Page 67 of No One’s Daughter

And, weirdly, for the first time I truly appreciated how dangerous he could no doubt be. He’d been holding back all this time, and the thought formed a knot in my stomach.

​He wasn’t winded, hurt or bruised.

​If I couldn't hold my own against him, I had no chance of survival.

​I pushed myself to my feet, wiping rain from my brow, forcing my legs steady beneath me.

​“Again,” I ground out.

​He turned his back on me, not even having the decency to look at me when he said. “Not tonight. We’re done.”

​The rain came down harder, pooling at our feet, soaking everything through as if the sky itself stood in solidarity with me, refusing to ease.

​“I said—” My jaw clenched, every muscle tightening as I focused on him, on the distance between us, on the frustration clawing its way up my throat. My hand lifted without thought, fingers splaying slightly as something began to build beneath my skin. “Again.”

​This time he stopped.

Stopped dead in his path.

Completely unmoving.

My breath caught and the energy within me surged.

It crackled through my arm, and down my fingertips, wild and uncontrollable.

But then—

It became too much.

A sharp, unbearable pressure snapped through me and I dropped to my knees with a strangled scream, clutching at my head as the sensation tore through me.

And then… Gone.

Just like that, the power was gone.

I didn’t even know what it was.

I wasn’t strong enough to hold onto it.

​“Ailsa—” He was there instantly, kneeling in front of me, hands on either side of my face, forcing me to look at him. All traces of his earlier annoyance was gone. Replaced with… concern?

“What was that?” he demanded, eyes wide, searching me like I held the answer to something he’d been chasing for years. “Can you do it again?”

“I don’t even know what I did.”

He hesitated a heartbeat, as though deciding whether or not he should divulge a weakness against him. “You pulled the air tight around me,” he said, quieter now. “Leaving me unable to move an inch…”

This time I looked at him, eyes wide, because… what?

What did he mean I controlled the air?

He stepped back and held out a hand for me, and when mine locked with his, he pulled me to my feet, getting into a fighting stance. “Again it is.”

I could do this. I would do this.

I stepped back, mirroring him as best I could, rain dripping from my hair, clothes clinging to my skin as the storm continued to rage around us like it was as invested in this as I was.

He moved.