* [This scene contains content some might find upsetting. Please check the post/chapter titled Episode Six: “Monsters” Content Warning List and Pronunciation Guide for a list of content warnings.]
[This scene also has a plot summary at the end for those who need to skip this scene but still want to know the important plot points of it. Happy (and safe) reading!]
The moment Belle touched magic again, she forgot everything that she had seen, heard, and felt during their tour of the mines.
It wasn’t like waking from a dream. There was no disorientation, no perceptible switch from unawareness to awareness. She wasn’t shocked to see that the sun had settled onto a seat on the opposite horizon. She knew exactly where she was, sitting next to Richard aboard the railcar, halfway up the mountain back toward the city of Toll—she just had no recollection of how she’d gotten there.
That wasn’t a good sign, but it was a sign she’d have to worry about later, because the fact that her magic was back meant that—
Richard’s burning hand closed on her thigh, his crackling magic overtaking the whole railcar in a moment. For a second Belle’s vision went completely orange. She had to take a deep breath and force down a cough when it felt like she’d inhaled a cloud of gunpowder. She steadied herself, blinking the orange haze out of her mind’s eye.
She had to get him back under control quickly.
Richard pressed his mouth against her ear to whisper into it, “Name another time that you’ve seen such brilliance, my bride. A time that Order so completely made Chaos its bitch.”
“I can’t,” she said because it was what she was supposed to say.
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Blurry images flashed through her mind—suffocating fog and broken bodies and black, unmoving water—but Belle couldn’t follow the path they were making for her right now. She turned her focus instead toward Richard, to the paths of magic through his body that buzzed like live-wires so intensely that they sent a shooting pain through her head. But she made herself trace a finger up his chest, and down his arm, guiding his magic to the fingers that were gripping her leg hard enough to bruise. With a rapid popping sound that Richard didn’t notice, Belle’s pant leg blackened around his fingertips and began to smoke. She barely even noticed the burning.
“Not all of Ixhale’s kingdoms together could stop us now,” Richard said, and placed a sloppy kiss beneath her ear, his saliva like hot oil.
Belle focused only on directing the flow of magic through him—to him it would seem like a lover’s touch, an intimate stroking, but with each pass of her shaking fingers across his body, she conducted his magic, doing her best to smooth it and release it in (relatively) harmless bursts when she could.
She guided the magic once more across his chest
(release it now, into his heart, let his own magic rip him apart from the inside—)
and realized that her fingertips had begun to blister. He wouldn’t notice that for some time, and hopefully she could heal them before then.
By the time they reached the terminal at the top of the mountain, Belle should have had Richard at least somewhat under control, but it was the magic of this damn mountain, that constant buzzing of energy that made her very bones seem to vibrate. If she couldn’t keep her own magic stable, how was she supposed to manage his as well? All she was doing was keeping him from getting worse.
As they climbed out of the railcar and Belle lost her constant contact, she was afraid of what would happen.
It was her turn to whisper in his ear. “My groom. Take me to our bed.”
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SCENE SUMMARY FOR THOSE WHO NEEDED TO SKIP THE SCENE:
Belle found herself on a railcar coming out of the mines, but didn’t have any memory of what she had seen in the mines. She had to focus on calming Richard, who always became manic and over-excited when he felt magic again after some time with Elleipsium.