“I’m sure it’s fine,” I said. “I still feelthe connection.”
“But not as strongly.”
“No, it’s… different here, but look at howquickly I’m healing. It can’t be that different.”
“The fact you’re healing faster could be fromthe life you drew from the earth before reaching here. It couldalso be from the life you harvest from me and the strength of ourChosen bond.” He turned toward me, nearly spilling the contentsfrom my still-open bag. “Your ability to harvest life is because ofthe life around you. If you’re not able to feed from it in the sameway, it will affect your power.”
“You mean it will affectme.” The realization made my fingers slip awayfrom my shoelaces and my heart sink as a fear blazed to life withinme. “Like Lucifer.”
“I didn’t say that.”
“But it’s what you’re thinking.” I nowrealized where all of this pent-up tension was coming from as ahollow feeling spread through my body. I accepted I could die. Iwould die if it was necessary to save my brothers and so manyothers, but I was not willing to accept that I could becomeanything like that bastard ancestor of mine.
“No, River, that’s not what I’m thinking. Youstill feel the connection. We have to make sure you can still useit in the same way.”
He wouldn’t lie to me. If that was what hewas worried about, he would say it, but now the idea was embeddedin my head.
Deep breaths. One day at atime, one minute at a time; that’s the only way you’ll get throughthis.
“Well, you just had my power sparking prettygood,” I reminded him, hoping to coax a smile from him and ease themood. It didn’t work as he stared resolutely back at me.
“I haven’t changed, but you’re feeling theworld around you differently. We have to know how that will affectyou.”
“Okay, we’ll find out.”
“Now.”
Now all I wanted was sleep, but I could tellfrom the look on his face, he wouldn’t get any rest until he knew.If I was somehow defunct in this land of strange smells andstranger life pulses, he’d never sleep again, I was certain ofit.
I took a deep breath and rested my hand onthe ground. Beneath my fingers, the pulse of life within the earthswirled up to meet me. A small smile played across my lips as theintricate bond worked its way over me. It may not feel the same inthis area, but it was still there and the life force was like afamiliar, comforting blanket as it slipped over me.
“It’s sluggish,” I muttered. Lines formedaround his mouth when his lips compressed. “But I can still feel itand draw on it.”
That reassurance didn’t have the anticipatedeffect as he remained unmoving before me. Closing my eyes, I dugdeeper, pulling at the slower pulse beneath my fingers and drawingit upward. It slithered through my hand and up into my arm. Ilooked down, half-expecting to see black running through my skin,or over it as it almost felt like tar, but all I saw weregolden-blue sparks shooting from my hands instead of golden-whiteones.
They were a darker color than normal, butthey still danced across my fingers like little bolts of lightning.I couldn’t help but smile as the sparks twined around my wrist andtraveled toward my elbow.
“Form the ball,” he commanded.
Turning my other hand over, I let the sparksgrow and coalesce together there. The pull of the earth started toflow more easily through me as I became better accustomed to it,and the energy fed into the ball. Grinning, I flipped the ballwithin my fingers, turning it over and making it spin so fast thatsparks shot out the sides of it. Like the sparks on my fingers, theenergy forming the ball was darker in color, but I could feel thepower thrumming through it.
“Now throw it at me,” he said.
My head jerked up at his words. Before Icould respond, he came at me. Knowing what he planned, I turned myhand over and smashed the ball back into the ground. Smoke driftedupward from the charred mark I left upon the earth.
“No,that isnot going to happen again,” I grated through my teeth.
He ran a hand through his disordered hair.“You have to test your powers, River.”
“I just did. It scorched the earth the sameas it always has. There is no difference, except that it’s a littlemore difficult for me to dip into at first, but it’s alreadybecoming easier as I adjust to it. However, hurting you is theequivalent to how you would feel if you hurt me.”
“I’d never harm you.”
“I know that! But if you did, how would youfeel about it?”
“It would destroy me.”
“That’s how I felt the other night when youused my power against you, and I’m not doing it again!” I couldn’tstop my foot from stomping on the ground, but I didn’t care if theact was childish. Hehadtounderstand.
