Page 97 of The Storm of the Empire

But I was not okay. I was in shock.

It clicked, all of it, in a heady surge of rightness. Power flowed between us, swelling in me and working its way down into the roots of my soul.

“More than,”I assured him

“Did I do okay?”He sounded unsure, but I nodded effusively and sent him some back, watching it light him up. “Goddess. What are you doing?”he gasped.

“We’ve melded. Our magic has fully connected, and now it flows between us like I only dreamed it could.”

“What? Doesn’t that usually take a long time? Zaria and Nyx trained for months…”

“They didn’t have what we have. We put in all the trust work beforehand. We were ready for each other.”I took his hand. “Now, if you want to get out of here, I’m going to need all the power you can spare. But not a big push. Feed it to me as I pull. Can you do that?”

“I think so.”

I put our joined hands on the door and gathered my lightning. I pushed, but the stone didn’t even shudder.

“Can you give me more?”

“Yes?”he replied, clearly unsure. He didn’t know how much power he had, and I didn’t want to take too much and incapacitate him.

“Don’t drain yourself.”I didn’t want him to burn himself out. I couldn’t fight with him out of it.

“Like I know what that means,”he grumbled to himself, forgetting I could hear.

“Just watch it, okay?”I mustered my powers again, but he suddenly pulled away.

“What?” I said out loud.

He brought a finger to his lips. “Someone is coming.”

“How do you know?” I cocked my head, not hearing anything.

“Just a feeling—I get them sometimes. Please trust me.”

I waited, and sure enough, only seconds later, I heard footsteps. We hurried to the back of the cell and huddled in the corner. The footsteps stopped near our door, and my heart jumped into my throat. We couldn’t be too late. I wasn’t sure those shackles they used on Kol would have the same effect on me as a storm dragon, but I would succumb to the Dragon’s Bane treatment, and now so would Luka. I panicked because by unblocking him from his magic, I’d also weakened him to that poison, and now we were both in great danger.

“Just breathe.”He was confident in his words. “He will move on.”

“Are you, like, controlling him with your mind?”I asked because there was no way he could know what he would do otherwise. But to my amazement he moved on in a matter of seconds. “What in the Goddess’’ dreams?”

“I don’t know. I just feel things sometimes. When it’s really strong, I act on it. Other times, it’s a guess. That, I knew.”

I stared at him but kept everything I was thinking to myself, but the more I thought, the more I remembered his inklings and feelings of late. This whole fucking time, there had been signs he’d had magic, and I’d blocked it out. If I got too deep into it now, though, I’d distract myself. We had plenty of time to think about it later.

Right now, we needed to move. “Come on.”

He grabbed me, dragging me back to the door. “We need to go now. They are coming. You have one shot to break the door. Take as much of my power as you can.”

“I can’t do that to you.”

“Yes, you can. Now, Hazel.”

Our hands met on the door, and he shoved power at me through our connection. I rammed it all at the door, giving it every last bit could. Lightning flashed, blinding me for a moment, but the stone began to crumble. I shoved it again, this time with sheer force, and it blew out.

“We have to run,”I yelled into his head.

THIRTY-TWO

---