Lisca met Reyn’s eyes, and whatever lure Khiran was using to give her that dreamy expression clearly didn’t prevent her from sensing Reyn’s emotions. She cleared her throat. “Del, I know you are busy—and Khiran has probably distracted you for long enough this afternoon. Do you mind if Reyn and I steal him, and maybe your front parlor, for a bit?”
Del’s lips twitched. “Go ahead. Roena won’t be home until supper, so no one will interrupt you.”
“Thank you.”
Reyn followed Khiranand Lisca to the front parlor. She wasn’t sure she was ready to have this conversation. She would have gone to Khiran if she was right and she had a lure, but it seemed worse asking him if he sensed a lure from her. She needed to know, though, and Lisca had assured her Khiran sensed things differently than she did.
Khiran gestured at an open doorway and waved the ladies into the room ahead of him. Reyn trailed Lisca into the simple yet elegant room and wondered how to start the conversation. She preferred to talk around difficult subjects, but perhaps bluntness would be better in this situation.
She perched on the edge of the seat of a dove gray damask wingback chair. Lisca sat on the divan opposite her and looked over at her husband when he entered the room. “Close the door, please.”
Khiran raised an eyebrow and pushed the door shut. “I take it we are having a serious or sensitive discussion?”
He looked over at Reyn, and she blushed.
Khiran’s eyes went wide. “Lisca, if you are planning on having any frank discussions with Lady Reyn, you can leave me out of it.”
Lisca laughed. “This isn’t that kind of discussion. Reyn doesn’t blush over sex talk, like you do.”
Reyn smiled. It was a silly thing to be proud of, but she loved that Lisca and Selona considered her sophisticated in that way. She didn’t want to be known as the provincial ingenue. Perhaps she needed to embrace her potential succubus heritage as closely as she did her new honorary Lhanaperan status. No blushing over a power she was stuck with, whether or not she wanted it.
Khiran eyed his wife skeptically. “All right, what is this about?”
Lisca glanced over at Reyn, who made a go-ahead gesture. She’d rather Lisca explain the situation. It was easier to decide she shouldn’t be embarrassed than act on the decision.
“Reyn has reason to suspect she is part succubus. The bloodline would be fairly far back, and her lure weak. Someone else has claimed to sense a lure from her, but I can’t feel one. I channel her emotions like any other human’s, though, so if it is that weak, it might be lost in the rest of the emotions.”
Khiran pressed his lips together. He slowly moved farther into the room, but not toward the divan where Lisca and Marseo sat. Reyn watched him come closer and tried not to fidget. He stopped a pace away, directly in front of her.
He stood there silently for a few heartbeats. Then cocked his head to the side. “I’m not sensing anything, but I don’t sense lures the same way as Lisca. It’s more a matter of like recognizing like. Can you try to strengthen your lure?”
Reyn looked up at him. “How? I don’t know how to do anything with my magic, if I even have it.”
She had been so sure when she came to Lhanaperi, but now she wondered. If neither Lisca nor Khiran sensed anything, maybe it had all been in her head. Maybe the incidents had been entirely her fault and had nothing to do with a magic she couldn’t control.
“The easiest way is to wallow in the feeling you want to send out,” Khiran said, ignoring—or not noticing—her doubts. “Once you get a feel for things, it is easier to send lures that have nothing to do with what you are feeling, but the first intentional lures are almost always reflections of the incubus’s or succubus’s own emotions.”
“What about unintentional lures?”
“Those are another matter entirely. Even if I try, I can’t completely negate my natural lure, and in some instances instinct takes over and increases it even when I don’t intend any such thing. The same is probably true for you, but it is so minor as to be undetectable in its natural state.”
Reyn still did not know what she was supposed to be doing. “What do you mean by a natural lure?”
Khiran remained silent, but his cheeks turned pink.
Lisca laughed. “He means lust. He goes around emitting a lust lure no matter what he tries. But he can change the lure to other emotions, and that is what he wants you to try right now.”
“Right.” Khiran cleared his throat. “Pick an emotion you are feeling strongly, then try to feel it even more. While you are focusing on it, imagine pushing it out at me.”
Reyn mostly felt confused, but wasn’t sure she should focus on that. Instead, she let herself dwell on the frustration of not knowing what was going on or how she could control it. She tried to push her frustration at Khiran, but did not know how to push a feeling. Imagine invisible hands shoving it away? She tried until her frustration became a truly overwhelming emotion.
“Why don’t we stop there?” Lisca interrupted.
Reyn glanced at her. “Did you—”
“I only caught your emotions in the normal way. Khiran?”
He shook his head. “I sensed nothing. Here, hold my hand. When a succubus feeds off my emotions, I can sense the power drain even more than the lure.”
