He raises a hand. Dark smoke coils from his palm, serpentine and deliberate. It snakes across the table toward me. I lift a hand to bat it away, but the tendril wraps around my wrist and holds firm. I've seen his shadows before. I've never seen them grip.
"How?" I breathe.
He grins. "Imagine what I could do to you in the bed?—"
The maps fly off the table and slap him in the face before he can finish the sentence. The shadow dissolves. My hand thumps down onto wood.
Kage glares at Malachi. "Godsdamn it, Bain. I thought you said all of your gifts weren't back."
"They're not."
"All your gifts?" Margot leans forward. "How many do you have?"
"Several,” Kage says. "Unfortunately, the curse limits how long we can hold some of them."
"The curse affects your gifts?"
"Some of our abilities come from the creatures we're bonded to. With the creatures in a slumber, those gifts fade faster than they used to."
"Does using them bring you comfort?" I ask quietly. "Or does it just remind you of what you've lost?"
His smile turns sad. "I try to focus on the comfort it brings."
"What about your other gifts?" Margot presses.
“Some come from gods, as you know. Others from weapons. The scepters are the most powerful, but other weapons have divine powers as well.”
I think of Malachi's sword. Vida. I wonder which god it belongs to.
"Before the curse, four out of ten people manifested natural gifts from the gods." He glances at Draven. "Sound right?"
"Roughly. Maybe a little more than that."
Kage nods. "These days, almost no one in Vindariel is born with any. They can barely maintain basic sorcery. Most of their gifts are used to keep the water clean and the soil alive."
My chest tightens. Again. I've lost count how many times today. How many sacrifices have been made because of one man's greed? Kage slaps the table, pulling me back.
“All this to say, I understand you need to rely on elixirs and incantations for your gifts, but once the curse is lifted, you may get stronger gifts or not need incantations to summon them,” he says.
Margot straightens. "Stronger gifts like what?"
"Like the one I just demonstrated."
"Oh." She looks disappointed for a moment. Then she raises her hand and produces her own tendril of smoke.
Light gray. It drifts to the center of the table, spiraling lazily, then vanishes when she closes her fist.
Kage gapes. "How?"
The three of us laugh. Draven chuckles. Malachi's eyes narrow, calculating.
"I can't make mine grip like yours," Margot admits. "It's more of a distraction. Probably useless in the tunnels."
"The Sages never taught you to solidify it?"
She shakes her head. "They don't have this gift. They did what they could with books, but some things can't be learned from reading."
Kage turns to Naima. "What about you? What are you hiding?"
