The lighting struck the palm of my left hand that I’d raised in front of me. It coursed up my arm and everything was blue blue blue, and it tripped and stuttered over my heart as it crawled along my chest. For a moment, I thought to take it in, to take this wizard’s magic and make it my own, to pull it inside and keep it there. It’d be so easy, especially with yet another piece of the cornerstone solidified in place. But there wasn’t enough time. The fire geckos were at the edge of the forest, and I could hear their growls and snarls, the snap of their jaws and teeth, the scrape of their claws. A burst of fire erupted from the edge of the woods as the lightning crackled in me, wrapping itself around me, and I thought how easy it would be. Not to absorb it. To redirect it. To make it my own.
Only a few seconds had passed since the electricity first hit my hand. The last bit slunk in through my skin as the Dark’s eyes widened. I raised my other hand and pointed it toward the Dark Woods, and there was no need for words, no need for complicated hand movements. One moment the lightning was circling my heart and the next it was flowing out of me as the first of the fire geckos breached the tree line, eyes blazing.
Everything felt blue.
And the lightning left me then. Just like I’d allowed it in. It curled down my arm, bits and pieces arcing out along my skin before shooting off toward the approaching geckos. They screamed as the ground erupted around them, bodies seizing and fire spitting.
And then it was silent.
“So,” Dark the First said. “That was a thing that happened.”
“Yeah,” Dark the Second said, sounding like he was choking. “It did.”
I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. A line of fire geckos lay charred and smoking along the side of the road. I could hear more in the woods. It must have been quite the pack of them.
“He’s still coming with us,” Dark the First said, steeling his resolve.
Dark the Second snorted. “Yeah. Okay. You go get him, then.”
I said, “Come and get me.” Like a badass.
Dark the First hesitated. “Or maybe we’ll just let him go.”
Dark the Second said, “That sounds like a better plan.”
They ran one way.
I ran the other.
I took a moment to think of syl and bre and a sharp breeze blew back behind me, blowing my scent and the smell of burned gecko toward the Darks. When the remaining geckos burst from the tree line, they didn’t even look in my direction. Their nostrils flared and they growled, skittering along the ground as they took off after the Darks.
I looked up ahead and the road curved around a shallow bend. I took the curve and skidded to a halt. Gary, Tiggy, and Ryan were stopped in the roadway, staring at me. Tiggy still had Ryan over his shoulder, but Ryan had moved almost to a sitting position, his hands in Tiggy’s hair.
I didn’t know I’d had an audience.
I really should have expected it.
Nosy bastards.
“Heeey,” I said, waving a hand at them, going for nonchalant and failing miserably.
“What,” Gary said.
“Sparklies,” Tiggy said.
“Ungh,” Ryan said.
Silence.
Then, “I don’t suppose there’s a chance you didn’t see any of that.”
“Saw everything,” Gary said.
“Lizards get fried,” Tiggy said.
“Ungh,” Ryan said.
More silence.