Page 54 of Lahaina Noon

The rest of the afternoon passed in a quiet blur of phone calls with the police, her homeowner’s insurance, and various friends reassuring them that she was okay. Brian’s parents were glad to hear they were unharmed, but not necessarily thrilled that she was going to be living with her new boyfriend. She wasn’t terribly worried about them, they’d notbeen very accepting of Jack when he’d come out in their college years, and she hadn’t forgiven them the hurt they’d caused him.

That evening, as they lay in each other’s arms, Bridget asked Vaughn to start training her on how to use her magic appropriately. “Yesterday the Shadow’s attacked and I almost fried my brain. Today they tried to kill me once more. I need to be able to defend myself, without doing their job for them.”

Vaughn hated that she needed to learn defense, but promised he’d have Siobhan over the next day to start teaching her as well.

Bridget found out the hard way that Siobhan was quite an unsympathetic task master. She drilled Bridget over and over again in simple spells, controlling her draw on magic, and holding a flame steady. Although Bridget could perform basic glamour type magic that all Wielders could do, she was unable to control any of the usual elements that other Wielders managed.

“I don’t get it. What kind of Wielder are you? You’re not any usual color and you aren’t black like Vaughn. If you were, your powers would just be controlling raw power. You have something specific, but I can’t figure it out. Hang on.” The prickly woman pulled out her phone and her fingers flew across the screen as she tapped out a message. “Okay, Killian is going to join us. He might be able to figure this out. Now, back to training!”

“Yes ma’am!” Bridget replied wearily. The magic itself wasn’t difficult to perform, but channeling power from the Earth and from Vaughn were two completely different skill sets and much harder than she could have imagined.

After another half hour, the quiet silver-haired man slipped into the gym where they were practicing and leaned against the wall. He’d been there for at least ten minutes before either of the women noticed him.

“Dammit Killian, I hate it when you do that!” Siobhan complained. “Why can’t you just walk into a room and announce yourself like a normal person?” Her tone indicated she didn’t expect an answer, and he didn’t give one.

Bridget studied him as he studied her, circling her like an appraiser evaluating a fine piece of art. “Well?” she arched her eyebrow at him.

He nodded, and pushed his hair back behind his ear so she could see his whole face. “Light,” he said simply, as if that explained the entire mystery.

She noticed he had very full soft lips with a cute little ring piercing the lower one. “Light what?” She was distracted by the way the light winked from the small ring and twinkled in his warm hazel eyes. He had an Irish lilt to his voice. Vaughn had told her that Killian had been born and raised in Ireland but had moved to the United States decades before to work with him. He was Vaughn’s oldest friend. He’d always been quiet, but when he did speak, he was blunt and to the point.

He sighed now. “Light magic. It’s what you have. You’re a Light Wielder. You have energy and light powers. You keep getting shocked because your power is responding to the Shadows around you. You can push or draw energy. From what Vaughn said about your outburst the other day, you pushed out a massive wave of energy after you pulled it from him. Like an EMP wave. Pretty impressive actually.” He was grinning.

Bridget rolled her eyes. “So, I can shock myself and knock out car batteries. How is that going to help?”

“That’s what we have to figure out isn’t it. Shock me,” he said matter-of-fact in his quiet voice.

“How?”

He shrugged. “Think of the Shadows and what they did to your house. Then when you feel it building, let it loose instead of holding it in.”

Bridget concentrated on how it had felt when the shadows surrounded the car and when she learned about her house. She felt anger building, and her skin started to tingle. The hairs on her arms and back of her neck rose, and the air around her became charged. She lifted her hands and watched the small blue arcs dancing from finger to finger, fascinated that it simply tickled.

She was about to touch Killian’s arm when Liam walked into the gym, making her jump. The arcs flew from her fingers and lanced through the air towards the green dragon.

He didn’t react in time and the jolt smacked him square in the chest. He fell backwards, landing on his bottom, a stunned expression on his face. “Um, ow,” he managed to squeak out.

Siobhan was laughing so hard she almost fell onto the floor with her brother. Tears were falling from her eyes as Liam glowered at her while he rubbed his chest.

“Oh my god Liam, I’m so sorry!” Bridget ran to him and held out her hands as if to assist him.

He scooted rapidly backwards to the wall, holding out his own hands to ward her off. “I’m good! I’m fine. Please don’t help me.”

A warm, rich chuckle that turned into a full laugh filled the room as they all turned to Killian in surprise.

Bridget started to laugh with him and soon they were all on the floor wiping tears away.

Vaughn walked into the room a few minutes later and shook his head slowly at the group there. As he turned to walk out, Bridget sent another spark across the room, striking him right on the butt. His shocked facial expression when he whirled around had them all dissolving into giggles again.

Chapter 30

It had been severaldays since the attacks on Bridget and the Shadow Claw showed no signs of slowing down. Attacks on other dragons and wielding families were escalating. Vaughn had called a meeting at the Cloud Warrior offices so they could use the education center, they needed space, and there wasn’t enough room at Vaughn’s home. Bridget, Jorrie, and Jack sat along the back wall, talking softly while the room filled with dragons and wielders. Many of them Bridget had never met. She saw a few familiar faces and they greeted her with a friendly nod.

Vaughn finally strode in, followed by Marco, Killian, and Liam. Vaughn took his place at the front of the room with Liam and Killian. Marco sat in the front row next to Siobhan. He took her hand in his and she gave him a smile.

Bridget wondered if the two were serious. She laughed to herself, being in love apparently made her want to fix everyone up. She was glad the girl had someone that tolerated her prickly nature.

Vaughn tapped the lectern at the front of the room to get everyone’s attention. There was an excited buzz in the room, and she noticedmany heads turning to stare at her. Vaughn tapped again, and the conversations continued to build in volume.

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