in response, but held her hands out before her as the wind whipped around us. Even the barren plants around us reacted to her, vines reaching toward her.

“I’m not holding back.”

“You are. You know you are.”

Her eyes snapped open, hands dropping back to her sides. The wind ceased, plants stilled. “Maybe it’s because it’s not safe for me to show my magic here. How do I know you aren’t trying to train me so I’m ready for your father whenever he takes my magic?”

Goddess above. She was going to be the death of me, one way or another. “I can’t force you to trust me, Huntress, but I don’tknow how else to make you believe I’m trying to help you. Your power will grow. You’ll become very, very strong. You barely touched your abilities in Moira and you almost burned that place to ash, so if you’d rather lose control entirely and have no way to summon your own magic on command, be my guest.”

She glared at me with dagger eyes. “I’d love to lose control. I’ll take you all with me when I go, too.”

I stepped forward. “You wish you could be so lucky.” I waited for a response from her, but none came. I pushed forward, “Be angry, Huntress. Be entirely pissed off. Let that fuel you, let that fill every single one of your bones as you train. Buttrain. Wield your magic. Become strong.” I took another step forward so I could smell the sweat glistening on her skin. “Become unstoppable.”

If Huntyr didn’t trust me, that was fine. That was something I could live with. But right now, I silently begged for her to understand me, to feel how important it was that she learned full control of her current abilities so I could get us both out of here at the first possible opportunity.

By the kind grace of the goddess above, something I said must have stuck, because Huntyr took another deep breath, spread her feet in another bracing stance, and summoned her magic again.

And again.

And again.

Even though we both felt the strengthening of her magic, we said nothing. I pushed her until an hour passed, then two. Huntyr didn’t fight me again, didn’t argue as I helped her pull more and more and more of her gift.

Good.

If she was willing to fight, there was a chance. If she was willing to get pissed off, we may be able to make it out of here alive.

Chapter 7

Huntyr

“You have to eat something,” he argued, pushing the soup closer. I clutched my stomach, willing the pain to go away, but it was no use.

This had been happening for days now. It started as a constant wave of nausea, the inability to keep food down, and now, I was repulsed by everything.

I was sick, probably something I picked up in those disgusting dungeons, but Wolf kept telling me I was becoming a vampyre. I refused to believe that, refused to believe this was already happening.

“Leave me alone,” I argued. “I’ll be fine; I just need a few days.”

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