It’d been ten years. The only thing we’d really learned was that we still didn’t know where my limits lay. There was always a ceiling to magic, a point where it could go no further. Magic is bound by laws much like physics or mathematics.
The problem is those laws didn’t seem to apply to me, and I hadn’t yet found my ceiling.
Which is why I needed a cornerstone.
A cornerstone is the first stone set in the construction of a foundation. All other stones are set based upon the placement of the cornerstone. It determines the position of a structure.
Magic is the same. It needs a set foundation in order to properly grow. It was possible I didn’t know my ceiling because I didn’t know where my foundation began. I could use Morgan or Gary or Tiggy. My parents. And I did. But it was getting harder and harder to use them the older I got.
Hence the matchmaking.
“It’ll be worse,” Morgan had told me once. “When you feel threatened. Or when those you care about are threatened. It’ll be harder to control.”
The Darks were threatening me. That was fine. I was used to being threatened. I could deal with it.
But they had also threatened Ryan. And that was not okay.
Oh, and Todd. They had threatened Todd too.
That was important.
Still.
I stepped forward, and Ryan said, “Sam.”
People moved then. They must have seen something on my face because they just scattered out of the way, shoving their chairs out, scrambling until there was no one between us and the Darks.
I said, “You can leave now. Or I’ll make you leave. Your choice. To be honest, though, you won’t like it if I’m the one to make you leave.” I could see the green clearly now. And the gold.
Squat Wizard laughed. “Says the apprentice.”
The other Darks smirked behind him.
Ryan came up to stand beside me. He pulled his shield from off his back and took a fighting stance next to me, eyes narrowed.
Something settled somewhere in my head, locking into place. My shoulders eased and my magic felt tighter. More focused. More in control.
Through the haze of green and gold, I thought, Oh no.
But the thought was lost as I pulled the green and gold to me. They were the top colors, the earth magic. Other colors shifted in and out (reds and blues and purples and indigos).
The Darks moved. They muttered to themselves and magic began to build.
They were broadcasting. Every single move. Like I wouldn’t know.
There were people here, I reminded myself. Innocent people.
And Ryan. Ryan was at my side, and nothing could happen to him.
Which is why when the Dark on the right launched a blue fireball at me, I held my hand out in front of me and pulled it in. It hovered in the air, inches from my palm. It would have been so easy to fire it back at them tenfold, igniting their hair and clothes and skin. But others would get hurt. Others would suffer.
So I pulled it into myself.
It felt odd, another’s magic mixing with my own. But mine consumed it, making it a part of me. There was a bright flare in the green and gold and then it settled.
The fireball was gone.
I lowered my hand.