Page 15 of Forgotten Arcane

There is a very good chance that he’s not going to be ready to talk about it for a long time, and that’s okay.

Coen was controlled by Kylen for a really long time, and there is absolutely no way that there isn’t going to be any lasting trauma left from that. When it comes down to it, we don’t know how bad it really was, we don’t know what happened. We do know that he was kept away from his family, and the dragons, and that at some point, he was forced to stop shifting.

I’ve seen him shift now, so I know that he can still shift, but I have no idea if there is any lasting damage left from not being able to shift.

We all know that there was more than the control, and the awful way that Kylen talked to him.

My thoughts remind me of the walk to the chamber.

“Why were you walking so stiffly on the way over here?” I ask.

Coen’s expression darkens, “One of Kylen’s torture sessions.”

Anger rushes through me as my wings suddenly burst free, and a boom of magic flattens everyone to the floor. I’m so shocked to see everyone on the floor with their faces squashed, and that the magic that did it came from me, that the anger dissipates.

“Shit, I’m so fucking sorry,” I reply, as I automatically pull back my magic.

All of the guys have huge, proud smiles on their faces as they sit back up, and Coen wraps his arms around me and pulls me in for a huge hug.

“That was fucking awesome, Love,” he exclaims.

I chuckle, “I didn’t mean to.”

“Your emotions are linked to your magic, it will become easier to control them so that you don’t release your power when you feel a strong emotion, but it will take practice to get the hang of it,” Griff explains.

“The good news is that you have already mastered pulling your magic back, so there is no reason why you won’t be able to pick up the control easily,” Raiden adds.

“It’s probably because of feeling how Reed does it when his magic does the same thing,” I muse.

“You can feel magic?” Coen replies.

“She’s always been able to,” Evander adds, with a raised eyebrow and a slight smirk, he knows he has just dropped me in the shit.

I interrupt as Coen’s eyebrow raises and he looks at me for an explanation, “There is a lot that we need to catch you up on, but I really do think that it needs to wait until we’re home.”

Coen smirks, “You have a point, but I have a lot of questions.”

“We’ll answer them, don’t worry,” Reed grins. His face drops, “When you’re ready, we’re all here for you.”

Coen swallows thickly and looks away, “Thanks.”

We all sense his need to move on from this subject, and that’s completely understandable. By now, I’ve gathered that we have all been in situations where we’ve experienced some pretty heavy trauma, so we all understand the need to take a step back.

“Right,” Evander starts, “everyone, go and get all of your stuff and meet back here.”

As everyone moves to grab their stuff so that we can get out of here, I notice a single small backpack resting by the couch.

“Whose is that?” I ask. My mind going through all sorts of scenarios like it’s a bomb placed by Rupert before he went.

Chapter Five

Neith

Don’t ask me why my mind instantly went to bomb, again, it just did. I think we’ve been on guard for so long that I now see something that doesn’t belong and immediately think the worst, and that something bad is going to happen.

“That’s mine,” Coen says as he walks over to it and looks inside. “Mabel must have brought it over from our room. When we first arrived, obviously we didn’t have any of our bags with us. They appeared in our room a couple of hours after we arrived. I’m not really sure how, considering that no one was expecting to be pulled into the Choosing so soon, so no one had packed anything.”

“They didn’t bring much stuff for you, did they?” Raiden notes with a disapproving arch to his eyebrow.

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