“Can I try to connect with you mind to mind?”
“Of course! I was feeling a bit left out over here,” Kyla replied, instinctively placing her hand on her abdomen
“What about me?” Rue asked.
“I can try to connect with you, Rue, if you’re okay with it,” Morgan suggested.
“Please do!”
Kyla waited for something to happen, for a pulse of magic to enter her or for a connection to be made, as she often felt when she touched a fae. There was nothing between her and Susan.
She looked to Morgan, who clearly was growing frustrated with her failure to cast a spell to Rue’s mind.
“Perhaps if you touched me?” Kyla suggested to Susan, reaching out her hand to her friend.
Susan took her hand. Immediately, Kyla felt the effects of the wine on Susan’s body, her senses and emotions slightly dulled. But there was also some frustration. Her brow looked damp with concentration, but still there was no voice in Kyla’s mind. No telepathic connection with her witch friend.
Susan sighed. “It’s not working. I can’t find a connection to you.”
Morgan and Rue approached the others. “I couldn’t find my way into Rue’s mind either. Well, we’ve done a lot of spell work outside of just talking to each other through our thoughts.”
Avery added, “We need to practice magic together, but with you returning to Nephel I don’t know how that will be possible. I’m not as talented as either of you, and I’ve gotta get caught up. I can’t just stand on the sidelines of a battle and wait to heal folk. Have you used the deep magic together other than this morning?”
Susan replied, “That was the first time. It was—overwhelming in its power. I’ve yet to find any document that explains how the witches combined the deep magic with their own power. Could you imagine what it took to separate the realm into two?” She shook her head, fear in her eyes. “It must have killed them in the process. I don’t see how anyone could survive such power.”
“Well, we need to start practicing,” Morgan said. “If that witch can raise the dead, we’re going to need to be ready to stop her somehow.”
A chill ran down Kyla’s spine. That sort of power wasn’t natural, shouldn’t be possible.
“The other witch is basically a bomb. She can implode things with her mind, which is also terrifying. But according to Rylo, they’ve been abused all their lives. They are afraid and angry. We need to use that to our advantage.”
Avery’s eyes softened. “They never had a chance to know freedom. We can’t really blame them for what they’ve experienced.”
Chapter 47
Avery
It was early morning and Morgan and Susan were already flying back to Nephel on their own. It was such a short trip, Avery longed for more time with her sister and Susan, but they both insisted they were needed in Nephel. She still didn’t know what Savine thought about the prospect of an alliance, but she was ready to do whatever she could to support Morgan.
She’d thought more about Kyla’s words and knew she was right. She couldn’t hold onto this anger for what Savine did to Morgan. It wasn’t fair to either of them if she continued to hold a grudge.
“Savine?” Avery asked, stepping into his office. He sat at his desk, forefinger and thumb on the bridge of nose. His essence was still and he looked as though he’d hardly slept the night before.
“Ave,” Savine said, quickly bridging the gap between them. “Did Susan and Morgan leave already?”
She gave a tiny nod, reaching out her hand to his. He took it greedily, the contact between them sending a jolt through her that she could never resist.
Savine tugged her close and knelt before her as he dropped her hand. To see this powerful, courageous man kneel before her, looking up at her with a mix of pain and longing, nearly took Avery’s breath away. The intensity in his eyes made her stomach twist as he placed his hands on her hips.
“Avery, I never want to cause you to hurt. Harming Morgan and Susan was a foolish mistake I made in fear and anger. Goddess above, last night not having you close enough to smell, to taste, to share all the happenings of the day with you has been painful enough that I’ll do anything for your forgiveness.”
Avery could feel the hard wall of her anger cracking under his words, diminishing to a pile of rubble as his hands tightened against her waist and he continued speaking.
“Not touching you almost broke me. Every piece of me is yours. Every fragile shard is yours to shatter, and that’s what you’re doing to me. You’re shattering me into fragments of myself. If that’s what it takes for you to forgive me, then I’ll let you crumble me to ruin. But just please, I beg of you, tell me that you won’t stay angry.”
With that, the wall crumbled into the dust and she placed her hands on his cheek, rubbing circles against his beard. “Savine, my love for you is strong and it’s lasting. Even when I’m mad, I still love you and that’s not going to go away.”
“Do you forgive me? I need to know you forgive me.”
