“So that leaves you, huh?” I narrowed my eyes at Austin, and he met mine unflinchingly.
“I’m the only one who has full control over what I am and can teach you if any of my magic manifests in you spontaneously. It’s the safest choice, and you know it, Princess.” His eyes sparkled with an unspoken challenge, and I wanted nothing more than to punch him in the smart fucking mouth. Or kiss him again. Ugh, that hate fuck had been a terrible idea.
“Fine, let’s do this then. After all, curiosity only ever killed the cat, right?” I picked the piece of paper up from the coffee table and unfolded it to read the spell. Wow, how my life had changed that words like “spell” could be dropped so casually like that.
Caleb sighed and scooted out of the way so Austin could move closer. “Yeah, let’s just hope it doesn’t kill the Kit, too,” Caleb muttered under his breath, and my stomach flipped uncomfortably.
“Move the table, Cal,” Austin ordered. “Always a good idea to have space when casting random spells with no idea of the outcome.” His lips twitched, and I must have been more tired and in shock than I realized because I could have sworn that was meant to be a joke.
Caleb did as he was told, clearing a space in the center of the hotel suite’s living room, and Austin and I both sat cross legged and facing each other in the middle.
“Let’s do this then,” he murmured, reaching out for the spell in my hand and scanning over the written lines. “Okay, this first part is for me; the second is for you to respond. Got it?”
“Uh-huh.” I nodded, taking the paper as he handed it back. The second phrase was a lot shorter, so thank fuck for that. I’d taken a couple of Latin classes in school, but none of these words looked familiar in the least. “What does it mean?”
Austin stared at me for a moment before answering. “It’s just an acceptance of the dianoch position and a promise. Yours is simply acknowledgement and acceptance of my acceptance. Clear?”
“Not... really.” I frowned. “Wait, so if you don’t accept, then you’re not technically bound to me for all eternity? You can decline and walk away?”
“Princess,” Austin sighed. “Shut the fuck up and give me your hand.”
Without giving me another second to protest, he’d already taken my hand that wore the sapphire ring and closed it between his as his voice slid and rolled over the foreign words with ease, then he nodded at me to say my part.
Glancing down at the paper in my other hand, I stumbled and tripped over the pronunciation. Cheeks flaming, I looked up at Austin nervously, but he gave a short nod, so I mustn’t have botched it too badly.
He pulled a switchblade from his pocket, pierced his fingertip, and squeezed out a drop of blood. My hand held steady within his grip, he turned his bleeding finger over, allowing a single drop of blood to splash onto the surface of my ring.
The second his blood met the stone, it disappeared—like the stone had absorbed it instantly—and a burning ring of runes flared to life around us both in an exact replica of the symbols decorating the band of my ring. Heat and magic burst through my body so fast it was almost painful, like my body couldn’t contain the sheer pressure of it all and I was going to explode at any second.
Right when it reached the point where I expected to see my skin cracking open, Austin tugged me closer and sealed his lips to mine. Instantly, the pressure eased. It didn’t disappear, not by any stretch, but it eased, like my body was adjusting and making room for it all. Meanwhile, my hands had found their way up to the back of Austin’s neck, and I was kissing him back like we were lovers. Our lips touched together and our tongues met in a kiss so full of... I don’t even know how to put a name on it. It made me feel safe, protected, cherished, and it was leaving my mind like a bowl of scrambled eggs.
An unmeasurable period of time passed, and when we finally parted, it was with reluctance. Our faces froze just inches apart, and our gazes locked. He looked just as damn confused as I was, which made me feel a little better about it all but still no less shaken.
“Bro,” Caleb whispered from somewhere nearby, and I cleared my throat, sitting back on my feet. Somehow, we’d both ended up on our knees, our bodies flush to one another as we’d melded our magic together.
“What the fuck?” I exclaimed, seeing for the first time, an enormous fucking Bengal tiger sitting on its haunches beside Austin. It’s tongue lolled out of its mouth, and it seemed to almost be smiling as it looked at me, but all I could focus on were its massive, gleaming teeth.
“Huh,” Austin murmured, inspecting the huge cat with interest and running a confident hand down its back. “Well, that was unexpected.”
“No shit!” I halfway screeched, then clapped a hand over my mouth when the cat swung its gaze from Austin back to me.
“Bro,” Caleb breathed again. “That’s...”
“My familiar,” Austin finished for him, nodding.
“But they’re not real,” Caleb insisted, shuffling closer to us for a better look at the tiger. The other guys were still there around the outskirts of the living room, watching wide-eyed with shock. Or rather, most of them were wide-eyed with shock, and River just looked like River. Total man of steel, that one. Unflappable to a fault.
“Um, the huge ass fucking tiger sitting two feet from me disagrees with that statement, Caleb,” I hissed in a slightly terrified stage whisper, and Austin smirked.
“He’s not going to eat you, Princess,” the asshole Ink Mage teased. “He’s not a real tiger. He’s a manifestation of my magic. Familiars are the stuff of legends; that’s why Cal is losing his shit right now. The last Mage who was ever said to have had one died around a thousand years ago.”
No one spoke for the longest time while I looked between Austin and his... familiar. The tiger looked back at me, it’s long pink tongue hanging out of a mouth lined in razor sharp teeth as it panted.
“He looks like a pretty real tiger to me,” I muttered eventually, scooting back a few feet on my butt before standing up. The circle of runes we’d been surrounded by was slowly fading, but still visible enough for me to see that they were identical to the symbols on my ring. Coincidence? I think not. Then again, it did stand to reason that they would be, given the spell was directly linked to my ring.
Ugh, all this magical theory is giving me a migraine.
“What are you going to do with him now?” Wesley asked Austin as the Mage also climbed to his feet and buried a hand in the tiger’s fur. “I’m pretty sure we will have a hard time sneaking a fully grown Bengal onto the Omega Jet this afternoon.”
“I have no idea.” Austin shrugged. “But I should be able to disappear him when it’s not convenient to have a tiger hanging around. We just need to get to know each other a bit before I start throwing commands at him.”
“I thought you said he wasn’t a real tiger,” Vali commented, with a small grin playing at his lips.