Page 140 of Obsidian and Frost

“I don’t know. It had become apparent that you needed my assistance, so I facilitated a way for that to come to pass, for me to be near without infringing too much on your space. I knew you hadn’t signed up to take this class so I thought it would be ideal.”

The realization hit me. “Sylas and Lazriel came to you? On my behalf?”

“Lazriel.”

“When?”

“Many days ago now. It took some time for me to put things in place.”

And to get over himself, no doubt, when it came to his hangups concerning me.

So it had been before the developments between Lazriel and me, and recently, between Sylas, Lazriel, and me.

When I’d been struggling with my magic, when it had been interfering and causing issues to my connection with them both.

On the surface, it could be taken as Lazriel going behind my back. But I could see beyond that, I knew better than that. I knewhimbetter than that.

Besides, for him to actually go to Cassius, it was a hell of a thing. He’d swallowed his pride to do that. All to try to help me. All because he’d wanted better for me.

“I’m doing better with it all now.”

“You demonstrated that to some extent earlier. You wielded impressive control of your shadow magic even in the heart of a highly charged and dangerous situation.”

“Exactly. So, as you can see, it’s coming along nicely. I’m even using it for fun, as a creative exercise, thanks to a suggestion from one of my professors, and it’s really helped.”

“And Sylas can counter, play with, and fuse your power with his, while Lazriel relishes your bursts of magical aggression during coitus as he enjoys pain with his pleasure. Especially from you.”

I jolted at his words.

That was intimately detailed. Far too detailed and spot on.

There was no way that the boys would have told him about that. Lazriel was far too possessive and protective over our sex life to speak a word to anyone about it. And Sylas knew that I didn’t like public displays of affection, so he wouldn’t mention it either.

“How do you—”

“I can feel it through the Soul Brand.”

“You can…oh.You mean, the actual—”

“Yes,” he ground out.

“That’s… disturbing.”

“And now you see why I’ve kept my distance. It’s invasive. It’s a violation, is it not?”

“You keeping your distance hasn’t stopped you from feeling any of that, so how does it help at all?”

“It helps becauseyouweren’t aware of it, you didn’t have to feel any of that. You were free of it, of me and the influence of the Soul Brand.”

“I wasn’t helping, Cassius. You were still feeling all of that from me and it’s arguably more disconcerting that I wasn’t made aware of it, that you kept me in the dark about what you were experiencing from me without my knowledge.”

“But now that you are aware, won’t that impact your lovemaking with the wolf hybrid and necromancer? Won’t it take away the freedom of it for you?”

Hold up.“Is that why you finally told me? So that would happen? That it would stop me from being with them in that respect?”

“I told you in order to demonstrate how much I can feel through our tether so that you’re able to understand how I can actually assist you.”

I arched an eyebrow. “And?”