Page 66 of Drawn in Blood
She laid the wisps back down on the floor in front of her and focused her energy back on the flame in the bowl, still barely flickering against the stones beneath it. As she focused, the flame intensified, growing brighter and brighter as her hand began to tremble. As it grew brighter, Ember could feel Killian and Fen’s eyes on her.
“How did you do that,” Fen whispered, eyes wide.
“I don’t know.” She shrugged. “It just happened.” She didn’t mention the wisps or the way it felt like their strange magic had melded with her own—strengthened it. Something about the way their light seemed to whisper told her this was their secret.
“Easy there, Starshine,” Killian whispered, placing his hand gently on her arm. “Don’t do more than you can control.”
Ember ignored him as the flame grew bigger fast, and before she knew it, it was billowing above her head, threatening to spill from the bowl and onto the marble floor. Odette laid a hand on her shoulder, trying to coax her out of whatever well she had fallen into, but she was falling too fast
Professor Eid shot up from the center of the room, racing to Ember and the flame that threatened to engulf the rest of the class. “That’s very good, Miss Lothbrok,” she said cautiously. “Now try to make it smaller. Power is easy to gain, but learning to control it is another thing entirely.”
Ember nodded, squinting her eyes in concentration as she willed the flame to grow smaller.
But it wouldn’t.
Ember’s heart raced as the flame grew higher, and she could feel sweat trickling down her forehead—more from the fear than the heat. The little wisps of light danced around the floor, floating through the air and wrapping themselves tightly around her wrist and hand like a glove, traveling up her arm to her shoulder. She felt her magic pulse stronger, running like molten lava through her veins. The flame didn’t falter, not until Fen and Killian grabbed both of her wrists, squeezing tightly, and Professor Eid sent water spraying into the basin in front of her.
Ember sank back into the pillow, closing her eyes tightly as whispers circulated around the room. Tears pricked the corner of her eyes as memories from her childhood hurtled back to her like a train, knocking her down and sucking the breath from her lungs.
“Did you see what she did? What a freak!”
“She’s so odd.”
“You can’t play with us. You’re far too weird.”
Fen squeezed her hand, bringing her back to the present, and gave her a comforting smile.
You are not alone this time.
“That was very good, Miss Lothbrok,” Professor Eid said gently. “Let’s just work on our control a little more.”
Ember gave a half smile with a nod, and the professor made her way around the room, pulling the students’ focus back to their own work. Ember stared down at her arms, the little blue wisps vanished, and her skin was left completely unblemished, like they had never existed.
Maybe they didn’t. Maybe I’m finally losing it.
Class ended shortly after, and Ember quickly threw her bag over her shoulder and made her way toward the double doors. She didn’t bother to look, but she knew Fen and Killian weren’t very far behind. She made her way to the cafe, throwing her bag on the ground beside her, and buried her head in her arms on the table. Killian set a cup of tea beside her and took his seat across the table without saying a word.
Fen was not so quiet.
“What the bloody hell was that?” he asked, as he sat down across from her, stuffing a biscuit in his mouth. “Are you some sort of Elemental Magic Mage now?”
Ember cut her eyes at Fen. “No,” she sneered, sighing as she ran a hand down her face. “I don’t know what happened. I just know I couldn’t make it stop. I haven’t felt my magic that out of control since I lived in Galway.” Ember felt her throat constrict as memories from her childhood came flooding back, memories she was sure she had buried deep enough that they would never resurface.
“How about a change of subject?” Killian asked, as he began rummaging around in his bag.
“Oh, I almost forgot!” Fen said, as he also began rummaging through his bag.
Ember cocked a brow as she watched both the boys pull small boxes out of their backpacks, both wrapped in some form of green wrapping paper—her favorite color.
“We missed your birthday—our birthday—with all the madness going on,” Fen said, as he slid the box across the table. “Felt like now was as good a time as ever to go ahead and give you your present. It’s from Mum and Dad and Maeve too.”
“Fen, you didn’t have to do that,” she replied with a grin, reaching down to dig in her own bag, “but I brought yours too.” She smiled as she pushed it toward him, taking his gift in her hands and shaking it lightly.
“Go ahead.” Killian smiled. “Don’t make the poor lad wait any longer, or he might crawl out of his skin.”
Ember laughed as she gingerly started to pull back the wrapping paper, exposing a light brown box. She pulled the lid off, pulling out a few pieces of paper inside, and her eyes went wide.
“Fenrir James,” she whispered, “did you get me a phone?” It looked a lot like his. A glass touch screen with a camera on the front and back, and a picture of the three of them on the home screen. It was in a forest green case with a little fox running to and fro on the back.
