Free Shadowstorm (Sorcery and Science Book 6) by Ella Summers

“I think I need to go kill something.”
    “That was my doing,” she said.
    “Yes, but you channeled the excess energy from me. Clearly, I need to burn through some of it, so it’s not seeping off of me into you. I’m not even sure how it’s happening. Elitions cannot share powers.”
    “There are stories about such things,” she began.
    “Ah, yes. Synergy. A fascinating fairytale, but it’s not real.”
    Terra chose not to press the matter. In the old tales, Synergy, the sharing of abilities, could only be achieved by two Elitions with a very close connection. Jason was being skittish enough already about their nonexistent intimate relationship for her to risk scaring him off with talk of ‘close connections’. Maybe Everett was right. Maybe Winter’s Mint really was the only way to go.
    “So tell me,” he said.
    “Tell you?”
    “Everett,” he prompted.
    She met his eyes, trying not to look guilty. The mental wall she’d spent a decade building up to hide her identity supposedly made her immune to Jason’s mind-extraction tricks. Supposedly. And only when she remembered to put it up. What if he had heard her thoughts and knew about the Winter’s Mint?
    “Everett?” she asked as innocently as she could muster. But she was guilty. Guilty, guilty, guilty.
    “You left Eclipse with him. Where did you go? What did you do?”
    She exhaled in relief. “Oh. That.”
    “Yes, that,” said Jason. “What else could I mean?”
    She decided it was best not to answer that question. “We went to see some of his old friends.”
    She didn’t mention Hope. Nor did she feel it necessary to burden him with replays of their encounters with the scavengers or—most especially—the Selpe soldiers. Not after he’d finally calmed down.
    “They think the attack on the Revs was all some sort of conspiracy, and they want Everett to get to the bottom of it,” she continued. “Following the attacks on the Rev isles, his friends found a box of artifacts inside one of their hideouts. The hideout was also used by other mercenary guilds, and the box was tucked away in the storage section used by one group named the Fourteen Phantoms.”
    “The Fourteen Phantoms?” he repeated, his face perfectly neutral. Terra couldn’t tell whether he was amused or offended.
    She nodded.
    “What kind of artifacts were in this box?” he asked.
    Terra didn’t answer. She was definitely sure no good could come of it.
    “Terra, what kind of artifacts were in this box?”
    She took a step back. “Xenen,” she muttered.
    Jason’s eyes flared up with cold fire. He clamped his fingers down around her arm, tugging her away from the front door. He pulled her roughly onto the sofa, but he remained standing, staring down at her with pure menace etched into his eyes.
    “Jason—”
    “No,” he growled.
    “It’s not like they’ll suddenly pop up after five hundred years.”
    “No,” he repeated icily. “You stay away from this whole thing.”
    “It appears you’re confused, Jason. So let me clear things up for you. You do not dictate what I can and cannot do.”
    His arms crossed against his chest, Jason tapped his fingers against an armband loaded with throwing knives. “The Xenens experimented on Elitions. Extensively.”
    “So do the Avans,” she pointed out.
    “And the Selpes,” he told her. “You’re not going near either one of them.”
    “So then I should do what exactly? Just sit idly by here in my house as Elitia is torn to shreds by wolves?”
    “Yes.”
    She rolled her eyes. “All by myself? Allowing everyone I care about to risk their lives while I do nothing?”
    “You can have Cameron to stay here with you. Maybe it will keep him out of trouble.”
    “Do you ever stop and listen to yourself?” she demanded.
    “Why would I need to do that?” he asked impatiently. “I think through everything I want to say before I say it.”
    Terra snorted. “Sometimes I really wonder.”
    “You should be happy that