“What is it?” Leo asks curiously.
Victor thinks for a moment. “I’m trying to figure out how to control the amount of energy.I can feel it in my core, but it feels too hot for some reason.”
“So, what would you do if your body is too hot?” Leo probes.
Victor deliberates on what Leo is asking. “You would try to cool it down.”
Leo nods in agreement. “And how would you cool it down?”
“By turning on a fan or drinking some water,” Victor replies. Leo gives Victor a smile and a wink.
Victor has an epiphany. “Ahhhh, I get it now.” Victor starts focusing again, this time on the air around him to help cool him down. He can feel the air being absorbed into his pores and notices the change in his body’s heat. Soon enough, blue flames dance around in his hands.
“Perfeito!”Leo cheers. “Now, this is the tricky part. Do you remember how to focus on creating a water ball?”
“Yeah?” Victor responds.
“Use that same thought process—only this time, with fire,” Leo orders.
Victor focuses on the fire in his hands. He can feel that the fire doesn’t want to become a ball. He takes a deep breath and keeps trying, but the fire doesn’t want to listen. Victor’s hands begin to shake, and the flames extinguish as he drops his hands.
“It’s okay,” Leo says as he gently rubs Victor’s arms. “Let’s try again.”
After several more attempts, which felt like several hours had passed, Victor could finally create a fireball in each hand. He lets out a sigh of satisfaction with a huge smile.
“Very good. Only took you an hour,” Leo jokes. Victor sticks out his tongue at him. Leo chuckles before continuing. “Now, let’s see how long this will take you. I want you to make your blue balls bigger.”
“Phrasing,” Victor says sarcastically.
Leo throws his head back in laughter. “I’m sorry, my English no good,” he says in a thicker Brazilian accent.
“I think when I met you, my blue balls got bigger,” Victor adds. Leo keels over and loses it.
Victor loses focus and joins Leo in the laughter.
Once Leo finally calms down, he shakes off his giggles and returns to his posed stance. “Okay, let’s get back to focusing on creating largerfireballs.”
“I’m sorry, but I think I need to take care of my blue balls first,” Victor snickers.
Leo rolls his eyes. He’s beginning to regret teaching Victor. “Fine, let’s take a break. Can you finish in less than two minutes?”
Victor clutches his imaginary pearls around his neck. “Excuse me. What little faith you have in me. I can be finished in 45 seconds.”
They both break into laughter as they make their way to the town car to get lunch.
Chapter Forty
Four days have passed since Victor started practicing Fire Magic. Eddie is standing off to the side, conjuring earth-made targets for Victor to hit. Leo stands just behind Victor, commanding what he wants Victor to use on the target.
“Red Ball. Blue Ball. Red Flame. Orange Ball,” Leo commands. Victor throws one attack after another.
“Red Flame,” Leo orders.
Victor throws a blue flame, missing the target. He hunches over from exhaustion and is covered in sweat from working hard. It also doesn’t help from the heat of the fire and the humidity.
Leo pats Victor on the shoulder. “Let’s break for lunch. Eddie made chickenkatsu.”
“Oh, I love chickenkatsu,” Victor mentions cheerfully. As he turns around, wiping his sweat-drenched face with a towel, hesees Wren preparing a stone table Eddie created. “Wren? What are you doing here?”
