Chapter 609

Grasping the blue web again, Elain closed her eyes as a rushing feeling moved through her head. She released the web and it stopped. She felt weaker than she had moments ago and she stared critically at the web covering most of the door.

"What is the matter?" Lucien's distant voice asked and Elain wasn't sure what to tell him.

"It feels strange," She replied, "when I touch it…"

He was silent for a moment and Elain poked at the web with the tip of the knife. Nothing happened and she tried to look for a way in which she might cut it away without touching it with her hands. She didn't think that would be possible as it appeared to be sticking rather closely and firmly to the structure of the door. She would have to handle it again, pull it away from the door enough to get the knife behind it, and the thought did not fill Elain with positivity.

"Elain?" Lucien asked, and Elain reached her hand out to the web again. Trying to brace herself, she grabbed one of the smaller strands this time, and immediately felt dizziness move though her. Quickly, she slipped the knife behind the strand of the web and sliced it cleanly.

"I feel like it's trying to take my own strength to feed it…" Elain told him as she dropped the broken strand immediately.

"It very well may be." Lucien said. "I have seen spellwork like that before."

"Fantastic." Elain muttered, drawing a deep breath as she looked the web over again. That would be like Vassa, trying to work some kind of trick into whatever spell she had found to use. Grabbing another strand, Elain clenched her teeth as she tried to pull it from the door and cut it. A horrible thought forced its way to the front of her mind then. What if this web drained Elain enough that the bond became weak enough to break? Had Vassa thought of that? Had that been a part of the mortal woman's plan? "Ugh…" She cut another strand of the web, hoping that she would be able to finish this before she came anywhere near that point.

"Is this still helping?" Lucien asked, and Elain realised that he was still running a hand up and down her leg. "Is this still giving strength to the bond?"

"This might be better." Elain gathered herself enough to move her physical body, climbing easily into Lucien's lap where he still sat on the couch in their room. "The more I touch you, the stronger it should get…" She said it as much to herself as she did to him, and then she returned to that place in her mind where she had followed the bond to Lucien's door. The more she cut away of this horrid web the stronger the bond should become too.

"Let me know what else you'd like me to do…" Lucien sounded concerned, and Elain bet that he would have been reading her own worry and dark thoughts down the bond now. She felt his hands move up her back and she tried to think about how she might somehow use his strength with her own.

"The more strength you can give me, the better." She told him, "Like you and Helion shared… and that time we all loaned you magic for that shield to protect us."

"Through the bond?" he asked, "Because that's what you're using?"

"Yes." Elain ran one of her hands across his shoulder and up the back of his neck. The more contact she had with him, the stronger it felt, and she chased that. Leaning forward, Elain pressed her lips to Lucien's and she felt an instant flare down the bond. The light behind the door flared with it, and she smiled to herself. She would bet Vassa hadn't considered this in her little plan.