I shrugged. “Honestly, no idea,” I said. “The Fae realm is different from anything I’ve ever experienced. I have no idea what type of creatures there are, hiding in plain sight.”
And I didn’t. There was the magical realm, then smaller magic realms, shifter realms, Fae realms, and god knew what else. In fact, the more I thought about it, the more my head began to pinch.
“I didn’t ask a lot of those sorts of questions,” I admitted. “You would have been so cross with me. Looking back, I realize I probably should have but...” I shrugged. “I had other things on my mind. I had one goal.”
Courtney threw her hands up. “You did better than either of us would have, Ava. Don’t worry about it.”
I stared at her, surprised by the strange compliment that came from her lips.
“Ah... thanks.” I made
sure that my appreciation didn’t come out like a question. I didn’t want her to think I was being sarcastic, not when she was genuinely trying to be nice.
“Can you teach me that technique you just employed on me?” she asked slowly.
“Sure,” I said. I was surprised she would even think to ask me. Normally, she thought she knew everything and didn’t give any consideration to what Bella or I had to tell her.
I stood next to her and took her hand in mine. I raised it so it formed a right angle to her body and I thrust out her palm.
“Feel that?” I asked. At her nod, I continued. “That’s the arm gesture you need to do when you call on the force within you.”
“The force within you?” she asked.
I closed my eyes. “We all have a force inside of us, Court,” I explained, slowly opening my eyes. “Humans call this gut instinct or intuition. With us magic users, we can control it. Use it to our advantage. You just have to connect with it.”
“And how do I do that?” she asked.
“Well, you reach inside of yourself. You stay still. It’ll find you.” I winced. “I know that sounds strange. You just have to trust me.”
Courtney nodded and closed her eyes. I furrowed my brow. I hadn’t been expecting that. I thought she sure she’d brush me off and tell me I was crazy. I didn’t think she would actually indulge me.
After a moment, her eyes snapped open and a smile beamed on her face. “I feel it!” she said. “Or, at least, I think I do.”
“Excellent,” I said. “That’s faster than me when I found mine. Okay, so now that you have it, use the gesture. But before you do anything, you have to tell your force what you’re going to do. If you don’t, it could have disastrous consequences.”
Courtney blinked. “What do you mean?”
“Well, let’s just say I acted before thinking and split a tall oak tree in half all because I had my arm out, and didn’t control it,” I said. “Luckily, I wasn’t pointing at a person.”
After a few attempts that fizzled, Courtney hit a home run, sizzling a tree nearby. She clapped her hands in excitement.
“Can I have a go at you now?” she asked, her eyes glinting playfully.
I shrugged. “Why not?”
I highly doubted she’d be able to do much. It took me at least three tries until I was even able to get a small reaction and Horlow mentioned that that had been impressive. Courtney had strong, raw magic, but she wasn’t Bella and she wasn’t me. She was volatile. That didn’t make for good control.
Courtney ran back to her place across the field, then faced me. There was an eager smile on her face. She rubbed her hands together, ready to get started, ready to try.
I smiled. Maybe she might not get it right away, but she was enthusiastic. That was something.
“Ready?” I called out to her.
“Yes.” She practically sang the word, bouncing from one foot to the next.
“Three.” I put up three fingers and began to count backwards. “Two. One.”
I reached out and threw the bolt at Courtney a moment before her magic hit me.