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“No grinning,” I chided.

Her grin vanished, though I saw her lips twitch, and rolled my eyes a bit.

This part might hurt her, but she had asked me to teach her. And my magic only really showed itself when I was feeling like shit.

“Think back to the moment you realized that Jesh was your fated mate,” I said, quietly.

She had never told me about that moment, but I could imagine it was an emotional one.

All signs of her grin were gone. “Hit me right where it hurts, why don’t you,” she grumbled at me.

“Shut up and learn already,” I teased her softly, reflecting her words to me.

She sighed, but nodded her head.

“Think back to the emotions you felt that day. Excitement, maybe. Dread, perhaps. Everything probably felt a bit overwhelming, but I imagine that at first, you felt at least a little bit hopeful.”

Her expression shifted slightly.

I used my magic to wrap her slowly and thinly in shadows, to begin thickening the tension she would theoretically begin to feel in a few moments.

“Now, I want you to imagine that tonight, you’re walking up to his room,” I said, my voice low. “You want to discuss it again—the mate bond. Your fist raps against his door once, and then again. A moment passes, and you hear giggling. Feminine giggling.”

I saw her shoulders tense.

Mates were possessive, even without having a true bond formed.

“A woman answers the door, wrapped in Jesh’s bathrobe, with the sleeve falling off her shoulder and one of her breasts practically hanging out. Her hair is tangled, and she’s breathing quickly, as if she just slid out of bed after a proper fucking—and the room reeks of sex.”

Lavee’s nostrils flared as I worked my shadows to whisper words of his unfaithfulness to her. She couldn’t hear their whispers, but something told me she stillfeltthem.

A shudder tore through her spine.

“What do you feel, Lav?” I asked, my voice still low.

“Fury,” she gritted out.

“And?”

“Hatred.”

“What else?” I prodded.

“Fear,” she snarled.

“Find those emotions in the center of your chest,” I instructed. “They’ll feel like something living, and growing, and moving.”

Her breathing picked up. “Fuck, you’re right.”

“That’s your magic, Lav. It’s not a hand; it’s what you feel. Embrace it. Let it loose, and let it breathe. You won’t hurt me.”

My shadows would protect me—but I stood swiftly and strode away from her, giving her more space anyway.

Lavee’s body shuddered and shook for a few long, tense moments.

I got ready to walk back over to her, to make sure she was okay, but before I moved, darkness erupted in the shadowy bubble I’d created.

Her magic engulfed the clearing, making everything but my shadows vanish before my eyes. I didn’t fear this darkness, though—I could feel in it what she’d said she felt at times.