“Yes. You do.” He stiffened, snapping back into control. “Remember to start gently. Any misfire could set off a chain reaction I'm not interested in dealing with tonight.” The seriousness in his tone was nullified by the flicker of awareness in his gaze. It sparked wildness inside me, a craving I couldn't find the will to suppress.
I needed to focus. Nibbling on my fingernail, I let my mind try to figure this out. “There’s one big problem. I can’t picture a well of power like Tempest described.”
“Your power must show itself in a different way.” He leanedcloser, his eyes narrowing. “I don’t picture a well, either. I see whatever element is most handy at that time.”
“Seriously? You just see it? You're saying it’s like . . . Air is around us, and obviously, water.” That he'd generated earlier with a torrential downpour. I believed he'd done that. His eyes had boiled and there it was, lashing the tower around us.
“Exactly.”
Frustration stirred inside me. “But I don’t see fire or—”
“Or lightning?” His smile sent my pulse careening off the track. “I agree that might be too . . . overheated for you to handle for our first lesson.”
My heart twisted in a delicious mix of annoyance and something else. His simple words held a double meaning that ignited the longing whipping around inside me. It left me wanting, aching for what I’d never be able to have.
I swatted away those thoughts and pushed down the sensations threatening to consume me whole. “Let’s get on with it.” Even to me, my voice sounded breathy, my awareness betrayed by the warmth creeping into my cheeks.
“Amethyst.” He pointed to the purple crystal. “Focus your mind on it. Channel whatever power you feel around you and send it gently toward the stone.Gently.”
“No tearing down the tower around us.”
“It took a long time to build this tower.”
“I'd hate to ruin all that effort.” I pulled in a breath and let it suck away my tension as it eased out of me.
Farris came over to sit on my other side, the second part of my support team. That's what Lore was right now. Support. I wasn't going to think about him in any way but that.
“Here we go.” I lifted my index finger and created a flicker of light. As I directed my focus toward the amethyst, I pushed my power along with it. The crystal did nothing. No glow. No hum of recognition. It didn’t even wiggle. “I guess I’m not harnessing mental projection or emotional influence anytime soon.”
“Keep trying. Few discover their skill with their first stone.”
“Especially me.” I shifted my gaze toward the malachite. “Come on plant fates. Let's get things growing.” My tiny bolt of lightning skittered across the stone's surface, but again, nothing happened. “No plant manipulation in my future either.”
He gestured to the obsidian crystal. “Another.”
I gave him a sideways look before sending my energy into the obsidian.
A soft hum vibrated through the table.
I couldn't breathe or think. “Obsidian. Obsidian!” I lifted the warm black stone and clutched it against my chest. “Guess you'd better watch out for my future nullification, Lore.”
“I welcome it with open arms,” he said dryly.
We both laughed and smiled at each other for longer than I should allow this closeness between us to happen.
“I guess that's it, then.” I should leave the tower. We could work on my shadow abilities—shadows?!—and nullification another time. It was late. I needed to sleep if I wanted to have energy to face the day ahead of me.
“Keep going,” he said softly.
“But you figured it out.”
“Tempest has more than one skill.” His eyebrows lifted, a sure challenge. “Why not you?”
Because I wasn't my amazing friend. I didn't mind that shewas fantastic at whatever she attempted to do, but sometimes, I just wished a little of her sparkle would drift off and land on me.
No harm in trying the others.
The sunstone yielded no results.
