Page 118 of My Pleasure

Meryn took her hand and Kiera closed her eyes. Gold light flickered around the edges of her mind’s eye. Suddenly she saw the image of a white rose in bloom. The delicate petals were damaged by bloody chains keeping it locked in place. She opened her eyes and looked down at Meryn.

“The white rose,” they said in unison.

Kendrick stood so fast he knocked his chair over. Daia did the same. They ran over to them.

Kendrick turned Kiera to look at him. “Did you see her empathy?”

Kiera was trying to remember how to breathe. Those images packed a punch. “I think I did.”

Daia looked Meryn over. “You actually saw an image for your empathy?”

Meryn eyed Daia up and down, then reached over to grab Kiera’s sleeve. “Now look for similar magic on Daia.”

Kiera understood what Meryn was trying to do. She held out her hand to Daia.

Slowly the woman reached out and over Meryn’s head they clasped hands. Kiera looked closely at the swirls of twine in front of her. Daia was an earth witch. The green twine made sense, but hidden amongst the green, grey twine swirled. She reached out and plucked the grey twine.

“Shit!” Kendrick exclaimed.

Kiera opened her eyes to see that Daia had pitched forward, only Pip’s quick thinking had kept her from falling on Meryn. “Did I do that?”

Kendrick wrapped a steadying arm around her. “What exactly did you do?”

“I plucked the grey string.”

“Plucked?” he asked.

“It’s how I collapsed the water sphere last time. It disrupted the magic.”

“Kendrick, can I have my mate?” Hunter demanded.

“In a second. She needs a senior mage right now,” Kendrick said.

Kiera smiled at her mate, trying to reassure him.

When she smiled, he relaxed.

“What just happened?” Daia asked, swaying on unsteady feet.

“We’re trying to figure that out,” Kendrick answered. He looked down at Meryn. “What did you attempt to do?”

Meryn looked very satisfied. “I think I showed Kiera what mental magic looks like. Because it’s a higher power, I don’t think it shows up like elemental magic, but since I showed her my empathy, maybe it unlocked the right ‘frequency’ and she could see more. Just now, I think she just negated whatever was being used on Daia,” she said, smiling smugly up at Kendrick. “I’m getting good at this magic stuff.”

Kendrick stared down at Meryn, looking conflicted.

Kiera thought it over. “Your empathy was golden threads, this stuff was grey.”

Meryn rubbed her chin. “I bet you could see premonition stuff too. Maybe by seeing one type of the magic you can see it all now.”

Daia had Pip help her back to her chair. “What was the rose?”

Meryn pointed at her. “You. That was my image for you, a white rose, but the rose was covered in chains that was damaging the petals.”

Kiera nodded. “That’s exactly what I saw.”

Daia looked to Kendrick. “Binding magic?”

Kendrick scowled down at Meryn. “It could be. Whenever this one gets involved, suddenly I’m out of my depth.”