It certainly didn’t stop my cock from twitching at just the sight of her.
I took a step closer to her, and she stilled momentarily before shaking her head and squaring her shoulders. Her head snapped up to look at me straight on. I had to smother the smile that automatically came to my face at her defiance.
Her rage was like a siren song, no matter how it manifested. And it so matched the rage I felt. That I’d long since seized control of. That I now used to fuel my darkness and my fire.
Her rage called to mine and reminded me of all the things that enraged me.
My parent’s deaths. Being left to control an entire kingdom before I was ready. Having to raise my sisters alone. The pressure of the prophecy given at my birth. The people who tried to get close to me for all the wrong reasons. The precarious balance tipping toward chaos, threatening our realm and our magic. The corrupt leaders dragging the realm toward it. Humans being enslaved and tortured.
Which, thinking about it in retrospect, I now realized a few things aboutwhyI became so obsessed with freeing humans.
But as I looked at my soulmate, my rising rage over the things I couldn’t control was instantly soothed. I had learned to funnel my rage into control and action long ago. But it seemed I had another method now. One I hoped would work similarly for her.
I looked into Asteria’s eyes, blue skies stretching out far and wide as she looked at me, the stars shining in a swirling tempest. The magic in her gaze so like mine in reverse it was uncanny.
“I need to see your magic again, along with your shift animal. What I saw from you was confusing,” I admitted. “It’s only a matter of time before things come to a head, so it’s best if we figure this out now and help you gain control of it.”
I watched as her eyes narrowed, a heartbreaking uncertainty swimming in their depths.
“Confusing?” She echoed, her tone indicating how unimpressed she was at the lack of any true information. I managed to catch my lips before they turned into a smirk, but barely.
“Yes, confusing.” I let myself smirk truly then, just to see her reaction.
Any reaction was better than nothing. I’d rather have any bit I could than the cold nothingness she’d been attempting to give me. “Which is why I need to see your power.”
Watching her bite her lip as she stared at me, wide, innocent eyes drilling into mine as I struggled to stop myself from launching at her and taking that lip for myself.
The mate bond called to me. It desired nothing more than for me to solidify the bond between us. The mark on my back seemed to burn with it. But I forced the feeling down, knowing this had to be handled carefully.
“I’m fairly sure I know who your parents are.” My words landed harder than I meant them to, if her flinch was anything to go by.
“You—you do?” The shake in her words had me softening immediately. I could see the nervous anticipation clashing with her rage and fear.
I nodded slowly, “I believe so. But I would like to prove it true before giving you information that may be incorrect. It’s a theory. A solid one, maybe, but still a theory.”
I walked closer until she had to tilt her neck back to look up at me, even from her elevated spot on the Dragon Cliff’s incline. Taking her hands, and thanking the gods she allowed me this outside our shared dream space, I squeezed them and brought them up to cradle against my heart. “Call to your magic.”
She looked at me, jaw working back and forth. Her eyes skittered back to where her hands were held against my chest.
“I don’t know how,” she murmured, shoulders slumping. The frustration in her tone was telling, but I knew she was capable of much more than she was giving herself credit for.
“Look inside yourself. The magic is a part of you, my réalta. You just need to bring it to the fore, and then push it outward. Your intention, yourwill, that is what we use to control our magic.” I let shadows coalesce around where our fingers were entwined, and made them snake up her arms. Her breathy gasp turned my mind in another direction. Remembering how she gasped so prettily while my cock split her open.
I shook my head— it was definitely not the time for that. No matter how she shivered at the touch of my magic.
I let my shadows gently slither around her arms and up her shoulders, brushing her skin in a light tease as I brought them back down to her wrist before letting them dissipate. She looked at me in absolute wonder, and I wanted to capture that look in my mind forever. Silver stars flecked over the blue skies in her eyes, seeming to go on forever.
Infinite.
“Your turn.” I nodded somewhat gruffly before I got lost in her eyes and forgot what we were supposed to be doing here.
Asteria cleared her throat, her breathing still heavy, like maybe she had been just as affected as I was. She let go of my hands, and I stepped back, giving her space to try summoning her magic.
She raised her hands and closed her eyes, calling to the magic that had always lived inside of her.
Chapter Nine
Asteria
