Page 90 of A Sun Scorched Bloom

"Anything else?" Erik prodded.

Ordering her shadows to spread out further, Lea pushed them up the wall and across the ceiling. "There’s something up here." Lea continued wrapping her darkness around the object hanging above them. Somehow her shadows knew that it was long, cold strips of metal. "A cage." Her shadows continued to explore. "With locks. A bunch of different kinds." It was extremely odd, but there was no mistaking what she was feeling. There were padlocks and key holes, locks with combinations, and deadbolts.

"Excellent. Now I’m going to create enemy soldiers. They’ll have magic, and they will be battling our fellow rebels. Your goal is to help our soldiers while incapacitating the enemies. Is everyone ready?" Erik’s thundering voice echoed through the room, and a rumble of acknowledgment responded through the dark. Without warning, chaos erupted around Lea. In the blink of an eye, she was standing in the middle of a battle. Swords clanged while fireballs flew into shields and walls. Lea ducked as her shadows warned her of an arrow coming straight at her chest.

"Focus, Lea!" Erik yelled.

This isn’t real,Lea said to herself.Just try.Lea commanded her shadows to explode around her, taking in as much of the fighting as she could in her mind. The soldiers Erik had created looked different from the king’s. They were slightly larger, and while whatever magic being used made them firm to the touch, evident by the way they were able to physically fight, she could feel that they were slightly fuzzy around the edges and not completely solid.

A soldier to her right cried out as his sword was knocked from his hand. The imaginary soldier he was fighting pressed the blade to his throat, and Lea focused on the metal weapon. She reached out with her shadows, wrapping them around the hilt and ripping it from the man’s hand before turning the sword on him and stabbing him through the stomach. He disappeared instantly.

"Amazing, Lea," Erik cheered her on as if he was watching a game of quoffist.

The clang of arrows bouncing off a shield met Lea’s ears, and she searched the space for them. Where the triangular wall in front of her turned into a point, a man stood firing arrows off at a rapid pace. She heard the grunt of one of the king's soldiers as he was hit, landing with a thud on the ground.

They can’t die,Lea reminded herself. Raising her chin, she built a wall of shadow in front of the man, angling it, so that the next arrow he loosed hit the shield and bounced back toward him, impaling him in the eye. Just like the soldier before him, he disappeared into thin air.

Lea allowed more shadows to escape her chest, their long fingers reaching out and snatching weapons, becoming weapons themselves. She wrapped her shadows around another soldier’s neck, squeezing until he simply was gone. At the same time, she pulled the legs out from under another soldier about to deliver a death blow with a dagger, positioning his hand underneath him, so that he landed on his own weapon.

The more Lea used her night magic, the more her shadows called on that raw, dark, primary power, begging it to seep from the floor of her chest. It was intoxicating, like a shot of hard maple liquor. It prickled in her chest and buzzed along her skin, begging for her to destroy.Maybe Icanactually do this,she thought as she lifted a man by his hair and threw him into a wall.

In the recesses of Lea’s mind, she realized she should be concerned by how good it felt to be this powerful, to cause this much destruction. She should stop, call on her light to counteract that deep, black power. But she didn'twantto stop, reveling in the intensity of her darkness until every last imaginary soldier had disappeared.

Her blood ran hot, and her body vibrated with the thrill of allowing that deep well inside of her to drain, just a little. There was so much more bubbling under the surface, and she yearned to unleash it all and see how deep her abilities really ran. A loud warning bell echoed somewhere inside her that told her she wasn’t ready for that, but her wild, unruly power screamed back as if it could cover the sound of her conscience.

With every ounce of self-control she could muster, Lea called back her shadows, summoning them home like a child to its mother. They nestled snugly together inside her chest, and Lea swore that the darkness inside her actually sighed in contentment. The room brightened, torches lighting along the walls one by one with the flick of Erik’s fingers.

He walked directly toward Lea, grabbing her by the shoulders and beaming with pride. "I knew you could do it! People really should listen to me more. I was right about the mate bond, and I was right about this. Your shadows are no different from your flames. We just need to work on controlling them, and you’ll be unstoppable."

Lea smiled and allowed him to embrace her, but a tug of worry in her gut nagged at her mind. Erik didn’t understand. Being unstoppable was exactly what she was afraid of.

Chapter 61

Erik

Janellewasrestless.WhenErik returned to her room after training with Lea, he found her pacing. There had been a subtle change in Janelle ever since the tirror attack in the Wicked Wood. Since that day, she hadn’t seemed quite able to settle her body or her mind.

"You weren’t in the training room this afternoon." Janelle shoved a finger at him as he closed the door, stopping briefly to glare before continuing her pacing. "I need to train. You said we needed to work on combatevery day,and then, when I showed up, assuming you would be there, the room was empty."

Every single afternoon since they’d arrived, Erik had been forced to almost drag Janelle kicking and screaming to combat training after their run. Erik’s mouth cracked open. She had been in the shower when he’d returned before grabbing Lea for their lesson, and he hadn’t wanted to disturb her. He'd assumed she would enjoy having an afternoon off. It wasn’t like they’d made plans specifically to train and he’d failed to show up.

"I know Lea is the one who’s gonna save us all and everything," Janelle continued pacing, "and that’s great. I’m glad she’s getting the training she needs. But I need to train. I need to be safe, too."

Erik felt like he had been punched in the gut. "Of course you need to be safe. Youaresafe."

"Then why didn’t we train today?" Janelle threw her hands up in the air, the pitch of her voice rising higher and higher. Erik walked over and grabbed her gently by the upper arms, stopping her frantic movement.

"I thought you hated training. I thought I was being kind, giving you a break." Erik ran his hands down her arms, needing to ease the anxiety radiating from her every pore. "Do you really not feel safe?"

"I don’t know." Janelle’s lip trembled, and she cleared her throat to try to cover it up.

A painful mix of guilt and protectiveness lodged behind his sternum. "I wouldneverlet anything happen to you," Erik said firmly, willing her to believe him with the intensity behind his words, to feel it as deeply as he did and know he was speaking the truth. "Never."

Janelle looked down at her feet. "You might not always be with me, and I willnotlet myself get hurt—" she cut off abruptly.

Erik had the sinking, gut-wrenching suspicion that she had been about to say the word "again," and a fire exploded inside his chest. "Let’s go train. Right now." Erik removed his weapons and jacket, stripping down to his undershirt and pants.

"Well, I didn’t mean we had to do it at this exact moment," Janelle said almost guiltily, softening her voice and looking away as if she felt like she was being a burden.

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