Page 40 of Forged In Magic

“It doesn’t mean you won’t need the protection when we get out of here. You’ll still need to work with the sword and my tattoo will help you do that.” The magic he would embed in the design would also help protect her when they escaped. Isaac had no idea what they might have to face during their escape or what could be waiting for them, and he’d do anything to keep Kate safe. He hoped down to the bottom of his soul that his words would come true and they would get out of the room.

“But to answer your question… I need to trust that you know what you can handle. I was wrong before for not telling you why I didn’t want to do the tattoo. And someone told me that thinking you were stubborn and that you should just trust me was me being sexist.”

“Oh my God! Who called you sexist?”

Isaac grinned so big his face almost hurt. He couldn’t wait to see Kate’s reaction to his answer. “Your brother.”

“Holy shit! Damon? My overprotective, controlling, alpha-male brother?”

Her reaction didn’t disappoint, and he couldn’t help the laugh that escaped him. “You have more than one brother?”

“Uh, no. I’m just surprised.”

“He’s right, you know,” Isaac said before bending his knees and propping the sketch pad on his thighs. “I’ve always known you were strong, but I thought you were stubborn?—”

Kate snorted softly. “I am stubborn.”

“Maybe. Or you just know your own mind. That’s what Damon was getting at. As long as you can bend when you need to or see compromise if it’s possible, that’s not being stubborn. It’s standing by your principles and going for your dreams.”

Isaac picked up his pencil and began recreating the image he’d dreamed about. “Or like I said, if I had explained my reasoning for not wanting to do the tattoo, we could have come to a compromise.”

“Is that what you’re doing now?”

“I’d like to think so.” He met her gaze. “I’ll do the tattoo, but we’ll take it slow, doing a section a day. If I sense anything is off, we’ll stop. And if you sense something’s not right, you tell me. Agreed?”

“Agreed.”

They were both quiet for a long while as they worked on their sketches. He was almost finished with his and looked forward to inking it on her. Since they didn’t have access to a photocopier to transfer the design onto stencil paper, they’d have to get creative, but Isaac had done that before. And magic would come in handy for that.

“Isaac?”

“Hmm?”

“When you were at my shop and you got the warning that you couldn’t do the tattoo… what did you feel?”

Looking back on it now, he thought he interpreted it incorrectly. “The sensation was strong. Stronger than I’ve ever felt from someone before. It’s hard to explain, but it was like something in you was pushing back against something in me.”

“You think it was telling you not to tattoo me?”

A part of Isaac wanted to say yes. But it wasn’t the whole truth, and if they were ever going to build a deep trust between them, he had to be completely honest with her. “At first, it was such a strange feeling that I thought that must be it. That my magic was saying the tattoo wasn’t a good idea. But I was wrong.”

“How so?”

He laid his sketch pad and pen on the bed and turned toward her, cupping her neck in the way they’d both come to crave. “I think it was my love for you talking. And the pushback I felt was your love answering. It wasn’t warning me, it was trying to make me understand.”

15

Kate loved watching Isaac work. She’d seen him work on numerous clients in his shop, chatting them up as they got inked. Yet this was different, because not only was she watching the tattoo take shape, but she could also feel it.

Isaac constantly assessed her, making sure she was okay. Every few minutes, he would stop working and lay his full hand on her, above or to the side of his work. She could feel the heat from his palm soak into her skin, as well as something else, like her magic stirring. The first few times he did it she wasn’t sure what was happening. Then she finally asked him.

It was her love answering his, he said. His magic, how he could feel emotions in people, made it possible. At least, that was his theory. Now, she waited for the sensation every time he laid his palm on her.

“Oh my God!”

“What?” Isaac stopped working immediately and looked up.

“Put your hand around my neck like you usually do.”

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