“Trust the dagger to find where it needs to go.”
“Right…” My voice trailed off as I offered him a speculative look. He seemed to find my reaction amusing as he chuckled and patted my shoulder before stepping a few feet away.
I rolled my shoulders back and stretched my neck side to side before settling in and closing my eyes. I kept the dagger in my right hand with a loose grip. I knew from my minimal training with a dagger that I needed to have a light touch.
I attempted to get a sense of the room. I knew from when I walked in that the farthest wall from the entrance was nearly thirty feet away, and I assumed that at least one of the targets was near there so it was probably my best bet. Although I highly doubted that Noah had put the target dead center across the space from me…My lip curled. I was overthinking this. I needed to let go of my fear of failing and just believe in his advice. The dagger would guide me.
I focused on the energy I could feel coming from the dagger, pulling on its familiar weight and the increasing warmth it seemed to emit and trying to view it as an extension of my hand. I was a little surprised at how it vibrated in my hand just slightly. While I didn’t understand my connection to the dagger, it was clear that the object was loaded with power. It felt almost overwhelming to have even the smallest amount of access to that, especially without training.
Hit the target, Kieran.
My skin prickled with a feeling of peace as a tug on my mind spurred me into motion. I gave into the sensation entirely and turned in a one-eighty without warning, my grip on the dagger changing as I flipped it like it was second nature, now pinching the metal of the blade between my fingers. My hand came up before I flicked it out, sending it flying across the room.
I stopped overthinking it, allowing my body to naturally position itself, and I couldn’t help but wonder if that was a mistake. I was angled slightly toward the left of the glass wall. Where could the target be so that I wouldn’t shatter the glass?
The second my eyes caught sight of the small, white target in the corner of the glass where it met the solid wall, my dagger sank into it with a solidthunk.
It had hit.
It knew exactly where to go.
We’d connected enough to make that happen.
The kernel of hope I’d felt earlier exploded within me, and I fought the emotion that tried to clog my throat. To some it was nothing, but to me, it waseverything.
For the first time, I’d actually passed a test.
KIERAN
Holy shit.Was this real life?
“Excellent!” Noah exclaimed, clapping his hands and flashing me a huge smile. “Now retrieve it.”
I took a step forward, but he shook his head and tapped his temple. “Let’s test your mental connection to it.”
My entire body felt jittery with excitement, and I desperately needed to tamper it down so I could properly focus and not blow the progress I’d made.
I nodded and closed my eyes, speaking the same words to the dagger that I had when Steele took it.Come back to me.In less than a second, a weight settled in my hand, and I opened my eyes, smiling down at the weapon with affection. Perhaps it was crazy to feel so much for an inanimate object, but what it had given me was unreal…confidence and belief in myself.
A relieved sigh left my lips. So far, I managed to complete both tests with relative ease.
“It seems your connection is very intuitive and centered around intention, which is good. Intuition is easy to expand upon,” Noah said as he clapped my shoulder in passing. “Good job, Kieran. Now, let’s try something a bit different. Join me in the office.”
Following him back into the office with a new pep in my step, I watched as he moved around the space, pulling a few things from different sections of the bookshelves and nearby cabinets as if searching for something. He let out a heavy sigh as he pulled out a large book and grabbed a random wooden plank that was leaning against the bookshelves. He hustled over to the desk and laid them down in front of me.
“Alright,” Noah began as he opened the large leather-bound book, flipping through it until landing on a specific page. I saw a single dark symbol that was painted in black ink on the piece of parchment. It looked like three flames reaching up from a rounded base.
I eyed it curiously. Despite its simplistic nature and not being able to tellwhatit meant, I felt like it was calling to me. My fingers trailed across the page, feeling the power emanating from the symbol and seeping into my skin as I sat the dagger down on the plain, unmarked plank in front of me.
“I would like you to carve this rune into the wood with your dagger,” he explained, sitting down and watching me expectantly.
“Sure,” I agreed, eager to do something that seemed so straightforward. Leaning over the piece of wood, I took my time examining the symbol to ensure I understood each curve and dip before starting to carve it into the material. The soft wood gave away easily under the weapon’s sharp tip, but it was a slow process overall—mostly because I wanted to perfect it. When I finished the last turn of the symbol, I lifted the dagger and straightened myself up, pleased with the completed work.
The rune burst into flames seconds later, starting at the edges where my outline was carved into the wood before the fire consumed the entire symbol.
“Shit,” I immediately stood, my chair screeching on the floor as I looked around for water orsomethingto put the fire out. It appeared that I was the only one who was panicking, though.
Noah stared at the blazing piece of wood with no concern. Instead, I saw curiosity in his gaze.
