Chapter 19
Altair
Man, I was nervous! This was it. It was time to see what my powers were, and even though Silver and Wilston weren’t here with us, I still felt their presence as I stood before the training dummies.
“You got this,” Tino whispered in my ear. I closed my eyes and leaned back against his comforting form. He was always there when I needed him now. Never apart from me again.
“What about you?” I whispered so only he would hear. “Are you nervous?”
“Terrified,” he admitted softly. “Especially with the telepathy thing not working anymore.” We’d tried to see if he could read our minds after getting to the training grounds, but it hadn’t worked, not even on Nujik, who’d come to help us hone our skills.
Willow would join us soon, but she had a meeting with the others about getting supplies soon.
“We just need to rip the bandage off,” I said determinately.
The thought of the other mages running low on necessities had me remembering they were waiting for us to have trained enough to return to the Realm of Mages.
They used their magic to grow food for us, like we’d done ourselves, but it took a lot of magic to feed everyone, and most weren’t as powerful as we were, meaning they couldn’t make as much as we could.
Besides, their magical core couldn’t hold as much magic as we could when fully charged.
They simply needed more resting time between using their magic, and since food helped with that, it made it even harder to have enough for everyone.
Tino chuckled and kissed my neck before stepping away, leaving room around me so I could focus on the dummy in front of me. It was several feet in the distance, but we needed to be far so we wouldn’t get hurt ourselves.
Xarius and Niam were to my left while Tino stood to my right. Nujik was a few spaces behind us, watching over us.
“Try making it rain over it first,” Xari said encouragingly.
I nodded and raised both hands to do just that, picturing small rain drops falling around the dummy in a circle and then, they did.
“Yes!” Tino jumped in place, one hand raised in a fist to pump into the air with excitement.
“You got water magic!” I grinned at his excitement, this was big, I guessed, but somehow, he made it seem so much bigger than I believed it to be.
He made me feel like I’d done something amazing and I loved him even more for it.
He was my very own cheerleader, like always.
“Congrats!” Nujik called out from behind and I shot him a quick grin as I refocused on the dummy.
“Try fire now,” Niam suggested with excitement, too.
I raised both hands again and pictured the dummy burning to a crisp, but this time nothing happened. I sighed and turned to the others. “No fire magic.”
“Wind, then,” Xari said, gesturing to the dummy. “Make the wind knock the dummy over.”
Having a clear picture of what I wanted the wind to do, I raised both hands and again, nothing. I sighed with disappointment, not that I really wanted fire or wind magic, I truly didn’t care what I had, but it still felt like a failure.
“If you get earth magic, then the book was correct,” Tino reminded me.
I shot my gaze to him with wide eyes. He was right.
If I had water and earth magic, then we could trust the book, or have further trust in it.
We still needed to see if Tino had fire and wind as it said, but since I had neither… .
I raised both hands and thought about an earthquake, tearing the ground up under the dummy and swallowing it whole. But in my excitement, I forgot to reign in my powers, making us all tumble down with all twenty dummies.
“Fuck!” Xari and the others yelled as we fell down a hole in the ground, our bodies landing hard at the bottom.
I groaned and looked around. I’d really messed up. We were in a very deep hole and I could hear mages yell in the distance as they’d clearly felt, and heard, the earthquake.
“Tair?!” Tino called in desperation, his tone laced with fear.
“Here!” I called back, getting up from the ground and wincing at the pain.
“We need a healer!” Niam yelled from somewhere close by. “Xari is bleeding out!”
Fuck! This was all my fault! I whimpered as I began to move along the broken-down earth, it was like a lightning strike in pattern as I moved around the cut-up edges in the hole, getting closer to Niam’s sobs.
Squeezing myself through a tight tear, I finally reached Niam and could see Xari really was hurt.
My own body was aching and I was pretty sure my left arm was either broken or sprained. I kneeled next to Xari’s body and on instinct, I touched his head where a big cut was leaking blood. He’d likely hit his head on a sharp rock, hitting it with enough force to break the skull.
A gasp came from Niam as light poured out of my hands, next came another gasp, this time from Tino who’d found his way to us. I looked down at Xari in amazement as his cuts started healing. I didn’t dare remove my hands just yet. Somehow, I knew he needed them to stay on him for longer.
“You’re healing him,” Nujik’s awe-filled voice reached us. He was lying on the ground above us, looking down with worry. At least he hadn’t been close enough to be swallowed up like us.
A groan came from Xari, alerting us he was back to himself. I still didn’t stop my healing, though. I knew he needed more and as I worked, I could feel Tino and I needed healing too. It was hard to know with Niam since he was likely hiding his pain, but he seemed fine enough so far.
“Stay where you are!” Willow called from above. “We’ll make a ladder for you!” We could easily make one ourselves, but since Xari was still a little out of it and the fact I’d created this mess in the first place, maybe it would be best if someone else used their earth magic.
A male mage came into view with a long wooden ladder under his right arm. “Can one of you grab it from the end?” he asked, making Tino jump into action, knowing Niam wasn’t ready to leave Xari’s side yet. I loved that man so much.
Xari’s eyes opened fully and took in our surroundings, making Niam sob with relief.
“I’m so sorry,” I whispered, feeling my eyes tear up too.
I was so unbelievably sorry and so utterly drained, too.
I’d only had my magic for a little over twenty-four hours and I knew I was reaching my limit.
My arm would have to wait until tomorrow to heal, unless Grethe could help me out.
I wanted to save what little I had left to help Tino.
He seemed well enough to move around, but I could sense he’d hit his back.
Xari sat up just as Tino came back to my side. “Do you think you can climb the ladder?” I asked him, knowing he would be dizzy for a bit before clarity would return to his vision.
“Yes,” he answered with a raspy voice. “And don’t blame yourself, Altair. You didn’t do this on purpose, and this is why we’re practicing.”
I nodded, not agreeing with him, but not wanting to seem ungrateful that he wasn’t angry with me either. This was my fault. No matter what, I’d done this.
Niam helped him stand and together they got to the ladder. I would need to climb it using only one hand. I’d used my other arm to heal, ignoring my pain so I could save Xari from permanent head damage, but now I couldn’t ignore the throbbing ache any longer.
“Stand still,” I ordered Tino, making him look utterly confused, but he did what I asked. Then I placed my hand on his waist, pouring the last of my healing magic into him. A gasp escaped his lips as a snapping sound could be heard from his back. And then, I collapsed into the darkness.