Page 105 of Staff of Nightfall

The sorcerer held up his hand, and Carrick scowled as he lowered the knife. “Hm.” The sorcerer tilted his head, his gaze drilling into Regulus. “You’re not afraid of pain. You know you’ll heal, so it’s not a fear of a wound. What are you so afraid of?”

Dammit.He met the sorcerer’s gaze and tried to keep his expression closed, to betray nothing. The sorcerer’s eyes narrowed as he thought. “You only have ever begged me to spare others, never yourself. Others... Wait. The mage cried out like she was in pain, but I hadn’t hit her.” He looked to Carrick. “But you hithim.” He looked back to Regulus. “What aren’t you telling me, mercenary?”

Regulus set his jaw and glared right back.

“Cut his face open.”

“Finally.” Carrick brought the knife back up. From the way the corner of the sorcerer’s mouth twitched upward, Regulus suspected he already knew the truth.

“All right!” Regulus lowered his gaze. “Adelaide feels my pain.”

Carrick froze, the point of the knife hovering just above the top of the scar. “What are you talking about?”

“When I’m hurt, she feels an echo of my pain. Not as intense as actually receiving the wound herself, but she still feels it.” Regulus looked up at the dead branches above him. “When we realized, I tried to get her to remove the mark. But she wouldn’t.” He looked back at Carrick. “Please. Anything you do to me, you do to her.”

Carrick tilted his head. “So it doesn’t actually wound her?”

“There’s no mark or blood, no.”

“But she feels your pain? Your injuries?”

“Yes!” He knocked his head back against the tree. “Do you not understand, or do you not believe me!”

“No, I believe you. And I understand.” Carrick’s eyes glinted. “I understand that when I do this,” the tip of the dagger cut into Regulus’ face as he pulled the blade down the length of the scar while Regulus screamed, “she’ll know exactly what is happening to you.”

Regulus clenched his teeth, his chest heaving and eyes watering. Carrick stood and moved back to give the sorcerer an unobstructed view of Regulus’ mutilation. He had cut deeper than the original scar, slicing all the way through the cheek so that the skin curled away from the side of his face. Regulus moaned, the pain like fiery needles over the side of his face. Then the pain faded away. He breathed deeper. The skin curled back and pulled together. Regulus unclenched his jaw and opened his eyes.

The sorcerer stood stroking his beard, expression impassive. Carrick’s brows lifted toward his hairline. Regulus spat blood toward Carrick’s feet. Carrick stepped back, his top lip pulling up.

“Interesting.” The sorcerer tugged on his beard. “All very interesting.”

Regulus sighed. Sooner or later, the torture would break him, and he would have put Adelaide through all that pain, just to give in. He couldn’t let them hurt her. “Please. I’ll tell you anything I can. Just...stop hurting her.”

Carrick looked to the sorcerer, who nodded. With clear disappointment, Carrick crossed his arms.

“You said you were unconscious when she bound you,” the sorcerer said. “That shouldn’t be possible. You should have to agree to a binding.”

“I did, apparently. I don’t really remember.” Regulus glowered at Carrick. “Carrick had run me through with a sword, and I had mostly bled out. Adelaide healed the wound, but I was still fading. She asked me if I wanted to be bound to her for life, and I didn’t really understand what she was asking, so of course I agreed. Then I blacked out. I came to a couple minutes later, Adelaide had passed out, and I had this mark.”

“How long was she out for?”

“About a day and a half, two days.”

The sorcerer clasped his hands. “Any other side effects?”

When Regulus hesitated, Carrick twirled the knife in his hand.

“When we touch—actual skin contact—we can feel each other’s emotions.” Regulus shifted against the tree trunk, but there was no getting comfortable. “Any skin contact, I can sense her emotions. And a couple times, I’ve seen what she’s thinking about when I close my eyes while touching her.”

“Examples,” the sorcerer grunted.

Regulus fixed Carrick with a withering stare. “She was scared and upset, and I was trying to comfort her. I closed my eyes, and I saw her memories, as if looking through her eyes. You know what I saw, Carrick? I sawyou.I know what you did.”

Carrick reddened and glanced away, then recovered his neutral expression. At least he had some sense of shame.

“And you.” Regulus turned his attention to the sorcerer. “She has nightmares. About what you did to her, what you threatened to do to her family. I tried to wake her one night and closed my eyes, barely more than a blink, and my mind was pulled into her nightmare.”

“No wonder my spell backfired,” the sorcerer muttered. “This bond is stronger and deeper than I would have dreamed possible. But then, magic born out of self-sacrifice is always strong, because the price paid for it is so high.”

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