Page 26 of Elemental Hall: Nautica
I catch his arm. “Come on. I’m not saying I won’t help. What do you need?”
“I’m having trouble with the water transmutations, and no one else will work with me,” Darius says. “I figured that if anyone can show me the best way to do them, it’s probably you.”
I’m a little taken aback that he’s sought me out. Still, I recover quickly.
“Sure,” I say, gesturing to the vials. “How about this? I change a vial and you try to change it back. That way, you can see what I’m doing.”
Darius nods. He takes a seat on the sand near the vials. I sit opposite him, taking one in my hands.
“It’s all about fine control,” I say. “I think they’re challenging us with this to see how small a scale we can work on.”
“Or maybe just because they think that people will try to poison us later,” Darius suggests.
Would the elemental masters really think that? I know they’re training us in the expectation that many of us will go on to serve in the military, but even so, why would we be poisoned?
“You really think that?” I ask.
“Elementalists are powerful,” Darius says. “They become soldiers, but also explorers, diplomats. Powerful people, and powerful people attract enemies.”
I want to believe that no one will ever seek to poison me, but since Ash has already tried to kill me once, I’m not so naïve as to believe it could never happen. I shift the water slowly, changing it to a swirling mixture of red and yellow hues.
“Do you need me to explain how I did it?” I ask.
“It would be better to feel it,” Darius says. He picks up another vial, handing it to me. I start to shift it, but this time, Darius’s hands close over mine as I hold the vial, his touch warm, his hands curiously calloused. I start in surprise, but he holds me there.
“I’ll be able to feel what you do magically through the contact,” he says. “Please, Sera.”
I go along with it for now, shifting the composition of the water slowly. When I’m done, I feel Darius copying me, his power flowing through my hands into the vial. There’s a tingle of lightning along my skin as he does it. Apparently, nothing he does comes without a touch of the elemental forces he is strongest with.
The water clears, becoming simple water.
“You did it!” I exclaim, and I see him smile in triumph.
“Thanks to you.”
We’re so close in that moment, our hands touching, that it would be easy to get closer still. Easy to let myself be drawn forward to him, easy for this moment of joyous celebration to become more.
We both seem to realize that at the same time.
“Sera!”
It’s Orion’s voice. We both pull back at the same time, our hands jerking apart from one another as I look around to see him approaching.
“Darius and I were just practicing for the transmutation challenge,” I say.
“That’s why I came to find you too,” Orion explains. His eyes flick between us. Whenever they rest on Darius, they aren’t friendly. “The whole circle is having problems with it. I thought maybe you might be able to help.”
“Yes,” I say. “Yes, of course. Maybe Darius could join us? He’s working on the same thing.”
Orion hesitates and I’m sure he’s going to say no. He’s just looking for a way to do it without hurting my feelings.
Instead, Darius stands and steps back. “Thank you for the offer, Sera, but no. I will do the rest alone.”
His tone is colder and more formal than it has been, a sudden distance that wasn’t there before. Maybe it has something to do with the way Orion’s hand has come to rest on my shoulder,almost possessively. I want to shrug it off, but I also want to lean into that touch, into Orion’s presence.
Before I can make up my mind which, Darius is already gone, off along the beach.
Chapter FOURTEEN
