Page 74 of Research with Rivals
Still asleep, she nuzzled closer. I’d had her multiple times last night, but it was nowhere near enough. No amount of her would be.
Our connection transcended the magic that tied us together. Thoughts of the blood magic weren’t as painful after last night. Something had clicked into place. She wasawarethat our intent had nothing to do with our feelings for each other. She had probably figured it out long before I did.
Saying the words aloud had been freeing. Even better had been the look on her face, the shared acknowledgement that there was something between us that had nothing to do with magic. Well, maybe a little bit—but not the accidental bond. My wolf and my fire reacted to her. I was now certain the same went for her veil cat and flame. Our inherent magics’ draw to each other was further proof of what I knew: this thing between us was real.
The way we felt about each other might not be due to blood magic, but magical connections were why we were at Compass Lake. We needed to deal with our bond if our fledgling relationship stood a chance at success.
She had wanted me to burn the rope connecting us last night. While at the time I’d been too distracted to do so successfully, as reason returned, I knew it was necessary for multiple reasons. First, if we could burn our bond away, if that severed the connection, we could present it as an option to solve Lord Arctos and Carter’s problem. Second, it was important that I decide for myself where I stood with blood magic. I could no longer let Father’s view color mine. It was like a ray of sun peeking through a cloudy day, to know Evelyn pushed this opportunity to me. That she had faith in me to decide.
My eyes drifted closed, and I pulled our linked hands to my chest. The heat of our connection guided me. Previously, I’d been unable to find what she described—a more tactile manifestation of our bond. This morning, it was as if the fire inside me mapped the most direct path to her, and the rope she described was the bridge.
It was still hard to believe she wanted me. I wasn’t sure I had ever wanted someone as much as I wanted her. My love of history had driven so much of my life. I’d never found anyone who not only shared my interest but pushed me to discover more. Evelyn did so without even trying.
The Vesten Point’s attention hadn’t gone unnoticed. Even if Lord Arctos’s response had beenIt’s not what you think.It was still something. I wouldn’t let it derail whatever this was, though. Evelyn was stingy with her wants, and she said she wanted me. A low growl escaped my wolf at the memory.
“Let’s give this a try,” I murmured to myself. At the connection point, my fire magic surged toward her.
It traversed but didn’t burn as it worked its way to the middle. There was a knot there, just like she’d said. Though I had talked a big game last night, the enormity of what I would attempt rushed through me. This was not blood magic on inanimate objects. It wasn’t even blood magic using plants. Testing anything on this connection was dangerous. It was blood magic at its most fickle. It was everything Father warned me against and everything I had been raised to fear.
The experiment that led to Father’s impaired vision had been less risky than this. I knew I should be rightly terrified about what I was attempting, but this morning, I couldn’t summon the anxiety usually present when working with blood magic.
I needed this. We needed this. I needed to choose for myself, and we needed to break the connection between us if we stood a chance at something real. We couldn’t live our lives with forced proximity. I’d give the magic credit—it had known what it was doing with our unstated intents. It had pushed us to get to know each other, to stop assuming the worst. I didn’t know if anything less drastic than this connection would have driven us past our entrenched positions on blood magic.
It had done its job. Now it needed to go.
My thoughts lingered more on giving Evelyn and me a chance rather than fixing Lord Arctos and the Vesten Point’s problem. Yes, I wanted the Vesten historian position, but it came with a whole host of responsibilities I hadn’t yet prepared for. Conducting this experiment was a start, but did it mean I would press forward with blood magic study? I thought so, but how hard would Father push back against my decisions? Would I teach others that blood magic tests on plants were acceptable? It would take time to find the path I was comfortable with. I suspected Evelyn already knew what she would do with the position—knew the direction she would steer the Vesten Court.
There was really only one way to find out how all this would end. I turned up the heat on my flame and did what she’d asked of me yesterday, burning through the rope’s knot.
We both required space to breathe, like our fires; oxygen fanned the flames.
“And what is that?” she asked hazily, voice still soaked in sleep.
I must have been talking to myself aloud. “What is what?” I asked carefully, hoping she could fall back asleep.
She squeezed my hand, still pressed to hers, against my bare chest. “The next phase of our relationship.”
Everything.
I couldn’t say that. I’d sound like a crazy person. “One where you long to see me, not because of magic but because you can’t stand to be away from me.”
Her lips curled into a soft smile in the morning light. The rays of the sun seemed to stop in their tracks as they fell into her dark brown hair. “That sounds nice.”
I turned the heat up a little higher on my flame. The rope between didn’t fray. My control of my fire was as absolute as my control of my wolf. This shouldn’t be so difficult. I focused, breathing in and out as I tried again.
The heat intensified, and it felt like smoke poured from the rope, but the knot remained. Maybe Evelyn needed to be the one to do it? She had learned the other control we’d practiced together so quickly; she could learn this, too. Disappointment flared with my flame. The cause might have been my failure at this task, or it might have been thinking of the Vesten Court’s failure of Evelyn. Even with her father missing, someone should have helped her with her magic. The Vesten needed to get past their discomfort of sharing information about their shift with those they deemed outsiders.
Thinking of Evelyn’s not-so-missing father tied me in knots. We hadn’t discussed that last night. I still thought I had made the right decision. She deserved to hear everything from him, not me. I hoped Evelyn would speak with him before we left. Who knew how long we’d be staying? This trip felt more and more like one of Lord Arctos’s whims than a calculated requirement for the project we’d been given.
I jolted as a knock sounded at the door. “Mr. Yarrow.”
No, not her door, my door. Someone was knocking on the door of the bedroom I was supposed to be in.
Evelyn’s eyes snapped open as the knocking continued.
“Mr. Yarrow.” There was an expectation in that voice that only the Vesten God had perfected.
“I can distract him, tell him I heard you leave on an early morning walk,” she whispered.
