The King left.
I stared at Skarde on the floor where he rubbed his head, looking up at me. I bent down and moved my hand to his cheek. He jerked back from me but I kept moving into him, ever so slowly.
“Let’s go to your quarters. I’ll try to explain what happened.”
Skarde nodded, dark eyes vulnerable and open, long hair curling around his face, the bruise on his right eye swollen into purples and reds, and I wondered if I could ask him anything in that moment and receive an honest answer.
My heart quaked and I wanted so badly to lean into kiss him… But, it felt like taking advantage of him in an unfair way… He would hardly remember it. I wanted him when he was mine to conquer, not when he was already lost on the battlefield.
I helped him stand up and led him to his quarters. As we walked, his pace matched mine, tentative and exacting: he was still connected to me. When I turned to look one direction, he turned to look, too. Even though I wasn’t pulsing any of my Will into him on purpose, it was still imposed on him.
It was an odd, eerie feeling. If I stopped, he stopped. If I quickened my pace, he quickened his. If I smiled, he smiled.
He was absolutely under my control.
As we walked by a display of lit candles, I reached out a hand and swept a telekinetic wind to blow out a few of them. He did the same and with a slight whiff, a dozen of them were blown out. I grinned. He smiled back.
“You have tele skills. Even without much instructions. You can tap into it. I can’t wait to teach you more.”
“Thank you, Bravo.”
I swallowed deeply. The deference was unnerving… That had been unexpected… Mentally controlling someone meant an immediate subservience… I hadn’t realized that would be part of the deal. I wondered how long that would last. I hadn’t asked Cartari and Zaya enough questions. I would work with him tonight and tomorrow and bring back the warrior inside him, teach him some mental blocks, and make sure he knew: I was not his master.
My pulse picked up a beat as his hand brushed mine as we slipped through a particularly small corridor. He reflected a smile at me that I knew was just because of the mental control, but I still loved seeing that knee-buckling grin…
I did want to be the master of his heart…
Eleven
Skarde
I stared at my reflection in the bedroom wall mirror as Ilisa freshened up in the bathroom. I touched the purple bruise that Modifi had left on my right eye when he had fetched me for the mental exercise and then the growing red mark over my left temple that King Kajo had just made. I clutched my head between my hands for a moment and pressed hard. My brain raged. There was a mist over all my thoughts, like there was something hanging within there that wasn’t my own, something tangled in my mind that I had to obey, something intangible that pulled me… Something that told me to look this way, step that way, lift this, smile that, step here, back away there…
And it was all connected to Bravo Ilisa…
I held up my fists and turned them over and over. My fists. My hands. I could hit what I wanted. I could do what I wanted. Right…? I was the one in control… I was the one in control… Not her…
Ilisa came out of the bathroom and I was pulled to her immediately. I stepped to her and I wondered, did I tell myself to step toward her…? Did I tell myself to smile at her? She was smiling. Did I smile at her because I wanted to? She looked to the bed and I followed her look. Was it because she looked? She pointed at my sword and I pointed, too. Did I raise my hand on purpose?
I grabbed my head and sank to my knees.
“I don’t know!” I yelled. She rushed forward and put her arms around me. Her hands wound their way into my hair, her touch calming me and I breathed out deeply. The fog in my mind was clouding it, but her touch seemed to wisp away the fog.
“I can’t tell, Ilisa… I can’t tell if I am the one making these motions, or if it is because of you.”
“It is both, Skarde. It is both right now. You are very tied to my Will at this time, because of the control I was exerting on you. You might be tied to Kajo a little, too.”
“Kajo…” I growled and hit my fist on the ground. At least, I knew that was my own expression of anger. That asshole… He had invaded my mind… He had forced me to say things about Truloy…
“I know, I know… That shouldn’t have happened, Skarde. I’m sorry...” Ilisa held me tight to her chest and gripped my arms. Her breasts were so supple against my cheek and my heartbeat was picking up.
“I know the necessity of this, and I will continue to work with you on this… But only you… I can’t let him in again, okay? I can’t let him in again…”
“I understand, Skarde.” Ilisa kissed my cheek gently. “I want you to trust me… I want you to trust me because you know you can… Not because I mentally controlled you and told you to…”
I pushed back from her and stared at her, eyes wide. Her words had been so clear in my mind. She smiled and nodded. “Think back to me.”
“I don’t know how to do that.”
“Sure you do. Open your mind. Think of me. Think of the tangible wave of thought that you latched to when you were
