Dedicated to @laorangerose without you this story would have disappeared forever.
With no time to lose, we began early the next morning.
The birds sang their tune on a neighboring tree, the morning song that somehow I'd gotten used to in the short time I'd been there. At some point between going to bed and waking, it had rained. The humidity still clung to the air, the smell of fresh rain a welcome scent.
We stood on the patio of the backyard ready to practice magic again as we had done before going to Tartus. Instead of training as actively as we had before, he made me stand in front of him, arms crossed not moving.
I could feel the heat of his body the closer he stepped towards me. My eyes lingered over his muscled chest and arms as he continued and I felt a blush rise to my cheeks. I cleared my throat trying to startle myself out of the daze I was in - and to stop myself from staring. "What are you doing?"
Gently, he placed his hands on my shoulders. "I have no idea but stay still."
As I watched him I felt a sudden pull. It moved me closer to him, closing the space between us.
He pushed me back gently. "That's not staying still."
I shook my head. "Sorry. I didn't know I was doing it."
He held me firmly in place again and suddenly I felt the pull again.
He pushed me back into place. "This isn't going to work. The calling is stronger than I thought."
I nodded, dazed, still working through the fog I was momentarily under.
"Gods," he mumbled. I could see him desperately clinging to some sanity. "In all the centuries ... I've never thought I'd need so much self-control as in this moment."
My lips parted as he spoke and I found myself nodding to whatever he was saying. "Hmm-hmm."
He laughed as his eyes went from my eyes to my lips. "Don't look at me like that, sweetheart."
I nodded but still watched him with half closed eyes. "Okay."
He groaned. "Oh, the hell with it."
My skin was on fire again.
And as abruptly as it started, it stopped - just as Julian pushed me into the pool directly behind me.
As soon as I hit the water I immediately appeared right behind him, pushing him as hard as I could, drenched from head to toe. "Why do you people keep doing that?!"
Julian laughed and turned, directing an attack at me. I raised a hand in front of me and deflected it back at the house. A crash rang throughout the space but that didn't stop his continued attacks. He pushed me and I pushed back making sparks of magic fly between us.
I laughed, giddy. I was powerful.
And it wasn't like the time I'd first been unbound, that was barely a scratch of what I was currently feeling. I felt invincible like nothing could stop me.
And it was mine.
Not someone else's to control or damper or claim.
