“Rayna, we can both now openly talk about why I was there. I was tasked with being with you, watching you, and getting you out of there.”
“To betray me.”
Aylia frowned, obviously upset with what I was saying. “I don’t see it that way. I saved you from a fate we shouldn’t be subjected to. Either way, I was there for you, which means I watched you; I paid attention.”
“You stalked me.” Bitterness grew as I spoke, rage almost ready to take over all my curiosity.
Aylia sighed and looked down, seemingly sad enough to make my even heart ache and waver. Guilt wanted to rise up through me, but I squashed it down. Aylia had befriended me with dangerous intentions. To her, they were good ones, but they weren’t in actuality. She kidnapped me, separated me from my mates. What she did was wrong. No matter how much she tried to make me feel bad, tried to spin it with pretty words cushioned with promises meant to spark my curiosity, it was all wrong.
And it didn’t change anything. Aylia was no longer someone I could trust. I wouldn’t even be speaking to her if I wasn’t in my current predicament.
“I still consider you my friend, even if you no longer believe that,” she said softly, her voice quivering, like she was fighting to not cry. “Either way, it happened. I can’t undo it, and even if I could, I wouldn’t want to. You are here with me now, and I’m happy because of it. You are powerful, Rayna, and I couldn’t let that be utilized so dangerously. Here? You can be yourself, be who you’re meant to be. Let me help you. Don’t freeze me out. Please!”
She gently grabbed my forearm, pleading with me to believe her.
I gritted my teeth and swallowed that rage, unable to look at her. “I might as well make use of being stuck here.”
I didn’t need to look at Aylia to know she was smiling a huge smile. She interpreted my words how she wanted, and I was beginning to wonder if there was something more wrong with her than her utter devotion to the Fae king. Maybe there was something more going on here to keep the riders in control, something subtle enough to set me on edge. The back of my neck prickled as my paranoia spiked.
“Thank you. I promise you won’t regret this. Now, think about those moments with your mate. Think about what you felt. What you did to give your dragons strength,” Aylia added.
Sighing, I lowered my gaze to the ground. The grass was lush here too.
“Think, Rayna,” Aylia urged in a low voice.
I did, thinking I’d at least pay attention and see what I could learn. If I could decide to throw things in the air or toss lightning around, it’d only make me stronger. So, I thought about the moments I flew through the air, my mates around me. How we’d approach the Fae, and I’d give them the strength they needed to blow fire and kill them.
“Tingling,” I finally say. “It always felt like tingling. It’d build up in my chest, and I’d send it to my hands and then through my bonds to them.”
“Good,” she said. “Do that now. Think about the tingling, build it up, and have it collect in your hands. But this time, hold onto it. Don’t let it go and don’t feed it to anyone. Keep it as your own.”
Her explanation made sense, and I did that. Closing my eyes, I focused on that feeling, and it was like my body knew exactly what I wanted because simultaneously, that spark flickered in my chest. It was warm and crackling to feel so alive.
I let it sit there in my chest as I marveled at it, wondering what it was exactly. How a feeling like this could exist inside of me. What was I dealing with?
Thinking back to the task given, I pushed that tingling down my arms, feeling the small hairs on my arms standing at attention. Then, my hands itched, growing warm as the sparks danced across my palm, down the back of my hand, and to the soft pulse on my wrist.
“Look,” Aylia whispered.
I did. Both my hands looked like they were encased in lightning. It should have freaked me out, but how could something that felt so warm and soft be so dangerous? I smiled as I stared at my magic.Mine.
I was more than just super hearing, more than just a rider giving the dragons the strength they needed to fight. I was simply more. I could learn to be strong for them, to truly support them as a rider. We’d be strong, all four of us truly a force to be reckoned with. That was what my magic meant for me. Strength for me and mine.
Pure happiness flooded through me, breaking my concentration, and the lightning fizzled out, the tingling coursing through my body once more before dispersing.
“For your first time, that was amazing. It can usually take a whole training session to get that far,” Aylia said. “You truly are incredible. I knew it. Absolutely knew it. Now do it again.”
We spent the next hour getting lightning into my hands and holding it for as long as I could. Aylia went on about how it would eventually become second nature, and I wouldn’t have to concentrate so hard, but that only came with practice.
So we practiced over and over again until Aylia was happy.
Aylia clapped her hands together as the last attempt ended. “This is great. I think you can try to hit a target now.”
I warily eyed the large cloth balls set up ahead of us. I saw the others throwing their lightning. The attack did act like actual lightning strikes, leaving the balls scorched. They didn’t light on fire like I expected, but took the hits rather well, never moving from their spots.
“They’re essentially stuck in place, so that they won’t move from attacks,” Aylia explained. “And while the outside is cloth, the inside is some kind of far more hearty material that won’t catch on fire or break from our attacks. You don’t need to hold back when striking.”
“How do I get it to leave my hand and go toward the target?” I asked.