Ah, there it was, subtly brushing over my sweltering skin. More, I urged, craving the icy chill to cool the flames inching around me, consuming the room.
Wait… I flew upward, my mouth gaping wide at the swirl of power overwhelming the suite.
In the fae world.
Where I now resided.
Surrounded by chaos.
“Titus!” I shrieked, slamming my palm into his bare chest. His eyes flew open, his body going on alert as fast as mine.
He frowned at the maelstrom of elements. “Well, that’s, um, different.”
“Different?” I repeated on a squeak.
“Yeah, I’ve never seen anything like that.” He shook his head, then grabbed my hand. “Okay, crash course. I need you to concentrate on pulling the elements to you. Think of it like the hop game where you catch the flurries.”
I gaped at him. “What?” Flurries? Hop game?
“Er, right.” He winced. “Uh, do you have an activity where you try to grab things with your mind?” At my blank stare, he sighed. “Okay, focus on the core of the fire, that blue flicker in the middle, and call it to you.”
“Call it to me,” I repeated. “Right.”
“Come on, sweetheart. Trust me and try.” His dimples flickered. “Please?”
I must still be dreaming, I decided, giving in to the lunacy of the moment. “All right.” I fo
cused on the bright blue of the flame, as he suggested, and bit my lip. Now what? Titus had said to call the fire. Okay. But how? Like, was I supposed to talk to it?
Pinching my mouth to the side, I shrugged. Come here.
Nothing.
Well, of course nothing. Why would it listen to me?
Except I felt a flicker of something in response. An odd sort of heated string, invisible to my eye but tangible against my finger.
Weird.
I tugged on it, my eyebrows lifting as the flame danced a little in response.
No way…
I tried again, my jaw dropping as the inferno definitely responded. With a twirl of my finger, the blazing colors rotated into a sphere, shrinking as I willed it to resemble the size of a baseball, and landed in the palm of my hand.
“Excellent,” Titus praised. “Now use that mist over there to put it out.”
Mist?
Oh.
There was a shower happening in the corner of the room, watering what appeared to be a bed of flowers that reminded me of the ones I’d lain on in the field. Coincidence? Maybe.
Another strand tugged at my being as I willed the water to condense and blow toward my hand. My palm sizzled as the elements met, a deep-seated peace overwhelming my senses as all three elements—air, water, and fire—mingled together over my skin.
“Beautiful,” Titus breathed, running a finger through the aftermath of my miracle. “I think the flowers can stay.”
I gazed at the patch in question, frowning. “Are you saying I did that?”