Total pages in book: 154
Estimated words: 145728 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 729(@200wpm)___ 583(@250wpm)___ 486(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 145728 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 729(@200wpm)___ 583(@250wpm)___ 486(@300wpm)
“And so it was.” Lachlan looked up at last, the familiar mocking half-smile on his face. “I suppose you could say that our lady healed it and brought us back together.” He nodded at me.
“Yes, she did.” Bran smiled at me and I smiled back at both of them.
“I’m glad I was able to.”
I took both their hands and squeezed again—but I had a feeling that there was more to Lachlan’s story. Something he didn’t want to tell either me or Bran. As Avery would have said, I smell a secret. But since Lachlan clearly didn’t want to talk about it, I decided to wait and let him tell us in his own time.
“How will the pendant you made out of your emerald and Bran’s ring help me focus my power?” I asked, changing the subject.
“It’s going to help you feel your power instead of just doing things by accident. Have you ever felt anything when you did magic in the past?” Lachlan asked.
I frowned, trying to remember.
“Once or twice I thought I felt a kind of tingling,” I admitted. “Could that have been it?”
Lachlan nodded.
“Yes. That’s your connection to the Realm that you’re feeling—because you’re drawing your power from there. If you ever went through the Obsidian Portal and entered the Realm, you’d feel it much more. But here, in the human world, it’s distant and somewhat diffused.”
“Would my power be greater than it is here if I went to the Realm?” I asked him. “Not that I want to go—I really don’t—I’m just curious.”
“Greater than it already is?” Bran raised his eyebrows. “Nature save us!”
But Lachlan nodded thoughtfully.
“In all probability, yes. But let’s worry about controlling what you have first before we think about increasing it tenfold. Now, as I told you before, the nature of Fae magic is transactional. Which means, you have to pay for what you take—which is White Magic—or else pass the payment off into the natural world.”
“Which is Grey Magic,” Bran said. He frowned. “It’s what most of the High Sidhe at Court do—and it’s also what Morganna and her friends do.”
“I don’t understand the difference,” I said. “How do you ‘pay’ for your magic?”
“With pain,” Lachlan said simply. “Or if you don’t want to take the pain, you can allow the magic to drain your powers, leaving you in a weakened state for the next hour or day or however long it takes to recoup your losses, which will be proportional to how big the spell you cast was.” He frowned. “Though you’re not really casting spells like the Sisters do with symbols and charms—it’s more like you’re drawing on a supply of magic and pushing it out into the world, making it do what you want.”
“Like healing Spike or turning cigarette butts into a coin or lifting the curse of addiction from my mom?” I asked.
Lachlan nodded.
“Exactly. And you have to pay every time. Unless you want to do Grey Magic and push the cost off onto the Natural World.”
“What does that mean, though?” I frowned.
“The Natural World means the forest and trees and animals that are wild around us,” Bran explained. “So if you work a spell and don’t pay the cost yourself, something in the Natural World will pay it for you.”
“Somewhere a flower will wilt or a squirrel or some other small creature may lose its life,” Lachlan explained. “Or, if you use a great deal of power, you might kill something bigger. An ancient oak tree that’s been alive for centuries might wither and die.”
“But that’s awful!” I exclaimed. “That’s no better than Morganna and the other Fae girls using live butterflies as hair ornaments!”
“They were probably using the butterflies’ own life force in the spell that fixed them in place,” Bran said, nodding. “Another example of Grey Magic—they didn’t have to feel the pain of the small death they were causing to feed their vanity.”
“That’s horrible,” I said. “How can anyone do that?” Now that I knew how Fae magic worked, I disliked Morganna and her crew even more. “Does everyone in the Realm do that?”
“My family never did,” Bran said. “The High Sidhe of the Summer Court aren’t supposed to—Queen Elia has forbidden anything but White Magic in her court.”
“They aren’t supposed to,” Lachlan said. “But they still do. One way I earned my gold in the Realm was to heal the natural things the High Sidhe had harmed with their careless Grey Magic. Healing doesn’t cost as much as other forms of magic, but it’s time consuming and painful,” he added.
“How did I pay for healing Spike?” I asked, frowning. “I don’t remember feeling any pain.”
“Not all pain is physical,” Bran pointed out. “You healed him with your emotional pain, I believe. You were very upset, as I recall.”
“Oh…” I nodded, remembering how I had cried my heart out over the little chimeling. “That makes sense.” I looked at Lachlan. “So White Magic is when you pay for your magic and Grey Magic is when you make someone or something else pay. Is there such a thing as Black Magic?”