Page 75 of Amethyst and Iron
“Pent-up magical energyandtraining… so she’s spiraling.”
“They visited Lazriel’s mother and obtained the names of enemies related to Lazriel’s late stepfather, Jason Strickland, and Velra was determined to go after them. She obviously wasn’t in the right frame of mind to do that so Cassius redirected that ferocity to this. At least for now.”
“Fuck… so much has happened while I’ve been… incapacitated.”
“None of which could have happened without the sacrifice you made, without what you did.”
“What aboutPuritas?”
“Still active.”
“A major reason why I can’t just allow my magic to be taken from me.”
“With the way your health currently stands, you could take out, maybe, one more cell, and that would be it. Without your magic, though, and you not fucking killing yourself, there is a fuck of a lot more you can do.”
“What are you talking about? My magic, my power is—”
“Not all that you are. Your magical knowledge is nearly unmatched. Even by those much older than you. Your connections in the underground are invaluable, especially when it comes to an enemy likePuritas.Your strategic mind is—”
“I get it. All right.” I blew out a breath. “All right, Kai.”
“You wanted me to make it easy for you to let go,” he accused. “Because you know how I also feel about living without my magic, believing it would be a strict no-go for me. But I’m not going to do that.”
Cassius’ words to me not long ago about Velra played on my mind.
“She’s formed a connection with you, a deep bond, and we both know how rare that is for her. I won’t let that be broken. I won’t allow her to lose you.”
And then hers also.
“What we’re all building together, it’s set in stone, you know?”
As if Lazriel’s beautifully brave confession to me hadn’t already been enough.
“None of you are making it easy for me to let go,” I grunted.
“Guess that means you’re not a loner anymore, hmm? You’re wanted, loved, and integral to them.” He winked. “And others even beyond your new loves.”
I glared at him. “You calculative little shit.”
His lips quirked. “Right back at you.”
Despite it all, that had a smile gracing my lips too.
“Ryker investigated your magic when you died and discovered that none of your spells fell. Even the ward over your home is still in place.”
“Right, yeah. I took precautions.” When a magic-wielder died, even though mydeathhad just been brief, their magic fell along with them, spells they’d cast, that sort of thing.
I smiled at Kai’s look of deep curiosity. “Ah, something the great Kai Hunter doesn’t know, huh?”
He rolled his eyes. “Apparently so.”
“I infused Methuselah Root into the essence of my magic.”
It was an enchanted root of a Methuselah tree that had eternal-like properties, which ensured that a spell wouldn’t fall if the spellcaster did.
“How did you fuse it? Outside of chewing a piece every day, which isn’t possible without risking the limited supply, I can’t imagine how—”
“It can’t be done by a sorcerer. It fuses to necromantic essence well, because of my specific makeup. But for you, it wouldn’t be possible. It latches onto the death-touched nature of my power. That isn’t present in you. So, yes, chewing a piece each day—perhaps each week given your extreme power set—would be the only way, unfortunately.”
