Entirely confused, I let Nox guide me to the balcony off of the sitting room. The summer air hits me, warm and comforting and full of the scent of the trees surrounding us. My hands rest on the wooden railing over the vines of dark purple and green twisting around it. He stands behind me, his hands on either side of mine. Looking out at the forest, my body tingles as fractures of sunlight reach in from the canopies above and cascade down my skin. In answer, my light magic rises up from my stomach like it’s reaching for the sun’s warmth, delicately humming in response.
“I am the strongest mage in our kingdom,” he begins, a faint note of amusement in his voice.
“Congratulations.”
He barks out a laugh, wrapping an arm around my waist and squeezing my back to his chest. “Smartass,” he says against my ear before gently kissing it. “I’m not saying that tobragbut to give you a frame of reference. Over the many years—we aren’t sure exactly when it started—magic in our kingdom has begun dwindling. Younger mages are now weaker, and older mages are losing their magic like it’s being slowly siphoned away. Bahira has been researching it for years, trying to figure out if it ties into where her magic is as well.”
I look at him over my shoulder, a pocket of sun giving his light brown skin a golden glow. “What do you meanwhereher magic is?”
“It appears she was born without any. The first in our history,” he answers solemnly. “During my Flame Ceremony, when my flame grew higher than it had for anyone else in centuries, we began to test and train my magic right away. Through that, we discovered that beyond having the normal mage abilities—manipulating elements, imbuing items, other small magic—there was something else I could do.” Chills break out on the back of my neck, my gaze trapped within his. He leans down and kisses my forehead before gesturing with his chin out to the forest. “Watch.”
I turn slowly, looking out at the closely staggered trees. My eyes dart around, trying to find the dark purple and black glow of his magic in the forest in front of me. Movement on the ground catches my attention, a shadow like that of an animal moves on top of the fallen leaves. But something about it looks odd, its shape not elongated in the way a normal shadow cast by the sun high above would be. I lean forward to get a better look and then immediately jolt backwards, bumping into Nox.
“What—” The shadow no longer moves against the ground but, instead, glides in the air—wisps of black swirling around as it comes closer to us.
“The reason that I laughed when you asked if I was scared of your magic, of your shadows, is because you aren’t the only one who can wield them.” To prove his point, Nox manipulates the pool of shadows in the air directly in front of us, condensing and shaping them into a bird which he then lands on the balcony between my hands.
I’m momentarily stunned, my body tense as I watch the bird made of shadows hop and flit about as if it isreal.“Can I touch it?” I ask, my hand already lifting to do so.
“Yes, it won’t hurt you. Only if I will it to.”
My forefinger grazes the top of the shadow bird’s head, the sensation bitingly cold but also jarringly smooth. “It feels like—likestone,” I sputter. The fake bird hops closer to me, my yelp of surprise making Nox chuckle.
“It does. When my magic gathers the shadows and makes them into something tangible, it feels like stone. When I keep them more fluid, they feel more like a thin layer of water.” The shape of the bird melts away before my eyes, the shadows turning back into something more translucent. They then slide over the top of my hand, the temperature still like ice, but they feel exactly as Nox said—a barely there caress of something smooth as silk.
“Can your shadows do what mine do?”
Maybe this is why Selene was so insistent that Nox train me. If his magic is unique like mine, then he would be the perfect person to do so.
Nox gently turns me around, his shadows floating in the air behind me now as he places both hands on my shoulders. I marvel at how he can command them without even calling the magic to his hands.
“They aren’t exactlymyshadows, as I can’t create them like you can. I can only wield ones that are present, and they can only act as any physical object might. They can’tdrainlife in thesame way yours do,” he says, cringing at his poor word choice. I sigh, my gaze dropping in defeat. Nox places a finger under my chin, tilting my head up to look at him. “You will learn to control them; just as I had to learn to control mine.”
“I don’t want to use themat all,” I argue. “That magic is dangerous—deadly. I can’t imagine any scenario in which I would need to learn how to wield them.”
Not here, far away from my uncle who can’t cross the Spell to get to me. Even then, I am not sure Icoulduse that magic on him. Would the sting of finding out I murdered someone hurt less if I thought that persondeservedit? Or did that line of thinking make me no better than my uncle?
“Rhea—”
“Please, Nox. Don’t make me use that magic,” I beg him, my panic growing with each heave of my chest.
To learn what I had done to those guards was hard enough thinking about—breathing through. I didn’t trust that magic, and I didn’t trustmyselfyet to attempt controlling it.
Nox grits his teeth together, his eyes growing darker as that feeling that I had learned was our magical signature thickens the air around us. It is like the brushing of someone’s fingertips along my skin. Only, instead of breaking out in goosebumps, my magic pushes harshly at mybones.
“I will never make you do anything you don’t want to.Ever.”
“I know,” I respond, gripping onto the front of his dark gray tunic.
His magic pours off of him in waves, the strength of it making me feel dizzy now that I know how to sense it. Nox lets out a low curse before he takes a deep breath and kisses the top of my head, his lips lingering there while I feel the swell of his power lessen.
“I’m sorry, Rhea.” Wrapping my arms around his waist, I lay my cheek on his chest, breathing him in deeply. “I will neverforce you to use it, but Selene is right when she says that magic requires balance. It’s something we are taught, even as children. You might be able to learn how to wield your light magic efficiently, but completely suppressing the shadow magic… That will have consequences.”
Foreboding pokes at my mind and twists my stomach into knots. I can live with an imbalance of magic and whatever repercussions might come of that as long as the price to pay only affectsme. But more death at my hands? I don’t know if there is a way to come back from that.
I don’t think my soul would survive.
Chapter Twenty-Seven: Aria
