Valentine looked like she had taken a knife to him. "Why you? Why, of all the gods damned people in both worlds, did it have to be you that sees what no one else can?"
"Because we are the same." Yelena wished she had better words to explain it. "If my magic were working, I could test a theory and show you."
"What theory?"
"That we are like…reflections of each other. The same, and also opposite. Light to dark."
Valentine's brow furrowed. "But I know you have got a dark side. I've seen it. I've felt it."
"And you have a light side too. Gods, I'm explaining this all wrong," she said, struggling. "We work magically so well because our power levels are the same. Apart, we always struggle, but together we can create…"
"Balance. A magical balance," Valentine replied, and his eyes widened. "That's why whenever you sent me feedback and suggestions on my magic, it always worked so much better. It was easier. It…you're the silver."
She was going to ask what he meant when he held out his hands, and his magic rose like threads in his palm.
"This only began to manifest in such a way when you started helping me with my magic. Look."
Yelena leaned forward and stared in wonder as scarlet threads began to twist with silver. She could hear that silvery power singing out to her own. "Fascinating. And you've only ever had the scarlet?"
Valentine nodded. "It was never so fine either. If my magic manifested visually at all, it was always scarlet. You told me in a letter to begin to use movement in my casting, and then the silver was there. The precision. I wound this around a wholebuilding, sliced it out of its foundations, and tossed the whole lot into Dorcha."
"Now, who is flirting?" Yelena said, trying to lighten the sudden tension in the room.
Valentine laughed. "Is the thought of me causing wholesale destruction, making you hot?"
"It's the magic," she replied primly.
"It's both, and we know it." Valentine sent the threads across the table, and his magic licked against her cheek. Her own surged forward, and she gasped at the pressure building up that she had no way to release.
"We need to fix my hand before you do that again," she said, breathless.
Valentine's magic rolled back into his palm, and he closed his hand. "Then let's eat and get to work. Unless you are too tired?"
Yelena snorted. "The orgasm was good, but not good enough to knock me out."
"I'll aim for that next time," he replied. It wasn't a promise—it was a threat—and Yelena's dragon sang inside of her.
"Magic first, sex later," she said, the bite on her neck throbbing.
Valentine's lips lifted into the charming Greatdrakes smile. "I wouldn't have it any other way, baby girl."
18
Valentine left Yelena to review the sigil options he had designed and returned to his rooms to retrieve his tattooing equipment. He never traveled without a kit, not even into Faerie. It helped him feel centred when he had his guns and inks with him.
He wasn't sure how late it was, but the halls were quiet, and from the sounds coming from the rooms beside him, Reeve and Charlotte were enjoying themselves.
Valentine pulled a face. He had heard his brother's shagging far too much of late, and he made a mental note to put up some silencing wards on his rooms. Yelena had the right idea, staying in the mountain's equivalent of a tower.
He was grateful no one was around to try and stop him and 'see how he was doing.' Did he really appear so unhinged that even Taranis's knights were keeping an eye on him? He thought of his reflection in Yelena's bathroom mirror. Okay, so he might have been a little manic, but he wasn't unhinged. He thought of Yelena's taste, and his mouth watered.
"Fuck, focus on the magic," he told himself. He had never felt out of control over anyone before.
When he wanted sex, he paid for it. Like his brothers, he had never really had time for relationships and felt nothing for the people he had fucked. It was a release, and that was about it. He didn't like to be touched for too long, and non-transactional sex would require some kind of affection.
Being with Yelena wasn't like that. He practically dry humped her and came untouched. That…wasn't normal. It usually took him far longer to get out of his own head and be present enough to come at all.
His dragon growled,I have always tried to tell you she is different.
