Page 2 of Rescued By the Great Grim

But then Johnny booms, “Great,” and Miriam winces at the volume of his voice. They don’t seem in tune the way a linked pair would be. Or maybe she, too, had a little too much alcohol and sugar last night. “Let’s get going.” He gestures toward the double doors that lead to the wrap-around porch with a view of Sockeye Lake. “We’ll start with some basic exercise to make sure we can harmonize our powers, and then we’ll go from there.”

He strides off. Miriam and I trudge after him, neither of us looking at the other. At least the leader of our group is enthusiastic. We walk off the porch and continue around the shoreline until we’re halfway along the long edge of the narrow lake. The resort occupies one of the narrow ends of the body of water.

Johnny stops and steps out onto a small land protrusion where an enormous boulder and a cluster of pine trees hide us from the hiking trail circumferencing the lake. There’s a log at the water's edge onto which he sits down and removes his shoes and socks. “Right, let’s get centered, and then we’ll see how our powers combine.”

I slip out of my hiking sandals and fold up the hem of my yoga pants before joining Johnny, who now stands barefoot in theshallow water at the edge of the lake. He’s wearing long shorts, so no need for him to worry about getting his hems wet.

The lapping waves make a soothing sound, and the coolness of the water on my feet clears some more of the cobwebs clogging my mind thanks to the overindulgence of the night before. I dig my toes into the muddy sand bottom and exhale deeply. My whole body relaxes.

Miriam wears an outfit and footwear similar to mine, but of course by much more expensive designers. She twists her long hair into a casual knot at the nape and secures it with a rubber band from around her wrist. Stepping into the water, she positions herself so that the three of us form the tips of an equilateral triangle. Her shoulders lower, and she, too, exhales deeply, closing her eyes. When she opens them again, her violet gaze is almost kind, and the haughty lines on her face smooth out. “Right,” she says, extending her arms to the sides and slightly forward, palms rotating inward toward the center of our little triangle.

Johnny and I mimic the gesture until one of my palms is right next to Miriam’s and the other Johnny’s, but neither of us touches the other two. Since Miriam is a manipulator, she’ll lead the centering while Johnny and I feed tendrils of power from our sources as Miriam requests it.

We close our eyes, and in my mind’s eye, I see neon-blue threads of energy swirling from the water up around my legs and then serpentining around the rest of my body. A familiar and comforting sizzle caresses my skin. It feels as if my hairs stand on end, but from watching videos of my own exercises, I know that should anyone pass by, they’d just see three people standing in water, looking as if they’re meditating.

I expand my inner vision to include Johnny and Miriam. His power’s manifestation looks similar to mine, but the threads embracing him are much thicker and glow with higher intensity.

Miriam, though, takes my breath away. I’ve never seen anyone’s magic appear on the psychic plane like hers. Her entire being glows from the inside in swirls of amber and red. The light emanating is so intense that I have to look away and observe her out of the corner of my mind’s eye.

I’m ready to connect, her voice echoes in my mind.

Johnny and I extend our neon threads toward her magnificent glowing being, and as they touch her radiant light, a sizzling shock reverberates through the three of us. Our powers seep into each other, and all of us glow with purple light at the same intensity. I’ve never before merged so effortlessly with another mage or witch. And never before have I had this much power flooding through my body. It’s euphoria inducing and giddy by the experience, I giggle and then snort.

Miriam’s regal being quirks an eyebrow and my mirth quickly dies down.

Let’s start with a simple exercise, Johnny’s voice says. His psychic communications are weirdly quieter than his regular voice.Create a small whirlpool in our center and use it to expose the lake bottom.

This is something I could probably create on my own. I’d shape my energy into a twirling funnel and use that to whip the water into a swirl, similar to whisking cake batter. What Miriam does, though, is on another level. Sheasks—I can’t think of another way to describe it—the water to please make a whirlpool on itsown and expose the river bottom for her. And she does this without having to pull on either Johnny’s or my powers.

I open my eyes to see the lake bottom completely exposed inside our triangle. The water swirls in a lazy circle around the edges of the mud. Neither Johnny nor Miriam open their eyes. I guess if you’re as powerful as they are, you’re confident that this little party trick will go off without a hitch, and there’s no need to check your results.

Now, make one outside the triangle and in deeper depth, Johnny demands.

Miriam nods and then asks the water to release the funnel she just created. The circle swirls slower and slower until gently lapping waves once again cover the lake bottom. Although my energy is not affected, I still feel the effort required to create the whirlpool relax.

We all wiggle a little and plant our feet firmer in the lake mud. Miriam raises her chin and again asks the lake to create a whirlpool, but in a different location. This time, I feel a little tug on my power, but it’s more like she’s resetting the connection than actually siphoning energy. A larger whirlpool appears further out in the lake. This time, the other two open their eyes as I do and we watch the funnel swirl faster and faster until a three-foot diameter circle of the river bottom appears, surrounded by rotating walls of water.

“Make it bigger,” Johnny says out loud, excitedly.

Miriam frowns, but does as he asks. The circle expands until it is four feet long across, then five, and then six. At that size, I feel a slight pull on my powers. But surprisingly, it’s from Johnny, not from Miriam, who's the person controlling our magical shape.

“Bigger,” Johnny shouts again.

“Inside voice,” Miriam mutters and closes her eyes. Her forehead furrows as she expands the whirlpool to seven and then eight feet across.

Johnny siphons more energy from me, so quickly that I start to feel lightheaded.

“That’s too much,” I gasp.

Miriam’s eyes fly open again. She looks at me, and then her gaze swings to Johnny. “What the fuck are you doing?” she asks him. “Release her immediately.”

Laughing, Johnny shakes his head. “Relax, I’m just testing her endurance.”

Stars glimmer in front of my eyes, and then darkness descends as my limbs go limp. The last thing I remember is hitting the shallow lake water with an undignified splash.

CHAPTER 3 (NICKUR)

Chopping wood used to be something I enjoyed. The physical aspect of swinging the axe satisfied some primal thing inside me, and some of my anger would release when the sharp whack of wood splitting echoed through the clearing. Now, though, rage and sadness expand inside my chest the more I swing my sharp blade. As those feelings do no matter which essential task I perform. To keep boredom at bay and focus on something other than my growing frustration, I sometimes mix up the chopping techniques, but there are only so many variations of swinging an axe. And some of my new methods proved injury prone, so now I mostly use the classic variation.

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