Page 58 of Harbinger

I didn’t know what to make of it. It was stunning, no doubt. It was definitely my style. But the functionality of it… that was a very worrying aspect.

“It’s beautiful. But why would I need something like this? Battle armor, essentially, right?”

“It’s more than that.”

“I don’t understand.”

“That’s what we’ll spend a good portion of our time together today doing. Helping you to reach an understanding, Ari.”

I took an uneasy step back. “This is about my power.”

He folded his arms across his chest and settled in. “Now you’ve reached magical maturity, things have shifted. Haven’t you felt it?”

“Felt what? A power increase, or something?”

“A disruption to the balance.”

“No. I don’t feel anything different.Idon’t feel different,” I told him adamantly.

Too adamantly, I realized, as soon as the words had left me.

“You’re more disconnected from your power than any of us fully realized then.” He sighed. “Fortunately, at this point, the only beings on this plane aware of this shift are within our family.Butit won’t stay that way. So you need to be ready.”

“Doing what I’m doing ensures it won’t come to be an issue.”

“It’s not sustainable. That’s the issue.”

“I’ve been sustaining it all this time, Pops.”

“You’ve fooled us all, Ari. We wanted to believe it, I suppose. But you haven’t been controlling it during your last three years at Maven Academy. Instead, you’ve been employing repressiontechniques. Even putting parts of your magic away, separating it and sealing it off.”

Oh, shit.“How do you know that?”

He scrubbed his hand over his face. “During your party, choice members of the Unity Council used the rare chance at close proximityandthe distraction of the joyous event itself when all our guards were down, as an opportunity to test you—your stability and current magical prowess. That was when they noticed that you weren’t as you should be, that something wasn’t right.”

“They didwhat?”

“They’ve been dealt with, given the underhanded nature of it, and the fact that they used that rare access to our home to do something to our daughter.” He gritted his teeth, clearly struggling to control his outrage at what had happened. “Something so despicable and devious.”

I blew out a breath. “It’s okay, they were just doing what the Council was built for—to check the power and influence of others, to act in the best interests of all supernatural beings, not just those at the top of the food chain. It’s why you formed it, right? To get rid of the elitism that the Guardian Movement had become known for before I was born, the bad rep it had garnered?”

“Something like that, yes. But proper protocol would have been to bring their concerns to my attention before acting—especially in this way.”

“They know how much you’d fight to protect me.”

He smiled out at me. “Able to see the goodness in people, their sides, even though they hurt you.”

“They’re just afraid, Pops.”

“There are healthier and better ways to deal with fear, Ari. Something that I need you to understand when it comes to your own.”

“My approach has been working. I haven’t had any explosions since I’ve taken to storing parts of my magic and power away.”

“Like I said, it’s not sustainable. The longer you separate them from their whole in you, the more volatile and unstable they’ll become. They want to be unified as one, it’s their natural state. What you’re doing is actually a violation of nature.”

“My very existence is a violation of nature.”

“I beg to differ. What you are is a miracle.”

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