Page 30 of Fractured Souls
Taking Zander’s direction, I made the old armor disappear from her hands and instead focused on wrapping her in a blue and purple membrane that clung to her like a second skin. It shimmered and hardened into glass, but it still wasn’t strong enough. Glass could shatter pretty easily…
Before I had a chance to fortify it more, Zander’s magic slammed into me.
A low groan left my throat as the glass barrier splintered and his magic flooded my system, vibrant orange and purple energy saturating my nervous system. It felt fucking great, in an addictive, almost high-like way, and when he clasped my shoulders gently and pulled back his magic, I scowled, already missing it.
“Lorcan,” he said softly, his eyes filled with concern. “You can’t let me break through it.”
“It feels amazing,” I admitted in a whisper.
A dangerous rumble left his throat as he shook his head. “I’m going to pretend like I didn’t hear that, starlight.Come on, again.”
Why didn’t he want to hear it?
Closing my eyes, I let out a shaky breath, unable to fully remove the effects his magic had on me. My siren was practically drawing hearts all over her new fancy shield, like some teenager who was crushing on her boyfriend. Ridiculous.
Cool shield though.
Shaking myself, I remembered that Zander’s magic was being nice to me, that there were others who would try this that wouldn’t be nice at all, and those were the ones that I needed to worry about.The dark ones.I threw up a harder membrane around my siren, and this time it solidified not into glass but metal—hard metal.
When Zander’s magic slammed into me again, it rattled the armor but didn’t break it. My jaw clenched and blood leaked from my nose from the effort I was having to expend, but I didn’t let it go—even when my head started to pound because of the pressure of his magic pushing against me.
I could feel myself trembling as he continued to push harder, and when I felt like I was nearly about to give in under the weight of it, his magic disappeared.
My eyes snapped open, and I found him staring at me with a soft smile that had my heart beating extra fast. “Lorcan, that was fantastic.”
“Oh.” I couldn’t help but smile, feeling almost high under his praise. “Really?”
“It was only your second time doing it and you lasted nearly ten minutes.”
“Ten minutes?!” I felt my eyes widen as he stood to grab some tissues. When he came back, he wiped under my nose and I sort of melted at the softness of the action.
“Time moves differently when you’re working with that level of magic,” he explained. “You essentially built your own little reality bubble while the rest of the world went on around you.”
Well, shit.
“Why is she bleeding?” Cash’s demand had me looking up as he walked into the room, looking freshly showered.
“Training,” Zander explained, sitting back slightly but not moving away from me.
“Working on shielding,” I added. “Did a good job with it too.”
“Good job, kitten.” Cash dipped his head and kissed me before going to grab coffee.
“Am I fucking crazy or is it warm out?” Rhett asked, stepping into the room in just sweatpants riding low on his hips. A small sound left my throat at the sight of his shirtless torso, and he offered me a satisfied smirk.
“Morning, bunny.” He came up to me and titled my chin back, brushing his lips over mine.
“Morning to you too,” I sang out. “And yes, apparently Adriel and I changed the climate.”
“Not the only thing you did.” Desmond chuckled, walking in and looking skyward. “Nice star, love—it’s beautiful.”
“Star?” Dean asked, walking into the space and immediately locking eyes with me. I was glad that Zander and I had a chance to train, but it was also becoming apparent that my men had woken a while ago and had just been waiting to come in here.
“Lorcan and Adriel created a star,” Draven said, seeming to appear out of nowhere. I smiled as he crouched down and ran his lips over my hand gently. “Morning, little lamb.”
“They created a star…” Cash murmured. “So like a star baby?”
My smile grew. “Yes, a star baby. You are so right.”
