The shimmering threads are still there, now shining a little more brightly.
With my pulse now thrumming in my ears, I reach out with my magic towards that first strand I saw. Then I sever it.
It snaps and then vanishes into thin air.
My energy builds up slightly.
I reach my magic towards the next thread and sever it too. Then I do the same with the next one. And the next one.
Every time I do, I feel a small amount of magical energy return to me. My heart is beating so hard that I can barely hear anything anymore. We have left the town far behind at this point, so I can’t tell for certain. But a new town is quickly coming up in front of us.
Summoning a massive flame of joy, I get ready. Draven is flying fast and high above the town, so it isn’t until we’ve almost passed it that I find a person to test my theory on.
A man is standing atop a watchtower by the wall. I shove that huge flame of joy into his chest. Even from this distance, I can see him start to dance around in joy.
I quickly cut off the flow of my magic and then also sever the thin thread that appears in the air before me. Twisting my body around, I gaze back at the man as Draven flies past.
He stops dancing.
And my entire worldview just… tilts.
The emotions that I create are not permanent. Theycanbe removed. I just couldn’t see that final thread that my stronger magic leaves behind until my magic became even more powerful due to this union bond with Draven.
Mabona’s fucking tits.
I can remove emotions!
Regret hits me like a gut punch.
My parents.
Oh Goddess, if I accidentally created flames of hatred in their chests, I would have been able to remove them.IfI had checked to see if they had my magic in their chests.Ifthey were still alive.IfI hadn’t been so busy and prioritized other things.IfI had been able to save them before Jessina killed them. If?—
My breathing comes in fits and starts as I begin hyperventilating while grief and regret strangle my chest like bands of cold iron. Those awfully vivid memories that Orion showed me over and over again for twelve hours straight flash before my eyes repeatedly. My chest feels like it’s caving in. My heart is going to burst. It’s going to give out and I’m going to die. I’m going to?—
“Selena,”Draven suddenly says into my mind, worry lacing his voice.“What’s going on?”
Oh fuck. In my shock and panic, I forgot to continue blocking my emotions from traveling through our mate bond, which means that he can now feel a faint echo of them too.
Scrambling to pull myself together, I keep my emotions firmly on my side of the mate bond while I create another flame of joy and throw it back towards the city we passed. Pleasure and relief wash through me as it connects.
“I’m fine,”I reply, desperately trying to keep my thoughts casual.“I was just trying a technique with my magic, but it didn’t work so well.”
I quickly sever the connection and then create another emotion. And then another. And another. It feeds that terrible need inside me and forces the grief and regret aside.
“Are you sure?”Draven asks, still sounding worried.
“Yeah,”I think back.“Like I said, I’m testing things out with this new union bond.”
He’s silent for a few seconds. I create several more emotionsto feel that warm comfort while I’m still desperately trying to pull myself together.
“What about that burst of pleasure from a few minutes ago?”he asks into my mind. “I’ve been meaning to ask about it for a while. Sometimes when you use your magic, I feel a faint echo of pleasure through our mate bond. It doesn’t happen every time. But it happened while we were fighting in the Great Games in the Unseelie Court. And it happened again now just a few minutes ago. Is that part of your magic?”
Full-blown panic hits me. By Mabona, heknows.
In a burst of pure willpower, I cut off the flow to my magic and let all of it fade out. I can barely breathe through the grief and pain that hit me the moment it’s gone, but I know that Draven is waiting for an answer, so I force myself to block it out.
“Yeah, it happens sporadically to all who use emotion magic,”I reply into his mind in as neutral a voice as I can muster.“Jocasta has an entire scientific explanation for it.”
