Chapter 99: Unleashing Magic

Elara:

Reign’s only response was silence, and somehow that silence made my anger surge all over again.

"Not once have you tried to make me understand why declining your friendship was a bad thing other than... well... hurting your majestic ego," I said, my voice sounding considerably calmer than it had seconds ago, although the irritation beneath it was still unmistakable. "You keep telling me that not being friends with you is bad for me, right? But I don’t see any good in being friends with you either."

His expression didn’t change immediately, but I watched the blue in his eyes shift into a darker shade with every passing second, a clear indication that his patience with me was getting thinner. Yet neither of us raised our voices. The argument seemed to have reached that strange point where anger stopped being loud and became something far more dangerous- quiet, controlled, and deliberate.

I could hear the stream flowing behind us, the distant music from the gathering barely reaching this part of the grounds, and for a brief moment, I wondered if perhaps we were finally going to end this conversation without one of us doing something stupid.

I should have known better.

"You know what your problem is?" Reign asked eventually, his voice quieter than before.

I raised an eyebrow. "I imagine you are about to tell me."

He gave me a look that was almost amused, but there was no warmth behind it anymore. "You think refusing me makes you independent."

I frowned, unsure where he was going with that. "And you think demanding that I agree with you makes you powerful?" I countered.

His jaw tightened, but he didn’t answer immediately. Instead, he looked away toward the stream, as though he was trying to rein in whatever response had risen to his tongue. When he looked back at me, the anger in his eyes had dulled slightly, replaced by something harder to identify.

"Maybe I’m tired of watching you deliberately put yourself in situations you can’t handle," he admitted, and the unexpected honesty in his voice caught me off guard.

I didn’t know what to say to that. For once, there was no mocking smile, no arrogant teasing, no challenge hiding beneath his words. Just frustration. My own anger softened by a fraction. "And maybe I’m tired of people deciding what I can and cannot handle," I replied more quietly. "You don’t know me well enough to make that decision."

His eyes remained on mine. "Maybe I know more than you think."

"Then stop speaking in riddles and tell me," I challenged.

He didn’t. Instead, he took a slow breath and looked away again. For a few seconds, the tension between us seemed to loosen. I could almost imagine walking back toward the gathering and pretending this conversation had never happened.

Then Reign looked at me again and said, "You are determined to fight everything, aren’t you?"

I shrugged. "Only things worth fighting."

A faint, humorless smile touched his mouth. "Then perhaps you are going to spend the rest of your life fighting."

I narrowed my eyes. "If that’s what it takes to remain free, I’ll gladly do it. And that includes never bending to you."

Something shifted in his expression at those words, and suddenly the softer moment between us disappeared. He stepped closer, leaving just inches between us, and when he spoke, his voice dropped dangerously low. "You might want to be careful about promises like that, Argentis."

I lifted my chin despite the sudden awareness of how close he was. "Why?" I demanded, unable to stop myself.

His eyes narrowed as he studied my face, and when he finally answered, there was something almost challenging in his tone. "Because I might actually start believing you are capable of keeping them. And because there are things bigger than what you want."

I didn’t look away. "Then let those things deal with me."

His expression hardened, and his response came quietly, almost frighteningly calmly. "They will. And when they do, you’ll understand why I told you to stop fighting me and join me instead."

My chest tightened at the certainty in his words. "You keep talking as though you already know how this ends."

He held my gaze without blinking before replying, "Maybe I do."

That was it. Something inside me snapped. "Then go tell whoever decided my life belongs to them that they can come and try to take it themselves," I said, my voice trembling now despite my attempt to keep it steady.

Reign’s expression hardened completely. "You really want to challenge me tonight?" he asked, taking another step toward me.

I refused to move. "I have been challenging you since the day I arrived."

His jaw clenched as he stared down at me. "And you still haven’t learned."

I almost laughed at the sheer arrogance of him. "Neither have you."

He moved closer again, close enough that I had to tilt my head to keep looking at him, and close enough that our bodies were almost pressed against each other’s. That familiar warmth immediately surged through my body, and I knew it had nothing to do with my magic, but everything to do with him. I hated that my body reacted to him when my mind wanted nothing more than to push him away.

For a heartbeat, neither of us spoke. Then Reign leaned slightly closer, his voice dropping into a murmur that somehow felt more dangerous than when he had been angry. "One day, you are going to realize that fighting me every second doesn’t make you free."

I felt my anger flare again. "And one day, you are going to realize that forcing someone into a cage doesn’t make them yours."

His eyes flashed as he immediately started, "I never said-" but I cut him off before he could finish.

"You don’t have to," I snapped, shoving my palm against his chest. Sparks immediately spread over my arm from the contact, making my breath hitch, but I ignored them. "I know exactly what you are doing. You want me to become one of your minions. You want me to obey you just like every other person around you. But I won’t, so you better give up on that idea."

His expression became unreadable, and for a moment I thought he would argue. Instead, he caught my wrist before I could pull away.

I stared at his hand around me, then slowly lifted my eyes to his, completely ignoring the way his touch was making my entire body react in a way it only did with him. I had no idea why his closeness always affected me like this, and I certainly wasn’t going to ask him.

"Let go," I finally managed, but my voice came out lower than it should have.

His eyes met mine as he held onto my hand. "The more you struggle, the more trouble you will invite. And I’ll love to watch you realize just how stupid you were to push my helping hand away."

He finally released my wrist, and the moment he did, I stepped backward. The anger inside me became something else now - something cold, sharp, and strangely powerful. My fingertips tingled and he noticed it immediately. His gaze dropped toward my hands before returning to my face.

"Argentis?"

I barely heard him. Cold spread beneath my skin, rushing through my veins with a force that made my breath catch. He took a step toward me, and something in me panicked.

Ice erupted from the ground. It raced across the grass in a flash of silver-white and wrapped itself around Reign’s boots, climbing over his ankles before hardening completely.

He froze. Literally. His eyes widened as he looked down at his feet. I stared too. For several seconds, neither of us moved.

"What the hell..." he whispered, and I couldn’t answer.

It was real ice. My magic had just responded to my anger, and this time it hadn’t been an illusion or the wind magic I had been desperately trying to summon these past days. I had frozen Reign Valemont to the ground... with ice.

The shock lasted exactly three seconds. Then Reign’s eyes lifted to mine, and I saw the realization forming there. He was going to break free. And if I stayed, I had no doubt whatsoever that I would be dealing with his revenge.

"Goodnight, Valemont," I muttered before he could say another word.

I turned and ran. I didn’t wait to see whether the ice held. I didn’t wait to hear him curse my name. I simply ran straight into the darkness of the woods, branches catching against my coat as I fled deeper between the trees, leaving Reign - and the impossible magic I had just unleashed - behind me.