35. Chapter 35 #2
She exhaled, letting her defensiveness go with her breath.
It was quiet while she ate the breakfast ensemble of eggs and vegetables.
With her memories taken care of—sort of, but she wasn’t going to beat a dead horse when nothing could be done at the moment—she thought of her strange dream.
The blonde-haired Fae seemed to have knowledge of future events, and she wondered if her dreams were due to her affinity with mind-magic.
“Erick said mind-magic is common, but extremely difficult to master if it’s not your gift. I was wondering if there are other rare gifts like foresight?” she ventured, framing her question as something of curiosity.
Leo rubbed his chin, leaning back into his chair.
“That’s a great question. Seers are extremely rare in Izmari.
In fact, our last recorded instance was during our founding years.
Seers are gifted with foresight, but we don’t have enough information.
Unfortunately, the clan that held the bloodline was lost thousands of years ago, presumably extinct. ”
“Because there hasn’t been another seer?”
“Exactly. Has anyone told you Izmari’s founding story?”
She shook her head.
He put his hands behind his head, stretching, and she tried not to stare at the way his shirt rode up his abdomen, revealing a sliver of muscle. He caught her anyway and winked at her.
His smile turned devious. “I’d say let’s pause the storytelling and do something more… riveting with our limited time, but Augrys is on his way for your magic training, and he and I are not on the best of terms right now.”
She bit her lip to keep herself from arguing; it would be selfish given that she was at the center of their disagreement, but it sure would have been nice to be kissed until her mind was silenced and all she knew was pleasure.
She paused. Hadn’t Leo asked to start over as friends?
It seemed he had forgotten friendship didn’t usually include making out, but who was she to complain?
Augrys knocked before entering, greeting both of them with a quick dip of his head. He cleared the furniture in the greeting area while waiting for her to finish her breakfast. When she ate her last bite of broccoli, Leo took the platter.
“I’ll tell you the story after you win tomorrow,” he said, winking and slipping out of the room.
“I’ll hold you to it!”
Her smile faltered when he left; his cheer had been like a dampener on her worries, soothing her without her noticing. She was nervous to be alone with Augrys, but breaking her magic core was essential, so she joined him on the floor.
“Ready?”
His soft voice didn’t match the stony expression he wore.
He had been on edge since her decision to participate in the festival, returning to his frozen fortress of solitude.
With one win under her belt, she wondered what he thought.
It shouldn’t have mattered to her, but it did.
She wanted his reassurance—if she were not above admitting things, what she truly desired was his smile. She missed August.
He sat in front of her, his expression guarded and eyes troubled.
He said nothing about what disturbed him, waiting for her to dive into her inner realm—where her life force and magic core were found.
She almost asked, but her heart clenched at his distress, and she clamped down on the instinct.
He was not August. He couldn’t be. Not if she wanted to move on.
Shaking off the troublesome distractions, she straightened. There was no time to waste. She nodded at him, closing her eyes.
She found her life force with ease and moved on to her magic core. The steel wall towered over her, and white puffs of frost curled toward her. Yareli floated closer, materializing legs for her incorporeal form.
It was simple, she reminded herself. It was all brute force.
She flexed her hands and slapped them onto the metal. The metal’s chill was quick to latch onto her like a leech, sucking the warmth from her hands, but she was prepared for it.
Yareli closed her eyes, gritted her teeth against the dull ache in her palms, and concentrated on holding the cold at bay.
The frost’s advance halted at her wrists, but as she was about to call it a success, it crept forward again, covering her wrists within seconds.
She cursed and pushed against the wall in earnest. She imagined it breaking under her force, disintegrating into millions of gray particles.
It groaned, giving a little under her palms. Excitement made her smile through her chattering teeth. Frost climbed past her elbows, and Augrys instructed her to stop.
“Stop,” he said.
“A little longer,” she grunted, digging her heels in and pushing every ounce of determination into it.
The steel rumbled and bent a little more. Her chest heaved. As Augrys warned her again, a trickle of panic ensued. She couldn’t leave without it breaking; the second challenge was tomorrow, and she couldn’t rely on luck again.
Tuom’s face flashed in her mind, his signature sneer curling his lip upward, and rage thundered through her veins.
It was like a hot flash of emotion—of power.
She grabbed it, rifling through the indignation of her abuse, and the steel bent farther.
She bore into the wall, her ears closed off to whatever Augrys was saying.
She could do this. A scream tore through her throat, straining her vocal cords, and a boom clapped in her ears.