I looked at Gerald, and he tilted his head to the side. In fact, I noticed everyone staring in our direction at Lycus’s closeness to me and his arms wrapped around me, his hands holding mine.
My only issue was trying not to let my white magic show, which wasn’t a major issue. I only used my dark while masking my lighter side throughout school, but it had also been six years of not using magic. Yet, as I felt it caress over my skin, I gasped before squeezing his fingers slightly. His magic bled into my skin, making me gasp and warm all over; my toes curled in my shoes at the sensation as it rushed through me.
My entire body shivered, and Gerald smirked at the challenge; his smirk dropped when I smiled back at him like a Cheshire cat, and I let go of Lycus’s hands. Lycus stepped back and out of the circle. He stood on the side between us, and I flexed my fingers when Gerald spoke.
“Ready, Aleera?” He laughed, and I turned my palm up, creating a fireball in my hand, molding it into the shape of an arrow. I giggled as it heated my skin, and I looked over at him to see his eyes grow wide when I felt the jolt of a zap and looked over at Lycus as electricity zapped through the flames in my hand, sizzling around the flame arrow I’d created. He nodded to me before I turned to face Gerald, letting the fire morph back into a ball, tossing my fireball in my hand.
“Oh, scary. Let’s see what you got then. Sneaky Lycus,” Gerald taunted, yet I couldn’t get the smile off my lips, much too excited to play this game now. I laughed at his words and challenge, which he seemed amused about. In school, I had to mask how good with fire I truly was, making sure my grades were mediocre and didn’t draw attention to the fact I had more power than most before I manifested. Here I didn’t have to mask my strength, just my lighter side. As I turned the fireball into a lava one, my eyes gleamed with that knowledge. Gerald gulped and took a step back.
“What’s your highest heat record again?” I asked him, and he folded his arms cockily because he held the highest record in the class at four thousand degrees Fahrenheit.
“Four thousand,” he laughed.
“You’re so fucked,” I giggled, and his laughter stopped.
“What’s yours then?”
“You’re about to find out.” I smiled before setting the ring surrounding us on fire.
Chapter 62
Gerald jumped as thering around us caught fire, the heat warming us while my eyes glowed with excitement. How I had missed having magic.
“That’s the best you got?” Gerald taunted. I smirked before feeling the tether to my power strengthen, morphing it before I lifted my hands out to the sides above my head before tossing them down.
The flames exploded in a cylinder-shaped wall around us. The fire flew toward the sky, higher than the castle’s tallest point, and I chuckled while Gerald’s mouth fell open. I couldn’t see those standing outside our circle, but the murmurs at my reach with the flames had them gasping in shock.
“Pretty sure I just broke the record for highest,” I giggled.
“Not the hottest,” Gerald said with a cocky grin.
“How hot is cutting fire again?” I asked him.
“Yeah, right, three thousand seven hundred?” he murmured, admiring my towering wall of flames.
“I burn hotter,” I whispered, and his smile fell as he looked over at me. Moving my hand, he watched as I turned my palm up before the flames burned brightly, turning purple and blue. Iwatched as he squinted from the harsh rays of light it emanated. Clenching my fist, the wall of fire plunged toward the earth, burrowing deep into the rock’s surface. However, maintaining it on the ring’s outer edge took some concentration as I cut the circle out, burning a hole through the ground and turning the rock into molten lava. It bubbled up, spewing out of the gaps as I cut a ring around us, leaving us in the center.
In contrast, lava bubbled and bled from the earth. Everyone jumped back, as did Gerald, before nearly tumbling into the gap behind him before jumping toward me.
It stopped with a twist of my wrist as I felt myself growing weaker from not having used that much power in so long. Gerald noticed my exhaustion as the lava darkened as it cooled, and he smirked.
“What’s wrong, Aleera? Can’t hold it long?” he chirped before shrieking as I flicked my fingers toward him and engulfed him in flames.
He danced, trying to extinguish the flames covering him as I controlled the fire enough not to touch his skin, only burning his clothes and hair. Still, the shriek of terror from him had everyone laughing as he jumped around like his ass was on fire. As he shrieked, patting himself down before rolling on the ground, my own giggles made the flames cut out, momentarily distracting me.
He stopped thrashing, only to see he wasn’t burned, just very naked and looking like a hairless cat. Even his eyebrows were gone. I snickered, and Gerald glared at me.
“Pretty sure I just broke your record. Do you want another demonstration, Gerald? I’m pretty sure I can melt you down. Shall we see what you’re really made of?” I challenged him.
Gerald growled and jumped to his feet, rushing toward me like an enraged rhino. Lycus stepped over the gap. I cut into the ground and into his path. He halted instantly, nearly tripping over himself in his effort not to run into Lycus’s wall of muscle.
Gerald growled, glaring at me over Lycus’s shoulder.
“Issue Gerald?” Lycus asked, and Gerald looked between Lycus and me before sneering and turning on his heel. He stalked off while cursing under his breath.
Lycus then turned to face me, a grin on his face. “So you’re a fire element,” he said, his eyes sparkling with the knowledge. That made me a little nervous because they might start questioning if I showed any ability in any other element. Lycus held his hand out, and I sighed, knowing he wanted me to give it back, or what was left of it anyway.
“I would let you keep it, but—”