Page 33 of Cloak of Night
“Embrace your identity, and show us who you really are.”
Daemon sighed. Typical Liga, trying to be helpful but coming out nonsensically cryptic instead.
“Wolf, you did it the other day,” Fairy said.
“By accident. I’m terrible at magic—taigaanddemigod.”
“I have faith in you,” Fairy said.
“That’s it precisely,” Liga said. “Wolf, you haven’t been able to shift forms at will because you haven’t believed in yourself.”
Daemon grumbled. “To be fair, I haven’t known I was a demigod for that long.”
“A valid point,” Liga said, pacing like one of the Society teachers would in front of a classroom. “But from what I’ve gathered, you’ve not believed in yourself for much longer than that. It’s time you accepted who you are and everything you can do.”
“Maybe that’s the problem. I don’tknowwhat I can do.”
Liga nodded thoughtfully. “Let me show you.” He leaped into the air and hovered there, as if a current kept him buoyed. “All demigods can fly, as well as conjure small things.” He snapped his fingers, and the sound of lutes filled the chestnut grove.
“We are stronger, faster, and more agile than taigas and ryuu could ever dream of.” Liga zipped through the trees in a blur, so quickly that Daemon swore he could still see the silhouette of an alligator between the branches even after Liga had already returned to where he started. “We’re not immortal, but we can heal ourselves if given the chance.” He sliced his skin with a talon. Fairy gasped, but his flesh melded itself together before their eyes.
“On top of that,” Liga continued, landing on the forest floor, “all of Vespre’s children have powers related to the stars or night sky. Some, like me, can dim light.” He looked up at the sky, and it shifted from bright morning sun to the purpled gray of dusk and back again to daylight. “Others can ride electricity like comets. And you—when you were still a constellation in Celestae—were able to manipulategravitational pull, as stars and black holes do.”
“I could do what?” Daemon’s eyes widened in disbelief.
“You could play with gravity.”
Daemon’s jaw dropped. “I can’t believe I had all of that once, and I gave it up.”
Liga smiled. “You can still have it. You just have to try. Starting with the basics.”
Just try. Daemon took a deep breath, shook out his limbs, and prepared to shift.
“I am an electric wolf,” he said.
Nope. He was a boy.
“I am an electric wolf.”
Still a boy.
“Say it with more feeling,” Liga said.
“I am an electric wolf!” Daemon shouted.
Nothing, gods dammit!
Fairy wrinkled her nose.
“What?” Daemon said, a little more harshly than he meant to.
“Nothing.”
“Sorry, I’m frustrated.” He took a deep breath. “Do you have a suggestion?” he asked slowly so that he didn’t snarl the question.
“It’s just that...” She waved a fern frond in the air as she figured out the best way to say it. “I don’t think yelling equates with believing in yourself. It might actually be the opposite.”
Daemon kicked a tree, and chestnuts rained down on him. “Ugh! I’ll never be able to do this.”
