“Who else? The only person that could make me bend for them…” Adela smirked and answered coyly, “The Goddess Yargen herself.”
Eira rolled her eyes and looked back out the window. If Adela didn’t want to tell her, she could’ve just said so. Though, she shouldn’t have expected the pirate to bare her soul just because Eira had. She brought her attention back to the present. Adela didn’t have to tell her things. She just had to get Eira’s magic back.
“Well, can you open my channel?” Eira flexed her fingertips. “I don’t feel any power.”
“If you wanted this to happen quickly, you should have made a vessel,” Adela said with a slightly scolding note. “But, yes, I believe I will be able to open your channel. Though you might not enjoy the process.”
“I will do anything to get my magic back.”
“Anything?” Adela arched her brows.
“Anything.” There wasn’t a trace of hesitation in the word.
“Good. Both hands.” Adela’s waiting palms seemed harmless enough, but like prey before a predator, something within Eira knew differently.
It took actual effort to prevent her hands from quivering as she reached for Adela one more time. Her fingertips slid across the woman’s palms. Adela stretched forward slightly, grabbing Eira by her wrists. Eira mirrored the movement on instinct, meeting the ice-blue eyes of the pirate queen. This close, she could see all the similarities and differences of their features. Adela’s cheeks were sharper than Eira’s, more sunken. Perhaps with age, perhaps as a function of her usual appearance. The bridge of her nose was just as narrow as Eira’s; her brow had the same slope.
“Brace yourself, girl.”
“What are you going to—” She wasn’t given a chance to finish. There was no warning for what came next.
Frost ripped through her.
It raced up her arms and struck Eira square in the chest. With unseen fingers, the cold grasped for her heart. Eira gasped, choking on air. Her lungs spasmed, shuddering. Her body would shiver if her muscles weren’t locking from tension the cold placed them under.
Slack-jawed, she stared at Adela, barely breathing. The invisible hands the pirate held on her lungs slowly drew air in and out, squeezing and relaxing. The chill sank down to her toes. Eira’s body emitted a faint haze as the cold condensed in the air.
Adela was doing to her what Eira had done to others. What they had talked about only a few days ago, debating better practice of. Eira was being turned into a living ice statue. She wanted to curse at the woman—to spit venom. But Adela had an intense furrow to her brow, her eyes half-closed.
If she could still access magic, Eira suspected she would feel the subtle pulses of Adela’s powers through her. Probing. Perhaps trying to force open the channel.
As suddenly as the cold had come on, the magic retreated, sinking back into Adela’s hands. Eira gasped and hunched, half collapsing over herself. Her muscles felt spent, exhausted. The tension they had been placed under made it feel as if she’d run a marathon.
Adela’s grip tightened. She pulled Eira, yanking her to the edge of her chair and jerking her head up to face her. Adela’s fingertips were no doubt pressing bruises into her skin, but all Eira could focus on was her face.
“I took you for stronger,” Adela said briskly.
“I will surprise you yet,” Eira said firmly, still working to catch her breath.
“We will see about that.” Adela’s fingers tensed once more.
Magic flooded her again as frozen, unseen water. Eira was pulled into the icy depths of Adela’s control. Eira’s jaw locked as she held it shut to keep her teeth from chattering so she didn’t risk biting her tongue.
The entire time, she continued to keep her focus solely on Adela. Even if she couldn’t speak, or change her expression, she could show with her eyes that she could handle this much.
This much and more. I welcome it, Eira thought with every bit of determination she could muster.
Just when the frost reached her head, her vision becoming tunneled, Adela relaxed her magic. Eira slumped again, though not as much as last time. She’d known what was coming and had been ready for it.
“Catch your breath.” Adela loosened her grip. “That’s it for?—”
It was Eira’s turn to grip Adela. Tight enough that Eira’s skin fused with the ice of Adela’s right forearm. Eira lifted her head slowly, looking through strands of hair that had fallen into her face.
“Again.”
“Do not?—”
“We arrive in Ofok in less than two days,” Eira ground out through clenched teeth, already bracing herself. “Again.”
