“Perfect,” he said cheerfully, ignoring our attempt to irritate him. “We’re going to begin simple.” He paused, smiling. That didn’t bode well. The man rarely smiled. “Today, you’re going to learn to touch one another while exuding your power.”
I blinked. Well, that didn’t sound so bad, and it was ironic they were ordering us to touch one another. Especially him. The stodgiest of the four.
My shoulders slumped in relief. I glanced at Jack with a small smile. He wore the same look of reprieve. All of us were nervous. Because of me.
First, we had no clue if I could even funnel my power into them as Shifter. Second, when we got to vesseling, we had no clue, other than what an old journal said, if I could do that either. And third, our “final” for this class at the end of the month, was to transform each of one Mys group — only a smidge earlier than the real Awakenings — to make sure we had the kinks worked out before doing it en masse, and again, we had no clue if I could do that.
So yeah, we were nervous.
King Venclaire clapped his hands. “All right, listen up. Each one of you is going to put only a small portion of your power in your hands. Only a bit, that’s very important. You will stand in a circle and, one at a time, you will grab the other’s hand until you are eventually all linked in a connected circle.” He paused. “Think you guys can handle that?”
We glared. Um, yeah.
King Kincaid rubbed his jaw. “Let’s keep them out there.”
The other Kings peered around their environment, and nodded.
King Venclaire herded us back out into the blinding sun, and then he strolled back to the shade, where he and the other Kings leaned against tree trunks.
“Does it matter who we stand next to?” Pearl questioned loudly.
“No, the order doesn’t matter,” King Fergus shouted so we could hear him. “Just one at a time with the smallest dose of your power.”
“Why do I get the feeling they’re not telling us something?” Ezra grumbled, rubbing the back of his neck.
We stopped at that. This did seem too easy.
I murmured quietly, “They keep saying a small dose. I think we’d better listen to them.” They hadn’t put any special inflection on the word, but it had been repeated a few times.
“Well, let’s do this,” Jack muttered, his eyes starting to glow brown. “Small, it is.”
Standing in a circle, we turned toward each other.
I let my eyes glow blue, feeling my Shifter power surge in my Core, and quickly tamped it down to a small amount, then let it ripple to my hands.
“You ready?” Pearl asked, her eyes glowing gold.
“Yep.” I nodded.
She and I held hands.
We staggered as our powers touched. Gasped.
Hers felt like raging spells and time, purely charmed.
My wolf instantly growled. My magic didn’t like hers so much.
“Wild…” She whispered, starting to shake beside me. “Animal…”
“What’s wrong?” Ezra asked immediately.
I wanted to pull my hand away so badly, but when she started to loosen her hold, I hissed, “No!” It was still Pearl. Differences be damned. “It’s still me. Lily. Just me.” I held back my wolf’s growl wanting to erupt again.
She was visibly trembling, but she gripped my hand harder, which made us jerk, but we didn’t let go even as our magic warred with one another’s.
Pearl spoke to Jack and Ezra, her voice trembling, “It’s bad. Prepare yourselves.”
Their jaws clenched as determination etched their features.
Slowly, not really wanting to at all, I held my other hand up to Ezra.
He stared at it for a heartbeat, and then clamped his hand on mine.
I choked, my knees hitting the ground, scarcely keeping the howl at bay.
Ezra stiffened next to me, his Vampire growling deep inside his chest.
His power was dark. Dark and dangerous and sensual. None of those in a good way when it met mine. I instantly wanted to be free. I was a wild animal, as Pearl had said, and not only was I battling Ezra’s power against my left hand, I was also battling Pearl’s against my right. Dark and sensual on one side, spells and time on the other, and wild animal in the middle. I had never felt my power want to physically take control but, now, it wanted to push them away.
Savagely. Instantly.
I grunted, standing on shaking feet as sweat began pouring down my face, and gasped, “Pearl, can you feel Ezra’s power?” He had cut off his Vampire’s growl, and was now crushing my hand so hard he was most definitely leaving bruises. That was a good thing. It gave me a focus. If I so much as even contemplated letting my power go off, it would. In a heartbeat.
Pearl shook her head jerkily.
“Ezra, can you feel Pearl’s?” I asked, still panting. That was all I could manage.
“No.” His voice was deep. Scary deep. Trying to keep himself in check.