Chapter 7

BELLAMY

“Thank you,” she said, kissing my jaw.

Just like that, the tension in my body released. I still could not believe that she was here with me. I had not expected this turn of events when I finally decided to head back there.

I led her further into the bedroom and smiled as she looked around excitedly. I put a lot of effort into making my apartment my retreat. I spent a lot of time traveling around, so I wanted to ensure that I enjoyed it when I came back here. Thank fuck for portals, or I would never see home.

“Why does your magic calm me?” she asked curiously.

I placed her bag on the bed before turning around to her. It was definitely a great question, yet even this was out of my wheelhouse a bit. That was certainly saying something because I thrived in increasing the size of my wheelhouse.

“I’m not entirely sure. I’ve never had that reaction before. The bathroom is right though there,” I pointed to the door across the room. “I’m going to get a little bit of work done while you shower.”

She nodded and took the bag to the bathroom.

I was hoping that work would keep me from thinking about the fact that she would be completely naked in that shower. I had never seen her full body, but I knew it would be sexy as hell. Water would cascade in rivulets down her bare skin.

My thoughts would be the death of me. I internally groaned.

I was a bit behind in work, so I quickly set up the accounts needed for the new witches I found. I was creating a database to register them. There were similar ones for shifters which helped the Venscothi family to keep track of their people.

Most people were thrilled to align themselves with Aedrul because so much good had come from the downfall of Selene. They had all worked hard to make the world better for all species. Not to mention that it had now become practice to separate wolf spirits from humans if the wolf spirit was not at fault for whatever crime was committed. It was also practiced to separate them if the wolf wanted to be in control of their own body. You would not believe how many humans got pissy because of it.

“Um, Bel?” Kenzie asked softly.

I looked up and saw her peeking out of the bathroom door. I only saw her head, but she looked sheepish. Kenzie did not do sheepish, so she had my interest instantly piqued.

I nodded my head and smirked at her blush. I was not aware that Kenzie Venscothi was capable of blushing. The things that I was learning about this beauty.

“I appreciate that you packed for me. Seriously, top notch idea. However, you forgot a few articles of clothing.”

I quirked an eyebrow at that. I had not even really paid attention when I was packing her things.

 “What did I forget?”

She glared at me, knowing I found this situation amusing. She was just so much fun to rile up. Kenzie certainly was an Alpha after all. The two of us always thrived off challenging one another.

“Shirts and undergarments. You got it all but those.”

I swallowed hard. My mind immediately begun imaging her without them, causing me to internally shake my head to contain my own thoughts.

I grabbed one of my tees from the closet and a pair of boxers. It was a good thing that I had manipulation magic at my disposal so that I would be able to alter it to her size. I handed them to her with a chuckle.

She came out a moment later in my shirt, and I bit back a growl. Why the hell did she elicit such a strong reaction. Who was I kidding? She was the only girl I had ever found interest in. Trust me, others tried to get with me, but I loved Kenzie. Even though she had not been in my life, nobody could ever compare to her. My heart belonged to her even if she never felt the same.

She came over to me, trying to run her fingers through her curls, but huffed in exasperation. 

“I hate my hair. Not even Papa’s is this damn curly.”

“Want some help with that? I dabble in manipulation magic and can help you tame that if you’d like.” I patted the chair next to mine.

“Thank the heavens,” she sighed and sagged onto the chair.

I ran my hand through her soft curls and watched her shoulders relax underneath my touch. Yes, even softer than I imagined they would feel.

“I love your hair, by the way,” I murmured, as I let my magic separate the curls and tame them.

It was interesting to see how the green of my magic highlighted the blue in her hair. I pulled my magic back and patted her shoulders.

She got up and looked in the mirror. She twisted and turned, taking the change in. Manipulation magic was perfect for hair. Aunty’s lady-in-waiting showed me that very early on in life. I even used it on my own. It was nowhere near as curly as hers, but it was still curly.

“How did you do this? Well, magic, I know. Damn, this is great. I might have to get your help more often. I can never tame them this well,” she said with a soft chuckle, coming to sit next to me.

“Anytime you want. My magic is at your disposal.”

“Wrong thing to say, Bel. Think of all the trouble I could cause,” she said with wide innocent eyes.

Kenzie was so not innocent. The trouble we all used to get up to as kids was shit of legend. It was one reason why rules against us entering the Magical Artifact Library and helping out in the kitchen without Aunty’s supervision were put in place.

“Mhm. It takes a lot more than that to sway me,” I informed her.

I saw her looking at the screen, so I explained to her about the database I was creating. She seemed genuinely intrigued with it.

“Are you able to cross-reference with it?” she asked curiously.

“If I know what I’m seeking.”

She nodded and looked thoughtful. Her thumb ran over her bottom lip while she decided what she wanted to search for. My eyes were glued to her lip until she spoke and broke me away from that. Her lips were addicting, and I could not wait to taste them again. Kenzie was my first kiss, and it was very much worth the wait.

“Where did my magic come from? I know there is magic in the kingdom, but this feels different. It feels like it’s part of me.”

That was something I had thought about as well, so I was glad to see that we were on the same page with it. I pulled up her lineage chart and pointed it out to her.

“You’re right. There is magic in Aedrul. Your lineage is special because Venscothi’s have magical abilities which manifest within themselves. Your mother had an affinity for three different types of magic, as does her uncle Leonidas. They’re the only two in the kingdom with an affinity for three.”

“She only has one,” Kenzie said, confused.

I pulled up another screen that showed the transfer of power. It was all part of the official record. It was imperative that Zane always had the magic in the kingdom documented for cases like this when it was necessary to see it.

“Your mother, being the Alpha Princess, had access to three types of magic after she defeated Selene. She had Battle magic, Empathic magic, and Elemental magic. However, she split her powers between herself and your fathers in order to keep it away from an enemy. Now, the three of them each holds one type of magic. Aunty retained the Battle, Uncle K got the Elemental, and Uncle Xander got the Empathic magic. Did they never tell you this?”

She shook her head, and there was irritation in her eyes. “No. They always avoided the topic of magic around me. Everything related to magic was avoided. It was like they felt like I too weak to hear about it when I didn’t have abilities myself.”

“But did you never do magic in the castle? The magic in Aedrul is able to be used by most people even if they don’t have their own magic. The magic in the castle is even more potent.”

She shook her head, and I was getting angry. Really fucking angry. I bit back my anger because it was not aimed at her. They denied her the most basic part of herself. It was something that I would not be able to understand or accept.

“Come on. It’s getting late,” I said, pulling her up.

Kenzie held onto my hand tightly as if I was the only thing keeping her grounded. I would give her whatever she needed. I would be whatever she needed me to be for her.

She crawled into the bed and looked at me before patting the side of the bed next to her.

“Your shirt needs to come off,” she said, looking at me with those doe eyes of hers.

I blinked at that, and it took me a moment to realize that she was being serious. I took my shirt off, unsure of why she wanted that. But I really did not care about the reason. It was a very positive sign.

Thankfully, I put a lot of time into my physical training and knew I had a decent body. The way her eyes swept over me made me realize that she just wanted to see me without a shirt on. I would walk around without it on if I always got to see that hungry look in her eyes. She looked at me as if I was her prey, and I would let her devour me if she wanted to.

“What about yours?” I asked, quirking my eyebrow at her.

“Maybe tomorrow,” she said matter-of-factly.

I swallowed hard before climbing in next to her and pulling the blanket up around us. She curled into me, and I held her. It felt natural like it was always this way. Her body fit perfectly against me, and it felt great to have her in my arms.

She looked up at me and searched my eyes for something. “I don’t have any right to ask this of you, but please don’t let them take my magic,” she said softly.

“I will never allow anyone to do anything to you, Ki,” I promised her. She nodded and fell asleep in my arms.

I laid awake for a while thinking about everything that had happened. I would uphold my promise to her. The pleading in her voice as she asked me not to let them take her magic made me hurt. Kenzie never pleaded. Her family had broken her spirit so much that she did not even trust them right now. But she did trust me. I would never break that trust because it meant everything to me.

The dampeners would not be enough to block her access to magic because even those who did not harness their own were able to tap into Aedrul’s magic. It would mean that she would have access to use magic once she was outside the castle.

I wanted to run an analysis on those serums used to treat the poison tomorrow. I had a feeling that it had something in it that would essentially block her access to magic entirely. However, there was one question to answer:

Why would they want to ensure that she could not tap into magic at all?

I looked down at her and smiled. She fell asleep with her head on my chest, and this closeness was better than I ever imagined it would be.

My lips placed a soft kiss to the top of her head. It did not matter what I needed to do. I would protect her at all costs. She spent her whole fucking life being lied to and shunned by her actual family. There was no way that they could not see what it did to her.

When she left the dining room after we got back to the castle, they just looked relieved that she left. Whatever they were hiding would come to light because I was ruthless when need be, and I would do whatever this beauty needed me to do for her.

There was nothing and not a damn soul in this universe that would be safe if they hurt her.