Did he just call meold?I didn’t like that one bit. “Shouldn’t have abandoned me as a child, then.” I stuck my tongue out playfully and he rolled his eyes.
“Eyes. Closed,” he commanded, and I followed his instruction.
Taking a deep breath, I tried to Zen myself out. I let thoughts of Brayden, and worries about Novus and Lora, slip from my mind.
“Fae magic hides within a child until it is beckoned by the wielder or forced to come out in a dangerous situation. Call on it now so that you can learn to control it.”
Call on my hidden fae power? Huh?
Come here, power. Here, girl, I said into my mind, and nothing happened.
Keeping my eyes closed, I shrugged. “It’s still sleeping.”
Sleep, which was what I wanted to be doing right now.
“Just be silent, go within yourself and pull it out. It’s there. It’s always been there. You’ve learned to live with it, so you won’t even notice it until it shows itself.”
I really hated cryptic stuff. I needed a step-by-step guide and this was not that.
I groaned in frustration but let the silence permeate the space, trying to calm myself and go within like he’d said. The wind rustled through the trees, birds chirped in the distance. First I thought of everything, then I thought of nothing. I must have stayed quiet for a full ten minutes, nearly on the verge of falling asleep, when I felt a tug deep inside my chest.
I gasped a little.
“Call on it. Beckon it outward,” he commanded.
I knew now that he didn’t mean to verbally call on it, but more physically. I placed a hand over my chest and opened myself up to the tugging feeling.
Boom.
Something knocked against my hand and caused me to jump a little.
“Don’t be scared. This is a part of yourself that has been sleeping but it’s always been there,” Artemis said. My heart raced in fear just the same and my eyelids popped open.
After a few cleansing breaths, I focused on the thudding against my chest and then it cracked wide open. Pure golden sunlight blasted from my palms and illuminated the outdoor space so brightly I was nearly blinded.
Artemis rushed forward, throwing his hands out, then we were plunged into darkness. The morning sunlight that had previously bathed us in its rays was like a black circle in the sky for a moment and then all returned to normal, as if I’d never just exploded into light at all.
I stared at the new Elder Fae in shock.
“What. The. Hell. Was. That?” My palms felt sweaty and hot as if they contained fire, and my heart beat wildly against my chest. I blinked rapidly, still seeing a large spot from where I’d just momentarily been blinded.
“Thatis why we don’t wait twenty years to teach you how to wieldelemental magic,” he groaned, straightening himself and brushing the hair off his face.
“Elemental magic? Like you?” I asked.
He nodded. “Specifically, that was sunlight magic.” He smiled wryly. “You almost blinded us both.”
“Oops.” I winced.I conjured the freaking sun from my palms?
Holy hell, that was scary and exciting, but mostly scary.
“And this is why you will need training,” he exclaimed and patted my palms, which were facing the ground in case they suddenly decided to become sunbeams.
“What if I accidently sunbeam Brayden or something when I’m angry?” I asked.
“Don’t do that. That could kill him if you learn to hone them into lasers and take off body parts.” He was dead serious and a stone sank in my gut.
Take. Off. Body. Parts.
