AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Eat your food, Sweeney,” Fielder orders, dropping back down to his seat. “You’re going to need your strength because tomorrow you’re going to teach us how to use illusions.”
An uneasy truce settles between all of us. I don’t feel like I can completely forgive them for not coming for me, and they stubbornly refuse to admit that they did anything but what was best.
Even if they hated it.
The next day, Cohen starts teaching them illusions after Gideon tattoos them with the rune that will give them access to that power. I’m not sure that the tattoo was strictly necessary, but they seem to need it to convince themselves they can do that type of magic. If it helps them to have the rune, then they should have it.
A light drizzle is falling from the sky, so we’ve stayed in the living room for today’s training, which means I’m not working on my elemental control, but on casting protection spells. They seem to think it will be something that I’ll need during the trials. Theoretically, it should be relatively easy, since protections are a type of magiceveryonecan do.
I don’t know why it’s such a struggle for me.
“Breathe, wildcard.” Cohen’s hands come to a rest on my shoulders and squeeze gently, as I try, and fail, to cast a protection spell on a book on the table. If the spell works, the book should disappear, hidden behind a layer of protection. It’s meant to be used to hide sensitive materials, and if you get good enough, it can hide an entire person.
I am not good enough.
Not by a long shot.
“No one gets a spell on their first try.” His thumbs dig into the tight muscles along my shoulders.
“How about on their tenth? Do they normally get it on the tenth? Cause I’m pretty sure I blew by that number at least six tries ago.”
He chuckles and kisses the back of my head. “You’ll get it. It’ll just take a bit of time.”
“The one thing I don’t have,” I mutter, scuffing my bare foot on the rug.
Cohen hums in his throat and keeps up with his gentle kneading of my shoulders. “We have enough time to get you up to where you need to be, wildcard.”
I frown and turn to face him. Cohen’s hands fall to his sides, and disappointment flickers through them. I ignore it, and fold my arms over my stomach, catching out of the corner of my eye that Gideon’s dark hair is red, and he has freckles. Fielder looks like he’s about twenty years older, a replica of his dad, and Ezra and Hardin both have altered their appearance in some small way. Apparently, everyone is better at this than I am.
“How long did it take you to get to where you are, Cohen?”
He pauses, knowing where I’m going with this, because he had years, literal years, to get where he is and I’m trying to shove all the important spells into a handful of days, made even shorter thanks to my unexpected foray into the forests of the Pacific Northwest.
“You have time to get fantastic at this, Ro. Right now, we just need you to be passable,” he assures me.
“I don’t think I’ll survive with passable.” I don’t mean to say it. It’s supposed to stay firmly in my head, but sometimes I feel like that potion the witch hunters gave me is still in effect.
Cohen growls, and Kohaku suddenly appears in front of me, making me stumble back in surprise. His orange eyes burn. “You are going to survive, little warrior. There is no other option. I will make sure of it.”
I believe he will do everything in his power to keep me safe to help me when I need it, but some stubborn part of me wants to do this on my own. Even if I know it’s not going to work. Even if I recognize I need help in order to survive, I want to do as much as I can on my own.
To actually prove that I am worthy of this power that I have.
With that in mind, I look at Cohen. “What’s the difference between the power Kohaku has and the power you and I have?”
Cohen tilts his head like he’s not sure what I’m asking, so I explain. “With the witch hunters, you said they warded the building to prevent us from using power, but Kohaku would be able to because of the nature of his. What’s the difference?”
“Ah, right. Well, you and I cast spells to direct our magic, and when we do that, we pull little bits of power from around us-”
I frown. “Wait, it’s not inside us? The power? I thought-” I think about the little cords of all the ongoing spells connected to me, of that pulsing light at their center. “I thought it was inside us.”
He nods. “No, it is, to some extent. But we also need external input in order to be able to cast. Like, we have the magic inside us that allows us to manipulate the magic around us. The wards the witch hunters use restrict that external access. Kohaku doesn’t need that external access, because he is a demon and a kitsune and not a witch. So the wards didn’t work on him.”
I hum, my gaze shifting to a painting behind Cohen as I consider his words.
“Wildcard?”
“Hmm?” I don’t remove my gaze from the painting.
