Page 31 of Shadowbound

“Of course.” Sylvanna nods as she dishes up a large bowl of the porridge and places it in front of me. “The power I build every night goes into the tower’s reservoir and keeps things running for me.”

“What if you have to leave for a while? Leave the tower, I mean?” I ask curiously.

She shrugs.

“Things eventually run down but they start right up again when I return.”

“So you have left in the past?” I ask.

“I lived in the City of Night for a while.” For some reason she won’t meet my eyes and I sense that something is bothering her. I wish I had a fucking jewel like the one she wears that lets her look into my thoughts. I want to know more about her.

“Where did you live? In the palace?” I ask. “And who did you live with?”

She shakes her head, still not meeting my eyes.

“It doesn’t matter. That was three years ago. Now I’m content to stay in my tower.”

“But we have to go back to the city to get The Heart of the Eclipse,” I point out.

“And we will,” she says lightly. “But not until your training is finished. For now, eat your breakfast.”

I dig into my porridge, but this isn’t over. I want to know more about my new Mistress and why she won’t tell me about her past. She knows a lot of mine already, thanks to that fucking Jewel of Knowing. I’ll have to keep my eyes and ears open to find out more of hers.

After breakfast, she takes me on a tour of her garden and the area surrounding the tower. I get to see the special bees that make her Binding honey and the flowers they feed on—deep purple blooms that are almost black. They fill the air with a heavy, sweet scent. The bees themselves glow in the dusk-like gloom, little spots of light buzzing here and there.

I get to visit my horse, too. Destrider looks perfectly happy, munching hay. It’s clear he’s been groomed and his tack has all been cleaned and the metal bits shined. Obviously he’s being well taken care of by the invisible forces that Sylvanna keeps going with her magic.

I wonder about the magic in me—if it truly is magic, as she claims. All my life I’ve been taught to believe I was God-touched and filled with the Holy Fire for a reason. But now I wonder if maybe I’m like Sylvanna—just someone who somehow inherited my powers. My parents were normal, as far as I know, but there were rumors that my grandmother was put to death for being a witch. Could the Celestial Fire come from her? Or is it from another source?

When I ask Sylvanna about it, she looks thoughtful.

“It’s possible your Light magic came from your grandmother,” she remarks. “The only other people I’ve ever heard of who have such extreme fire magic in their blood are…” She stops and shakes her head.

“What? Who?” I urge. I want to understand this part of me. All my life I’ve been told I was born to be in service to the GodKing and that’s the reason I have the fire inside me. But what if that’s wrong? What if there’s something else going on—some other reason I bear the Celestial Fire?

“The only other people with fire magic are Drake Shifters,” she says reluctantly. “But they all died out long ago. Tell me, what do you know about your father?”

“Almost nothing.” I shake my head. “He and my mother met for a single night and then he moved on.”

“Hmm…” She looks thoughtful, then shakes her head again. “No, but you would have Shifted by now—if you had a Drake inside you, it would have manifested.”

“A Drake inside me?” This sounds worse than the Celestial Fire! I’ve killed a dragon in the past—they’re fucking ferocious. To be honest, without my Holy Flame I wouldn’t have survived that encounter.

“Never mind, I’m certain you don’t,” she tells me. “Come now, it’s time to start your training so you can control your magic.”

And she takes me back inside the tower, though I still feel like I have more questions than answers.

15

Sylvanna

I take my Paladin to my Training Room, which I admit is a little dusty. It’s gone unused for almost five years now. I send a little magic ahead of me to clean it up and by the time we get there, everything is sparkling.

His eyes grow wide when he steps into the room and sees all my equipment. I have a spanking bench, a punishment cross, a holding cage, and a Queening chair, which I’m eager to use on him in the future, when he’s earned it.

There’s also a rack of whips, paddles, and floggers as well as another stand filled with phalluses made of various materials in various sizes. I have a wide selection of tails, some with real horsehair dyed in different colors. I decide that now is a good time to fit my Paladin for one of these.

“Come to the spanking bench,” I say, motioning him over to the black leather bench. I gesture at it and it rises to the right height, obedient to my magic.

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