“No one is going to be happy that we removed you from the castle grounds,” Finn explained. “They’re going to have their farsight wielders looking for your position. We need to create wards to stop them. And other things.”
I stared at him.
Understanding dawned on his face. “Oh. You don’t know anything about what you can do?” His tone was gentle, softening the incredulity behind his words.
Was this the magic thing again? I guessed I believed it, given I had teleported twice and heard people’s thoughts in my head.
Could you saywhat the fucktoo many times in one day?
“I didn’t get a chance to explain while we were beyond the Veil,” Griff told him, rising from where he had crouched next to me. “Thought it might be too risky to explain it out there.”
Finn rubbed a hand over his eyes. “I can see that. Okay, that makes this a bit harder, but not impossible.” He turned to me with a gentle smile. “I can show you, if you’d like. And then once we’re warded, I can explain what’s happening.”
Hesitantly, I nodded.
Griff left my side as Finn reached out and touched my forehead. I heard the snap of a fire, felt a zap of power, and recoiled, scooting backward on my ass, more leaves crunching beneath me, until I hit a tree behind me. My hands pressed tightly into the ground, a churning feeling beneath them.
“Easy there.” Finn’s voice was cautious, as if dealing with a skittish horse.
Griff came back to my side instantly, a look of concern breaking through his expressionless face.
I breathed deep to calm the racing adrenaline coursing through my veins as a gentle breeze rustled my hair. My head swung back and forth between the two of them as I attempted to make sense of what I was feeling. When Finn had touched me, something inside me had started bubbling up, threatening to explode with my rising panic.
Griff sat at my side, his back against the tree. I startled as he reached a hand out, and he stopped. “May I touch you?”
I nodded, still trying to quell whatever was rising through me.
His hand came to my shoulder as my heart pounded. A cooling touch flowed through me, the same one that had made the nausea ebb before. Able to take a deep breath again, I breathed in and out, the panic slowly abating.
“Easy, Princess. What Finn is about to do can be a bit disconcerting. I’ll keep you grounded while he shows you what to do.”
“Oh sure, now we get to the disconcerting part of the day,” I muttered. “And don’t call me Princess.”
Finn looked like he wanted to say something, but instead just crouched in front of me and gently placed his fingers on my head, barely touching. He closed his eyes, and I followed suit. Ifelthim inside my head, diving down to those weird bubbling channels. He picked a specific one, oddly purple in color, and showed me how to twist and direct the power through the purple channel, and out into the world around us. I did what he told me to do, twisting and flinging the power about, wondering again why I instinctively trusted these two as much as I did.
Someone better start giving me answers soon.
Something settled over us like a warm blanket. Sounds were fainter now, the air slightly thinner.
Finn showed me how to twist the power to seal it, before I released it, letting it settle into itself.
“What was that?” I breathed, shocked to my core at what I could now feel. There was a whole well of power down there, and now that I had touched it, it was dancing and clamoring for me to use it again.
Finn rocked back on his heels. “That was the quickest I’ve ever seen someone pick up their channels for the first time.”
“People keep mentioning channels,” I said with a glare at Griff. “Can you finally explain it?”
Finn blew out a long breath as he rubbed a hand over his smooth chin. Rightly deciphering my frustrated look, his eyes crinkled. “I’ll explain. I’m just trying to think of where to start. I’ve taught plenty of people how tousetheir channels, but never someone who had only heard of them for the first time that day. I guess we’ll just drive straight in. Channels are how we access our power. Our magic. Everyone here beneath the Veil has access to some of them. You have access to?—”
“Seven.”
Griff stiffened beside me. I realized I was leaning heavily against him and quickly shifted to put space between us, praying my cheeks weren’t as red as they felt.
“That’s right,” Finn continued. “Seven. And they’re all wide open. It’s very rare to have access to all seven, and even more rare for them to all be open.”
That didn’t make any sense.
Clearly it showed on my face, because Finn sighed. “I’m not explaining this well at all, am I?”
