Page 24 of Shadowvein

“What are you doing?” The air shifts between us.

“Move back again.” He ignores my question, gaze locked on mine. The intensity in his focus makes my skin prickle.

I step back, and his stance changes again.

“Interesting. Forward once more.” His voice has taken on an edge, urgency mixed with curiosity.

I comply, biting my tongue on the thousand questions I want to ask.

The space between us is charged with tension. It’s not just whatever he thinks is happening. It’shim. The way he’s focused on me.

Like I’m not a person, but a pattern he’s trying to solve.

“What is this achieving?” I finally manage, crossing my arms and tucking my hands beneath them to hide how much they’re shaking.

“There’s something about my situation here that I haven’t explained.” His voice is steady, every word chosen with care.

Fear mixes with curiosity, turning into a knot of anxiety in the pit of my stomach.

Is this where he tells me he’s a murderer? That I’ve been trapped with someone dangerous all this time?

My mouth dries, my heart picks up speed, my instincts screaming for flight in a place that offers nowhere to run.

“What?” The word is barely audible.

“I am bound to this tower.” His eyes hold me in place. “Not simply because there is no door, but by magic.”

“What does that mean?” I whisper.

“It means I cannot leave. More specifically, I am constrained by magical bindings that tighten at night, gradually restricting my reach until I’m confined to my bed.” The clinical way he describes his imprisonment makes it somehow more horrifying.

I stare at him.Reallystare. For the first time, I stop seeing the stranger, and start seeing the prisoner.

“Someone has locked you in here?” My voice doesn’t sound like mine.

“Correct.” The word is clipped.

“Why?”

“Thatrequires a much longer conversation.” Something flickers across his face—pain, maybe. Or fury. It’s gone before I can be sure. “What matters now is what you just demonstrated.”

“And what did I demonstrate?” My heart thuds against my ribs.

“Your proximity to me affects the binding.” There’s a faint trace of wonder in his voice, replacing the control for just a moment. “When you’re near, the constraint weakens. I can move more freely.”

I take an instinctive step back. “How is that even possible?”

“I don’t know. In all my time here, nothing has affected the binding. I’ve never experienced anything influencing it … until you.”

My thoughts spin, too fast to hold. Magic. Bindings. Influences.Me.

“So … what does it mean?”

“It means you must have a connection to the magic of this realm.” He speaks slowly, as though the idea is building while he talks. “Something in you resonates with the magic used to bind me.”

“But I don’t have magic. I can’t. Earth doesn’thavemagic.”

“Consider the evidence. You crossed between worlds. You found this tower. You opened a door that has never appeared before. And now, your mere presence weakens a binding designed to be unbreakable. Is that not magic?”

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