A torrent of power hits me and knocks me sideways as a hand clamps painfully around my arm. Energy rages through me, and I instinctively fight for control over it as I whip my head to see Selina. She smiles at me, before a further wave of power channels through me.
Without knowing how to control it, I fight, wrestling to block out what she’s pushing towards me and using as a physical aid to toy with me, one way, then the other. I’m tumbling this way and that, as if caught in her own tide of energy.
But I can feel my own energy, rumbling, waiting to attack and fight back. The power I’ve amassed in the dark well, deep down inside me, is tugging and pulsing, and in contrast to last night with Ten, I let it go. I relax and visualise letting it loose and lean into it.
And it erupts.
Selina takes a step back and releases our contact, but the distance isn’t enough, and the latent power between us is still there, just like in the Trial, where the effect of the magic still held. And unlike any of the other connections I’ve felt, I can still feel her link to my own energy, like her own power is coursing through the streams of water swirling through me. Her presence is there—she calmed the sea for our crossing here—but she’s not able to calm me.
This isn’t soft or gentle like it has been with other Elementals.
This is dark and aggressive, and as she backs away, it doesn’t break our connection. The strands stay bound, and I mentally wrap my own energy around hers, pulling it in deeper to the core of me. My eyes release her from our staring contest, andI take in the space around us. A circle encompasses us, the ground withering within the bounds. As I look closer, everything seems to be suffering—shrivelling—as if the water within is being drawn from the very ground, the residual power of our connection extracting it and vaporising it.
I turn to the Usher and shove my hands at him. A trail of steam follows towards him, and around, filling the air with hot clouds.
My heart pounds hard at the rush of power now growing, threatening, eager, as if it’s had a taste of being loose and wants to test how far it can go—a stallion on the edge of a wide, open expanse, just ready to tear through the grass.
Only my magic is pulling water from everything in its path. The leaves crinkle and curl inward before dropping to the ground, the misty steam now thick and foggy around us.
“Stop, Ever!” It’s Fenix’s voice. But I can’t see him.
I’m lost. Stuck in this destructive path with no way to pull it back.
Until his power overwhelms me and everything stops. My muscles, my body instantly freezing on the spot, and with it, my power.
My lungs begin to scream. My heart too, at the abrupt stop in the rhythm it was beating.
I watch as the misty scene clears, and the vegetation and surrounding area return to normal, the Usher staring at me, as if I’m a puzzle he has to solve.
Well, guess what, that makes two of us.
“Fight your brother,” he says. “Push his control back.”
But I’m helpless. Paralysed. Trapped.
Panic swims in my vision as the silence of my heart only lasts longer. I’m going to suffocate. I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe.
“Let her go, Fen. She’s no harm now.”
I collapse to the ground as he does. My legs give out under me, and my hands sink into the dry foliage.
“You will learn to control your power without needing touch.” The Usher nods towards my brother as I dig my fingers into the dirt. The slippery mud on the surface reminds me of what I just did.
“First lesson done. But we need to keep testing your power.” Fenix stands over me as I strain my neck to look up at him. He offers his hand, but I dig in and pull myself up. “Come on.” He beckons me through the woods, along the path he took me on, or rather, he influenced me to travel before locking me in the cave. But if we’re going this way, I can check on Ten.
“Crimson needs a Healer for her wrist.”
“Oh yeah, perhaps she should have thought about that before attacking.”
“Do you have them here?”
“Of course we do.”
“Then what’s the problem? You want me to train, she can help. But only if she’s healed.”
“I’m so glad you think of it that way. Okay. If you do what you’re told, I’ll see that we have a healer to look at her after training today.”
My tongue stills in my mouth as I try to convince myself that I should say thank you. “Thank you.”
