catch as it filled me with warmth. I wanted to lean down and press my face against her neck as I had earlier, drawing deeply of her scent.
No.
That wasn’t the purpose of this.
And things like that were enough to steal my focus and turn my mind. Not only did that kind of pleasure make me feel dreadfully human, it turned me away from the dark. The light beckoned when I was with her like that, and this was unacceptable.
“Here goes nothing,” she murmured.
Her magic sparked through her, prickling against my palms. I could feel it as she reached deep, trying to wrest it up from within her soul.
I drew in a steady breath and released my own power, feeding it into her, envisioning it traveling down my arms and into her shoulders.
She gasped and swayed, and her magic burned brighter.
In front of us, one of the trees began to move, its limbs reaching toward the sky. Tiny buds appeared on the branches, and awe filled me.
She was life.
The opposite of me. I shouldn’t be so impressed. But death had been my world for so long that seeing something like this was incredible.
Wonder filled me as I watched the buds appear. Then they stopped, almost forming leaves but not quite.
I could feel her frustration in the tension of her shoulders, in the way her magic flared.
“It’s stopped,” she said.
“Here.” I pulled her toward me, pressing her back fully against my front and wrapping an arm around her waist.
She gasped, the sound sending a fierce spike of pleasure through me. It was nothing compared to the feeling of having her in my arms, however. She was so much smaller than me, yet the memory of her ferocity streaked through me.
“Is this necessary?” she squeaked.
“Yes. If you want to keep that tree growing.” And it truly was. Though it felt so good that I might have lied about it just to have more of her.
“Fine.”
The closer touch allowed me to funnel more of my magic into her, and she responded in kind, reaching for more of her own. It surged to life within her, vibrant and true.
The fact that I could feel it was astonishing. I knew the theory of this kind of thing—I had read about it in preparation for finding her—but I’d never done it before. Never joined my magic with another’s in this way. It was strangely intimate, making me feel like my skin was too raw, but I craved more of it. Craved more of her.
As her magic began to grow within her, the trees responded. Buds appeared on every branch, and the sight of it made me wonder for the first time whether the underworld truly had to look the way it did.
7
Seraphia
Magic flowed through my veins like a drug, the power making me feel like I was flying. Hades’ touch burned across every inch of my skin. Desire followed, but I drew in a ragged breath, trying to ignore it as I focused on the trees.
He’d been right. His touch somehow made it easier to access the magic that resided deep in my soul. There was so much more of it than I’d ever realized. So much more of it that I couldn’t access, even with his help.
I could feel it, deep inside me. Locked away. Bound.
Alia’s word echoed in my ears. Someone had bound my magic.
But I couldn’t worry about that now. I needed to worry about these trees. I needed to bring them back to life. They called to me so strongly that I couldn’t resist.
I dug deeper, trying to find as much power as I could, and gave it to the trees. Heady delight filled me as I watched them heal. I leaned into it, letting the magic sweep me up. So much power surged through me that my head began to swim. My vision blurred, and my skin tingled as the forest rotated around us. Breathing became difficult, then seemed to stop entirely.
For the briefest second, my vision went dark.
Gasping, I blinked.
My eyes flashed open, but everything looked different.
The trees were the same, but I was standing in another part of the forest. I could no longer feel my body, in fact. All I could feel was the power—pure, heady, dark. It filled me with the most glorious strength and confidence, health and vitality.
I’d never felt so amazing in all my life. I could accomplish anything.