Page 22 of Shattered Illusion

“So, your fire rune is on your left shoulder. So go ahead and take off your hoodie and your necklace.” My hand flies to the necklace in question, tightly clutching it in my fist. He wants me to take it off. The one thing I have to keep myself protected. “Remember what I said, Bailey. No one can come in here if their names aren’t on the reservation. Or in our case, since Jasper and I will be working with you, we’ll always be granted access to any magical containment room you’re in. No one else, though. Just us.”

Hearing him say that makes me feel a little bit better, and my grip on the necklace loosens until, finally, I’m able to bringmyself to actually take it off. I may have only had it since last night, but I’ve already grown attached to the piece of jewelry.

My hoodie comes off next, revealing my tank top underneath. The situation is nowhere near as humiliating or distressing as it was when I was in Jasper’s office or when Thaddeus came to take pictures of my runes. But there’s still this innate sense that I don’t have enough clothes on in a locked room with a man—a decidedly handsome fae—who has a girlfriend.

After depositing my things near one of the walls, I stuff my hands in my pockets to await his next instruction. He stares at me with a strange intensity until he almost seems like he’s shaking himself out of it and strides across the room to stand in front of me.

“This here,” he traces the flame-like design on my shoulder, “is your fire rune. You’ll eventually be able to control how big of an impact you want to make with it, but for now, we’re going to start off small. A simple, single flame like I had shown you.” Nothing is ever simple when it comes to fire, but I keep that thought to myself. “Now, close your eyes, and I want you to look inside yourself for where your power lies. Its location is different for everyone, just like the look and feel of it.”

“What does yours look like?” I roll my lips between my teeth, kicking myself for asking. Someone else’s magic is really none of my business, but maybe if he tells me, it’ll make it easier to locate mine.

He graces me with that lopsided smile, making my heart swoon. Whoever his girlfriend is, she’s a lucky woman if he looks at her like that all the time. “It’s okay to ask, Bailey. I’d be worried if you didn’t. As someone who’s never experienced magic before, I doubt you have any idea what you’d be looking for.”

He’s right. I have no idea what I’m looking for. Would it be just a well of power? A bright, burning ball of flame? Or isit something completely different? All I know is when I felt it Friday in Axel’s office, it was erratic and zipping through my body like it couldn’t be contained.

“For me, it’s like a glowing block of ice deep in my stomach.” He slaps his hand onto his belly, the sound of him smacking his own flesh reverberating around the room. “And when I want to use it, it’s like chipping off a little piece of it—or a massive chunk, depending on what I’m doing. And that block always regenerates to its original size when I give myself time to recover my magic.”

I already know from his personal description that mine will be different, but hopefully, I’ll be able to locate it easily.

Blowing out a breath, I do as he said before and close my eyes, sinking into myself. It comes pretty naturally since I used to spend time meditating for good things to happen. Especially after the numerous denials when it came to getting a job. Instead of letting myself blow, I would hide away and meditate, and hope that the next one would be different. Not that it ever was.

It almost feels peaceful as I welcome falling into the blackest depths inside of me. Part of me would love to stay here forever, forgetting everything that happened over the past few days. But that’s not why I’m doing this. I’m supposed to be looking for my powers.

Well, shit. That’s not something I’d ever thought I’d hear myself say.

The first place I check is my stomach since that’s where Thaddeus’ is. But it’s blank. Empty. Not even a small lick of power to be seen.

If it’s not there, then where else can it be? There are only so many areas on a body where magic can hide. Expanding my mind further, I begin at the tips of my toes and slowly work my way up. But everything is empty.

Is there a chance they got it wrong? Maybe the power flowing through my veins Friday was residual from the lagoon. My bodymight have sucked some of it up along with the water and boom. The glowing was my body expelling the last of the magical waters.

When I reach my heart, a bright pop of pink sparks there, startling me out of my search.

“What’s wrong, Bailey?” Thaddeus is there right in front of me, his warm hands clasping my shoulders.

“I… I think I found it,” I ramble, staring wide-eyed back at Thaddeus.

“That’s a good thing, sunshine. So why do you look so shocked?”

“Cause I didn’t think I had any magic. Even with all this,” I wave my hand, encompassing all the changes I’ve been through, “I thought it was a fluke.”

“Nothing about you is a fluke, Bailey. You just need to believe in who you are more.” Easy for him to say. He knows who he is. He has hundreds of years of experience with his magic, whereas I just found out a few days ago. “Try again. Now that you know where it is, go back to that spot and see if you can grab a hold of just a bit of it and push it into your fire rune.” He takes a few steps back, just out of reach in case this goes haywire, so I don’t burn him to a crisp.

My eyes close and I sink back into myself, going straight to the spot that sparked pink. At first, there’s nothing. Almost like I imagined it. My frustration burns through my veins as I scour everywhere for it, and right as I’m about to give up, it sparks once more. Giving me somewhere to finally hone in on.

If I knew I could, I would shield my eyes from how bright it is as it comes more into focus. And as cliche as it sounds, it looks magical. Something I never expected in a million years to find inside of myself.

Like a writhing mass of electrical currents, the pink magic pulses almost with the beat of my heart. It zips around my bodyin its own version of a hello. Kind of like it’s excited that I’m finally acknowledging it.

My thoughts turn back to what Thaddeus instructed me to do, and with what feels like a ghostly appendage, I reach toward the pink mass, feeling it wrap around my fingers. Little shocks of pleasure zap wherever they touch, but every time I try to grab hold of it, it slips through like water.

Frustration gets the better of me, and with a roar that echoes in my ears, I flood all my will into the pink mass and demand it to do what I want. A painful electrical shock swamps my every limb, dropping me to my knees with a painful thud as my magic bursts into a sparkler worthy of a fireworks show.

“Fuck!” Thaddeus shouts, but it barely reaches my ears, sounding like he’s underwater. But that’s ridiculous. We’re in the containment room. How can he sound like that? “Shit, that’s hot. Okay, okay, Bailey. Open your eyes!”

At his command, my eyes pop open, but I can’t see anything past the pink flames licking across my vision. Sweat beads across my brow from the warmth heating my skin, but it doesn’t burn. Every which way I turn, the fire follows along like an obedient puppy following its master. In this case, I guess that’s true. I am its master.

Alarms blare, knocking me out of the trance the beautiful pink flames have put me in. Cold water rains down from overhead, dousing my magic until nothing is left behind but the steam curling from my body. Thaddeus lands to his knees before me, concern etched on his handsome features. His hands tenderly cup my face, and then he hisses, pulling away.

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