I stole a glance at the table of men. None of them looked sure about what was going on. Two of them whispered something to each other, their faces uncertain.
Dante drew back his foot and I braced for what was coming. I closed my eyes, wrapped myself around the fire, and clenched every muscle. When his foot caught me in the throat and I flew back, I almost didn't feel it. There was more pain from the explosion that went off inside me than in my neck. It felt as though every muscle fiber had a line of fire running through it. I couldn't draw air. I gave a strangled cough and choked in an effort to breathe. The force of the kick rolled me onto my stomach and I lay still except for my choked gasps.
I had lost my hold on the elastic and the heat snapped into my eyes. The were hard and hot and if I faced Dante, everyone would see them lit like embers.
A couple of the men spoke quickly in Italian. I didn't understand what they were saying but they sounded upset. They must have been addressing Dante because he spoke back to them in Italian, and then he switched to English and addressed me.
"Can't you, Saxony? You can stop me.” he said. "You're powerful enough to stop me a thousand times over. This is just an act. Another couple of well placed punches and you'll explode like a firework."
After this speech, he let out a stream of Italian toward the men, but he sounded forced.
Keeping my eyes shut, I let out a choked moan and curled into the fetal position. My body began to shake. The power was building in my limbs. How much longer could I keep it inside? My mind raced, trying to dream up a way out, but I couldn't think straight. It was all I could do to stay curled in a ball, my body boiling with heat and power.
It's a test. It's a test. If you can't control it now, you never will.
I repeated this mantra. I pulled my legs toward my torso and wrapped my arms over my face. The quaking increased. My teeth began to chatter. Whimpers escaped me in my effort to stay in a ball. I took deep slow breaths, it seemed like the only thing I could control.
Chair legs scraped against stone. Angry voices. I opened my eyes a crack and peeked out from under my arm. The two men who had been whispering to each other earlier stood up. They spoke to Dante and gestured toward me, sounding upset.
Dante argued with them as they turned and stepped into the house. A few faces turned toward me, and another guy got up and took a few steps my way. I clenched my eyes tightly shut again.
Dante spoke more, urgency rising in his voice. He drew close to me. A hand hooked under my elbow and tried to pry my arms away from my body. "You're being ridiculous," Dante hissed at me. "Just show them your eyes. Then it will all be over."
I couldn't help it - the fire detonated in my shoulder and my elbow shot backward, catching Dante somewhere soft. It must have been his gut because I heard a whoosh of air and then a gagging sound.
A handful of voices rose all at once, shouting over each other. Some sounded like they were actually cheering me on. I heard my name said a few times. Others sounded angry. I kept my eyes shut and pulled my elbow in, cursing inwardly.
The gagging sound ceased and was followed by a pained laugh. "That's it," Dante wheezed. "Now just do that again, only this time externalize it. Show them what you're made of."
Sounds of Dante nearby, climbing to his feet. His voice, uttering a bunch of surprised Italian. Some of the other guys, yelling at him. They sounded like they were moving away.
I kept my eyes closed and my quaking limbs coiled inward. I was desperate to see what was going on. The voices sounded more distant now.
My legs and arms no longer felt like normal flesh and bone. They felt like long coiled springs of hot energy. It was all I could do not to let them explode outward and send fire everywhere. I braced myself for another attack, but the next time I heard Dante's voice, it was coming from inside the house.
I cracked an eye and was shocked to see that I was now alone in the back yard. That was sudden. Voices came from the house. Angry voices. Dante yelled. Other voices yelled back.
Slowly, stiffly, I lifted my head. I watched the patio door, expecting Dante to come through it at any moment, holding a baseball bat or a knife or something really nasty. But it was Fed who stepped through the door. She rushed over to me.
"My God, your eyes," she said, coming to her knees beside me. She put a hand on my back. I half expected her to jerk her palm back in pain from the heat of my body. "Are you okay? The guys are at the front door, fighting." She sounded amazed. "What you did, it worked. But you better get out of here, fast. Dante will be back any second. You look terrifying."
I tried to move but my spine felt locked, even my jaw felt like hot stone. The boiling heat needed an escape and I was afraid to force movement, in case I went off like a bomb. I tried to tell Fed to stand back but the words came out through clenched teeth.
"What?" She bent her ear close to me.
"Shtnd bck," I ground out from between locked molars.
She got up and backed away. "Where should I go? What are you going to do?" Panicked, she ran through the garden and inside the villa.
I eyeballed the pool. It was the only place I could go. Keeping my limbs locked in, I rolled my body across the stones. I must have looked ridiculous. Just as I was teetering at the edge of the pool, Dante reappeared in the doorway.
I tipped into the pool with a splash. I opened my body out toward the pool bottom and released all the energy I had been keeping inside. Two bright flashes of light and: Crack! Crack! Two loud, sharp sounds filled the water. My body instantly relaxed, all tremors and locked joints released. I found the bottom of the pool with my feet and stood up, surfacing. I rolled my head, and water streamed from my face and hair. My neck throbbed and the right side of my face felt tender to the touch, but otherwise, I felt normal again.
I looked around for Dante and Fed. Fed poked her head out of the doorway. Dante was slowly getting to his feet. The patio doors had exploded, and he was covered in glass.
A draining sound gurgled beneath my feet. A large crack had opened down the middle of the pool bottom. Water seeped into the ground.
Fed stepped out of the doorway, her hand over her mouth, her eyes round.
Dante got to his feet, brushing glass out of his hair. He looked at me and his eyes changed somehow. Resolved. Bitter.
“That was really stupid,” he said.
Thirty-Two
I waded to the steps and stepped up out of the pool, wiping my face. "Seems like I'm always in wet clothes lately," I muttered. I squeezed out my hair while I eyed Dante.
Glass shards tinkled across the stone patio as he brushed them out of his hair and off his clothes. “Do you know what have you done?” His voice was low, dangerous.
"Well, I'm not paying for the damage. You know full well whose fault it is."
"I'm not talking about the pool." He took a few steps toward me.
"You really want to do this, Dante? Face off with a magus?" I felt my eyes get hot.
"You're not a real magus, Saxony."
"No?" The husky sound of my voice contradicted him. I wasn't sure what he was getting at. I canted my head, my eyes alight.
He took a few more steps, nearer to Fed, but ignoring her. "What if I told you there was a way you could go back to being a normal teenager?"
As he passed in front of Fed, her eyes focused on Dante's lower back and they widened. Her gaze darted to my face, full of urgency.
"I know there is, Dante." I said, trying to work out what Fed was trying to say without alerting Dante. "But not for me. The fire is making me strong, not weak. I've got it for life. I thought you might have figured that out by now." I scanned his body. Dante's hands were at his sides.
I took a step back. My skin crawled with a dry, prickly heat. "Come on, Fed. Let's get out of here."