Page 68 of Enchanted Shadows (The Enchanted Kingdom #6)

M y exhaustion felt omnipresent. Every time I began to feel stronger, I was proven wrong. I was still healing, my body adjusting to the newness.

I could call on the shadows. See from within them. Feel them. Between that and a mental bond tying me to my wife, there was a lot to get used to.

I reached out a hand and let the shadows swirl around my palm.

They felt like a breeze and a spot of shade on the warmest of days.

As cool as iced water on a parched throat.

I had nothing to fear in the dark for there they always waited, waited to be called upon.

And I loved nothing more than when I called them to me while I slept, a heavy yet also weightless blanket to protect me.

“We need to get going,” Kessara told me, moving to grab her robe.

I mumbled something incoherently. I had delayed training but should’ve shoved it more.

Her laugh hit my ears. “Come on. Rise and shine, we need you, Commander. ”

I moved to sit up slowly, the sheet falling off my body. “I will rise, but there will be absolutely no shining.”

She giggled.

Though she’d been tired after our bonding as well, she’d already held both Enchantments, so all of this had been far easier on her body.

We needed more time to practice combining our palm magic, as well as our shadows. The few times I’d attempted to try it with her, it had worn me out fast. The focus needed to will and maintain two different forms of Enchantments was no joke.

I miss the team, she told me down the bond.

Me too, but don’t tell them that.

Again, she laughed. As she did so often these days. I don’t think I should take more of a leadership role. Or at least not yet. I don’t want people to assume it’s because of us.

Was she intentionally bringing this up while I was groggy?

I tried to discuss this with you last night, but you were decidedly distracted, she explained.

I argued, Anyone with a brain who watched the team work would see why you would deserve that role.

Yes, but not everyone watches us. They’ll just assume. The Commander’s wife getting special privileges.

Dammit. I hated that she had a point. Fine. But start considering it long term.

Fine. I’m going to miss ignoring reality with you, though.

We will train with the team during the day, but when night falls, we can continue ignoring reality all you want, I promised.

As I threw on my clothes for the day, I tried to grasp all that had changed the last few months. I'd found Kessara. We'd had to deal with tensions here, tensions in Agria, Kessara going missing, and now it was time for the second round of training with the team.

And in that second round, the women would be given their first few missions. Given the fact that protecting Kessara had already been one, I wasn’t worried at all. More excited than apprehensive.

Honestly, keeping my hands to myself is going to be the worst part. I sent out a small strand of warmth to travel along her spine where she was getting ready in the bathroom.

Absence makes the heart — she cut off her quote entirely, the warmth having arrived.

Yeah?

Some—thing.

Something, huh? I laughed as I headed to brush my teeth. For the record, I’m not sure it’s possible for me to grow more fond of you.

Hand in hand, we headed down to the training pit, opting to keep our room at the castle for the duration of training.

There was no way in hell I was letting her stay with the others.

Was it preferential treatment? Absolutely.

But considering our bond was still fresh, Krew had spoken to Emric and Miles, also helping with this round of training, and everyone had agreed.

Fortunately for me, soul bonds were well respected in Wylan. They’d also offered to push training another month, but I had refused. Another month and all my training and building them up with weights and running would be diminished further.

We all needed to get back to work, embrace our new normal. Whatever that meant.

I was baffled to find that all the women were there, all accounted for, and all on time, early even. As were Emric and Miles. Another miracle I got to witness? It was just too much.

“Show us your shadows,” Sam immediately blurted out.

“It’s nice to see you too,” I responded.

I didn’t want to tell them that I had been randomly dousing myself in shadows when I got excited, unable to figure out how to control both of my Enchantments and my emotions all at once. It was like I was a teenager trying to navigate hormones and magic all over again.

I crossed my arms and moved to address the whole group. “I know last training session was anything but ordinary. That speaks to the power of this team. You aren’t ordinary. Never have been. And you’re stronger because of it.”

I heard a loud sniffle.

I snapped my head toward it. “Kno?—”

“Knock it off, I know, I know,” Vivian rushed to finish for me. “I just wasn’t expecting a compliment right out of the gate.”

“It’s easier when you just yell,” Pippa told me in that no nonsense way.

I let out a sigh. “I’m trying to tell you all how damn proud of you I am, but that I will not go easy on any of you, including my wife.”

Molly beamed at Kess. “She can handle it.”

Miles choked on a laugh.

Sam added, “Message received. Now let’s run.”

I groaned. My work with this team was far from finished, and yet I found myself smiling as I jerked my head toward Emric to head to the rock so we could start.

Jessina sing-songed, “Slay Sisters, back in session!”

“Time to get these bosoms bouncing,” Molly added as she glanced at Emric to see his reaction.

I was fairly certain that was the only reason she’d said it.

Kessara began next to Molly and my sister. Move your ass, Commander.

That’s my line, I snapped, even as I fell into a jog behind them all.

I had just caught up to the last clump of women running when Kessara said, So about last night.

A few memories rushed to the surface, and I couldn’t help but feel the shadows leaping for me with the powerful emotion I felt.

Even if it was a positive one. And because I was trying to keep my feet running, trying to respond to my wife, trying to lead as their commander, and trying to keep the shadows at bay, sure enough, I disappeared into my own personal darkness.

It only took a moment to release the shadows this time. I was getting better at it, but I did stumble a step in the process. Not because I couldn’t see, but because it surprised me. You have to quit flirting with me during training or else I’ll use my shadows to make us both disappear.

While my bond with Jorah felt like a single strand of thread, my bond with Kessara felt like a heavily corded rope, always there, far quicker to find and react to.

Like an extension of me. It truly had made all the space between us vanish.

There was no end to her and beginning of me. We simply were.

Playing favorites doesn’t become you, Commander. Plus, I married you, I can flirt with you when I want to.

I could see her now; she wasn’t more than twenty feet in front of me. So I sent another trail of warmth to travel up her body and also a breeze at her back. Do you really want to start this game with me, Princess?

She gasped out and turned over her shoulder to glare at me.

“Stop flirting with her!” Wren turned around to yell at me, running backward as she did. Kessara and Molly joined her. “Stop. It.”

“Believe me, she started it,” I argued.

“You two, behave!” Miles yelled at me from where he ran.

“Yeah,” I agreed, sending a look at Kessara.

“Yeah,” Kessara called back at me. “Do contain yourself, Commander.”

“That’s it, no more chit-chatting.” I kicked it into a faster pace. Annoyed with all of them. Every last one. “MOVE!”

“And just like that, he’s back,” Pippa deadpanned.

By the time we made it to the rock and back, we were all laughing and smiling, half of us happy to be back to training, half of us happy to be done running.

We still had a lot of work left. Training this team up to be the most formidable team, male or female, the realm had ever seen. Tensions in Agria to continue to smooth over. Bram’s trial.

But that was the thing about life. It was jagged, the highs cutting to the lows, tucked in together, and with very little warning between. It was a barbed sort of beautiful. We’d keep fighting for peace, fighting for one another. Every single day.

And like a dream I hadn’t dared to hope for, Kessara was going to be there with me through it all. My resting place among the battles of life.

As night fell and we headed back to the castle, back to our room, I felt that exhaustion seep back in along my joints and muscles. It had been a long day. My first day since the bonding without a nap. I hadn’t even tried it, sure I’d never hear the end of it from the women if they found out.

This training session would be entirely different as I had just as much or more to learn as the team did.

I would be sore and tired as my body adjusted and made room for my new powers, both in the strength of bond with my wife and the shadows she gifted me.

Add my already boisterous ego to the mix, and I was nearly bursting at the seams with it all.

Still, I wouldn’t let sleep take me until I took the time to kiss my wife. Took the time to trail my fingers along her skin and listen to her comments from the day.

Our life wouldn’t be flashy, we would never rule as a king and queen. And yet, I knew our life would be far from ordinary.

It was enough. She was more than enough.

“Give me something real,” she whispered as she curled into me.

“Well, I think I’d like to formally change my stance on happy endings,” I told her as I fought off a yawn. Fought off sleep for just a few moments more. My exhausted reality sweeter than any dream I’d find in sleep.

“Oh?” She brushed a quiet kiss to my lips. “And what is your stance on them now?”

“They’re pretty damn great.”

The End

For now. We will finish the Enchanted Kingdom series with one more...