“I knew you could.” A warm smile lit his face. “You don’t give yourself enough credit.”
“I’ll say! You should’ve seen how she incinerated that creature last night, Thalia,” Barrett added, his eyes jumping to her.
“I wish I’d been there to see it. Speaking of...” She glanced between Barrett and Damien. “Did we figure out what that thing was?”
Damien shook his head. “James is at the Archivallia with Salwa researching it as we speak. I’ll be joining them this evening to help.”
My brows rose. He hadn’t told me James and Salwa were there. I’d wanted to visit the vast library again. I desperately wanted to see what types of books were contained on those shelves and see the little librarians again, and I was curious about the glass case with those three thick leather-bound books.
“Can I come?” I asked, a bit too eagerly.
He blinked, somehow surprised that I wanted to go. “You barely got a nap in this morning after we got back from the hospital. I figured you’d be exhausted after training.”
“I want to help look, and I want to see the astral sprites again.”
He chuckled. “I won’t tell you no, Cas. You can do whatever you like.”
“Let’s get back to work, then. Barrett?” I said, spinning to face Barrett, eager to continue the lesson.
“Such a demanding queen,” Barrett huffed, stepping back a safe distance from me.
My eyes narrowed on him, and he laughed. I oddly preferred him calling me spitfire to calling me queen.
“There is another common technique,” Barrett started, and he slid his feet apart. “You can use the flames as a shield against various objects.”
As if already prepared to assist in the demonstration, Thalia ducked low to scoop up some branches and other forest debris from the snow. Barrett glanced her way as she chucked the mass of things at him and he swept his arm across the air, a wall of flames spreading wide. The branches and damp leaves disintegrated into ash the moment they met the wall of flames. Amidst the branches and leaves, a lone pebble shot through the flames, and it clunked against Barrett’s head. The wall of fire vanished, and Barrett threw Thalia a look.
“Whoopsie,” Thalia said, eyes dropping to the ground, pacing in a circle as if she were looking to see where it could’ve possibly come from. “How’d that get in there?” She slid me a quick wink, and I giggled.
Damien huffed a short laugh under his breath, but by the time I glanced back at him, he’d already composed himself. I gave him a knowing smile, and the mischievous one that formed on his face left my heart fluttering.
Barrett ducked to pick up the pebble, leveling a glare at Thalia. “Well, as Thalia so kindly demonstrated, it will not protect against certain objects, but if it’s burnable, the wall will protect you.”
He wound his arm back before he chucked the pebble at Thalia. I gasped as she leapt, twisting in the air as black mist swirled around her, and dappled white wings fanned out from the shadowy mist, the darkness dispersing to reveal a white falcon.
I stopped breathing, enthralled at the form I’d never seen before, as she darted for Barrett. He stepped back as she careened for him. Black mist swallowed her once more, the smoke building bigger and bigger until a large gray wolf emerged from the shadows, teeth barred as she plowed into him, pinning him to the ground.
Barrett grunted as he hit the snow. Thalia’s paws pressed into his chest as her lips peeled back, exposing teeth that could tear him apart, a low growl slipping from her throat. Barrett smirked up at her, unfazed by the deadly creature on his chest.
“If you wanted on top, all you had to do was ask,” Barrett said as he met Thalia’s deadly gaze with a wicked grin. Her weight shifted as the words left his lips, as if she were thrown off by them. I tried not to revisit the sight of them in the training hall—Barrett pressed against Thalia as he—
God. I shook the thought, turning from the couple, and the coy grin on Damien’s face as my gaze found his made it clear he knew exactly where my mind had gone.
His lips parted, and I shot out a hand. “Don’t. You. Dare.”
He bit his lip, amber and ashen eyes raking down my body, and I wished his nose wasn’t so strong. Oh my God. A realization dawned on me, one I almost wished I hadn’t thought of. Did that mean Barrett and Thalia could tell when... I wanted to leave, to just disappear as I figured out how obvious any hint of arousal could be to any of them.
Damien laughed and pushed off the tree. “Let him up, Thalia. I’d prefer you not tear the face off my third in command.”
I looked over my shoulder to see the black mist slipping off Thalia as she shifted, her pale cornsilk braid falling over her shoulder as she pushed herself up off Barrett’s chest. She extended her hand out to pull him up, and he took it, a haughty grin smeared across his face.
I beamed at Thalia as she turned to me, in awe of both of her beast forms. “That was amazing!”
Her brows rose, silver eyes widening slightly. “It’s a tactical use of the two forms we Thiríons possess.”
“So, there’s only two?” I asked as I walked toward her.
Thalia nodded. “A flight form and a ground form. Not all immortals can use both. Those with weaker magic are only able to form one of the two their entire life. You could shift into any animal you desired in your past lives. Zephyr tells me you’re working on a tawny owl.”
