Page 62 of Immortal Burden

“Yes, it seems you have left me little choice in the matter, seeing as though I am sure you have already offered to see to it. Fortunately, I will spare you.” He shook his head with disappointment. “Clearly, you have neglected to tell him what it would cost you to do it.”

“Mia?” Ryker spoke.

I glared at my father. “Why?” I hissed.

He stepped closer, looming over me, his tone reprimanding and severe, “Because you continue to make the wrong decisions.” He glanced over my head at Ryker. “All to protect him, the being you believe you love. He is a temperamental hothead, lacking the constitution needed for a mission of this caliber.”

“He loves deeply,” I shot back. “He gives those he cares for everything he has.”

“How about his indisputable recklessness? That which endangers others and himself, time and time again. He reacts with little thought, able only to see the immediate situation, never the big picture consequences.”

“No one is perfect. If that were the case, we would all be angels.”

He stilled, my words clearly affecting him, hitting him right where he lived.

In the next beat, he blew past me and grasped the sides of Ryker’s face, his silver glow emanating from his palms. As Ryker struggled, the silver glow quickly traveling from head to toe, enveloping his entire body, I called out, “He is returning your magic to you.”

He ceased his struggles, but muttered, “Never should’ve taken it in the first place.”

“I merely bound it,” my father retorted.

Ryker frowned. “Bound it, but—”

He failed to finish his sentence as the silver glow increased to an almost blinding intensity, a violent shudder wracking his body, an awful roar tearing from his throat.

I grimaced, my stomach churning at the pain he was enduring.

I’d heard stories about the agony magic-wielders suffered when their power was unbound. It was a brutal rush for the body to take when it was suddenly unleashed back into their being.

When my father finally pulled back, his silver glow dissipating, it took Ryker several moments to catch his breath.

When he finally did, he looked my way. “You knew he’d bound it, rather than stolen it, didn’t you?”

I nodded.

“You would’ve had to break through his magic to return it to me.”

“Yes.”

“He’s stronger than you. If you’d gone ahead with it, it would’ve—”

“Caused her a great deal of pain,” my father cut in.

I ignored his interruption and his continued gift of making things worse. “You were suffering, Ry.”

“So, you would’ve instead?” He shook his head with incredulity. “That would never be acceptable to me. Knowing you suffered because of me would’ve been more tortuous than anything he could ever do to me.”

“What else was I supposed to do?”

“Well, for one, you could have simply asked me to undo it,” my father cut in again.

I glared at him. “You only did it because you’d deemed it time. It’s highly doubtful that a request from me would have sped up the process.”

“Mia,” Ryker said, coming to me and sliding his hand into my hair. He tucked a vibrant-blue strand behind my ear, a tender gesture that caught me off guard. “Never again, okay?”

“But, I—”

My words caught in my throat when he leaned in and brushed his lips softly over my cheek. “We act as one from now on. No more self-sacrificing bullshit.”

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