“I’m sure you’ll find it during this placement test, though…” Ronan trailed off, his voice filled with concern, and I realized I’d gotten distracted by the beast on his shoulder.
He mistook my lack of a response as weakness, but I didn’t need his sympathy.
“Tell me, are youstilltrying to find the missing inches to your dick all these years later?”
Immediately, a rumble that sounded almost beast-like tore from his throat, and I noticed his hand twitch from where it rested by his side. Why did I get the feeling he wanted to touch me? Actually,touchprobably wasn’t the right word—more like manhandle, especially since I was challenging him.
“Kieran.” Ronan’s deep tone made my toes curl as he shifted closer, his head dipping so our words were caught between us in a whisper. “I think you would find I’m not missing?—”
“Kieran. Ronan. Join us.”
Shit.I blinked, realizing I managed to forget where we were and who was around. Inhaling, I stepped back, registering that we were nearly chest to chest, our noses inches from one another with him bent downward. The Angelic Army specialist watched us from the top of the stairs, unimpressed, and I was thankful for the small blessing that my father wasn’t watching as well. Ronan murmured something under his breath, but I didn’t catch it, instead going toward the stairs to get this placement test over with.
“Why is he here?” Ronan asked quietly, keeping stride next to me, the concern in his voice urging me to be a bit more open with him than I normally would have been. So I didn’t hold back.
“To watch me fail.”
“You don’t know that will happen,” Ronan argued, oddly defensive of my expectations for today.
I fought the urge to side-eye him as my lips pulled into the faintest ghost of a smile. “Yeah,” I huffed out, “maybe this time it will be different. Who knows.”
Except that I did—I completely fucking did.
“Goodluck, Beautiful.” The gruff tone of Ronan’s voice and the words caused a slight flush to heat my cheeks in surprise.Beautiful? That was new…and not entirely unwelcome.
Either way,I would need all the luck I could get.
KIERAN
As Ronan walked away to join the other specialists, I stepped onto the training field and examined what lay ahead of me. After so many years of doing this, I knew how this process usually played out. Each affinity section had a number of different specialists and professionals that cycled through the placement tests, as they each had duties to do outside of this, but I recognized the majority of those here today. I think I had been with each of them at least once over the course of my previous trials. That should have lent a level of familiarity that was comforting to me, but it wasn’t—not when a few of them didn’t bother hiding their critical gazes and satisfied smiles while watching me fail.
I didn’t feel a sense of relief in seeing any of them, though. The tests were purposefully designed to be different each time, so that no one could fully predict what would happen.
“If you’re ready, we can begin,” a familiar woman offered while motioning toward the display set up for the first trial. My gaze ran over her, quickly determining that she was the Elementalist specialist. I believed her name was Mithrie, though it had been quite a few trials since I’d last encountered her. Itried to rack my brain for what I remembered about her, faintly recalling that her magic was water based.
Today she wore a pale blue coat over a white top, coupled with a pair of white leather pants, and her dark hair was pulled back and away from her face. Her blue eyes seemed to watch me with a softness that I hadn’t expected. It wasn’t understanding as much as sympathy, or maybe even pity, but I guess I would take it over her being unkind to me, which was more likely the case with many of the other specialists.
“Please approach the first station,” Mithrie instructed.
Chills ran through me, and I fought the urge to seek out where my father or Ronan were. It hit me then that I’d have to display just how incapable I really was in front of both of them today. The thought of failing in front of my father didn’t affect me as much as it did with Ronan. For some reason, I really wanted to prove tohimthat I was worthy of my wings.
Concentration washed over me as I approached the stations for the trial. They consisted of five wooden pedestals, each with a different stone basin resting on top of it. They most likely included some elemental aspect in each that I would need to manipulate, and I found myself thankful that it seemed this trial, at least, would be fairly straightforward.
“We will first test your ability to manipulate water. Please create either a series of waves or a waterspout within the basin.” The way she gave the instruction was like the task was the easiest thing in the world. For her, it probably was.
Placing my hands on the edge of the stone basin, I exhaled and tried to ignore everything around me, staring down into the clear, undisturbed liquid. Focusing all of my attention, I imagined the water shifting, undulating, and even rotating. My jaw tightened as I tried to will a spark of magic—that would make the water spiral into the air in a small waterspout—into existence.
Lifting my left hand, I placed it over the center of my chest, feeling my steady, yet nervous heartbeat under my palm. I tried to pull on the core of where my magicshouldhave been, the place that every single instructor I’d ever had insisted was the key to finding your affinity.
It had yet to work for me.
After a long minute, my shoulders slumped as I stepped back and shook my head, trying to not let the disappointment roll over me. There were four more elements…Thatwas what I had to keep reminding myself of. Although, as I moved to the next basin, I felt like the unlit candle sitting there was mocking me, a reminder that I might never spark my magic…or it.
Mithrie gestured with her hand to the next test. “Please attempt to light the candle, Kieran.”
Doing my best to imagine the wick lighting, I brought the image forward in my mind. I moved my hands over the candle through the air quickly, like I’d seen fire Elementalists do in the past, trying to will a flame into existence. I manifested the feeling of heat leaving my hands and setting the world on fire. I wanted my inner strength to be showcased in some intense and powerful fashion…but that didn’t happen.
Nor did it happen with the rock in the third basin that I was supposed to break apart into three separate, even pieces.
