Page 23 of The Bound Mage
Araya’s head snapped up. “Are you having the Healerspyon me?”
“That’s not what this is about.” Loren scowled down at her. “Are you doing the exercises she gave you?”
“Shejustgave them to me this morning,” Araya huffed, crossing her arms. “But they aren’t going to help. I’m not meant to have this much power. In the New Dominion I had Jaxon to siphon it off me, but here?—”
Loren’s expression darkened.
“Every drop of that power belongs to you.” His fingers closed around her wrist, tugging her forward. Shadows rose around them, creeping up her arm like they wanted to claim her too.“You have exactly as much as you were meant to have. You aren’t some vessel to be emptied at his will?—”
Araya yanked her arm away, putting two large steps between them.
“Don’t,” she snapped. “You don’t get to act like you know everything about my power. Just because you skimmed some off the top?—”
Loren flinched, his shadows recoiling like she’d struck them both.
“That’s not—” he stopped, taking a deep breath. “This isn’t the same. What Shaw did to you—it wasn’t power sharing. It was theft.”
“It wasn’t,” Araya argued. “I agreed to it. Ineededit.”
“Did you?” Loren’s gaze sharpened. “Goddess, Araya—do you really believe you had any choice there? What he took from you—what he did—” his jaw tightened, fury written in every line of his face. “It was a violation of everything you are. Every time.”
Araya faltered, her retort dying on her tongue.
“I don’t need you to believe me, Araya.” His voice had lost its edge—he wasn’t pushing her anymore. He was begging her to listen. “But please, stop believing him.”
Araya took a step back, desperate to break the connection between them. But it just stretched, unspooling between them like a string stretched tight. Thebond, he’d called it.
“We should—” her voice wavered, and she cleared her throat, forcing the words out. “We should get back. People are probably looking for us?—”
“You’re right,ael’sura.” Loren smiled sadly at her. “Let’s go home.”
Chapter
Eight
Neither of themspoke as they climbed the stairs. Araya stayed two paces behind him, as if that meager separation would do either of them any good when the bond tugged between them with every step.
He tried to block out her emotions—to give her some semblance of privacy—but it was impossible. Confusion, hurt, fear…they battered through the tether until he couldn’t tell where one ended and the next began. The shadows needled at him, demanding he close the distance and pull her into his arms—but Loren clenched his jaw, forcing himself to keep walking.
She hadn’t agreed to this connection. She didn’t want his comfort.
Not like she’dagreedto give her power to Jaxon Shaw. Loren’s hands curled into fists, the shadows snapping at his ankles as they fed his own fury back to him. Fae children learned better long before they came into their own power. You never reached for someone’s magic without consent. He’d done it once, to save her life. But Shaw had done it to her over and over again, carving pieces out of her until she thought she’daskedhim to do it.
If Loren ever hurt her like that—Goddess. He’d hand her the knife and kneel at her feet.
The shadows hissed their protest, crowding close, but he ignored them, forcing his breathing to even out as they finally reached the top of the stairs. There would be time enough for shame once he got her safely back within the warded walls of Ithralis.
The door groaned open under his hand, the temple beyond still shrouded under the ever-present shadows that choked the sky here. He tried not to look too hard, his chest tightening at the decayed ruin it had all become. Another piece of his people’s heart, rotting in the dark.
“Do they only come out at night?”
Loren startled, glancing back at Araya. She wasn’t looking at him, a frown creasing her forehead as she stared up at the statue of the Absent Goddess.
“That’s when they hunt,” Loren said. “But under heavy shadow, they can show up at any time.”
He nodded toward the gouges raked deep into the stone—as if something had tried to claw the door open to get to them. Araya’s face drained of color as her gaze caught on them, the bond flooding with her fear. Good. At least she wouldn’t try to run at night again.
By the time they made it back to Ithralis, the sun was high in the sky, a weak, pale disc blurred by haze. Loren kept his gaze straight ahead, ignoring the sharp pang of disappointment that pulsed through the bond as Araya’s eyes flicked to the empty docks.
