When I’d downed the last bite of my fish and chips, he said, “Your magic is changing.”
“I know.” I thought of the way I’d been able to zoom in on the vision of Mariketta’s crypt, and then of how I’d had a hard time getting the information I needed from her memories. My powers were totally unreliable. “But how do you know?”
“I can feel it.” His jaw tightened. “And that’s dangerous.”
My shoulders slumped.
“It’s one thing not to be able to control your magic,” he said. “That’s bad enough. But you have magic that is constantly growing and changing. That is unheard of.”
“I can’t let the Council know.”
“You can’t.” A deep frown cut across his face. “I can control them to a point, but I can only do so much. I can’t force them to obey my every command. Impossible to control so many. Not forever.”
I nodded.
“Learning to use and control your magic is going to take time,” he said.
“Time we don’t have.”
“But we can teach you to suppress your magical signature so that they think you have control.”
Hope flared. “I like the sound of that.”
“Every supernatural learns to do it. Normally, it’s easier. Less power equals less of a signature to control. But you have a lot of power.”
“It’s like trying not to stink when you sweat, isn’t it?”
He chuckled. “Essentially.”
“I can’t even imagine how to do that.”
“I’ll help you. We started out the wrong way at La Papillon. I was trying to train you to use your magic—to compel it to do your will. But we need to start with something more attainable.”
“And this is it.”
“This is it.”
“Why are they so interested in me?” I asked. “It seems overly aggressive.”
“It is. They’re normally intense about this kind of thing. But with you…there’s something more to it.” His gaze dropped to the crystal around my neck. It was tucked under my shirt, but I could feel its weight. “It likely has something to do with your ability to hold that.”
“They want Orion’s Heart?”
“Or they want you. You’re strong enough to hold it, not anyone else.”
Part of me wished I’d never grabbed this thing, but it had saved a woman’s life. It had also marked me as a weirdo. Just like my actions at Police College. I’d used my powers too much then and made everyone suspicious.
Same here.
I pushed the chair back and stood. “Okay, let’s get started. I’m going to learn to lock down this signature. I want to appear as powerful as a mouse.”
He grinned. “That’s the spirit.”
I smiled back, liking this moment of camaraderie. We’d had a strange acquaintanceship so far, full of mistrust and attraction and life-saving deeds. Yet no dates or talking or normal stuff.
And I was still falling for him. Not in a normal way, as a product of normal experiences. No—in a strange way, one built of huge moments with mistrust in between.
I shook the thought away and looked at him. “What do I need to do?”