“What the fuck is she talking about?” Emory asked him.
“Not cool, man,” Declan muttered, eyes meeting mine. “Are you alright?”
Blinking, the lines began to connect. “You can control minds?”
“No, I can make people tell me the truth.” Emory still glared at Declan. “What is she talking about?”
Chest broadening with a deep breath, Declan turned to Emory. “I told you we’d talk about it later. You didn’t need to do that.”
“No shit,” Ria snapped, jarring my shoulder. “Are you okay?”
I was fine. But it was an odd sensation. I’d had a Fae in my head before—that was strange. It felt like I had no control over what I said and did then. But what Emory had just done felt different. Like I’d been given truth serum. I hadn’t lost control of my body, nor my thoughts. I only lost control over my mouth.
And no, I wasn’t mad about it. It was fair. What I’d done wasn’t all that much different. Of course, I’d been given permission to scan his mind. He didn’t have permission to make me tell him the truth. But I wouldn’t have lied to any of those questions anyway.
“Yeah, I’m good,” I said. “You could’ve told me you were doing that. I wouldn’t have minded.”
Emory glanced at me and turned back to Declan. “You think you’re par animarum? Are you batshit crazy?”
Declan uncomfortably scratched the back of his head. “I don’t know. It’s a working theory.”
“Based on what?” Emory asked. “The sex was just that great?”
Now it was me gracelessly scratching my head.
“She felt it,” Declan said. “That’s why I’m alive. She felt me get shot, she teleported here, and she got me to the hospital. Do you have an explanation for that? Because par animarum is all I can come up with.”
Emory’s eyes came back to mine, fastening them in place. Everything else faded. “Is that true?”
“It is.”
“And you didn’t bind yourself to him?”
“No, I didn’t.”
His eyes stayed on mine, but his head tilted slightly toward Ria. “No one else bound you two?”
“I don’t think so. I would feel it if I was bound to someone, and this doesn’t feel like that.”
“What does it feel like?”
I lifted a shoulder. “I don’t know how to describe it. But not magical.”
“Well, I need you to describe it. How does it feel?”
“Seamless. Like water mixing with water.”
His lip curled. “Sappy.”
I didn’t disagree. It was strange to me too. But that was the only way to put it into words.
It wasn’t like I was suddenly in love with Declan. Honestly, I hardly liked him. He was cocky, snippy, and a little controlling.
But there was a connection there. I didn’t really have friends outside of Ria, but I imagined this was how it felt. Like I could count on him. Like if my car broke down on the side of the road, I could call him to help me get it started. Like I could depend on him to carry me to the hospital if I was the one who was shot.
I guessed it felt a bit like a partnership? Rationally, I knew that we’d only known one another a few days, which was what made it so bizarre, but the fact remained. There was a connection of some kind.
“I read her mind too,” Declan said.