"Is this something you could use against me later?" His grip on her hand tightened.
Her expression grew even more grim. "Yes," she nodded, and then she continued quickly, "but I promise I won't ever. I would never hurt you."
He knew that feeling. He wanted to just say yes and get it over with. There was a deep satisfaction with the idea that his mate would leave a part of herself inside of him, that they would be bound together somehow. It felt significant, important. He might have been blowing it out of proportion. Maybe this was something witches did all the time.
"Is there any other way?" he forced himself to ask.
Elise shook her head. "Not that I can think of right now and definitely not anything that would be as easy as this. We don'tneed to go get any spell supplies. I don't need to call down a lot of magic. There's no risk of hurting you with this spell, and I'm sure it will work."
"Is it permanent?"
"No," she said adamantly. "I can take the magic back at any time."
He wasn't sure why that disappointed him, but it was probably for the best.
Neither he nor his wolf had any intention of letting her go, but who knew what repercussions there could be by holding her magic inside of him. Maybe after experiencing it he wouldn't want it for long.
"Won't taking your magic back trigger the tracking spell?"
"Yes," she sounded a little defeated, "unless we can find whoever in the coven put it on you in the first place, probably Delainey or Serena, and get them to lift it."
"And is that likely?" He raised an eyebrow.
She threw up her free hand in exasperation. "Not in this century."
The decision was clear.
"Do it."
It was frankly an insane thing to agree to.
He was making himself vulnerable to a witch, allowing magic inside of him. Even if, as far as he understood, it would just sit there and do nothing.
But this wasn't any witch. She washiswitch, his mate, his girlfriend, his lover. His everything if he could get her to agree with it. He would hold all of her magic inside of him if he had to. And so much more.
He didn't realize Elise was going to dive right into the spell until he felt warmth travel up from his fingers, up his arm, over his shoulder, and settle in his chest, right beside his heart, beating strong and certain for her. It felt a little bit like it hadwhen she healed him in the basement, but the tingles in his arm faded and left only the heat behind. It took less than thirty seconds.
She opened her eyes and let out a sigh. "There," she said, "it's done. We can stop holding hands now."
But neither of them let go.
It was still before four in the morning, and before long, they fell back asleep cuddled together.
Nico woke alone and was worried for a heartbeat that Elise had left him, that she had used that spark of her magic as an excuse to say he was safe and gone back to her coven, leaving him to his own fate.
Then the toilet flushed and he realized she was just in the bathroom. He didn't like her out of his sight even for a second.
She came out and sat on the bed next to him and leaned in and gave him a good morning kiss. She smelled like toothpaste, so she must have gotten some from the reception desk.
"Did you come up with any more brilliant plans over this morning?" he asked, propping himself up on one elbow.
She nodded to the bedside table. "I got us coffee from downstairs, does that count?"
It was still steaming so she must have not been gone for long. He was surprised he hadn't woken up by the sound of the door opening and closing. The fight and kidnapping had taken more out of him than he'd thought. He hadn't realized just how exhausted he'd been.
Nico sat up and reached for the coffee. It wasn't great, just cheap hotel grade, but he could use the jolt of caffeine anyway.
"We can't stay here for long." He sipped and grimaced at the bitter slap. "We're in Iron Runner territory."
