Page 103 of Bonds of Magic
“I suspected as much,” Isaac said, “when Cinda and I spoke late last night. He didn’t tell her what had caused the injury, but a perusal of his room found copies of texts from Isabeau of Greenhollow and Tomás Elías Navarro del Monte, both of which detailed rituals for the binding of elemental spirits. They’re in the third library to keep them out of the hands of our less advanced students. I did not realize I needed to worry about our faculty as well.”
“Well, Hans has never been the brightest bulb in the box. He said that maintaining the wards sucks power out of the wardkeepers. Is that true?”
Isaac nodded. “It does, and I consider that a feature of the incantation, not a drawback. It ensures the wardkeepers take care to keep the enchantment in working order, so that excess energy doesn’t get siphoned off to no purpose.”
He gave me a stern look. “But that’s not the only thing I was referring to. I also charged you with giving Cory lessons. I know that must be an added strain. A drain on your time and resources, as well as, perhaps, your emotional composure. I don’t want you making any reckless decisions because of that.”
My heart thumped. Was Isaac saying—did he—did heknow?
“If those lessons are taking too much of your energy, causing you not to think clearly, then perhaps we need to cut back on yourteaching schedule. Cory needs you as a teacher, but the other students could learn from Leon. I can’t have you ruining your own health.”
Oh, thank God. Isaac meant I was being reckless withmyself. Which, I was. And with Cory too. I probably ought to tell Isaac. Or at least stop it.
But instead I just smiled and said, “It’s fine. The lessons have actually been going better than I expected. He’s making good progress.”
“Really?”
Isaac sounded mildly surprised. About Cory’s abilities, or my teaching skills? Maybe I didn’t want to know.
“He’s able to hold onto himself within a dream now, to remember that it’s a dream and who he is. He’s even been able to find the dreams of specific people, and influence events within them. Well, he did it once, anyway.”
“And you’re not finding the experience too taxing?”
I worked hard to keep my gaze level, my voice calm. “It’s been okay.”
“I confess to some surprise,” Isaac said. “Given how strongly you fought this in the beginning.”
“Yeah, well. Maybe I should apologize for that.”
He waved it away. “No need. Natalia has informed me of Cory’s breakthrough in spellcasting. It would appear that he’s more than just an incubus. He’s a witch as well.”
“He mentioned something about that,” I said vaguely.
“This hasn’t caused any difficulties with your lessons?” Isaac cocked his head to the side like he expected me to say magic had turned Cory into a raging lunatic or arrogant prick. But Cory was the same person he’d always been. Sweet, kind, and sensitive.
God, I was fucked. But Isaac didn’t need to know that.
“It’s been fine,” I reiterated.
“I’m happy to hear that. And I’m happy to send you back out to your investigative endeavors. But we must take care of you first.”
Dammit.
I’d chalked up all my weird feelings today as a reaction to last night with Cory. But if I’d really gone over a week without one of Isaac’s trances, then he was right. I was about to fall on my face. And every minute I sat here protesting was a minute I wasn’t using to keep track of Teresa.
With a sigh, I stretched my hand out to Isaac. “Let’s get this over with.”
It wasn’t an unpleasant trance. Cory was in it, of course, and he did all sorts of delicious things in my mind. But Trance Cory was nothing compared to Real Cory. Real Cory, who I had now touched and tasted. Real Cory, who I’d made moan, and whimper, and beg.
The trance was a pale comparison.
Would I ever be free of these? Or would I be tethered to Isaac for the rest of my life? I’d never been happy about the situation. But it had never galled like this before.
I’d never had something—someone—in real life that I wanted so much more.
As I left Isaac’s office twenty minutes later, I felt physically better. No longer so exhausted that I wanted to collapse on the floor. In fact, my face was flushed, and my heart was beating faster than normal, still aroused from the trance. But I needed to get a hold of myself.
I thought about Cory, and that first night I’d touched his hand while he was dreaming. It was a faint echo of the dreamworld, like seeing it through a fogged up glass. But even that was better than these trances.
