A Baron of Bonds (Conduit of Light #2)

79. Rev

Chapter 79

Rev

Five weeks.

It took five weeks for her to ground herself as Karus and as Baron.

During that time, she settled, slipping into her immense power slowly, each day another sure foot into control.

There were days I was sure she was gone. Not in memories like before, but in spirit as I held her body close in sleep, bringing her consciousness back to me from wherever it had gone. I’d tug on that bond between us and she’d float back down to me.

She broke our bed. Twice.

The fireplace mantle once and Lia’s favorite slab of granite.

She used her new combined power in menial tasks as practice, often finding it too much, letting too much of herself into what she tried to accomplish.

When I held the rhyzolm, her power no longer hummed, it fucking roared , drowning out any other power in the vicinity.

I could no longer check to see if Philius’s power was growing with his training. No longer could I tell if Ilyenna’s power was drained by her growing child.

I only heard her. Only felt her when I held it.

When Clairannia and Figuerah arrived with Figuerah’s companion, Nyeimah, the Fortress felt full and light. Laughter around every corner, the three friends reunited as I remembered them before, inviting Nyeimah and Moira to join them on their daily lumen rides and tours of Viridis.

During those weeks, I mostly saw Karus in the evenings, both of us adjusting to our power as we kept to our duties. She took over training Philius and Mychael, doing what she could to catch them up to the same level of Talon, Ilyenna, Rell, and Renn.

My power had been halved, just like my soul the day Karus had joined it. I felt it there inside of the woman I’d grow old with, like a physical piece of me I’d given over to her.

She bloomed and beamed, a radiant sun, as we spent our weeks busy, productive, working together for the goal we both shared.

This would work.

And it would work well.

Two Barons, building a course of life in Felgren to train even more channelers at once and bring more magic to benefit people’s lives.

We were to leave by portal in one week for the north, stopping to spend time with Geyrand and Vivianna’s family before heading to the Attatok Mountains to meet the channelers Madame Zoreyah had chosen. We’d give them their Offerings, then head to the Spire to do the same before coming back to Hyrithia to meet again with the Queen. There, we’d form a solid plan in our expedition to the Blightress’s heart.

Karus hadn’t heard from the Blightress since the transfer of power, and though she told me everything that had happened in the trials, I still waited for her to show when we least expected it. So I kept my guard up at all times, practicing my portal magic so that I could create two at once if I needed to get Karus out of her reach quickly. She’d never leave if there was danger and I could only produce one.

“When do I get to learn portal magic?” she asked, her bare feet propped up on our massive wood desk in our study, dropping her quill in her Baron journal and rubbing her eyes.

I glanced to her beside me, two black chairs shoved together on one side of the desk before the enormous window that led to Felgren. “When you can make the bed without splitting the footboard.”

She pushed my arm in laughter, and then pulled me back toward her, reaching for a kiss.

I obliged as I always did and shut my own book, the task of writing the day’s training suddenly seeming unimportant and droll when her mouth opened on mine, pulling me in deep.

“You know, Karus,” I mumbled over her lips as she searched my pockets for our styris tea flask, “I used to be a much more productive Baron in this study.”

She took a long swig and handed it to me, a wicked, fiercely beautiful smirk on her red lips as she hopped up on our desk, leaning back and swinging her legs. “Productivity has many forms, Baron Revich.”

“Mmm.” I stood and slid my hands up her legs, splitting them apart and bundling her skirts at her waist. I leaned toward her, between her legs, both of my hands on either side of her hips.

I’d imagined this exact moment so many times in the past, a burn that snaked underneath my skin, painful and damning, and here she was, her black eyes filling green, her crimson lips parting in her anticipation of my touch.

“You dropped this,” she revealed, slipping the rhyzolm into my front pocket. I didn’t even need to touch it for it to thrum. Every day its pull to Karus and her power grew stronger, and this day was no different as it buzzed softly against my ribs.

I watched her, waiting, her smirk growing into a joyous smile as she tilted her head back and laughed. “Well, Baron Revich? Aren’t you going to kiss me?”

“Eventually.”

She shrugged, her fingers toying with the buttons of my vest. “Then I’ll wait, my love.” She caught my stare, her face softening and she inhaled deeply, pushing herself into me. “I’ll wait for you forever.”

As it was and always would be, I knew I’d do the same.