The notion scares me, but I shake it off, promising myself I will discover my limits soon.
“Will you do something for me?” Erik asks. “Will you pick up your hammer right now?”
I eye him curiously. “Why?”
His eyes crinkle at the corners. “I’d like to see what happens.”
I’m not sure what he expects, but I’m not against it. “Okay.”
Despite his request, it seems he’s unwilling to let go of my hand, walking with me to where I left my hammer in the snow.
I have no objection to his constant touch. I need the contact to convince my heart that he won’t leave me again.
My hammer gleams in the moonlight where it lies on a bed of white snow, but it’s nothing like the glow of my body when I touch it.
I quickly scoop it up, accepting the power that streams through me and the way it lights up the space around me. Although, it’s calmer now that I’m becoming more familiar with it, and it dims when my thoughts settle. The light seems to become more peaceful as it reflects my quieter emotions.
A moment later I gasp in surprise, suddenly focused not on my hammer but on the sword Erik’s holding.
Sapphire light like a blue flame rushes from Erik’s hand where he grips the sword, all the way across his chest, down his other arm to our entwined hands.
I can feel the deep light flowing from him as if its energy is infinite. Flowing from him to me, back to him, back to me, over and over again in a constant, gentle stream.
His chest rises with a deeply inhaled breath, and the smile he gives me is stunning.
“My light was always drawn to you, Asha,” he says. “Right from the moment I first saw you. I poured all of my deep light into your hammer, and now, I believe it’s flowing through our bond, making us both stronger.”
I let my heart fill with warmth. “We’re unbreakable.”
Our bond is unbreakable now.
I vow I won’t let anything tear us apart.
Chapter 18
Erik’s smile banishes all of my fears, and I’m not afraid to let go of his hand.
The bright, sapphire light fades from around us, but a glow remains, a haze of gold and sapphire that slowly fades.
I don’t want to destroy this moment with new fears, but it’s better to tackle them before my sense of strength fades.
I prepare to speak, but Erik gets in first, anticipating me so accurately that my breath is once more snatched from my chest.
“Your family needs you,” he says, a new urgency in his voice. “Now that you have a hammer, you can forge your own medallions. With those medallions, you can protect your family against Thaden Kane and anyone else who threatens them.”
Every Blacksmith child is given a hammer when they turn five years old. They then have years to practice using it, learning to hammer all kinds of metals until they turn sixteen, when they are allowed to forge their three medallions.
Forging a single medallion takes days. It involves heating a lump of metal in a fire of crimson coal and then beating that strip of metal over and over again to infuse their Blacksmith magic into it.
Once forged, a medallion will obey a Blacksmith’s will, changing its shape into any metallic object with a single thought. A dagger, sword, rope, chains… whatever the Blacksmith needs at that moment.
The medallion can be worn against the skin in the form of an armband or even jewelry, so it can be accessed quickly.
The medallions were basically weapons on command.
But I wasn’t given a hammer when I turned five years old. It wasn’t until Erik forced me to pick up Malak’s hammer that I discovered that my power was like Malak’s.
Unlike other Blacksmiths, Malak was left-handed.
