Page 198 of Season Warriors & Wolves

I cupped her face. “You must live. Don’t make your death my burden to bear.”

“I have faith you will kill her like you say you will. Have some faith in me, too,” she said, backing away and leaving me alone with him.

The moment we were left alone, his hands wrapped around me, his face burying in the crook of my neck. “Why did you hide those eyes from me the whole time?”

“Because I worry about other things entirely different from this war when I look at you.”

“What other things?”

“You.”

“Why would you worry about me, my heart? Don’t you know who I am?”

“Yes, but your heart has a reckless mind.”

“I know. I will try to keep her safe, not make her a prisoner. She can have her reckless mind as long as she shares it with me. Don’t hide your eyes from me.”

Macaria cleared her throat and the both of us turned to the tent entrance where the violet witch stood awkwardly. “You said…kill Aurora. Your sister said you will try to kill Aurora.”

“You’re attentive. My congratulations.”

She blinked a bit stunned, dark eyes faltering and then widening. “Kill a guardian?”

“Macaria, I’ve I had patience for this sort of conversations, I would have become a kindergarten teacher.”

Her chest fell and rose quickly, her black eyes flashed violet for a moment before she nodded and retreated away. Leaving an eerie air behind.

“Boo,” Kilian whispered in my ear and I jumped a little.

I elbowed his stomach when he started laughing. “She creeps me.”

The waiting game was driving me absolutely insane. Still alive, still impatient. Though I was sure I was going to be an impatient corpse, too.

Kilian circled me, magic howling from both our sides. It was becoming less and less of a fight taming our power using the other’s. He had managed to create an environment of sorts, a dome that drew life away from those underneath it, protecting those outside it. Visha had given him a gate to her magic, tattooed all over his right hand. He could create a mock of a dream veil, an environment where his dark magic worked against the mind—and he’d mastered it only in weeks. Kilian was magnificent in all he did, but magic was not even second nature to him. He was it, in all sense.

“Feeling faint?” he asked, looking worried.

“A little. You should have really put a shirt on.”

He bit his lip, trying not to smile. “Push some more out.”

“You sure?”

He nodded. “I’ll tell you when to stop.”

“What if I can’t?”

“You can. You’re pretty obedient to my demands. I have little doubt,” he said, still walking around me.

I pushed more like he asked, the bubble of lightning surrounding me thickened and grew a bit bigger. One breath, one command from me to set it free, it would open a hole in the entire continent. Yet, no matter how much more power I fed to it, the more I pushed the gates of my magic, the control remained—the tattoos on my hands greyed and pulled back.

Drawing and controlling my magic was more or less painful for me. Inside here, there was no pain at all, it simply slipped in and out of my seal like a breath did—as if it was something that came natural. The control was absolute, and it gave me back precision.

At the start, we’d only been able to keep going for a few hours, now we were almost past using it through a whole day. The longer the better. We didn’t know how long the battle would last.

He patted a towel to my brow, drying off the sweat. “What is worrying you, my missus?”

“It will not be only I under the dome, Kil, it will be her there as well. What if you can’t—”