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I sat with Jasmyn in front of the crackling fire, letting the flickering flames mesmerize me as I reminisced about everything that had happened in the last couple of weeks, prior to setting off on this journey to the elvish territory in the east. My naga best friend and I were alone at the moment amongst the trees in a small clearing, with my dad having gone with my cousin, Asher, and my kind-of friend, Kain, to collect more firewood and to catch something to eat.

Prior to about two weeks ago, I’d sort of just been going through ‘the motions’ most of my life, attending class, doing homework, hunting occasionally, and perfecting my traps to catch smaller game, all the while not having had any friends since I was little, due to the rumors about my non-human mother.

And then, out of nowhere, I met Jasmyn trying to get an arrow out of her sky-blue tail, quickly finding myself with my first real friend in a short amount of time. We first found a small cave for her to hide away in, and then I began bringing her food every day, spending as much time as I could with her after school, and all day on that first weekend.

But then the unthinkable happened.

A bully named Ryker, who was a year older than me, had somehow figured out that I was taking care of something, and got a bunch of my classmates together to watch him kill it. And the worst part was that his plans didn’t change once he saw that it was Jasmyn – a person, even if she wasn’t human.

Occasionally, I wondered what would have happened if he hadn’t tried stabbing at us, and ultimately sank his knife into my gut, causing me to discover I wasn’t entirely human.

Would he still be alive?

Would I still not know I was half-demon?

And what about the shapeshifter? Would that monster have succeeded in harming Jasmyn or those who I cared about? Would the draconic chimera still have attacked, ultimately killing the majority of those living in town?

I mean, I doubted I would have been able to help had I not almost been killed by Ryker. Or rather, I wouldn’t have known I could help.

At the very least, I knew Jasmyn should have still ended up safe, since the day I got stabbed was the same day that I was going to introduce her to my father, so that she could start living with me. Thus, while it was possible a lot of people might have died if I wasn’t aware that I could defend them, it was comforting to know Jasmyn would have been safe even if events had turned out differently.

Granted, I didn’t even want to think about what would have happened if my mom hadn’t shown up the second time the shapeshifter attacked. I supposed I would have been fine, considering I didn’t have that horrid chimera sealing my magic, but a lot more people probably would have died in the process – not to mention I had lost my nerve.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Recalling how I felt when my enemy reappeared, after I thought he was dead, made me shiver. I had never felt so overwhelmed and defeated, not having any idea how to kill someone who could regenerate like me. But, it turned out that my purple hell-fire would have done the job just fine, so long as I put a ton of magic behind my attack like my mother had done.

Her blue flames had turned pitch-black, the darker color coinciding with how much energy she put into it.

Unexpectedly, Jasmyn pulled me out of my thoughts by wrapping her arm around my shoulders, hugging me against her side while part of her tail pressed against my feet, trapping them between the portion I was sitting on.

Unlike the guys, I got to sit on her warm tail instead of a cold rock or log.

I looked up at her in confusion, her upper body a little higher than mine at the moment, wondering why she was frowning. “What?” I said simply.

Her intense expression immediately shifted to embarrassment as she stuttered to answer, with her response giving insight into her behavior. “O-Our bond,” she finally managed.

My eyes widened, realizing she had picked up on the tone of my thoughts just now when I was thinking about the evil shapeshifter that attacked me. She might have even caught glimpses of my thoughts that came in the form of ‘just knowing’ what the other person was vague thinking – an apparently effect of being magicbound to someone.

“You don’t need to be embarrassed,” I said reassuringly. “I don’t mind. And I’ve done the same to you.”

“I know,” she whined. “But I feel like I’m invading your privacy.”

“You can invade my privacy!” I retorted seriously. I then reached my arm around her waist and returned the embrace. “Besides, you wouldn’t have known I needed a hug if you didn’t know what I was thinking.”

“You needed a hug?” she repeated.

I shrugged. “I mean, isn’t that why you hugged me?”

She hesitated. “Well, I just knew you were thinking about…” Her voice trailed off.

I sighed as I glanced at the fire, lowering my voice. “Exactly. And a hug helped.” I then looked back up to examine the entirety of her face for a moment before focusing on her slitted gold eyes again. “So thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” she whispered, a smile barely touching her lips now.

I could tell she still felt a little uncertain, but I didn’t want to press it when I knew it was just going to take time for her to get used to me being okay with her doing something so invasive. In her perception, it was far more invasive than when we synced our magic. And, it wasn’t like she was even doing it on purpose, not to mention I was doing it to her too, so it really shouldn’t be such a big deal. But it was for her, because of her timid nature. She didn’t want to be a burden to me, or to otherwise do something that might be perceived as offensive.

But it wasn’t offensive.

Like I said, I didn’t mind at all.

I grinned when I saw her eyes widen a little, catching the tone of those thoughts as well.

We still weren’t entirely sure how to exchange thoughts on purpose, but it almost seemed like it was beginning to happen more frequently either way.

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I'm a little behind on this story, but I plan on releasing parts regularly again in the next few weeks as we continue into book 2.

The Kindle version of Magicbound book 1 is now available on Amazon, if you're interested in checking it out. You may also want to check out Soulbound to a Dragon, which is closely related to this story.