“Feeling much better.” I took a seat beside Theo. We shared this class together— Fae Intention. I hadn’t bothered with my classes all semester, and so, my grades were shit, but there was still time to pull things together before exams in a month and a half. I couldn’t remember a single thing Lucien had taught me this year, so I was focused on making up time.
Theo flipped open his textbook. “You’re late.”
I smirked. “Emma and I might’ve enjoyed a quick rendezvous in my bedroom.”
And what a time it had been. Emma and I were back together, but she had insisted she didn’t want anything too serious. The notion bothered me, but I couldn’t push her into anything. I figured I might as well take advantage of the situation by sinking myself into her as often as the opportunity permitted.
And temptation happened. Often. Hardly a day went by now where Emma and I weren’t having sex. The crazy urges would slow, Stefan insisted, so it’d be best if we enjoyed my raging shifter hormones while they lasted.
“Lucky son-of-a-bitch,” Theo growled while staring at his notes.
I grinned, but my smile fell when I saw that Theo was being serious. He clearly had Odette on his mind. “What’s the problem?”
Theo sighed. “The problem is I’m lonely. I love Odette— she’s avoiding me. You know we kissed on Heimskanun.”
“Yeah.” It was all he’d talked about for days afterward.
“Well, I can’t seem to make a move since. Every time I do, Odette makes up an excuse, or runs away. We don’t hang out, or talk— it’s like we’re not even friends anymore. This is exactly what I was worried about.”
Theo’s fist pounded against the desk, before he put his knuckles to his mouth and bit down.
I grabbed his shoulder. “You aren’t losing her. Your relationship is just changing. It has to, if you want to be together.”
“Yeah, and what if it changes in a bad way? Like it’s so awkward, she ends up hating my guts?” he spat. “This back and forth between us is driving me crazy.”
“So sit her down and talk it out with her. That’s the only way you’ll solve it.”
“I can’t do that,” Theo whined. “I’ll make a fool out of myself.”
I held back a noise of impatience. Alicorns never confronted their feelings. It was rare for them to voice their emotions aloud. “You beating around the bush is what got you into this situation in the first place,” I said. “Lay it all on the line, and just get it over with. Then you’ll have an answer.”
Theo scowled. He scribbled something down in his notebook, and Lord Lucien took command of the class by rapping the chalkboard.
“You all know the basics of fae magic,” Lucien boomed. “Our intention is our power. Our creativity brings impossible things to life. Fae manifest their desires in the physical plane by believing in what we want. In Edinmyre, this was even easier— a fae would think of something, and it would appear instantly, whether belief or not was there. On Earth, this is harder. Though the portal is closed, we still pull our magic from Edinmyre, and how much magic we can harness through that connection to our otherworldly home dictates our capabilities here. The mark of a powerful shifter or sorceress is determined by how much power they can harness from Edinmyre.”
That made sense. It was the reason Emma was so strong. She had a direct line to our ancestral home, and could easily open and close portals that went there.
Lucien lifted a finger. “However, there are limitations— a fae in this world can manifest food, but it will not give the same nutritional value as it would in Edinmyre. A fae’s ability to create illusions also depends on their ability to believe. The most powerful fae in the world could harness all the power from Edinmyre they wished, but if they did not believe they had the ability to cast the spell, it would cease to manifest into existence. The true law of our race is that we are the creators of our destiny and our lives. We can create our reality, so long as we use our belief to bring what we want into our existence. Our thoughts— and our faith— become our reality.”
Nicoli raised a hand. “You say our faith becomes our reality. But don’t the gods give each of us a path to follow?”
Lucien lifted an eyebrow. “Does it truly matter whether