Heels clicked across the floor, and I suddenly saw myself standing in Cass’s throne room. It was different this time, though. I actually saw Tristan there, standing behind me—completely invisible to me at the time. He had his mask on, and his arm lifted as if to touch me.
Books. Library. Shelves.
I focused as hard as I could to push him out of my head, but nothing was working.
The images changed to me standing in the middle of my room in Dez’s castle, holding the daisy that Tristan had placed in my hand.
Books. Library.
Then, our time in the garden.
Books.
My head rushed as he pulled out, but this time, the world spun and I almost fell again. Thankfully, Tristan caught me. But his eyes were wide as he looked down at me.
“I’m sorry,” I groaned, feeling like my brain had expanded and then shrunk inside of my head. “I really tried.”
“You’re bleeding,” he whispered, his fingers coming up to my nose as he swiped just below it. When I looked down, crimson coated his thumb.
“Oh, yeah… It, uh… It did that once with Eris, too. I’m fine, though.”
I lifted myself, moving to sit and try again, but Tristan shook his head. “No. No more of that today.”
“One more time,” I pleaded. “Come on. Let me keep trying! I know I can?—”
“I will not allow you to hurt yourself, Morrigan,” he all but yelled. “That was a lot at once, and I never should have done it to begin with. It was selfish of… Never mind that. We can work on your fire after you’ve had some lunch and tea to help your body relax a little.”
Without giving me the opportunity of a response, he stood and walked away, disappearing into a fit of thick, black, eerie mist.
Tristan wasn’t present in the dining hall as I ate with Azrael and my mother, but he waited for me in the garden after.
His eyes were clearer, and his body seemed a lot less tense.
“This shouldn’t be as hard as occluding. You’ve already used your fire before. You seem to be able to summon it faster than before as well.” He moved us to the other end of the garden, closer to the tree line, and further away from the castle. “What have they done in terms of training for you?”
I was actually taken aback by the question. “What do you mean,training? They haven’t trained me for anything.”
His brows knitted together as he stared at me. “You, a mortal, developed unexplainable powers, and not a single one of them thought to teach you tousesaid powers?”
I shrugged. “We didn’t exactly have a lot of time. Lyra had given me a stone to help control my outbursts, keeping the flames tamed. And by the time I would have been ready to start learning, Cain?—”
I stumbled over his name, saying it almost too casually. It made me clamp my mouth shut, forcing the thoughts back into the little box I had crafted for them.
Tristan didn’t comment, but his eyes did linger for a second longer before he shook his head. “Alright, let’s just start with the basics.” He offered his hands, gesturing for me to take them. When I did, he turned both of my palms up and placed them beside each other in a “cupping” manner. “The first thing I did wrong as a child was seeing these abilities as an extension of myself. Like, this other side of my mind could take over, making its own decisions. That’s what causes bursts of power like you’ve had before.”
“It only ever works when I’m in some kind of danger, or my emotions are too strong,” I pointed out.
“This power, Morrigan… It’syou. You need to accept that before you can truly learn to wield it. Close your eyes for me.”
As I followed his instruction, the world around me slowly disappeared. All I could feel was Tristan’s fingers around my wrists.
“Find the flame. Find the source of the heat within you.”
It took a couple of seconds, but I was able to reach the tiny fleck of light that currently remained dormant somewhere deep in my chest. “Okay,” I said with an exhale.
“Fan the flame now. Don’t just push it, but give it air to breathe, to move, to expand. First, let the heat into your veins. Feel the way it moves in your body.”
I allowed my body to relax in front of him and felt the heat seep into my blood, warming me in the most comforting way. First, I felt it in my ribs, then my shoulders. It spread until every limb felt like we stood before a large fire,but it didn’t burn—it tingled. Vibrating against my fingertips and causing goosebumps to rise on my skin.
