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All week Matron Olsander had been helping me differentiate what each affinity felt like inside me. All of them had their own triggers, and all of them required their own Outlets. It was mind-numbing at times, trying to figure out what was what. Half the time, I couldn’t differentiate anything, and it all felt like a big swirling mess in my gut.
Rain abruptly pelted my skin, hitting my head like tiny needles, and I grabbed a hold of the sensation my tutor had led me toward.
“Call upon your affinity, Ilara!” Matron Olsander yelled again. “Form an air Shield around yourself. Nothing should be able to penetrate it.”
A gust of wind nearly knocked me off the balance beam, and I shrieked, my concentration vanishing.
The rain and wind stopped. Matron Olsander sighed. “Again. Back to the beginning.”
Georgyanna sniggered, and my cheeks flamed in embarrassment that I’d so easily been distracted. Taking a deep breath, I reminded myself what the prince had said.
I was worthy.
I was strong.
I could do this.
Nostrils flaring, I closed my eyes again when Matron Olsander instructed me to draw up my magic. That light, pulsing, feathery feeling rose within my gut, like a cloud of wind. It breathed through me, rising up, up, up.
A rain droplet hit my forehead, but I took a deep breath and focused more on each step along the narrow beam as I felt the air around me, called to it, and asked it to help me.
The chatter below vanished. Warmth kissed my skin. Not one raindrop touched my scalp. A smile of satisfaction spread across my lips as I opened my eyes, feeling the air around me as though it were a living, breathing entity that pulled at my senses and ignited my magic.
“Excellent, Ilara!” my teacher called.
I was almost to the end of the beam, despite water pelting my air Shield from every angle as gusts of wind pushed against it. But the air that I controlled was one with me. I didn’t know where I ended and it began.
Another step took me closer to the safety of the platform. Five more steps, and I would be there and off the beam.
Almost there. Almost. Keep going.
An electric jolt pulsed faintly under my heel. Frowning, I tried to ignore it, but the jolt grew stronger. A zap of what felt like a hundred watts of electricity zinged up my calf. The pain of it made me yelp, but I gritted my teeth. I had no idea what this latest test was, but I was steps away from finishing. It did seem a bit sadistic of Matron Olsander, though. The electrical zaps stung painfully.
I took another step, and a surge of electricity bolted up both of my feet so strongly that my entire body seized. Eyes widening, I tried to take a step, tried to reach the end as my mind tumbled and spun with what was happening.
Where? Where is this coming from?
My bubble was around me, protecting me, encasing me. Yet electricity surged so strongly from the beam that I couldn’t move. My body’s synapses had frozen, my nerves going haywire from the strength of the beam’s circuit.
“No!” I whispered, barely getting the word out as a violent bolt of electricity scorched my nerves, burning the soles of my feet as I yelped in pain.
And then air was surrounding me. Nothing but air as my balance was lost, my legs buckling, my body tumbling from the beam. I was spinning, twisting, falling.
Screams filled the room. A shout from my instructor. A yell from Meegana. A cry of surprise from Michas. Panic seized my chest.
I squeezed my eyes shut only seconds before I hit the floor.
CHAPTER12
“What in the realm!” a male yelled.
My body stopped two inches from the floor. Onlytwoinches.
Blessed Mother.I’d thought I was going to hit it.
Blood pounded through my veins. I hung there. Suspended. Someone had used their air affinity to stop me from breaking my neck. Someone who had actuallymasteredtheir affinity.
The mat lay a hair’s breadth beneath my nose. Black rubber stared back at me. Tiny granules of the material were made up in a crisscross pattern. I was so close to it that I could almost differentiate the tiny fibers.
