Kiss of Fire (Imdalind, #1)(66)

“A T?uha?” Ovailia exclaimed. “How is that possible?”

“What is that?” I asked “A T?uha?”

“It is exactly what Ryland told you it was,” Ilyan commented quietly. “A T?uha is a place where your minds can go and be together, no matter how far apart you are in distance. It is normally only reserved for those who have gone through the Z?lství, which is why it is so surprising that you shared one with Ryland.”

“Z?lství?”

“He means bonded,” Wyn translated the word from Czech for me. “You would refer to it as a marriage.”

My jaw dropped.

“Marriage?”

“I had a feeling your connection with Ryland was stronger than any of us thought after you raised the highway into a mound when we escaped.” Ilyan’s eyes dug into mine sharply.

“I did that?” I asked.

“Yes, but not on your own,” Ilyan continued. “Ryland helped, too.”

A pin could have dropped and it would have sounded like a herd of elephants. I could only stare at him, my jaw dropped in awe.

“You don’t mean… the necklace?” Wyn asked, her voice almost a squeak of nerves.

Ilyan nodded in response to her question, his focus still on me.

“What necklace.” Ovailia scowled. “What have you been keeping from me, Ilyan?”

Ilyan finally released me from his gaze to stare down Ovailia with hard eyes.

“I keep from you whatever I deem, Ovailia.”

Ovailia wilted under his sharp gaze.

“You will have to excuse my sister,” Ilyan’s voice was impregnated with something akin to diplomatic anger. “She forgets her manners from time to time.”

“Or on a daily basis,” Wyn grumbled under her breath.

Ilyan chuckled at her comment while Ovailia only growled.

I probably should have been more shocked, given how fuzzy my mind was when Ilyan told me that Wyn was not his sister. Looking between Ilyan and Ovailia right then, I felt supremely stupid for ever believing that Wyn and Ilyan were siblings in the first place. Wyn was so short and darkly colored; she looked out of place between Ilyan and Ovailia with their tall, fair beauty. So much was alike between them; their high cheek bones, the shade of their eyes, and the golden color of their long hair. Ovailia’s features were refined, her high cheek bones and cat-like eyes giving her the look of aristocratic beauty. Still, somehow, her attitude ruined it and turned some of her striking elegance into rubbish.

“Since you have chosen to keep things from me, do you wish to enlighten me now?” Ovailia waved one of her hands impatiently to the side, her long fingers extending like a dancers.

“Show her your necklace, Joclyn.”

“What does any of this have to do with my necklace?” I asked, clutching the ruby tightly through Ryland’s sweater.

“You are going to have to tell her, My Lord,” Wyn spoke, her weight shifting on the bed to face me.

He stood and began to pace, only moving a few steps in either direction as he ran his hands through his hair in agitation.

“Ilyan?” I asked after I could take no more of his uptight movements. He stopped at my voice and came to lean against the bed, his face only millimeters away from my own. I flinched back out of habit.

“The necklace is more than just a gift; Ryland has infused it with his own magic as a way to keep an eye on you, to protect you. Every time you have ever felt it grow warm, it signals to him that you are in danger.”

I nodded, remembering his sudden appearance at the Rugby field, and his apparent knowledge of my fight with Cynthia.

“But I am afraid it inadvertently became more than that. You see, the entire time you two have known each other, Ryland has been infusing you with his magic—to calm you, to heal you, to protect you, to comfort you.”

I nodded before looking down at my lap. “The warmth,” I sighed. “I pushed you out the first time you tried to heal me because Ryland’s m… magic…” I struggled to get the word out. “It had just left me and I was scared.”

“The day we went to the fire pit,” Wyn interrupted, her voice low, “he healed your hand after you hit him, he used his magic to calm you when you were jumping over the fire, and you… you used his magic to help you climb the tree.”

“What?”

“When you climbed the tree,” Wyn continued, “you drew his magic off him and used it to sharpen your senses. It’s why you are so fast. Why it feels so natural.”

“Ryland did it all without knowing that you possessed your own unharnessed power,” Ilyan continued. “So the more your magic mingled, the more they became dependent on each other, the more they became one. When Ryland gave you the necklace, he made it so that his magic would always be close to yours, and with that, he inadvertently sealed your fate. He permanently fused the magic, and in turn, your lives together.”

“What are you saying? That Edmund could infiltrate my mind as well?” I couldn’t keep the panic from seeping into my voice. I needed to save Ryland, but now it wasn’t just him—it was me as well.

“I do not think it will come to that,” Ilyan said. “Mostly what this means is that you can draw off each other. In essence, your magic cannot survive without his and vice-versa.”