“Is it a more advanced form of beast taming possibly?” I asked, trying to push for answers but not really understanding what questions I should be asking in order to get them.
“No, not that I am aware of.” Noah grabbed a familiar book, the one about affinities, and walked back over before placing it on his desk. “I believe that the skill set Ronan possesses makes it appear that he is a Beast Tamer, when, in fact, he is something much stronger.”
“What?” Ronan demanded at the same time I questioned Noah’s proclamation in my head, confused by the entire thing.
As Noah flipped through the large text, I allowed my eyes to momentarily move over to Bastian, where I found him zoned out on his blood-stained hands once more. A frown pulled on my lips as I tried to refocus on the page Noah stopped on.
“Shadow Commander?” I read the name out loud.
“I’ve never heard of that,” Ronan admitted, tracing the picture of a shadowy dragon in the center of the page. Wisps of black smoke rolled off of it.
“That’s because it’s a dead affinity…one I believe that you have.”
Oh.
“That seems a bit far-fetched,” Ronan murmured, though his eyes lit with interest and a bit of hope. My chest relaxed with the realization that he seemed almost happy about this discovery and not upset in the least. I had to assume, considering theupheaval that recently occurred with Niz, that this was welcome news.
Had I somehow…drawn a bunch of dead affinity angels to my side?Like calls to like, I suppose.
“It says that Shadow Commanders, after taming a creature of any kind, have the ability to call on its spirit in shadow form and solidify it to use their physical form or skill set,” Ronan noted after scanning the text.
And thanks to Niz, he was more than familiar with wyverns.
“It knocked me unconscious and broke my magic’s hold on Kieran,” Bastian pointed out, his voice barely a whisper. “Whatever that creature was made of, there is no doubt it was strong. I had no intention of stopping until that happened. I…I couldn’t stop.”
Everything in me wanted to go to his side and reassure him. The only thing holding me back was the thought that he truly might not want my touch right now. I didn’t want to make the situation worse.
“I don’t understand.” Ronan sat back and fixed Noah with a speculative look, a singular eyebrow arched in question. “How is this possible? How is this the first time I’ve called one of these forms?”
“I’m not sure, something must have triggered it.” Noah frowned. “It seems I don’t know nearly enough about these affinities as I need to…” His eyes moved to mine before offering me a small smile. “And, Kieran, you seem to be collecting dead affinity users left and right to fight at your side.”
Apparently.
“Here’s what we’re going to do,” Noah said, standing from behind his desk. “Before tomorrow, I will be sure to gather more information for you, Ronan, and we’ll try to find out what triggered your ability to use this affinity. For the rest of today, I want both of you to go rest.
“Kieran, you need to recover before trying that connection again, and, Ronan, I imagine your body will have a reaction to that much power being used for the first time.”
“What about Bash?” I demanded, looking over to find that the man was staring at me with torment in his nearly black eyes. My chest cracked open at the agony so clearly pouring out of him. Didn’t he understand? I wasn’t mad at him in the least, this had been an accident. I knew Bastian didn’t want to hurt me.
“I need him to stay and train more,” Noah said firmly. “I think he will find comfort in learning how to control his magic more than being at the house.”
“Okay,” I nodded with a sigh. “Bastian, can I talk to you in private before I leave?”
As I stood and left the office, not giving him a chance to say no, I felt relieved to find that he followed me, meeting me in the center of the room. I offered my hand, but he shook his head and shoved his hands in his pockets, his eyes shifting in an oscillating reflection of his mood. They cycled from the cold, disassociated gray all the way to a tormented midnight blue. It probably didn’t help that a few feet away from us was the pool of blood that was part of this entire mess.
“Kieran…I am so incredibly sorry. I would never want to hurt you?—”
“I know,” I cut in, trying to soothe him. “It’s really not a big deal; I know it was an accident.”
“But itisa big deal,” he snarled, looking suddenly furious, his eyes flashing yellow as his irises narrowed into slits. “I almost killed you…Iloveddrawing on your blood. I could have easily drained you. I could have killed you. I could have lost you just like I lost him?—”
My mouth opened, a question on the tip of my tongue to ask who he meant, but then it hit me. I snapped my jaw shut andnodded in understanding. His brother. He was thinking about how he lost his brother to his magic lashing out once before.
I refused to hold myself back a second longer, slamming my body into Bastian’s muscular form. He let out a low, wounded noise from his throat as I wrapped my arms around him and squeezed as hard as I could. My voice was uneven as I tried to comfort him. “You’re trying something new. I know there’s a learning curve. I’m not mad at you,andwe can keep practicing. I don’t care what you say, Bash, you don’t want to hurt me and I know you would have found a way to stop it.”
Bastian’s body remained stiff within my hold, and eventually my hands fell to my sides as I took a step back. “Maybe we can talk when you get home?” I asked hopefully.
With the small distance that I had created between us, his body relaxed a tiny amount.
