“I’m not forcing it,” I scowled at the smug asshole.
I had gotten the hang of calling my fire immediately, so I thought controlling it would come easily. We had been at it for hours and I was still balls to the wall with the strength of my flames.
“You need to breathe. Take a deep breath and let it out.” He said calmly.
I took a deep breath and attempted to calm my frustration.
“Okay, that’s good. Now close your eyes and picture what you want it to do.” Razor kept his voice calm and easy.
I closed my eyes and pictured the targets in my lane, taking my time until I had every detail down pat. Next, I envisioned my flames flowing in a thin, controlled stream from my palms, melting a hole in each target the size of a pencil eraser.
Cracking my eyes open hesitantly, I saw that I had indeed melted small holes in each target—so small that if you didn’t know what you were looking for, you wouldn’t even notice them. I let out a loud whoop and picked Razor up, twirling him in a circle.
“What the FUCK?! Put me down, asshole!” Razor pushed at me, causing both of us to fall.
Before I hit the ground, I teleported out on the field and shot flames at one of the few targets left, incinerating it into ashes, using both of my abilities simultaneously.
“I’m back, baby!” I yelled, teleporting back to Razor. I moonwalked in a circle, then threw in a few hip thrusts for good measure while he sat on the ground looking at me in shock.
He’d probably never seen dance moves like mine before.
“You’ve got some serious issues.” Razor shook his head and stood dusting the dirt off his ass. “Now, let’s go get something to eat and you can practice more before bed.”
“Hell no, I just found my groove. I’m going to practice for a little while longer.” I waved him on.
“Whatever. Don’t burn yourself out.” He rolled his eyes and headed to eat.
I spent a few more hours honing my skills before eating and heading to bed. I realized long ago that I wasn’t satisfied until I perfected whatever I was doing, especially if it involved doing my Nexi.
Iwoke up a few minutes before midnight and quickly jerked my clothes on. I wasn’t worried about getting caught sneaking out because of my ability.
Teleporting to the armory, I startled the shit out of Razor, who was laying his hand on the scanner to open the door.
“What the hell?” Razor yelled in a high-pitched voice, then scowled when he saw it was me.
“You fuckwit. Don’t do that again. I could have hurt you!” He scowled at me, more in embarrassment than anger.
That squeal would have made a prepubescent girl at a Lewis Capaldi concert proud. “Sorry, you’re right. I could have died from laughter. You should add that noise you made to your list of abilities.”
I felt a slap to the back of my head. “This is serious shit. Try to treat it as such.” Hayes said as he and Damien scowled at me.
I rubbed the back of my head, “Why am I the only one you’re making that face at? Razor is the one squealing like a weirdo.”
Razor flipped me off before he motioned us all to enter the armory. We paused as he stopped to ensure the door closed, then led us into a room at the very back of the building. There was a scanner next to the large metal door. Razor opened this one, too, and led us inside.
The room was huge. I’d only been to the armory once with Damien, so of course, I’d never been this far back. Some weapons I recognized, but most of them were completely foreign. This world felt like Star Wars and Gladiator had a baby and the child was fostered by Charles Xavier and Claire from Outlander. I’d never get used to it. It blew my mind that Reverie’s parents grew up here.
“How do they keep people with my teleporting ability out?” I frowned. Why had this never crossed my mind? I suppose it was because being away from Reverie affected me on every level and having abilities was still new to me.
“There are ways to prevent that, so don’t try to teleport into a locked room. If you’re lucky, it will only repel you; if you’re not, you could be cut in half.” Razor smirked, taking a lot of pleasure out of informing me of the drawbacks to my ability.
He was like the big brother I never wanted.
“Okay, let’s get this done so we can go back to bed. We’re going to need the rest.” Hayes nodded his head at Damien to begin speaking.
“I’m sure you’ve discovered some of Razor’s abilities. Now he’s going to let you in on what no one outside of Hayes, his Faction, and myself are aware of,” Damien looked at Razor to explain.
“Because my Faction has been allowed to remain whole, all our abilities have remained stable and as strong as they were when our Faction was completed. You know I can touch anyone and wield their ability briefly,” I nodded. “What you don’t know is I can also transfer abilities from one Aurathion to another.” I was stunned. That was amazing.
