She clasped a hand over her heart that was pounding so hard she could feel it where her hand touched.
Panic mixed with bile as it rose to the back of her throat.
Her skin tingled and her senses caught fire as a purple-white streak severed the sky that she wasn’t entirely sure wasn’t hers.
She told herself she was safe.
Thornehart was dead.
She was safe.
Take control.
Breathe.
In. Out. In. Out.
Ambrose lifted her hands to the sky. The air around her rushed with the blood that thundered in her veins. Her channels surged, the space around her crackling as small sparks floated through the air. She pulled back her hands and slammed against the wind as hard as she could, arching her hands in a giant sweep. The storm pushed against her, but she planted her feet and refused to let it make her crumble. Her own air current swept over them, creating a protective dome.
“Yeah, way to go!” Oryon slammed his hand onto her back, almost knocking her to the ground. She gave him a strained smile.
“That is really impressive.” Danthan stared, mouth agape, at the edge of the bubble where the storm raged, pelting the ground with wind and rain. “You’ve come a long way.”
Sweat pooled on her forehead and her head ached as it took everything she had, but the barrier held.
“Thanks guys.” She could breathe better now that unwanted wind and dead lieutenants weren’t terrorizing her.
“Howisit that you can wield multiple Elements?” Eurus checked the stakes one last time to make sure they’d hold before standing to face her. “I’ve never heard of that happening before.”
Ambrose shifted uncomfortably. “What do you mean?”
“You used Ice when you touched Casimir, Danthan should have had to save your fingers after you grabbed him, but you pulled away perfectly fine. And just now, you used Wind.” Eurus looked at her with suspicion. “How?”
Ice? No…Was that why it didn’t hurt when she touched him?
“I don’t know,” she admitted.
“You can do Lightning too right?” Oryon asked, the words a rush out of his mouth. “I heard a rumor that you wielded Lightning in the palace.”
Danthan stayed quiet, the fear of Casimir’s threat hanging over his head. Too afraid to join the conversation and admit he’d seen her lightning firsthand, but he still shot her a small smile.
Oryon looked around at them excitedly, “Maybe it’s a kind of evolution? Do you think others might start wielding more than one? Maybe it’s Magick’s way of filling in for the Mana-Holders?”
Felius had a fire raging for them and they all pulled their soaked bodies around it to warm themselves.
Akadian spoke for the first time all day as he sat in front of the flames, “The gods would know if Magick evolved before we would. It would be the biggest news in the empire.”
“Nice of you to weigh in,” Ambrose snapped, still refusing to look at him. “But the gods haven’t been doing much ofanythingthe last five hundred years. I doubt they’d send word now when they haven’t spoken to the kingdoms in all this time.”
“Maybe it’s a mistake,” Podara offered, sharpening one of her many blades in her hand, making sure both sides of the dagger were equally as deadly. Eleven beautifully crafted blades of steel that weren’t the preferred Eltoriansteel the fighters coveted, but one the color of onyx. The hilts were wrapped in leather and adorned with aquamarines. A rare gem that could only be found in Nethyr. Podara didn’t speak much of her home the way the others did, so Ambrose was left to assume that was her home kingdom. Given what she’d seen of Podara’s temperament so far, she wasn’t going to ask either.
Ambrose tossed her some dried meat from one of the packs and then to the others, one by one. “A mistake?”
“Yeah,” she said as she tore a huge bite from the chunk she caught expertly on her dagger, “Maybe Magick made a mistake and you were only supposed to get one, but somehow the message was intercepted?”
Akadian shook his head sharply. “Magick doesn’t make mistakes.”
“Then what do you think it is?” Podara asked from behind her freshly pointed blade.
