After breakfast, Becks announced that we were going to start training, and that’s what we were doing when I put my foot in my mouth and asked if I could ride him.
Since seeing his scales, I’d become a little obsessed with what he looks like full-shift. So of course, I asked him if he shifted into his dragon form if I could ride him.
But I didn’t mean it literally. I meant it hypothetically. As in, if it would be possible for someone to ride him, not asking him if I could right then.
“Haven, wait!” Becks calls, laughter in his voice. It only takes him two giant dragon shifter steps to catch up to me. He grabs my gloved hand. “Okay, okay. To answer your question, yes, I could carry someone on my back in dragon form, but I never have.”
I cross my arms over my chest, trying to look annoyed rather than embarrassed. “Well, now I don’t believe you. You’re probably a really puny dragon. I’ll bet you have a hard time flying at all.”
Becks just looks amused.
“Yep, you’ve got me pegged,” he says, with that annoyingly attractive grin still on his face. “Now that we have that cleared up, can you start?”
A ball of nerves knots in my stomach. Part of the reason I asked about his dragon form at all was because I was stalling.
Nervous about working with my magic.
Nervous I’m not going to be able to produce it.
Nervous I will, but it will be uncontrollable.
And most of all, nervous I might reveal too much.
Despite my best efforts, my emotions must be splashed across my face, because Becks’ gaze turns understanding and he shifts closer.
“There are no expectations here. Let’s just give it a try and see what happens.” When I hesitate, he adds. “Remember, I’m fireproof, so you don’t have to worry about setting me ablaze.”
I let out a humorless chuckle. That’s the least of my worries.
Time to woman up. I take a deep breath. “Where do we start?”
Becks led us into the forest to a clearing he’d found on his morning jog.
Overachiever.
I’d say we were less than a quarter mile from the cabin, but it took nearly half an hour to trudge through the snow. In places, the drifts reached my waist. Becks could’ve covered the distance in a fraction of the time without me slowing him down.
Thank goodness the cabin is stocked with winter gear, and that I’m pretty much the same size as my twin, because from the hat on my head down to the boots covering my feet, I’m wearing Locklyn’s outerwear. But even bundled up as I am, the cold is starting to get to me.
In contrast, Becks only has on boots and a light jacket. No hat or gloves. And his jacket is unzipped.
“You look cold,” he says, a note of concern in his voice.
“I am.”
“Let’s start there, then. We know you have fire magic. Let’s see if you can use it to heat yourself up.”
“That’s possible?”
“It is. First, you need to feel your magic, to know where it lives inside you, so you can easily find it when you reach for it.”
I give him a skeptical look. Feel my magic. What does that even mean?
“O-kay,” I say. “And how do I go about doing that?”
“I want you to think about the few times you’ve used your magic,” he says. “Where in your body did you first feel it stirring?”
I think back to the frat party. What hit me first was the panic I felt when Carter grabbed me. I hadn’t felt for my magic then. It had burst from me unbidden. It took more energy and concentration to pull it back than it did to release. Yet when I tried to use it when I was attacked in the woods, it wouldn’t come, which leaves me at a loss.
