Amelia kissed his cheek. “Remember me telling you that I use my gifts to help people.”
He nodded. “You said you could take on some of their pain,” he paled. “Are you hurt.”
She sighed. “No, I’m fine. I think I inadvertently used Meryn as an anchor.”
Kendrick turned to his godsdaughter. “When did you learn about anchors?”
Amelia waved her hand. “Just a few minutes ago when you were ranting about them.”
Kendrick sprung to his feet. “Did you not hear me tell Zoe I’d walk her through how to do it!”
Amelia shrugged. “It’s not like I did it on purpose.”
“That’s not any better!” he shouted.
Cord looked from Kendrick to Gage. “I’ll be back with more shots and tea.”
Zoe looked at Meryn. “I think your bracelet kept you and Amelia from being burned. Dav’s bar didn’t burn earlier either, remember?”
Meryn’s eyes widened. “I’m fire-proof?”
“No.”
“But…”
“No,” Aiden repeated.
“This is too cool not to play with,” Meryn refuted. She turned to Zoe. “Can you try and burn me later?”
“Can my mate, perhaps not burn anything for a little bit?” Gage asked, reaching for Zoe. Before she knew what he was doing, she was ensconced in his lap in a similar fashion to the way Aiden and Darian were holding Meryn and Amelia.
Meryn shrugged. “That’s okay. I still have that flamethrower Magnus got me.”
Aiden dropped his forehead to rest on the back of Meryn’s head in defeat.
“What happened?” Gage asked.
Suddenly all eyes were on her. “Amelia helped me face my past, but through the eyes of an adult. What I thought was normal, I think I always knew was wrong. I just lied to myself because it hurt too much to acknowledge how scared I was.” She took a deep breath. “The Witches’ Council abused me to keep me compliant. It was never physical, but maybe, the other ways that hinted of something worse was more terrible than if I had been hit.”
Cord returned from the kitchen and refilled Darian’s glass.
Gage tightened his arms. “Are you okay to discuss this?”
She nodded. “Amelia’s gift is amazing. I know I’ll probably need to actually talk through this, but she gave me a solid platform to begin. I’m insulated enough from the trauma of my past to begin the healing process.”
“What did they do?” Gage asked through clenched teeth.
“They owned me. Every minute of every day. Growing up, it wasn’t so bad, just council-mandated decisions my parents had to abide by. But when I got older, after my parents left, they had me on a strict schedule to keep my affliction under control. Once I moved to the Fire Temple, the verbal abuse began with Andrei.”
Gage held her close. “You won in the end.”
“I want to do magic like that!” Meryn exclaimed. “Zoe made her desk explode.” Holding out her hand, she stared down at the table. “Inferno.”
A tiny blue spark popped and fell harmlessly to her plate.
“Meryn!” Aiden and Kendrick roared.
“I did it!” she crowed.