I tried to make sense of what he was saying. “So what? We wait?”
“Now that Luz is gone, the tides have changed. Our hands are tied until we receive information.” He cleared his throat. “There is another issue we must deal with. The essence.”
I tilted my head. What Luz had given me. “What about it?”
“You must learn control. When Cora reached Fae maturity, she had no control over her ability. Her power exploded out of her when she was upset. She even threw Con yards away from her.” Tyran’s lips quirked. “And she didn’t have the essence like you do. You could level the ground with the power you have if you don’t know how to control it. That’s not even taking into account your heightened senses.”
“But I’m already experiencing heightened senses.”
“Can you hear the woman coming upstairs?” he asked. I focused, and the soft padding of shoes filled my ears. I nodded slowly in answer. “Did you have to concentrate to hear it?”
“Yeah,” I said.
The look on his face was contemplative. “It seems like you’re not fully Fae yet. You will have to focus not to hear when magic is unbound. Everything will intensify when you unbind magic.”
“That’s a total invasion of privacy,” I muttered.
“That’s why most of the rooms are soundproof.”
“Oh.” My skin prickled, and I rubbed my neck. Having the abilities all at once and more intensely than what I already felt… I shook my head.
“You must prepare to harness your heightened abilities or, at the very least, the theory of control. When magic is unbound, the power of it will hit you.” The confidence in that statement… at least he believed in me. “Yours, combined with what the Queen passed to you, is extremely dangerous. You could turn us all into statues or implode Faerie.”
Ice coursed through my veins as reality settled in. Would I ever be able to return to the human world? If I had all this juice, how would that work? I shivered. Thoughts for later, I chanted internally.
“How exactly do you expect me to learn how to harness something I don’t have?”
“Focus is the main aspect.” He smiled. “We have utter control of our abilities when we are not ruled by emotions.”
I was screwed. The emotional control would end up messing me up.
“I’ll train you to focus and gain control. This will not only help you in maintaining calm for your future in magical practice, but you can also apply the skills to block out your sensitive senses.”
“When do we start?”
Excitement bubbled in my stomach. Finally, a plan. When he’d told me they basically had their hands tied on news of how to unbind magic, my hope at figuring all this out in a timely manner dwindled. I didn’t want to stay here long, but what else was I supposed to do if we were waiting for a seer for answers? At least, this way, I wouldn’t be sitting around twiddling my thumbs. I’d learn the basics of control.
“Let’s get down to business, then. I already wasted time.” Two weeks of it. I still couldn’t believe I’d slept that long. “Hopefully, we’ll hear from a seer soon. I’m hoping to get this magic unleashed thing done by the end of the month.”
He tilted his head at me, his eyebrows meeting. “It will not be that soon.”
“Why not? We just have to keep at it. Work pays off.” I was starting to get a bit disgruntled by the almost mocking look overtaking his face.
“The Queen dedicated her entire existence to retrieving magic back. She was the cause of it. Yet she could not figure it out.”
I heard the hidden meaning in his words. If the great Queen had not done it, who did I think I was?
Words bubbled up to my lips, but I held them back. As much as I wanted to be offended, I understood where he was coming from.
My shoulders slumped. “I want to get back to my life. Finish college…” My words trailed off. I didn’t realize I’d said the words aloud until I noticed the pitying look on Tyran’s face.
“You will never go back to your life,” he said simply, a hard glint in his gaze.
My shoulders shot back. He’d shown such a kind and logical face that I had forgotten I needed to keep my guard up around these creatures. They needed me now, but what about when they didn’t? Anger roused at his words.
“Look here, Ty,” I began, and his eyebrows flew further up at my emphasis on his shortened name. “I don’t know what it is with you sexy male Fae alpha types but let me clue you in on something.” I paused for dramatic effect. “I will find a way to free magic, and then, guess what? I’ll go back to my boring human existence. There’s nothing you or anyone else can do or say about it.”
A small part of me knew I was nearing the point of being hysterical, but his words were the manifestation of the doubts that had been eating at me. Hail began hitting the side of the castle, the thumps intensifying against the glass with every word.
Leaving was my intention. Knowing how the Queen was chosen only further cemented that. Maybe there’d be a way to pass the essence onto another. Someone more capable, someone who actually wanted it.
I sensed it wasn’t the time to bring up that idea yet. I had to bide my time. For now, I needed to focus on one thing. Controlling the hectic weather. Tyran’s lips pursed, but I interrupted before he could say whatever was flashing in his eyes.
“What Queenly duties do I have to do while I’m here?” I tacked that last bit on, hoping he would catch onto the underlying meaning in my words.
“Being Queen is not the way your human mind thinks it is, regardless it will be explained to you if we manage to free magic, so do not worry yourself over that right now. Conan, Rian,
