A sudden shock jolted me from my trance, and I gasped, my eyes flying open as power surged through me. It crackled through my nerves like lightning, and rippled down my arms. Cold fear shot through my veins as our joined hands began to glow, and I braced myself for the Chief Mage to explode into a cloud of ash as the rhino had done.
Iannis’s face tightened, his eyes glued to our hands with fierce intensity, and he sucked in a sharp breath through his nostrils. The glow from our hands dissipated, and the air began crackling around him instead, the way it had when I’d riled him up before.
I took a step back, shock and relief mingling in my veins. “Did… did you just absorb all that magic?”
“For now,” he said through gritted teeth. His voice was edged with pain, and suddenly I was filled with guilt. He shouldn’t be suffering like this, not as a result of helping me –
I paused mid-thought as he grabbed a potted plant sitting on a side table and released the surge of magic he’d taken from me into it. The tiny shrub instantly exploded into a full-blown tree, unfurling rapidly, the roots spreading across the parquet and the tree branches making scraping sounds as they spread across the ceiling. I gaped, open-mouthed as white flowers bloomed from the branches right before my eyes.
“Well.” The Chief Mage regarded the tree wearily. “The servants are going to have an interesting time removing this.”
I gaped at him. “Was that an actual attempt at humor?”
He frowned. “I’m a mage, not an automaton, Miss Baine.”
“Coulda fooled me. I wasn’t aware there was a difference.” I folded my arms, but I didn’t have it in me to glare at him the way I usually did. I couldn’t deny that I’d seen flashes of humanity peek out from beneath his cold exterior, though I’d go to my grave before I’d admit that to him.
“I sometimes wonder whether or not you truly have a death wish, or if you simply can’t help but insult anyone who you perceive as stronger than yourself, in an attempt to make yourself feel less inadequate.”
“Excuse me?” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “Are you accusing me of being a coward?”
“On the contrary. A coward would never dare to insult and defy me the way you do at every turn.” He advanced on me with a scowl, and I took another step back. My shoulder blades brushed against the wall, and I stiffened. “If not for the fact that you direct so much animosity towards me, I could almost admire it. But it does make me wonder how you’ve managed to survive this long with your attitude. You appear to give very little thought to consequences before you jump into action.”
“Can we move on to the part where you tell me what the point of this ‘experiment’ was?” I was not at all comfortable with his analysis of my personality. “Why exactly did you feel the need to siphon enough magic from me to create a tree in your sitting room?”
“The tree was an unintended side effect,” the Chief Mage admitted. “I should have foreseen the magical surge and brought a more appropriate receptacle for the excess. As it is, I was not ‘siphoning off’ your magic, Miss Baine. I was releasing it from its bonds.”
My eyes widened. “You… you freed my magic?” I mentally groped for that glow of power in my chest, and nearly toppled over in surprise when I actually felt it this time. “By Magorah. You really did!”
“Only partially,” the Chief Mage warned. “So that you can learn to control it.”
I frowned. The glow was weaker than what I experienced during the rare previous outbursts, but I’d chalked that up to the fact that I wasn’t supercharging myself to deliver a death blow to anyone. “Why not give me access to the whole thing?” I protested. “It’s my magic.”
“Again, I want you to be able to control it. If I give you access to all of it at once, you may find yourself overwhelmed, especially since there is no one to teach you how to direct it. With the small amount I’ve given you, you should be able to grasp some rudimentary basics.” His features tightened momentarily. “I did not want to leave you entirely defenseless while I was gone, in view of the incident in the kitchen.”
I softened a little at that, before I remembered that I’d still seen those same guards around the palace, shooting me death glares that promised retribution. “Are you even going to discipline those guards for trying to kill me?”
“Director Chartis is taking care of the matter.”
I rolled my eyes. That meant the guards were going to get away with their outrageous behavior. “I want my weapons back.”
The Chief Mage blinked. “What?”
“My weapons.” I tapped my foot impatiently, though it didn’t have the intended effect as the toe of my boot sank noiselessly into the thick carpet. “They were taken from me when I was arrested, and I want them back so I can defend myself.”
The Chief Mage frowned. “I don’t know anything about your weapons. In any case, that is what I gave you the magic for, so you can defend yourself.”
I growled. “It’s hardly going to be very helpful, since I’ve never been given any instruction on how to use it.”
“And that is only because you haven’t stopped talking long enough to allow me to give you some basic instruction.”
I snapped my jaw shut. He was going to teach me to use my magic? Now?
“I still want them back.”