“You know what I’m saying.”
“Well whatever it is you think I am, I am not anymore. My magick left me in Olderim, it’s gone.” As I said the words relief flooded over me.
I can’t be.
“It is not gone, Zacriah, you’re just looking for it in the wrong place.”
IN THE WRONG place? I shook my head, trying to still my frustration.
“Let me explain.” He tapped my chest again. “You’ve kept your magick in a hold for years. I can feel the empty space within you, deep down. The difference between a Dragori and an Elemental is that an Elemental has limited abilities and their power comes from within. What makes a Dragori more powerful is their abilities come from around them. So, you are looking in the wrong place, you should be looking around you; now it is free.”
Free. I reached for it again, this time closing my eyes to block out the world of distractions. I reached and pushed but still did not connect with anything within me, but emptiness. “I don’t feel it anywhere. How can it be free?”
“Because I made it so.”
“I’m not a Dragori. It’s impossible! I’ve seen what Hadrian is capable of and I’ve never experienced anything like that. Wherever my magick comes from, being a Dragori is not the answer!”
Gallion took both of my hands in his and lifted me to stand. “I want you to focus, take a deep breath and really think about connecting with the air around you. Think about the way it feels against your skin, how it sounds in your ears. I will filter emotions into you until we see what the catalyst for your connection with it is. Each Dragori’s abilities are linked to their element through an emotion. It is just a case of figuring what that is for you.”
“But I’m not a Drag—”
“Yes, yes, you are. Believe me, I would know. I know as well as your father knows and your mother. You have me to thank for your lack of belief in what you are,” Gallion interrupted, “Now, give me your hand so I can show you. I’m better at showing what I mean than explaining.”
I had no choice. His hands glowed bright and forced emotions filled me.
I began to laugh, uncontrollably. I was being dragged along in the cascading river of emotions that Gallion pushed into me. Lost to his control.
The laughter soon turned into tears. My heart sank and the sadness gripped me. Tears filled my eyes and spilled down my cheeks, landing on the sand. I couldn’t catch my breath.
Different emotions washed over me in quick succession, taking the place of the one before it, messing with my mind. Happiness, sadness, hate and love. I was drowning in Gallion’s power.
I had the sudden urge to reach out and scratch at Gallion’s face.
The strong emotion shocked me, but soon I lost all concentration and only felt anger.
A burning, intense rage.
I’d felt this anger before. And with it, memories of Olderim clouded my vision and I was no longer on the beach.
I knocked Illera’s feline body away, she was no match for me.
Alina smiled.
I hated it, I hated her.
The power surged around me, following my every move, snatching the life from the survivors that attempted to escape my fury.
No one was going to survive this time.
Someone called my name.
No.
I threw more power behind my magick. I was unstoppable. A monster of their creation. A demon of their actions.
I was stopped before, I wouldn’t be stopped again.
They would pay.
My name. Over and over, I heard it.
Someone was holding me.
I looked down.
No.
No.
No.
***
THE SCENE OF the blood-stained palace melted before my eyes. Dissipating, until I was left, staring into Gallion’s beet red face.
Sand scratched at my arms and legs, the wind tunnelling around us. My magick. I felt it, but it was different. It’d changed. I tried to pull it back, to stop the cyclone of air and sand around us, but I couldn’t. It was out of reach.
Gallion was shouting something, but I couldn’t hear him over the roar of wind. His hand gripped onto my arm and I watched his pulsing light spreading beneath his touch.
“Let me in!”
I couldn’t. Panicking, I shook my head.
“Stop resisting, let me in!”
I heard him this time. As clear as day. I felt the barrier, it was in my mind blocking Gallion’s magick from entering. I closed my eyes and threw my mind’s fists at it, trying to break it. Pleading until it finally listened.
Gallion’s power filled me once again, destroying the anger and draining it away.
I felt every inch of my surroundings and watched the air begin to still and the sand fall back to the ground. Sweat covered Gallion’s scarred forehead, he was panting.
Hadrian stood, windswept and covered in sand beyond the barrier of wind as it broke down. Flames licked across his hands and his golden eyes were burning.
“What the fuck happened?!” Hadrian shouted. The food he’d collected was scattered across the beach, ruined.
“It had to happen, Hadrian, you know it better than anyone. We’ve wasted enough time not telling him.”
“But he is still not ready. It has not even been a week. We need to take our time.” Hadrian turned to me and cupped my face, “Are you hurt?”
“Why didn’t you tell me…?” I replied, not able to take my eyes off Gallion.
“I’ll be around later to explain this to you…” Gallion coughed. “For now, I need a moment.”
“I didn’t hurt you, did I?” I asked, panicked.
“No, my son. I’m not as in control of my powers as I once was. Let me rest, I will see you soon.”
***
AFTER HADRIAN HAD calmed down and Gallion slept, we all sat in the room and pieced together the puzzle that was me. Gallion explained that the only way for Browlin to bring me back from death’s clutches was to reach a side of me that had been buried for a long time. Buried by Gallion himself thanks to my Fa’s request.
“When Stevun brought you to me, he had a choice. To leave you to grow as a Dragori or to suppress it, and I am sure by now you can work out which path he chose for you,” Gallion said from the side of my bed. “No matter what I thought, I did it for him. It took a lot out of me. He was more than disappointed when I could only block the physical traits of a Dragori. Your power, being linked to an important emotion, was harder for me to block. If I’d blocked that, you would never have been the same again. So, when my sister tried to heal you, and found that side of you, she used it as an anchor to bring you back.”
I didn’t interrupt him, instead I paced the room, trying not to look at Nyah, or Hadrian who sat listening.
“And that is why my hearing is stronger? Why I can smell every little thing?”
“Correct. A Dragori’s senses are much stronger than any elf,” Hadrian responded.
“So, any moment now I will be sprouting wings and horns?” As I asked it, it didn’t sound so terrible. If I would be anything like Hadrian, it excited me.