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Rollick nods. “I suspect melding someone back together properly would be significantly more complex than unraveling them. But it will be good to determine your limits regardless. For this next and hopefully final scheme against Balthazar, disabling beings of various sorts from a distance may be the key.”
I roll my shoulders, attempting to loosen both my muscles and the ball of tension in my stomach. “It makes sense. I probably should have tested myself sooner so that we’d know.”
Riva hooks her arm right around mine. “I know how much you hate this part of your powers. No one’s going to blame you for not pushing yourself to use it more.”
The smile I manage to offer her is tight. “I’d blame me. Let’s get this over with.”
Riva steps back, and my four observers drift to the side of the clearing under the shade of the trees. Rollick points to the other side, where orange ribbons catch my eyes in stark contrast with the green vegetation. “I’ve marked bushes at three-foot intervals going as far as thirty feet. If you can make it farther than that, I’ll add some more. I’d suggest starting with the closest and moving on from there.”
That sounds like a reasonable strategy. I drag in a breath and focus on the nearest marked bush, more relieved than I’m comfortable with at the temporary reprieve from using my talents on actual people.
My tentacles snake around my arms and extend toward the line of bushes. The warm breeze tingles over the suckers.
A quiver of the life energy in the nearby plants touches my awareness. I hone my attention to that—and pull.
It’s more of an effort than I’m used to, a jerk of my own energy before a flow rushes into me from the shrub. But once I’m locked on to the target, I drink its life force in as easily as if I had my tentacles wrapped around it.
The bush sags, its leaves browning. A heady thrill courses through my veins with the extra energy, and hunger for more coils in my chest.
I yank my focus away, sweat breaking out on the back of my neck that has nothing to do with physical strain. My skin tingles where my tentacles stretch a fraction of an inch farther from my back.
It isn’t the ability itself that I really hate. It’s the temptation that always grips me when I activate this particular talent.
But I didn’t kill even the shrub. I held myself back. Whether because the distance slowed the flow enough that I couldn’t get too caught up in it or because I’m actually getting better at moderating myself is a question I can’t bring myself to look at too closely.
One by one, I work my way down the line. Each greater distance requires a bigger initial jolt to latch on to the target, but nothing I can’t handle.
It’s not until the seventh bush, a little over twenty feet away, that I fling my power forward and grasp nothing.
I steady myself, refocus, and lash out again. This time, I manage to snag hold of the bush’s energy enough to start draining it, but a prickling ache forms in the back of my skull at the same time.
After what amounts to a few sips, I let go and turn to my audience. “I almost couldn’t reach that one. I don’t think it’d be worth trying to go any farther—it’ll take more out of me than I’m getting back.”
Rollick rubs his hands together. “Still, a reach of twenty feet—that’s not bad at all. Especially when you started out needing direct physical contact.”
“Yeah.” And the last time I stretched my abilities, I’m not sure I could have grasped on to energy more than a quarter that distance away.
Balthazar does excel at turning people more monstrous than they already were.
Lance clicks his claws together. “Is it my turn now?”
Rollick chuckles. “Are you really that eager to lose a little essence?”
“If he can steal it.” The shadowkind man grins at me in challenge.
This is the part of the test that I was least looking forward to.
I swallow hard. “I wouldn’t have to take very much, right? Just enough to know whether I can take any at all. If I can absorb some energy, then there’s no reason to think I’d run into any obstacles taking a larger portion later.”
“I definitely don’t want you draining my associates to oblivion,” Rollick says dryly. “Have a little taste—see how quickly you can take hold. That should tell us plenty.”
Lance positions himself several feet away and watches me expectantly, his striking violet eyes looking more amused than anything. “Ready when you are.”
Careful and controlled. I’m the best at those virtues out of all of us shadowbloods—at least, among the Firsts.
I inhale slowly and aim my tentacles toward Lance. The hum of energy that emanates from his body gives a different sensation from what I’m used to from plants, animals, or humans. It’s a little airier, wispier, like the haze that spills from their bodies instead of blood.
I have to concentrate harder to latch on to the ephemeral impression. My tentacles sway in the air, my nerves jitter—and there, I’ve got it.
