Page 75 of Gift from the Stone

Taking a deep breath and shaking my hands out, I call her the rest of the way to the forefront since she was already sitting there idly, waiting on my command.

Blowing out my breath, I close my eyes and let my magic flow through her presence and across my skin. The two forces meet in the middle of my chest gradually, companionly, then spread. It’s almost like when we fully shift, except then, my magic usually comes pouring out with her. It’s large, electric, and extremely powerful. This is still powerful, but not as forceful, not as rapid.

My skin pulls tight, a subtle vibration skimming over it as the powers combine to shift the outer layer into the hard armor that is my scales. The slight growing pains in my fingers, paired with the pinpricks that embed faintly in my palm, indicate my nails have shifted into claws.

I keep my eyes closed for a second longer, allowing them to shift fully before I look up at Vince and Walker. I know this is about to be a shock to them and I want to give them the full show.

My purple slits stare hard at the pale lion shifter in front of me. Having my dragon’s sight at the head, Vince’s features are so keen, I could count out the stubble on his chin if I wanted to. Turning my gaze on Walker, he’s shocked, but not nearly as Vince. He almost seems relieved that I revealed as something so powerful.

“Might want to pick your jaw up, Vince, you’re going to catch a fly,” I sass teasingly.

“A dragon… She’s a fucking dragon, and you all didn’t think I should know this,” he whisper-yells, his eyes shooting from looking me over to scowling at my guys.

“It was need-to-know. Now you know. We’re not sure if it’s because she emerged so much later or other factors. Regardless, she catches on extremely quickly, typically only needing to be taught something once, so teach her. She has far more control than Draken did when his gift emerged,” Corentin comments, making my dragon purr.

I try my damnedest to hide the sound since we’re in the company of two other powerful shifters. The last embarrassing-ass thing I want to happen is them hearing me purr, for God’s sake.

Vince glances back at me, thankfully ignoring the noise that came out of my mouth, then he starts to circle me, observing all of my features. It’s not an intimidating thing, more so he’s trying to absorb everything he can about me.

“How many times have you fully shifted?” he asks.

“Twice. The first when I emerged. The other…” I trail off, not willing to explain why I shifted then.

“And neither time you had trouble?”

“The first time, yes. I didn’t know what was happening and it was excruciatingly painful, but Draken guided me through it, then it was fine. I was a little wobbly on my first flight, but then we raced, and I got my balance during our flight.” I smile, recalling the whole ordeal. It was scary as shit at first, but now, it brings me so much joy, no doubt it’ll always be one of my fondest memories.

“Raced?” he asks.

“My little wanderer is fast as fuck,” Draken brags, winking over at me.

“Well, we won’t be able to test that here. We’ll have to plan a day at your house for that, so for now, shift back for me and we’ll work on your dominance. No wonder you sent the entire class to their knees. A dragon.” He shakes his head like he still can’t quite believe what he’s seeing.

Shifting back is way faster and in a second flat, I’m back in my skin, looking through my normal silver eyes. Vince nods at me, like he both expected me to be able to do it but is also impressed it happened so smoothly.

“Will partially shifting always take that long? Or did it take longer because it was my first time intentionally doing it?” I ask.

Instead of answering right away, Vince turns his palm over and faster than my eyes can follow, his hand turns into a golden paw that could easily cover my whole face. Five toes stretch out. Claws as sharp as daggers force their way through the fluff, retracting in and out as he curls and uncurls his paw. I stare, fascinated, reaching out slowly to touch one, but before I can, my hand is jerked back.

“Let’s not touch the cat, okay, kitten,” Draken warns.

“Sorry, got a little distracted.” I apologize. I tend to get a little tunnel vision when I hyperfocus on something.

“Your partials will get faster with practice. And we’ll be practicing daily,” Vince declares, shifting his hand back.

For the next hour, we run through a series of drills. We quickly work out that my dominance has been coming out of me at my dragon’s insistence and guidance. Anytime I’ve used it, she’s been leading the way rather than me using the ability without her, so that’s what we spend the most time on.

It’s more difficult than I thought to call on my dominance without calling her up with it. When it just comes out of me at her command, it feels and sounds natural, but my first few tries, it sounds forced, the rumble coming up my throat like I’m trying to hack up mucus and it sends me into a coughing fit at least three times.

I’ve always been one to quickly grow frustrated if I can’t seem to get something, and that’s exactly what I’m feeling currently. Frustrated as fuck. No matter how many times Vince explains it, I can’t seem to grasp how to make the rumble start in my chest and move up and out my mouth.

Ridiculous.

“I just don’t understand. How do I separate the dominance when it comes from her? I wouldn’t have this ability if I didn’t have her,” I argue, throwing my hands in the air defeatedly.

“You should still be able to separate the two. Just like you and her are one, you’re also two completely different beings.” Vince once again tries to explain.

“Are your animals not like right here?” I ask, tapping on my chest. “Like can you not clearly communicate with them and understand them?” I ask, eyeing him, Walker, and Draken. Corentin and Tillman as well, although they don’t have animals. I just want someone to agree with me right now.

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