“I’m going to pass out. Like life mages do.”
“Oh.” He grabbed the pillows from our bed and put them on the floor. “I’ll catch you before you hit the ground, but this is just a secondary precaution.”
“Are you ready?” I asked.
He nodded, looking excited.
“Dea Erinys.”
The power rushed into me again and I was ready for it this time. It was the same power I’d always felt humming in the ground at the temple, just out of reach. Now it was here and I could weaponize it. Use it to destroy.
A part of my brain registered that a white light surrounded his entire body; this was what Zalira and Ahyana had seen. But the rest of me just wanted to fight.
I lunged at Xander and was thrilled by the shock on his face when I nearly cut his chest. I was almost as fast as he was, almost as strong. He blocked me with his dagger and then spun to the left to come at me from that direction, but I was ready. I stopped his advance and went to elbow him in the face but he moved away at the last moment.
Now he wasn’t the only one who was goddess-blessed.
He tried to knock my sword loose but I wouldn’t permit it. I twisted out of his way, keeping my grip, and then sliced at him from his right side. He again moved at the last moment.
We had broken apart, studying one another, when the pain started. Not the aches I’d been feeling from horseback riding, but sharp, shooting barbs—as if I were repeatedly being stabbed in every part of my body.
I saw the concern in his eyes and heard him say, “Are you all—”
And as promised, he caught me before I hit the ground.
Chapter Eight
“How long have I been asleep?” I asked when I finally came to.
“A couple of hours,” Xander said. He had put me in bed—a pillow under my head and my blanket tucked in around me. I felt very cared for.
“That was unlike anything I’ve ever seen!” He offered me a glass of water and I eagerly took it and drank. “Not quite punch-a-goose exciting, but that was something. All those times you threatened to kill me and now you could actually do it.”
I supposed he was right. That seemed like an odd thing to be grinning about, though. “What good does it do me? I can only keep it up for a short amount of time.”
“Like you said, you’ll need to practice. Build up your endurance.”
“Get used to the pain,” I said. At his quizzical expression I explained what it felt like and how there was excruciating pain that would cause me to pass out—that the pain seemed to increase with every moment that I stayed in the magic. He listened intently, hanging on my every word.
It reminded me of what he’d been like in our shared dreams.
“Why is fury one of the aspects of the goddess?” he asked.
I told him the story I’d learned at the temple—that when the goddess discovered her daughter missing, she had searched far and wide for her. When she found out that her son had sold her daughter into marriage with the god of war, she drew out her golden sword and intended to fight the war god. The other gods intervened, attempting to assuageher fury, and she went and hid herself in a cave. She swore that she wouldn’t let anything grow until her daughter was returned to her. The goddess’s mother finally convinced her to come out of the cave and save the world from the famine they’d been suffering under. She agreed, and a bargain was struck so that her daughter was allowed to join the goddess for certain months during the year. But when she is returned to her husband, the goddess still lets the earth go cold so that nothing will grow.
“It seems to me that her fury got her what she wanted. The return of her daughter,” he said after I had finished.
“I suppose it did.” I tried to stretch but my thighs were still throbbing.
He seemed to know this, which was most likely due to his own still hurting as well. He glanced down at my legs and said in a light tone, “I would offer to massage them for you, but ...”
That would be bad. Very, very bad. Not good and amazing. Bad. “I’m fine.” I croaked the words out, and the look in his eyes made me think that he knew exactly what I was currently envisioning. The thought of his hands on my thighs made me feel lightheaded.
Or maybe that was the effect of the magic wearing off.
“Did you feel the pain of the magic?” I asked.
“No, I only feel your physical pain.”
