Chapter 6 Evira #4
I collapsed the sphere with a wave of my hand, and Zayn pulled his sparks back.
Then he made a small wall of his fuchsia flame about a foot in length and nine inches high.
The first stage of this task had been to use a small amount of our power and have it meld together, or as the professor kept referring to it, coexist.
This next stage, which Vaxan and Christalyn had skipped right to, involved exerting more power and still managing stability and then creating a magical animation like we’d been shown earlier. Although it could be anything we wanted.
“Nice,” I told Zayn.
“Go right ahead,” he encouraged. “You’re gonna bring the elemental aspect this time?”
“Yeah. My Chill Blast.”
His eyes lit up. “I’ve never seen that go down before. I’m here for it.”
I readied myself, then dipped my head and called forth my dragon frost, guiding it carefully as it erupted, all snowy and glacial, from my mouth and spread along Zayn’s wall.
He held his hands steady and added more power to withstand the connection.
He added a little too much and the ice I was starting to form started melting.
I pushed a bit harder to try to stabilize it.
Zayn jolted and then his eyes flamed and his fuchsia magical flame started lashing at the wall instead of sweeping around it and melding. It was fighting it, tendrils starting to whip at it and take out chunks that then hit the desk and melted into pools of water.
“Ease up,” I told him.
But his magic only grew more aggressive.
When I added more, it made it worse—on his end.
I grabbed his arm and his eyes shot to mine. “I’m not gonna hurt you. It’s all okay. Just breathe. This isn’t an assault. We’re trying to build something, not engaging in a miniature brutal battle. You’re safe. You’re safe here.”
He blinked, then sucked in a stuttered breath.
His hands trembled and pain etched his handsome features. “They all try to control us.”
I frowned. “Who?”
He blinked again, then shook his head, and pulled his power back entirely, his wall dematerializing.
“No one. Nothing,” he murmured, as he slumped back in his seat. “I can’t do this,” he grumbled.
“You mean Ifrits in general?” I asked carefully, as I swept my ice and frost away, and turned to face him.
He lowered his head and folded his arms across his chest.
A minty scent rolled over me a moment before Vaxan was easing onto the edge of my desk.
“You continue to shut down in this manner, Zayn, and they’re still controlling you in essence, even all these years later,” his steady voice sounded, a slight hiss in it as the vehemence of his own words clearly struck an emotional chord with him.
Zayn’s head shot up. “Why don’t you stop sticking your nose—and your cock—in business that doesn’t concern you?”
“Is that truly what you wish me to do?”
He glared. “What else would it be? If you think you can shrink me with some psychobabble and—”
“I think anyone can with the way you handle all things. You make yourself susceptible to the very thing that you fear almost as much as physical domination.” His lips quirked. “The latter fear having one exception of course.”
“Vaxan,” I spoke in a warning tone.
His gaze flicked to mine. “All will be well, dragon princess.”
It… what was happening?
His assurance started to make sense very quickly when he regarded Zayn more softly and told him, “I experienced a trauma response similar to that which is wreaking havoc upon you now—earlier with the Celestial. It revived pain and insecurities of times past where my people were driven into the depths of the earth by prejudice and threat of extinction at the hands of the Celestial Plane. I know Ifrits were similarly persecuted for far too long. And I understand.”
Zayn’s fierce expression cracked and I heard his heartbeat calm significantly.
I mean, yeah, he was still wary. And upset with Vaxan for the Winter thing.
I had mixed feelings about it too, obviously.
But for me, I knew I didn’t own Winter and that he and I were not much of anything now because of a decision I’d made—one I’d been forced to make.
But Zayn… the owning thing didn’t exactly play out the same way.
Vaxan flipped his palm up and eased closer to Zayn across the desk.
He called his citrine power to it, his palm glowing vibrantly. “Invoke your arcane flame,” he told Zayn in a hypnotically commanding tone.
I warned Vaxan, “Your venom and petrification against his Ifrit fire are—”
“I am aware.” He winked at me. “But thank you, Evira.”
“You’re trying to poison me, snake boy? Is that it?” Zayn demanded, unfolding his arms and sitting forward.
“First, I won’t employ my petrification.
It’s not exactly conducive to what we’re trying to do here.
And as for my venom, you do know that you have the means to burn through it, yes?
If you can muster enough power. You stand as much chance of hurting me as I do of hurting you should we not achieve balance here. ”
“Burn through it?” Zayn asked, and I smiled to myself as he looked so adorably curious, and it was cutting through his anger and hostility toward Vaxan.
“I can protect myself for a time while you stabilize your power,” Vaxan told him, and then Zayn and I both watched in awe as scales materialized on the hand that Vaxan held up toward Zayn with his glowing power.
Zayn, entranced, snapped his right palm up and called his pink flame.
“Closer,” Vaxan said, as he held steady.
Zayn’s gaze was intense as it locked on his.
Then he closed the distance until his flame touched Vaxan’s power.
A deep groan escaped Zayn.
Vaxan hissed and I winced as I saw Zayn’s fire flaming wilder and burning across Vaxan’s scales, threatening to penetrate the protective layer. It was already making char marks as it was.
“We are working together, not against one another,” Vaxan reminded him. “You are not my prey, despite you trying to demonstrate that you wish me to be yours.”
“I don’t,” Zayn muttered. “I don’t think about hunting or pursuing you at all.”
“If that’s how you wish to play it, so be it.”
Zayn grunted. “Shut up. Just shut the fuck up.”
I went to intervene, but in the next moment, Zayn’s flame calmed.
Substantially.
It was no longer attacking Vaxan’s hand. Instead, it was gliding along with Vaxan’s magic.
“Yes,” I breathed. “You’re doing it!”
A huge smile spread over Zayn’s face. “I am. It’s happening.” He pursed his lips as he eyed Vaxan. “With you, though, which puts a bit of a downer on it.”
Vaxan’s lips quirked. “As I said, if you wish to play it that way.”
As Zayn glared at him, Vaxan urged me closer. “He’s ready now. Fashion your animation.”
“Thanks,” I told him. “And… I also meant to thank you for what you did at the party, helping me out the way you did.”
“You are most welcome.” He eased his palm back, just as he guided mine forward and I called my glacial magic, a mutual groan escaping me and Zayn as our magic glided together again. “Give it two minutes for stabilization on his part, then return to your elemental Chill Blast.”
Before I could respond with more than just a nod, he was gone, and back over talking with Christalyn, just as the professor arrived over there to evaluate their work. Whoa. They’d made a gorgeous gold and yellowy-green tree together with intricate branches and tiny birds flying around it.
“Want to make an animated waterfall made of fire and ice?” Zayn asked me, all enthusiastic and confident now.
I grinned. “Sounds awesome. Let’s do it, hellion.”
“Brace yourself, icicle.”