Page 42 of Wicked Heirs

I’d thought that sort of thing had been reserved for high school, just like Talon setting my dress on fire. But obviously not.

There was no more time for me to be scared of my own power.

I had to at least start back on that track.

While I couldn’t risk moving too quickly in that vein, I could move determinedly, yet carefully.

Things couldn’t go on as they were.

Responding reactively was doing nothing.

It was inviting further attacks, further bullying, and further negativity.

Because of my vulnerability concerning my power issues, people thought they could come at me all too easily.

The only way to respond to that and stop all of this was to strike back.

It required a show of force.

Or, several strategic hits.

I wouldn’t be anybody’s victim.

It was time they all learned.

For the first couple of hours, I’d extended my food conjuring, managing to create a whole meal. I’d mixed it up with Italian meatballs, French onion soup, Rosemary chicken for the entrée, then rocky road for dessert.

After I’d finished eating, I’d conjured fifty candles into being in a circle around me, then I’d worked on my control and precision by lighting each one in turn. After a couple of tries and once throwing a glass of water at some out of control flames, I’d managed to pull it off.

With all my repressing, I’d forgotten just how easily doing magic had come to me. Just how natural that it was.

Things had gotten so skewed and tainted after what had happened to me during theCataclysmthree years back that I’d only seen the bad of it all, the dangers to me and to everyone else around me.

I figured now that I was under threat and being pushed back into it, as fucked up as it was, it was something that served to help me rise above my worries about it all. To see beyond the negative and focusing on the awfulness of what could happen if I lost control.

Right now with assholes coming at me without me having control, that awfulness stood too much of a chance of happening anyway.

The only way out was through.

After being cooped up and studying my grimoire hardcore, I’d headed outside to the grounds to get some fresh airandto also test out another aspect of my magic usage.

It was quiet where I was walking—at least two acres from the main building—as I’d noticed most students kept close to the building, only venturing as far as the pool that was just five hundred feet from it. TheKick OffPartyhad been the exception to that.

I smiled to myself as I held my right palm upturned using a glowing golden sphere of my magic to light my path in the dark as I made my way into the depths of the forest toward a clearing I remembered from that night.

I reached it, noting the wide tree stump at the center.

I levitated the sphere much like a lightbulb a couple of feet above my head, and then I knelt in front of the tree stump.

Sucking in a steadying breath, I held my palms downward over the wooden surface and carefully pulled on my power until it began to release in gentle sparks of gold that looked a lot like glitter.

Focusing and keeping the image I needed strong in my mind, I twisted my fingers on either hand and brought it into being. First the exterior walls, then the drawbridge and, finally, the turrets.

I stepped back and admired it—a golden sparkling model of a castle.

“Stunning.”

I jolted, only just managing not to snuff it out, and spun to see a familiar figure standing in the shadows illuminated enough by my sphere to make him out.

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