Their eyes opened. They stared at each other, having an entire silent conversation in the span of seconds.
"Normally, yes," Baran said.
Breandan seemed bemused. "This has never happened to us. Failure. It is a most interesting feeling."
"I told you reversing a medusa's serpent kiss would be no easy matter," Callie said.
"You're much too arrogant, Callie. This wouldn't be necessary if you hadn't been so careless," Astrid pointed out.
Embarrassment flooded the room. Somehow, I knew its source was Callie. How strange that I could feel and see the emotion now that the rest of my senses were cut off.
I had to wonder if this was a new manifestation of my magic sight.
"No one is more unhappy about this than me," Callie said with a bite. "If I could reverse it I would, but she bit me. My power has already merged with hers. There's no way for me to undo it."
"Which is why we brought in the twins," Don said, playing the voice of reason.
The room was saturated in a half dozen different emotions, making me struggle to decipher which belonged to who.
The twins were easy. They were happy they'd failed. Pleasure at thwarting the others filled them, along with a playful mischievousness.
Callie tasted of regret.
The others weren't so clear cut.
I caught anger and impatience. Underneath it all, deceit. But whose?
"I'm sure they can do this. They simply need to try again," Don continued.
"Or else their use will be at an end." Fierce satisfaction was in Travis's voice, as if he relished what he planned to do to them if they failed.
"So very grumpy," Baran murmured.
"I'm growing weary of your needling," Travis said. "Finish or I'll sharpen my power on you. So much time in the human world has made me rusty."
The threat seemed to work as the twins bent over their task again.
"I suspect the problem lies in the fact our magic isn't piercing her barrier." Breandan looked me over, an intelligence in his gaze I hadn't expected. "It's like there's a null space between our magic and hers."
"Is that important?" Callie asked.
"Only if we want to be able to reverse this." Vexation crouched behind Baran's eyes. He didn't like this, but he hadn't yet figured out a way around it.
"Why?" Callie asked.
"Because they're using their magic to force hers to act," Travis said, sounding bored.
Breandan had stopped paying attention to them. He bent closer, his expression excited as he crooned, "Oooh, how did you learn to do that?"
If I could have smiled at him, I would have. Seemed someone had started paying attention.
Baran frowned, his expression clearing seconds later as he realized the same thing Breandan had.
Gotcha, I thought at them, satisfaction fraying the numbness around my emotions.
"What?" Callie asked.
"She's the one preventing our magic from merging with her," Baran said.
