“If I don’t agree?”
“You don’t exactly have a choice.”
To make my point, I used two fingers to snap the decorative ornament off the top of the heavy wooden bedpost.
Raewyn’s eyes widened and she gulped at the simple display of power.
“But if you were to decide to leave before your training’s complete,” I continued, “and somehow managed it, the deal would be off. There would be nothing I could do at that point to keep the King or the Earthwives from finding your father and sisters.”
“Could do orwoulddo?” she snapped. “Stellon was willing to protect them without any sort of deal or payment from me.”
“Well I am not my sainted brother, am I?” I snarled. “I should think that would be clear by now.”
I turned and left the room before I broke the entire bed in half.
Chapter 9
Definitive Proof
Raewyn
My training began the next day.
I still wasn’t entirely steady on my feet, so we held off on any kind of physical sparring and focused on developing my glamour.
Pharis seemed to be in a better mood today.
“Let us see what that stubborn little head of yours is capable of, shall we?” he asked with a grin.
“As you pointed out… I don’t really have a choice,” I said.
It was a good thing I was friendly with most of the household staff already because they became my test subjects.
Pharis brought them in one by one and seated them in a room with me, placing them various distances from me and asking me to try and detect their greatest fears.
For a few of them, it was that the Prince would discover they’d disobeyed his orders not to speak to me and that they’d lose their job.
Naturally, I didn’t share that one with him, moving on to the second most troubling fear in their minds to report back to him.
Then they’d confirm for him that I’d been correct—or they’d lie out of embarrassment and say I was wrong.
After two days of this, we’d exhausted the supply of staff members, and I realized something. My fear-detecting skill really didn’t need more work. I’d been using it all my life, unaware of what it was.
“Unless you’d like to volunteer yourself, I guess it’s time to move on to mind-reading lessons,” I joked with Pharis late one afternoon.
We’d walked out to the pavilion where a manservant was lighting a fire in its central fire pit.
It was good to be outside after spending all day indoors, and though it was a bit cool with the sun going down, this was my favorite place to watch the sunset.
The domed pavilion was perched on the point of Pharis’ estate that reached farthest into the ocean. It was open on all sides, giving one the best possible view of the coastline and crashing waves from all angles.
Sitting out here in the evenings and watching the sun set made me feel like I’d crossed some sort of invisible barrier and stepped into another world for a few minutes.
“There’d be no point in using your gift on me,” Pharis said sharply. “Sodon’t.”
Then softening his tone a bit, he went on.
“And it’s not mind-reading. Our mental conversations are just that, an exchange. You only hear the messages another person willingly sends…afteryou learn how to use it properly, that is.”
