Page 99 of Anomalies

“Hunter,” Pax intervenes, with a hand raised. “It’s fine. She’s already been properly scolded.”

Properly scolded? Gods, I can’t wait for Callan to come back.

“She doesn’t look remorseful,” Hunter snarls, and I roll my eyes.

“I’m sorry,” I say, and I mean it. “It won’t happen again. If you don’t believe me, move me to a room with no windows.”

Hunter scoffs, turning away with both hands on his hips, and instantly begins bickering with Pax.

“I’m going to bed,” I tell them.

Neither of them hears me.

As soon as the bedroom door latches shut, I slump to the ground behind it, festering in the eerie silence as my gaze trails across the room.

There’s a darkness lingering in the corner, and he’s not finished with me yet.

Pax took me to the Yard after dinner the next day. He’s forgiven me, but Hunter hasn’t.

Surprisingly, I didn’t wake up to bars on my window, and I’m sure I have Pax to thank for that. I still have to re-hide the Eldral, which will require me to sneak past them again, but I’ll be quick, and I’ll be armed.

The blade strikes its target, a little to the right of where I intended it to go, but Pax gives an approving nod.

He gave me twin daggers this morning, long and sharp blades with ivory pommels, but he wants to make sure I know how to use them before we move on to my first lesson in light manipulation. We have one week until my next meeting with the Dianic coven, and Delia expects mastery with illusions at the very least.

“Throw one without your hands,” Pax calls, pulling the first dagger out of the target, then moving off to the side. His black vest is on, but unclipped, hanging loosely at his sides, and his hands are casually folded across his chest, the dagger resting against his forearm. His short red hair is hidden underneath a navy-blue hat with an AX embroidered on it in white.

Callan has a few T-shirts with those letters on them. I slept in one last night then made a mental note to get my own damn clothes. So after lunch, Gemma and Selene took me to the markets. I nearly cleared out an entire tent, but Selene helped me bargain everything– she said Lakelets can be swindlers.

I call on that festering well at the base of my spine, rolling magic through my veins. It releases with a snap, a bit more aggressive than I would have liked, and the dagger flies straight through the target. Pax whistles low, then yanks it out of the ground and makes his way over to me.

“You know,” he starts, pondering the knife for a moment before handing both back to me. “Maybe whoever set your cabin on fire didn’t choose that method because they’re Rogue copy-cats.”

My brows pinch as I slide a dagger in each boot. “No?”

“What if they chose fire, because they knew you could fight, and facing you head-on would be a lot harder.”

I let out an incredulous laugh. “I mean it’s been a week, and they haven’t done anything else, so maybe staying in the Ajax cabins has effectively scared them off.”

“Or they’re waiting until the time is right, plotting something they know won’t fail.” My jaw clenches shut, and he stiffens. “But hypothetically, say they’re after you because they’ve figured out who your mother is…why wouldn’t they have told all of Pirn by now?”

“Fair point.” I shrug. “Maybe they want to wait until they can parade my head around on a stick.”

Pax grimaces. “You scare me.”

I scoff, tossing my braid behind my shoulder and propping both hands on my hips. “Okay, show me how to make fire.”

He watches me for a moment, then straightens his shoulders. “To manipulate light, you have to understand the process by which it happens.”

Pax moves to stand in front of me, feet shoulder-width apart, and he nods for me to do the same. “You are a conduit. You are just a means for the light to pass through, so you must first make yourself permeable.” He grabs my wrist and flips it, opening my palm to the sky. Then with his pointer finger, he draws a circle around the center. “Put magic here, just within this circle.”

I do as he says, herding a steady flow of power into the circle he traced, and he nods when he feels the warmth that’s gathered there.

“Good. Let it seep through your skin, but don’t release it.”

I taper off more raw energy until it bleeds through my palm and settles over my hand.

“Got it?” he asks, and I nod. “Good. The magic will act as a receptor so that when you pull on the light, it will move through your skin and straight into your bloodstream. If you don’t have this circle saturated with magic, the light or fire or lightning—whatever you are trying to wield—will strike flesh. And it’ll fucking hurt.”