Page 47 of Ties of Legacy

“Most enchantments can be broken,” he said. “We just need to find the key.”

“But the Legacies can’t be broken,” Avery protested, despite the fact she had been the first to suggest they break his bond.

“Not broken, no,” Lorne said, “but bent a little, perhaps?” He chuckled. “You’re hardly the first to find a way to turn the Legacy’s original intent in another direction.”

“Yes…That’s true.” Avery’s hands tightened on her satchel, making Elliot’s mind race.

Had the people of Bolivere commissioned the lamp in order to resist some aspect of the Legacy’s power? What was it going to help them do? He could ask Avery about it—he suspected that if he told her the full truth about his history, she would give him the details about her mission for Bolivere. But he had sworn to forget his own history, and he had no desire to dredge it up for Avery and Lorne. Dealing with the present was hard enough.

“We know the power of your tie can be transferred in some way,” Lorne said to Elliot, clearly more focused on the matter at hand than Avery’s secrets—as Elliot should have been. “It was transferred between the candelabra and the lamp without issue.”

“Well…not entirely without issue,” Elliot said. “The connection has gotten stronger. The ramifications of moving too far from the lamp are worse than they were for the candelabra. I’m not eager to try melting the brass into something else—I might end up needing to keep it strapped to my body at all times.”

“Hmmm…” Lorne’s eyes slid out of focus as he considered Elliot’s words. “It’s true that despite the transformation, the connection remained with the brass—which isn’t what we want to achieve. But what if we don’t try severing the connection, just moving it out of the brass?”

“What good would that do?” Avery asked with a frown. “It would just transfer the same problem to a different object.Admittedly there are objects that would be easier to keep on his person than a brass lamp, but it would still be at risk of being lost or stolen.”

Lorne gave her a smugly satisfied smile. “That’s assuming the connection is transferred to an object. I was thinking more like a person.”

Elliot’s eyes flew instinctively to Avery, a flush stealing up his neck. Did Lorne mean Avery? Did he want to tie Elliot to Avery permanently? He knew he should be horrified by the idea, but it was hard to muster up the reaction. The idea was almost…appealing.

He shook his head at his own foolishness as Avery stared at Lorne, clearly as appalled as Elliot should have been.

“What are you thinking?” she cried. “That would be much worse! Elliot would be at significantly greater risk than he is now with the lamp.”

Lorne chuckled softly. “What have I always told you, girl? Look at things from all angles—don’t always leap to the first conclusion.”

Avery sat back, her brow furrowing. Suddenly her eyes widened, her face lighting up.

“Oh, of course! How silly of me. That would be the perfect solution!”

Elliot cleared his throat, apparently the only one in the room who was still at sea. “I don’t understand.”

“The person Lorne wants to move the connection to is you,” Avery said triumphantly. “It would be the perfect solution. You can’t separate from yourself or leave yourself behind. Even if someone steals you, you’ll still be there.” She chortled to herself at her own humor.

Elliot blinked. “You want to bind me to…myself?”

“You have a body made of physical matter just like the lamp, so I don’t see why it wouldn’t be possible,” Lorne said. “And itwould solve all your problems. The trick, of course, is working out how to move the bond.”

“A small matter,” Elliot said dryly, refusing to get his hopes up. It would be too cruel if he allowed his hope to run away with him only for them to fail.

“Yes, that is the true trick,” Lorne murmured in agreement. He clapped his hands together, his voice turning brisker. “But we have to start somewhere. Avery, please fetch that book for me. The red one on the sixth shelf.”

He indicated a leather-bound red book that had been piled sideways on the shelf beneath a tall stack of other books. Avery shot to her feet to retrieve it, but standing on her tiptoes, her fingertips could only just reach the book in question. She began to wiggle it back and forth, inching it out of place.

“Caref—” Lorne started a warning only for his head to drop before he got a full word out, his body relaxing into upright sleep.

Avery didn’t appear to hear Lorne’s partial attempt at a warning, continuing to inch the book out from underneath the others. As the pile above it wobbled, Elliot leaped to his feet. In two strides he was behind Avery, reaching her just as the books above the red one toppled forward.

Reaching above her head, he caught the books just in time to push them back onto the shelf. Avery whisked her book free, and the books Elliot was bracing steadied.

He breathed a sigh of relief only for the breath to catch in his throat as Avery turned to face him. His hand was still raised to the books, and she was wedged between him and the bookshelf, practically in his arms.

His arm dropped, but he didn’t step back. He wasn’t sure he was even in control of his legs.

She looked up at him, a look in her eyes he couldn’t interpret. If she was surprised at his sudden proximity, she didn’t indicateit, and neither did she attempt to push him away. Instead, she remained frozen in place, as if her limbs had also forgotten how to move.

Did they also burn the way his did—lit on fire by her nearness?

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