Empowered (Unbound, Book 6)

Chapter Sixteen

"Normally, I'd laugh at your joke, but I've met Devland."

"Uh huh." I rolled my eyes and bit the end off a spring roll, chewing as I stared at Zach.

"It's simple, really," he said, shrugging as he paid attention to filling his own plate of food. "You have been practicing sensing someone even if you haven't met them."

"Not their signature."

"It's easy enough to use a locater spell once you have the scent of the magic used. The signature being matched is merely confirmation," he said between bites. "When police find a fingerprint at a crime scene, it means nothing until they are able to match it to its owner."

"Right." I narrowed my eyes. "When you first started hijacking my dreams, that would have been helpful while I was dealing with Duvessa."

"I can't say I'm sorry for that. You passed two tests with all that—one in the way you punished them and one because of your resiliency."

"Thanks."

"Anytime." Zach chuckled. "You won't be able to sense someone's strength in their signature. Maybe the strength of their spell or, given your empathy, the level of intent coming from a person's emotions when they cast it. To truly understand a person's power, you have to push them to their limits, though as you know what's difficult one day becomes easier, thus power—or adeptness of using it—increases."

"How does that help?"

"You'd know what they are capable of at that point in time."

"Then I'd go back to worrying how much of a menace they could become. Sounds great." I met Zach's gaze. "It would be better to use the spell I created for Duvessa's family for the community as a whole. Then I'd never worry."

"And you'd do it for every child born?"

"Can't I decree it from here or something?"

Zach shook his head. "No."

"It's better than stripping their magic altogether."

"Like you did with Astrid?"

"If you know I did that a couple days after I came back, then you know I didn't include a loophole for her."

Zach stared at me, chewing while his fork dangled from his hand.

"What? Duvessa is young enough to learn to do better away from her mother's influence. I know her misuse was worse, but Astrid is old enough to actually be expected to do better."

"What do you think is worse: hurting someone in an accident caused by misuse of magic or manipulating someone's feelings with magic?"

"Like a love spell?"

"No such thing would actually work, but... One could use magic to hide their true nature. Some are so adept with persuasion, it's like it is an unique ability such as empathy or even visions."

"Okay... Neither is good."

"Astrid manipulated her husband. I think you made the right choice stripping her of her gifts."

"Why question it?"

"Because. A good decision is only right if whoever makes it can defend why they came to their conclusion or took a particular action. For the better, of course, since people have reasons for doing harm or they wouldn't do it," he said. "In Astrid's case, she lost the power over her husband and he has left her. That means he wouldn't have been with her otherwise, so her use of persuasion was negatively impacting someone else."

"Well. I have many reasons to explain why I chose that punishment but it isn't worth wasting time." And I didn't want to think how I may have hurt Julian, though I could argue that his dad wouldn't regret his time with Astrid because Julian had been a by-product of their union.