“Understanding and internalizing are two different things. Work on the latter.” Adela leaned away and withdrew her hand. “For now, we will practice, together.”
Eira nodded and allowed her gaze to go soft, blurring slightly. Her face was relaxed, as emotionless as she had seen Adela’s countless times. Possessing deep focus without betraying such was certainly a learned technique. To be relaxed when every emotion, every strand of control was wound up tightly within.
Connecting with the magic around her was easier and easier every time. Eira could feel where her friends still sat around the dinner table. The few crew that milled about on the deck. The majority that slept in the crew’s quarters belowdecks.
Above, beneath, around it all was Adela’s power. When Eira had first stepped onto theStormfrostit was an overwhelming amount of magic. But now she had grown accustomed to it—hadbegun to untangle it enough that she could feel the difference in Adela’s strong currents and determine what of her power went to sustaining ice not just on the ship, but in distant corners of the world. The pirate queen’s powers rippled across the seas, using the salt water as a conduit to reach lands far beyond Eira’s realm of comprehension. Though, there had been nights as she’d lain in her hammock that Eira had tried to follow those unseen currents with her mind’s eye. To travel the world on the back of Adela’s magic.
For now, however, she kept her focus restricted to theStormfrostalone and felt the first moment Adela’s powers began to unravel. It was an invisible handoff. The second Adela’s powers left, Eira replaced them with her own. The ship thawed and froze again with a crackle that Eira wondered if anyone but them would notice. She tried to make the transition as seamless as possible, considering it a victory if there wasn’t any disruption in the vessel.
Around halfway up, her magic wavered slightly. Eira took a slow breath, steadying the currents within her. She reclaimed her focus and continued.
Within what felt only like a few minutes—though she couldn’t be certain it was such a slight amount of time—theStormfrostwas in her magical grasp from the lowest ridge of the hull to the tip of the tallest mast. There was an almost audiblepopin Eira’s mind as her power snapped into place, wholly replacing Adela’s. It was an immense drain on her strength, but admittedly easier to maintain once the entirety of the vessel was in her hold.
“How does it feel?” Adela asked.
“Not as bad—” As if to spite her, the moment she went to speak, her magic wavered from lack of focus. Cracking and creaking could be heard throughout the vessel as the frost fractured.
“Keep it together.”
Eira wondered how much of the ship was actually being held together by the frost. Now that her magic was on it, she could feel the scars of old wounds along its body—never fully patched, but rather mended by ice and long-ago rush jobs.
“Good,” Adela murmured. “Now to make it a bit easier on you.”
A chill like the first kiss of fallen snow landing on her cheeks after a long fall settled on Eira. The ship was in her grasp, and she was in Adela’s. Eira shifted, bracing herself.
Adela wouldn’t take her magic from her now. Though perhaps everything had been a ploy. Perhaps Adela had wanted Eira to regain her power only so she could help Adela learn what she wanted and then take it from her again.
“Your body grows hot. You fear me, still.” Whether that pleased or frustrated Adela was impossible to tell.
Eira met her eyes. “I think I would be a fool not to.”
“You are right in that.” Adela leaned forward and reached out her hand. But, this time, rather than going for Eira’s hands, she grabbed her chin. Inspecting her. “Do you think you could withstand an assault from me?”
“I will crush this ship if you try.” Eira’s voice was as low and dangerous as Adela’s.
“The right answer.” She smirked slightly. “Do not fear anyone, least of all yourself.” Eira nodded, Adela’s hand still holding her chin. “Now, let us see what the true depths of your power really are…”
An invisible, icy hand felt like it reached down her throat to grab her heart. Her chest seized. Eira inhaled sharply but kept her focus on the ship at all costs.
Adela broke her own rules, brow furrowing with focus. Eira remained poised and still. She still couldn’t tell how much of this was a test, and how much was genuine experimentationon Adela’s part. But she continued to give the pirate queen the benefit of the doubt and was rewarded for it as a wave of new power surged through her.
“That’s it,” Eira encouraged on instinct.
Adela’s smirk grew, self-satisfaction abounding. “Keep steady, now.”
There was another surge and then a sudden drop in her power. “Adela?—”
“I said keep steady,” Adela snapped.
Eira continued keeping her focus with all her might, furrowing her brow as well. The pirate queen had a hold on her magic, but it was a clumsy hand, still. No wonder Eira had managed to close her own channel with Ulvarth’s when she had fought him, if this was how much finesse she had lacked.
Without warning, an invisible blow to her chest knocked the wind from her. Eira sagged, as if she’d been physically struck. She gasped, magic snapping and crackling around her. Frost fell from the ceiling like ominous confetti.
Adela staggered as well, blinking, as if whatever had struck Eira hit her, too. But there was no time to check on her. The ship hissed and popped. Frost dissipating. Eira thrust up both her hands, trying to regain control as theStormfrostlurched.
They were under attack.
24
