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“I don’t really want to get into it right now.”
I couldn’t understand why she wouldn’t open up to me about her mother, especially when she knew everything about me. There’s no way her mother could be any worse than mine. I took in a deep breath. “Lilibet… please. I don’t know what to offer you.”
“Lily… please.” Barrett stepped forward, reaching out to her.
Lily?
I looked at Lilibet and watched her nearly melt when she looked at Barrett. Wow. She must have, or still has it bad for him. She looked at me and then back to Barrett, who was mouthing please.
“Fine!” she yelled, exasperated. “But I swear, if this shit gets me in trouble. I really can’t handle any other bullshit right now.” She let out a groan. “Fuck! This is not a good idea.”
I ran over to her and gave her a hug before she could talk herself out of it. “Thank you, thank you. I will repay you. I swear. I will find a way and I will repay you.”
“I’ll hold you to it. Who knows when I’ll need a mage princess?” She pushed me away but held on to my shoulders. “Have you figured out what your animal is yet?”
“My animal?”
“Most powerful mages have shifter abilities and the power I felt within you… you definitely have to have one.”
I shook my head. “I don’t know. I’ve never felt it or had anything happen. How would I figure it out? What are you?”
“It sort of just happens. You’ll get a tingling feeling and then you will feel something changing in your body and then you just sort of shift.”
“So I could just be walking around one day and boom!?”
She laughed. “Not really. There will be signs or feelings days leading up to it so you can be prepared. You may hear her talking, or feel her within you.”
I tried to imagine what it would be like to have something, an animal, inside of my body talking to me. Would I feel like I was going crazy? Do you talk back to it? Would my voice go an octave or two higher like it does when talking to other animals? I had so many questions right now and absolutely none of them were important. I shook my head to try to refocus on Lilibet. “How do I shift back? Are all shifters, mages?” I had images of Gage shifting into a wolf in the woods, running through my head.
Barrett looked at me and must have sensed what I was thinking, because he jumped in. “Let’s worry less about this right now and more about how to keep you alive.” He patted my shoulder in a very brotherly way.
“Yes!” Enzo chimed in.
Lilibet nodded and then fired a spell at me without warning, hitting me in the shoulder. I screamed out in pain as the sting ran down my arm. “What the hell?”
She smiled and jumped to the left. “Ignis Ferrum! But remember, deflect or redirect!” She laughed.
“Ignis ferrum!” I flicked my wrist and a small bolt of light shot out, but only covered half the distance between us.
“Put more force in the flick. Imagine it reaching out to me!” She bounced from side to side on her feet.
“Ignis ferrum!” I yelled again and flicked more forcefully. I was so excited that it reached her I didn’t see she redirected it back to me. It hit me in my lower leg, causing me to fall to the ground in agony. “Shit Lily!”
“Lilibet!” she fired again. “Only friends call me Lily, and we aren’t friends right now.”
I rolled out of the way and could smell the scorched patch of earth behind me.
I heard the pop of another spell and rolled over quickly and deflected it.
“Good, good!” She said excitedly before launching another and then another.
“Damn it! Slow down.” I deflected one and jumped out of the way of the second.
“Make me!” She rolled on the ground, dodging my cast, and fired another one.
I redirected it back to her, but she jumped out of the way, so I launched another, clipping her on the arm.
“Oh, that was close.” She looked at the black ash mark on her arm.
