A soft hand rests on my knee. I open my eyes. Elle’s looking at me, flames reflected in her amber eyes. She’s smiling, her skin alight with the glow of the dozens of candles scattered throughout the terrace.
I return her smile and whisper, “Thank you.”
“Oh, we’re not done yet,” she responds. “But that was a nice touch using wind to find the candles.”
“This is the longest lesson I’ve ever had,” I groan.
“All we’ve done is go on a run and light some candles. It’s been like two hours, maybe. Quit being a baby.” I splash her in response. “Very mature,” she says with a roll of her eyes. She turns her head to the pool behind me. “I feel like swimming, but the pool is too cold. Use your elemental magic to heat the pool.”
My jaw drops. There’s no way. The pool is a huge body of water. The largest body of liquid I’ve ever heated has been a pot of water because I didn’t feel like waiting for it to boil. And I’ve only done that once. Elle stares at me, daring me to argue. I lock my jaw, biting back the protests that threaten to spill from my mouth.
“Fine.” I lit the candles, and I didn’t think I could do that. I’m the High Princess, soon-to-be High Queen. My mother was a High Fae Princess, and my father was the High King, each of them powerful in their own regard. My magic is powerful.
I am powerful.
But I don’t know how to do this.
This task is different from lighting the candles. Last time, the candles were placed throughout the terrace, but I couldn’t see them. This time, I see the object that I need to use my magic on.
I unspool another wave of magic. When I feel it connect with the water, I imagine myself stepping into the water and gliding through it. All I think about is the warm caress of the pool as it wraps around me.
“How will I know it worked?” I ask Elle while keeping my eyes on the pool.
“You’ll know. Remember, you are your magic. It’s a part of you.”
She’s right. Somehow, I know that the water still isn’t warm. I close my eyes again, thinking about how else I can heat the water.
The pool feels too big to heat the entire thing at once. Elemental magic is pulled from the earth and my connection with the earth, meaning my magicisthe earth. I concentrate on the ground beneath the pool and focus on heating the stones that line the bottom. I think about the dirt and the rocks warming, heating the walls of the pool from the outside.
Unspooling more magic, I cast it slowly toward the pool while still maintaining my focus on heating the ground underneath the pool.
Sweat breaks out across my forehead. I’ve never used this much focus while using magic, let alone this much magic at once, but I can feel more brimming underneath the surface. I feel in control, but I also know that I need to maintain that concentration and slowly release my magic.
What would happen if I released it all? Because I’m thinking about heat and fire, would it manifest as fire? Would I burn these woods to the ground? What if I stopped thinking about fire and instead thought about ice? Would I freeze the entire forest, killing everything in my path?
“Focus,” Elle says beside me.
I shake my head and direct my thoughts to the ground beneath the pool and spool more magic to the body of water. This time, I command the water to heat. My magic responds immediately, and it feels like it’s attacking the water. Although it’s making contact with the water, I know it’s not changing the temperature. Instead, it’s making the water beat against the pool walls.
I re-focus and feed more magic into the water, slowly pouring more and more from my magic source. This time, I think about coaxing the water to warm. In my mind, I’m standing in the water with my palms facing up, moving my hands in a circular motion while thinking about fire. Sweat trickles down the back of my neck.
There. I feel it. Warmth floods me, spreading through my body. Slowly, I open my eyes and look at the water. Steam rises from the surface of the pool.
“Yes!” Elle whoops.
A slow smile spreads across my face, and I relax my body. My shoulders drop in relief. “Holy shit,” I whisper. “How did you know I could do that?”
“Your dad used to do it all the time in the winter for us. It was one of his favorite party tricks,” she says with a soft smile on her face.
Heaviness comes over me at the thought of my father. I can’t believe Willa took the chance to know my father away from me. She took a lot from me. The way I felt after lighting the candles and heating the pool was invigorating. It feels like I just pushed past my boundaries and redefined a tiny piece of myself. Like I took a small step toward the person I’m capable of being.
How could Willa have kept this feeling from me? She grew up learning how to yield her magic. She knows what this feeling is like.
She robbed me of more than knowing my father.
She robbed me of myself.
Chapter 8
