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“You really are extremely easy to read, you know? You need to learn how to school your features better. I have no idea how you’ve lasted as long as you have without getting into more trouble.” Even with that, he didn’t press, didn’t try to get me to admit anything.
Whether that was because he didn’t feel it necessary since he already knew, or whether he just didn’t care, I wasn’t sure.Kit was forever an enigma.
He nodded toward a table in the middle of the room and the items set on it. There was a stack of small boxesand an apple on top. “I want you to knock the apple off without disturbing the boxes.”
“Are you kidding me? I can’t do that!”
“Yes, you can.” Kit didn’t move or tell me it was all a joke like I wanted him to.
Opening a lock was one thing—that was about replicating something I’d heard before. This would be trying to harness and hone a wave down to a very narrow effect…
Still, he seemed unwilling to back down, which meant I had little choice.
“I scheduled your evaluation on this floor since there aren’t any guards here and no one else should be in the area. Don’t worry.”
Easy for him to say.He wouldn’t pay the price if I did it wrong. What if I didn’t manage it and ended up blowing the side of the building off? Pretty sure the Warden wouldn’t take that too lightly…
With no way to get out of it, I took a deep breath and tilted my head to ease the tension in my neck. After giving myself as much procrastination time as I thought I could get away with, I lifted my hands. There had been a time when I’d first done this when I’d needed to snap my fingers to create the initial sound, but after my practice?
I’d realized that there wasalwayssound around me. The world was never truly silent, which meant I didn’t have to create sound first to use it. In the room at that moment was the subtle creak of the building, the breathing of Kit and me, even the beating of our hearts.
I lowered my guards, let the sounds melt into me, felt them moving over my skin like a caress welcoming me home. I so rarely did this, so rarely gave myself over to it, and it reminded me why.
It was dangerous. It pulled me in deeper, made me want to lose everything to just the sounds.
“Don’t dive too deep,” Kit said, his voice lower than usual, rougher.
Right. Focus.I stopped letting myself enjoy the sensation so much and put my attention to the task at hand. I stopped trying to take something from the room and instead snapped my fingers. It helped my power start in one place.
I pushed it forward, toward the apple, but my calculations were all wrong. The apple went flying, but so did the boxes, and even the table they sat on flipped over.
I let out a sigh at the colossal failure. I mean, I hadn’t taken out a wall or anything, so that was better than I thought, right?
Kit moved as if he’d expected that. He set the table back up—and he didn’t struggle despite the weight—then picked up the boxes. He put it all back the way it had been, finally adding the apple on again. After he returned to his spot, he nodded. “Again.”
I lifted my hand and tried it again, ready for a long damned day.
No wonder he’d scheduled the evaluation for the rest of today, and knowing Kit, I wasn’t getting out of it until I got it right.
* * * *
Kit
I blinked slowly, trying to ease the exhaustion that hung on me. Four hours of watching Hera fail seemed to be my limit.
Still, I couldn’t deny my pride over the fact that she had refused to give up. Each time she didn’t manage the task I’d set before her, she’d blow out a hard breath, narrow her eyes, then rest as I set them back up.
She’d thus far managed to knock down the boxes, the table, even the chalkboard from the far wall. All of that happened when she’d attempted to use less power. It again reminded me that the girl possessed far more power than she should have, that she had the potential to be exceedingly dangerous on a level that concerned even me.
“This is impossible,”she signed before looking my way with a frown.
“It isn’t impossible. You’ve proven you can use this power, so now you simply have to control it.”
“It’s easy to say that, but you haven’t explained how I’m supposed to do that.”
“Because I’m not a siren. I don’t know how it feels to control sound waves, to manipulate them. How can I explain something I am not able to do?”
She set her hands on her hips, her chest rising and falling as she breathed hard. No doubt I’d pushed her about to her limit.
