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She glanced at me. “If it doesn’t, then I can stop it.”
I looked at her. Thea was twenty-eight, but she had stopped aging when she was twenty and her soul had linked with Drake’s. In some ways, she looked younger than me. Her golden hair fell into immaculate waves around her shoulders and her beautiful dark blue gown and her high heel stilettos felt sorely out of place in the middle of the forest. But that didn’t seem to faze her one bit. No, it only added to her allure and power.
As for me, I had my usual cropped shorts, tank top, and combat boots. I didn’t put fishnet tights on because it was too hot out.
If a stranger walked in on us right now, he would be lost.
I remembered something. “I drank the elixir minutes ago. Shouldn’t we wait a couple of hours?”
“Actually, I want to start training with the elixir at its strongest,” Thea said. “Perhaps if you can learn how to control the dragon’s magic while its numbed, then you will have a better chance of controlling it when it’s at its full force.”
It made sense. I rolled my shoulders. “I’m ready.”
“Good. Then let’s try the same thing from yesterday. Call on your darkfire in one hand, and the dragon magic in the other. Try maintaining both at the same time.”
I inhaled and exhaled a couple of times, emptying my mind, calming my soul.
I could do this.
I knew I could do this.
Knowing it would be harder to call the dragon magic while it was numb, I started with it. I found it half-asleep inside me, entwined with my darkfire, around my veins and organs. It was a part of me now, there was no doubt of that.
The magic resisted my call. It dodged my hold, but I wasn’t going to let it get away. I dug my heels into the ground, gritted my teeth, clenched my fists, and groaned as I reached for the magic and its stubbornness. Slowly, inch by inch, the magic reluctantly woke up from a nap. It answered, in a clumsy way, and came to the surface.
“The magic will be weaker,” Thea said, “but it might also be harder to control. Hang tight to it.”
I did. With a groan, I opened my hand and a small flame the size of a golf ball floated in the air above my palm. I wanted to rejoice that I had done it again, but it took my entire concentration to keep it there.
“Now the darkfire,” Thea said.
By the moon …
A little more used to me, the darkfire answered right away, but because most of my focus was on keeping the dragon magic alive, it was still hard, a lot harder than usual, to call on it, bring it to the surface, and hold on to it.
The darkfire sparked to life in my other hand, much bigger and solid than the dragon’s magic.
“Good,” Thea said. “Now make the dragon’s magic bigger. Control it.”
Sweat beaded my forehead as I gritted my teeth, braced my core, and held on to the magic running through me, within me, around me. In my mind, I drew a line dividing my being into two. On one side, the bigger one, the darkfire, on the other, smaller side, the dragon’s magic. I took in a deep breath and focused on balancing the sides.
The dragon’s magic fought me the entire time. It pushed and pulled, like a stubborn child who wanted to be the favorite. There were no favorites! These two damn magics had to live together in peace, at least while I was alive.
A cry ripped from my throat as I pushed the invisible line, trying to make the sides equal in size. The dragon magic in my hand flickered, wavered, but it grew, centimeter by centimeter.
Finally, after what felt like a torturous eternity, the line was right in the middle. The two magics floated above my palms, equal in size. The dragon magic still sparked, as if trying to show me it wouldn’t behave so nicely, but for now, it held and didn’t push back. I would take this victory.
I exhaled and looked at Thea.
She smiled at me. “Let them go and do it again.”
Oh, shit. I knew why. I had to practice calling the magics, do it faster and faster, have the dragon’s magic obey me and do what I wanted right from the start … but I felt like I had finished a marathon, and now I had to do it again.
I dropped my arms, both magic bolts disappearing in the air, and shook my arms. I took a few seconds to breathe and relax.
And then I did it again.
This time, it was a bit easier, and the dragon’s magic was only one-fourth the size of the darkfire.
