Page 72 of Fated Exile

"I know."

Helplessly, I ask, "Are you telling me you and Niall are dating now?"

She shrugs, a sly smile sliding across her lips. "Maybe? It hasn't really turned into adateyet. He did seem more energetic this morning, though. And his stamina—"

"I really don't need to know."

"Got it!" She throws her hands up, biting her lower lip. In a sad voice, she asks me, "Are we okay, Lilah girl?"

I let loose a tense breath inside me, and nod sharply. "We're okay."

Then I find myself drawn across the space between us. Throwing my arms out, I gather her small frame against me. She winds her skinny arms around my waist and grabs me tight, fierce and strong as ever, a thundercloud in a five-foot-nearly-nothing body.

"I gotta go," I tell her, practically feeling Kerry's impatience float from up the stairs. "But let me know about that storage unit, okay? If it really was something my mother left behind..."

"Then you want it. I know, and I'll get right on it. I'm sure Manuel can head down there and ship anything over that he finds."

I try not to ask her what one of herotherflings thinks about the new one. I'm hardly the woman to judge, after all. So I stuff down the complex feelings I have about Cat's deception and her developing relationship with Niall, and focus on the task at hand instead.

Maybe magic will be easier to deal with than mothers.

Twenty-Eight

Delilah

The hemlock bough is light and thin in my hands as I run a knife back and forth over it, stripping the bark and any smaller branches that twine off it. Bit by bit I turn it into something flexible and white.

"Good, very good." Kerry adjusts herself, scooting closer to me and leaning over the bough. "Now, I want you to focus on your energy as you did before, with the energy exercise. Let it flow into your fingertips until you can feel your movements grow faster and faster, borrowing strength and energy from the next moment, then the next..."

I follow her words, letting her calm voice wash over me. The energy trick, which felt difficult and unintuitive the first time I tried it, comes more easily now that I know how to tap into the well of energy beyond my own.

This time I reach down towards the earth, grabbing for my connection to the pack territory, which has grown stronger since last night. Unlike Lance and the guys, the land is slow to respond, unhurried and long-lived as it is. But it has a ceaseless, endless well of strength to lend to me, which is good because the exercises so far have drained my own innate well.

Once I have the cool, calm energy of the land flowing through me, its taste like wet earth and pine sap on my tongue, I push it towards my fingertips. Running my hands up and down the flexible bough, I watch as my motions become faster and blurry to the eye. My breathing hitches, and I feel my eyesight sharpen. If I stood up now and stepped across the room, it would barely take a second for the movement to complete.

This is in my human form. Once I've mastered these magical tricks, I'll carry them over to my wolf form. The thought of her strength and energy combined with magic is almost too tantalizing to imagine—especially now that I know Delphine had her wolf stolen from her. Together, the wolf and I may be able to defeat her.

“Excellent work. That's the first step complete," Kerry murmurs, coaxing me along gently. "Now I want you topushthat energy out into the bough. Soak it with your strength and speed, until you feel wrung out and tired."

I don't want to; my instincts are telling me to use the energy for myself, to let it flow into my body, making me strong, agile, and quick. It's hard to resist those instincts. Pushing the energy out instead, draining it and sinking it into the bough, feels like swimming upstream. But Kerry's voice is hard to ignore, and the rational, non-instinctual side of me knows that this is important.

After several long moments, the energy fades out of me, and my body returns to moving at its own pace. Running my fingers across the bough, I flex it and canfeelthe strength that's settled into the stripped white wood. It's my strength, and I could pull it back into me with very little effort.

"Marvelous! You've learned how to focus and channel magic into an object quickly."

"Now what?" I ask Kerry. "You said the charm can be chewed for maximum effect, but this doesn't look chewable."

She chuckles, eyes bright. "That's because we're makingtencharms. You didn't think one would do the job, did you?"

I sigh. "Honestly, I was hoping that it would, but of course, you're right. I'm probably going to wind up in more than a few sticky situations, and will need this charm more than once."

"Good instinct. And it's always better to have more than one charm at your disposal. A witch never knows what she might get into." She motions towards the bough. "Now that you've laid your raw energy into the charm, you have to do it again, but this time, I want you to speak a rhyming spell that will focus the energy and harness it. Once you've spoken the rhyme, tap the bough in nine different places. It'll break apart into ten pieces, so try to make them about the same size."

"What's the rhyming spell?"

Kerry gives it to me, and I repeat it twice. Then I curl my toes, flexing them into the carpet beneath me, and reach for the land again.

It wakens sooner this time, anticipating my need, or perhaps still aware from last time. I draw on just a little energy for this round, sensing that the spell won't take much from me. The bough already quivers and trembles with strength beneath my fingertips; it'll only take a little focus and grit to make it bend towards its purpose.

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