Page 95 of When Storms Ruin

As I was about to turn, the door flew open before my raised hand, my mouth opening in surprise.

“Diana?” Nik asked, his hair shaggy as if he had recently gotten out of the shower and towel dried it.

“Obviously,” I smirked, dropping my hand to my side.

“I was about to come to you,” he replied, gesturing towards my door across the hall.

“I just finished with Liss and wanted to update you on the key spell.”

“Sure,” he replied with a nod, standing to the side to allow me to pass. “Come on in.”

Nik’s bedroom was set up much the same as mine was, a canopy bed draped in linens with a fireplace and a washroom. His sheets were black and made of silk, the bed unmade and rumpled. I perched on the edge of it as Nik knelt before the fire, stoking its flames.

“What did you find out with Liss?” he asked over his shoulder, not turning to meet my gaze.

Things had been…awkward and tense since our talk in the library. We hadn’t spoken alone since then, and we hadn’t addressed everything that had happened during the battle in Prins. It felt as if it was hanging in the empty air between us, a tangible, heavy weight.

I swallowed, fidgeting my fingers in my lap as I spoke. “We learned that itdoesrequire a bloodline from the Stormshade to be bound, either the generation before or after.”

Nik turned his face so that I could see his profile, and his expression fell. He had been hoping there had been a loophole in that, too.

“What else?” he asked, pushing the poker back into the fire.

“She also said that the spell is blood magic, that most binding spells are. This spell doesn’t simply bind one’s magic, it binds your magic to another person. Anotherwillingperson, who also must be a powerful witch in their own right. It strikes a balance, and the two witches share the burden of the storm magic.”

Nik nodded, standing from his crouched position, his back still turned towards me.

“Anything else?” he asked, his eyes on the flickering flames.

I squinted at his back, wondering why he wouldn’t face me. Were things so irreparably broken between us? Did he feel…awkward that I had tried to save his life by offering mine? Guilty?

I shook my head, trying to focus on the conversation at hand.

“That’s all, really. She told us Zion has his own book of shadows, so we are going to study that and see if there is anything there that might help us. But we might be shit out of luck.”

My palms were beginning to sweat, and I rubbed them against my jeans to dry them.

“There’s always another way,” he replied, his mouth tight as he turned his face to the side.

“Is there?” I asked, my voice desperate. “Because I am starting to think you might have to win this war without me.”

“That isn’t an option,” he replied, finally turning to face me.

His skin was flushed from facing the fire, his cheeks pink. His hands were stuffed into his jean pockets, his shoulders tight.

“It’s not as if we have a choice, here. If we can’t bind my magic, I can’t use it. You saw what it did to me out on the battlefield, and while I was training with Isaac. It will either turn on me and hurt me, or take me over completely, turning me into someone elseentirely.”

“There has to be another option,” he insisted, a muscle feathering in his jaw.

“I hate to break it to you, but we might need to come up with a plan B. Things aren’t exactly looking up for plan A, and Donika is murdering innocents and experimenting on them by the dozen. Day after day. She needs to be stopped, and we are running out of time. Either we move against her, or she moves against us. Right now…we are weak.”

“Nothing about you is weak,” he replied, taking a step towards me.

I shook my head, standing from the bed. “Iamweak if I cannot control my magic. We have nothing else in our arsenal that can take on Donika, and we need to seriously think about what we plan to do next.”

“You are many things, firecracker, butneverweak,” his voice was low. Dangerous.

I took an involuntary step backwards, my knees hitting the back of the bed. Nik smirked, his head cocked to the side.

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