The Wright (Friday Updates)

Lunch

Toddy and I were the first to finish eating, eager as we were to leave the table and the whole of the morning behind. She whirled on me the moment we were far enough down the side hall to avoid unwanted listeners, grabbing each of my shoulders and shoving me against the wall.

"You did not tell me the king likes you, Clia!"

"I-I...I'm his assistant. Of course he likes me well enough."

She shook her head, eyes serious. "Cut the bullshit. You know exactly what I am talking about and you are playing him back! How can you turn down the fucking king?"

I bristled. "What do you mean? I am not jumping into his arms just because of who he is. Are you crazy?"

Toddy released me and stepped back, threading her fingers in her hair. "Bells, Clia. When he came to check on me last night and healed me, he said you were already in bed. I should have known what that meant."

"No, it's not like that," I defended. "He checked on me, too. He was afraid Saint hurt us and my back was scratched. That was it."

"You don't see the way he looks at you." She crossed her arms.

"I don't want to see it either. I didn't ask for the healing in the first place, alright? The way his magic feels when he touches me is...it's just..." I shivered.

Chestnut eyes squinted at me. "When he touches you?"

"Yes, to heal obviously."

"He doesn't need to touch people to heal them. He didn't lay a finger on me, which just means that I am right."

My jaws snapped shut at that. He didn't? My heart squeezed tightly, blood rushing all the way to the roots of my hair and fingertips. He was making excuses to touch me? I had known him for all of a month or even less and he was acting as though he had a crush. Though, it could still be that he was yearning for a companion like Heralla.

Toddy seemed to understand that I was thrown off. "Just...be careful. If you make him angry, we could both get fired. I am not saying to sleep with him so that we can keep our jobs or anything, but just handle this delicately. Alright?"

I nodded, greatly overwhelmed and needing time to recuse myself and process things.

We went our separate ways; she hurried off to the back of the castle towards the laundry area while I hid myself in the master study with a few of my borrowed books, lest the king attempt to confront me before I was prepared.

My thoughts were jumping all over the place, flustered as I was. It was a horrible circle of his tactic at breakfast, then the fact that he warmed me by touch when it was not necessary, to every other time we had made physical contact, which inevitably led to me replaying the kiss. The worst part was, I felt like I had no idea what to do other than spar with him until he lost interest.

I read the same page several times over before I was able to sink into any details, at last taking a deep breath to flush away the nagging thoughts. This was as bad as drama at the Academy, except it was no longer second-hand nerves after watching Toddy get into it with someone, but my own.

"Focus, Clia," I muttered.

I had taken extensive notes on the Soul Tap, and Vaulk had used it to steal the life force from not only witches and warlocks, but magical creatures. It was part of a thing that he used to funnel power into the runes he created. The additional research I was doing on my own time was to find out why Vaulk and Kinnut might be at odds with one another.Something critical had to have happened for Vaulk to linger instead of passing on.

I started with the History of Soul Wrights, another banned book, since it accounted for every Soul Wright that had been born. It began with the first recorded warlock suspected of being one during the Era of Man. Relatively weak in power, Seamus Throll practiced before the Collision and mans fall. He used his ability to heal others, performing surgeries and procedures that typically had low success rates. He had kept his powers a secret as humans were fearful of what they did not understand.