Page 53 of Magic Claimed
“Don’t let me put you out on my account,” I huffed.
“You’re not putting me out, little prey. I wanted you in my arms again and I would do anything for that to happen.” He whispered in my ear, his breath flowing across my skin and damn if I didn’t feel the vibrations seep into my core. His deep chuckle made me scramble from his lap. I was surprised when he let me. “You’ll get used to us.”
“You have a funny way of showing it, Jarom.” I moved to the shelves stacked with books, needing space. I flicked hair from my eyes, hating that my hand trembled. If I healed him, the side that shone through last night might surface. I hated that I liked that side. Hated that I knew the front he put on was only to protect himself.
“What are you doing?” Jarom asked.
“Unless you’re going to let me out of this room?” One look at his closed expression left no doubt that wasn’t going to happen, “Then I’d prefer to look at these books rather than have you endure me.”
“I’m not…” There was a knock at the door. Jarom stood, thankfully reaching for a blanket which he slung about his waist. He strode to the door where several guards stood waiting, carrying bundles, ledgers and sheaths of papers.
“Any word?” Jarom said, his words tight.
One of the shifters shook his head. “Neither Alerick nor Eike are back, Second.”
I frowned at the guards. Surely Alerick would be back from Esoti? He rarely gave the wolves much attention at all, except to make sure production was up and to squeeze everything he could and more from their labour. Surely Eike would be back by now? I tried rubbing the unease slithering through my chest away.
“We’ll conduct our meeting in here,” Jarom said.
Jarom might not have cared a whit about his nudity, but I did. I tensed under the guard’s curious gazes, turning my attention to the books. This might be my only chance to learn something of my magic and how I could better use it.
I gasped when Jarom settled my robe over my shoulders. “It didn’t tear so badly.” His hands firmed on my shoulders, tensing for long moments. “I don’t know why I am so…”
I knew and I hadn’t helped him. I cinched the robe about my waist knowing the bond had forced him to apologise, despite how scarred he was inside. “Don’t you have people who need you?”
If I broke the collar, I would heal him after I broke the bond. He would forgive himself and the three of them would find a worthy mate. Someone who could be with them. Someone who wasn’t as scared of Jarom.
I reached blindly for a book and pretended to read when Jarom hovered. Moments passed before he strode away, but the band about my chest didn’t ease. Sighing, I began to read through the books, looking for anything on ancient magic that might help me.
The text was an ancient script I had no chance of deciphering, but at least the images were interesting. I flipped through a book about herbs, one on medicine for sickness of the blood and brain. Spells for fertility and to make it rain on crops. Some spells could manifest souls from across dimensions, while others could levitate enormous boulders. Images of massive buildings in the shape of pyramids from when the Earth was a baby piqued my curiosity. In another part of the world, slabs of stone had been stacked like blocks infused with the magic of the land in a circle and were used as portals across time and space.
I sat up when I turned the page to see an illustration of a landscape with the golden lines I’d seen in the forest in my wolf form. The script underneath the image was in a language I could read.
The golden lines were ley-lines. If a person had enough natural magic, they could tap into the ley-line and boost their energy. That must have happened when I’d jumped the gorge. That magic waspowerful.
I turned the page, but the text was ancient and indecipherable. Damn it. Why couldn’t the whole book be in a language I could understand? I flipped more pages, then chanced on another etching that made my breath catch.
It was a village of shifters, although I didn’t recognize the landscape or the buildings. Majestic mountains rose in the background, reaching for the sky in spindly, jagged peaks. Rolling hills of the brightest greens, dotted with delicate wildflowers of all colours spread before them. Gigantic trees, with branches that looked as though they ended in fingers, framed the etching and throughout the underbrush were small furry creatures I couldn’t identify.
Some were so thin and tiny, I thought they were twigs. It was their large eyes and flowing hair that made them stand out. Squat people with chubby fingers and legs so small they looked as though they only had a hip, kneecap and ankle peeked from between long, spindly leaves. Tiny insects flew about with dainty wings, only they weren’t insects. They were females with slender limbs and dressed in what looked like flower petals.
The image was so fanciful, but so detailed I wasn’t sure if it was real or that the artist had a very vivid imagination and amazing etching skills. However, that wasn’t the only amazing thing about this image.
It was the groups of wolf families that populated the village. They looked so…happy! Groups of four walked the streets. Two wolves with a male and a female, or three wolves with a female, or three males and a female wolf walked the streets of the village, or chatted beneath the boughs of spindly trees. Some held babies, while children played with wolves. It was like the village of the wolf Territory, or what I’d seen of it, but I was certain that this wasn’t from this region. Maybe not from this world.
The etching was framed with an intricate design and when I looked closer it reminded me of Jarom’s tattoos. Twisty branches, pointy faces, slender limbs and delicate wings were interspersed with wolf faces. In the middle of the frame underneath was a title written in the same scrolling letters that filled the book. I would die to know what it said.
I traced the letters with my fingertip, willing the letters to make sense. Bending to my will, the magical golden bubbles ran towards me, scampering up my leg, swirling around the letters before sinking into my skin. I tingled as the magic traced a path to my eyes and then the letters on the page swirled, reformed and made sense. Of course. I could use the magic to change the letters!
I gripped the edge of the book in tight fingers as I read ‘Ottemel, of The Wild Yonder.’ This village wasn’t on Earth. It was a village from Faerie! I had thought the Shifters were a creation of The Six when they’d harnessed the power of the ancients in the Bloodthirsty Wars. If this book was to be believed, shifters had come from Faerie!
On the adjacent page I read the heading in decorative, gilt lettering, ‘Bonding of Shifters’. I glanced at Jarom and the other wolf shifters, certain they would watch me with information of this magnitude, but they were deep in conversation. I wasn’t on their radar. I licked dry lips and read.
Bonding of Shifter beings is borne from ancient magic that joins the souls between two or more beings and endures both a mortal lifespan and is blessed into the afterlife.
Joined souls will empathically feel the truth of the others’ emotions. There cannot be lies between bonded souls. It is not a weakness. In truth, it makes those aligned souls stronger, deeper, more empathetic to all of those around them.
Fate has decreed that there will be no others for chosen, aligned souls. None other will enter the bond. Once formed, the desire to be joined will be joyous and all-consuming, however if souls Fate has chosen to be bonded do not find their mates, none other shall be found. Indeed, it is a travesty that a soul intended to be bonded be taken by another.
