AllFreeNovel
Share Us
It was a rare gift that rendered every Fae immobile with no hope of escape. A fiendish pleasure rushed through me, and I thanked the Goddess for blessing me in our time of need. Binding magic was dangerous, but I would allow it to consume me if that meant I could save my mate.
But I had to be certain that was what had been gifted to me.
After dressing quickly, I cracked the door to the living space, finding Vadim and Endre snoozing and Liliana reading a book. Slipping through the door, I nodded to Liliana, who briefly glanced up from her book, and exited the suite, spilling into the crystalline hallway and weaving through the glitzy space until I broke into the mid-afternoon sun.
My blood thrummed with a sinister new energy, and as I tapped into my well of magic, it doubled in size to accommodatethis gift. There was a wooded area alongside the lake, private enough to practice, yet close enough that I would not need to exhaust Fek before our ride to the Day Realm the following day.
I wove between the tall pines, my fingers brushing their still-green needles, until I found a clearing large enough to wield the power that itched beneath my skin. Focusing on a tall, thin tree about ten paces in front of me, I closed my eyes and tuned in to my magic. When I called it to me, black and silver coated my palms, and sick pleasure ricocheted up my spine. I threw my hand at the tree, calling upon the black binds. A snake of rope burst from me, wrapping itself around the tree once, twice, and a third time before stilling. It felt like an extension of myself, and I squeezed my hand into a fist, the binding cutting into the tree and sending sticky sap bubbling from its core.
With a flick of my wrist, I released my hold and the tree continued to bleed. The part of me that loved nature and felt intimately connected to the forest shouted at me to stop, but this developing menace shushed the pure parts of me, banishing them to a far corner of my mind. I called on my silver magic to create a shield, but the black swirled within, casting me in a smoky shadow instead. I moved through the trees once more, coming upon a deer grazing in the woods. I stepped on a twig, and yet the deer did not move, did not flinch.
Had this rendered me nearly invisible?
My Night Fae magic had allowed me to call shadows to me before. Not enough to cloak me, but enough to distort my image as I moved about. Curious as to this new development, I dropped the shield, and the deer immediately bolted.
Oh yes, this hellish gift was indeed divine.
I called out my wings, wondering if they had changed in any way. While they still sported black feathers, my wings were wider, thicker, heavier, and as I leaped into the air, they carried me higherand faster than before. My agility was not compromised in the least, and I dodged branches and wove between the treetops with ease. I snapped my wings shut, plummeting in an exhilarating freefall to the ground, then caught myself at the last moment, landing lightly on my feet. A manic laugh echoed through the forest, my body tingling as I felt more alive than I ever had before. The rush of this power was incredible, and I wanted more.
Not only could I blast and manipulate energy to subdue my opponents, but I could bind them in place, unable to escape my sword. I would drop from above, piercing them through the middle, then vault into the skies once more, unstoppable in my bloodlust.
In the recesses of my mind, that pure part of me shouted not to fall into the welcoming embrace of reckless power, but the promises it held were too sweet to refuse. I threw bindings around multiple bushes at the same time, pushing the limits of my new abilities. It was too easy, and I wished for something living to test the deadliness of this binding magic.
“Kazimir?”
I was lost to the heady power, and without thinking, I cast a black rope toward the voice that dared interrupt my dance with darkness.
“Kazimir!” The choked sound of a familiar voice ignited fervor in that pure part of me that I kept forcing into silence.
“Kazimir, stop! It’s Endre.” A strangled noise and gasp for air sounded from the dying male in front of me. He blasted my chest, and I took a stumbling step back, snapping into myself and witnessing the horror I had been inflicting on my closest friend.
Red welts ringed Endre’s throat, his skin rubbed raw from the rope I’d thrown around his neck. My sobered body trembled as I placed my hands there, willing him to recover despite myshit skill with healing magic. Between his gifts and my own terror, he breathed normally a few minutes later.
“Endre,” I croaked, dropping my face to my hands, too ashamed to look at him. “I would never… I didn't even know… please forgive me.”
“What the hell was that, Kazimir?” he demanded. “It was like you were not even there.”
“The Goddess was within me earlier, and she gifted me with new magic. Binding magic. I wanted to test it out.” I shook my head, still gripped with guilt that I hurt him.
“Binding magic is dangerous – extremely dangerous, Kazimir. And it does not come from the Goddess, but the Fates. There is a reason it is rare – most who carry it do not live long enough to see it passed on.”
“I know… I am so desperate to have her back, Endre.”
“I know,” he said, then pulled me into an embrace.
Endre, my closest friend, the one who always got me to talk. Endre, the kindest of our group, who never left anyone out. Endre, the one with the biggest heart, who cared more than the rest of us combined. And I hurt him because I wandered too deep into a new power that I knew almost nothing about. “I am so sorry,” I begged him once again for forgiveness.
“Next time, have someone here to ground you, yeah?” He pulled away, searching for any sign of duplicity.
“I swear it,” I promised. “But this could help us win, help us get Izidora back.”
“It will. But only if you survive it, too. What good will it do to use it but be unable to return to Izidora when you're finished?”
He was right. “Are you okay now?”
He rubbed his neck, only slightly pink in a few spots. “Good as new.”
“Let’s find some food. I am starving.” Reaching out a hand, I pulled him to his feet, then threw my arm over his shoulders,and we picked through thick roots and dry twigs coating the forest floor, headed to Blire Palace. “What brought you out here anyway?”
