“I used it against one of your father's men, the first time. Wanted that feeling so badly again afterwards that I went hunting for animals to leech off of in the forest.” Cerin clearly wasn't proud of admitting this, breaking eye contact with me. “Not long after that I made it to Thornwell. Learning what I did there broke that feeling of being powerful pretty quickly. I've been much more careful ever since.” He raised his eyes back to mine. “It gets easier the more you get used to it, but I want you to try the spell on me, just in case.”
I frowned. “You want me to use leech on you?”
“Yes,” he replied, as if he didn't see the problem. “Better here in a controlled environment than out in battle.”
“I could hurt you,” I protested.
“If you meant to, yes,” he admitted. “But I still have an excess of energy in my system from the wyvern. It is safer to try it now than on any other night. I will stop you, if you start getting out of hand.”
I stared at him, watching me in expectation. I found nothing but kindness in his silver eyes. I wondered if he had started to trust me. Surely, he would not offer to be a guinea pig for a spell of mine if he didn't?
“Very well,” I finally agreed, exhaling slowly and hoping some of my anxiety would float out along with the breath.
“Okay. Now, remember what I told you,” Cerin said, putting his hand out toward my chest like he'd shown me earlier. “The spell is absort la mana del life.” A black energy began to swirl over his palm beside my chest, before he dispelled it harmlessly.
“Absorb energy from life,” I murmured, recognizing the language. I put my hand out toward the center of his chest, took a deep breath, and repeated the spell for myself. When I felt it accumulating in my palm, I directed it toward Cerin's chest, where a funnel of energy was created to siphon his life to me.
My arm began to shake with the abundance of energy. I stared at it, watching as my veins became more pronounced from the pressure. As soon as I felt the tingle of energy run through my shoulder and to my own chest, I knew what Cerin had been talking about.
It was like my whole body was a trembling mess of power. By the gods, I had such power and was raring to use it. I watched with gusto as Cerin's life was swept away into the black energy, knowing that if I kept going, I had the power to kill him without making another move. My brain was trembling against my skull, laughing with glee as if it had just found something it hadn't known it had been looking for. My vision sharpened. Everything—from Cerin's gorgeous face to each individual gold piece in the piles around us—was clearer, the colors sharper and robust. I felt like I could count each coin around me in seconds, if I had wanted to. My hearing, by contrast, had dulled. Because Cerin was yelling at me, and I couldn't hear him.
No—I could hear him. He was just telling me to stop, so I was ignoring it. He grabbed at my arm, trying to pull it away from his chest, but I overpowered him.
More. More. More. I watched that black funnel, obsessed with it, barely caring that he was fighting for his life.
Then, I was brutally torn away from my seat, and the funnel broke, the spell breaking because of our new distance. Slowly, my senses came back to me. I could hear my heart beating in my head, and felt confused by that. Everything the extra energy had given me—the sharper senses, the overactive brain—was still there. But now that I wasn't in the midst of absorbing energy, my mind was clear enough to have control over once again.
“What in the hell were you doing?” It was Silas, yelling at me. It shocked me to hear the elf speak to me like that at all, and I glanced back, seeing that it had taken both him and Theron to pull me off of Cerin.
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Cerin. I found him lying on the ground where he'd been sitting. He was breathing shallowly, a hand on his chest, as if reaching for some type of pain.
“Let me heal him,” I said in a rush, lurching toward him.
“Not until you tell us what's going on,” Theron replied, sounding much calmer than Silas.
“He taught me how to leech, and he wanted me to try it on him, and I went overboard, and I almost killed him.” It was a ramble, words tripping over themselves and merging together. “Please let me heal him.”
The two men finally let me go, and I collapsed beside Cerin. His eyes were closed, and his long black hair was fanned out around his head from where he'd fallen. For the first time, my eyes picked up on a freckle on his neck, just beneath his jawline. I'm not sure why I was so focused on that. Perhaps it was because it was something new to know about him.
I put one palm on his forehead, and the other on his stomach, much like he had done earlier for me. “Givara la mana,” I whispered, giving him back some of the energy I'd stolen from him. Over the seconds that followed, I could feel the difference. The sharpness of everything dulled until my normal senses seemed like a handicap, but still I gave.
Then, Cerin stirred. His silver eyes opened, and immediately latched onto mine. “You are too powerful,” he said, desperately.
My heart began to ache painfully at hearing that. “I'm sorry, Cerin. I was not myself.”
“No...” he trailed off, before sitting up, causing my hands to fall away from him. “I meant...your power. It's immense. You leeched everything from me in half the time it would take me, and I had excess.” He looked toward Theron and Silas, as if just noticing them standing there.
“It was foolish to try this while the rest of us were sleeping,” Theron stated. I assumed he was talking to the necromancer, since I wasn't facing him.
“It was foolish to teach her this at all,” Silas added bitterly.
Cerin's eyes widened at the elf. “Kai could have died today. If she had known this spell, she may not have run out of energy at all.”
“And now she knows it, necromancer, and it will bring us nothing but ill,” Silas spat.
I breathed carefully through my nostrils, uncomfortable with the hostile air between everyone. I turned, facing Silas, and said, “If you are to blame anyone, Silas, blame me. Cerin cannot teach me something I have no wish to learn.”
“I will blame who I wish,” Silas replied. I had never seen him this angry. His normally smooth features were creased and red with anger. “You have lost your head, Kai. Let us hope you still have enough sense within you to find it.”
My nostrils flared with anger, but I said nothing. It was clear Silas and I had completely opposite views on the matter of necromancy, and nothing I could say would change him. I watched my former lover walk back to where Nyx was still sleeping, having not heard any of the commotion. I looked to Theron, who appeared pensive.
“What say you?” I asked him, the anger in my voice not directed at him, but still prevalent. “Are you disgusted to be among necromancers?”
Theron met my gaze. “If it weren't for two particular necromancers, I would be dead,” he replied, evenly. “I have no love for bureaucrats or the laws they make up so carelessly. There are clearly many productive uses for the magic.”
“You aren't just saying what we want to hear?” I prodded.
“I do not form opinions by coin, but by experience,” he replied.
I turned my head from him with a nod. “Thank you for your support, Theron. I apologize for waking you.”
“It is no problem, Kai. But if I may be so bold, perhaps you should wait until the morning to learn any more spells?”
I chuckled. “No worries. I think we are done for the night.”
The ranger headed back toward the camp, leaving Cerin and I alone once more. After I could hear no rustling from the camp's direction, I finally spoke.
“I cannot express how sorry I am, Cerin.”
He shook his head, dismissing it. “You could not help it. I was prepared for it to be hard for you. I am sorry for underestimating you.”
I said nothing, my mind on Silas. I couldn't help but feel that even our bond of friendship was on shaky ground.
“It appears my presence here has caused contention,” Cerin went on, as if he'd read my mind. “And for that, I am also truly sorry.”
“My decisions are causing contention. Not you,” I replied, my tone low and ashamed. “Silas was in agreement with me on nearly everything when I lived in Sera, when we both lived under Seran law. I am starting to think the two of us are more different than I could have ever imagined.”
Cerin nodded. Even now, after I'd nearly killed him, he was listening to what I had to say. “Do you regret leaving Sera, then?” He asked me.
I let my eyes scan over his face, the light from nearby sconces flickering over his handsome features. From this view, the shadows over him were many, cast over his white skin from the sharp angles of his defined face. His black hair brushed softly against his elongated neck, free from the confines of the cloak he normally wore. A ripple of attraction waved through me before I answered him.
“No.”
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