Page 30 of Wicked Thieves
“Call your power.” When she raised her brows in question, he rolled his eyes. “Fine. Listen to your power. What is it saying? What does it want? Concentrate on listening to it for a change.”
Shaking her head, she closed her eyes and searched for it. That pulsing feeling that started from the cut all the way to her veins. A searching, sometimes searing, feeling that was at once overwhelming and exhilarating. Without her fear fueling her need to defend herself, it took some time to feel it the same way it had surged that day the Watchmen closed in on her. But it was there. It was always there. A flickering light deep in her core, growing brighter.
“Listen to what it wants,” she heard Adan say again from somewhere in the stable, sounding as if he’d stepped farther away. The shadows in her mind growing as she focused. Then she heard it. The sound of a heart beating, strong and steady like a drum. Saw the cool, bright lights falling around her like snowflakes before they formed into one single speck a few paces away from her.
“What do you feel now?”
“I hear your heart.”
Suddenly, the light faded. Flying away and disappearing behind her. Then a foot wrapped around her ankle, and she felt a hand land on the center of her back, sending her stumbling forward and losing her concentration. The light going out in a tendril of smoke.
“What are you doing?” she hissed. “I had it.”
“And you broke concentration. Quite easily, might I add,” Adan said, somehow managing to have come up behind her without making a sound. If not for her intent on hearing his heart, she wouldn’t have been able to tell if he’d left the room. And yet, she hadn’t sensed where in the room he’d been, even with his heart pounding in her ears. “Watchmen are trained to not only hunt us down but also how to fight us in numbers. They’ll do anything, pull any trick up their sleeves, if it means getting under your skin. Long enough for another one of them to get up close and slit your throat. Pay. Attention.”
“You know, I’m getting sick of the incessant patronizing. Teach me as Zara told you to, or let me leave so I can find someone better suited for the job.”
“There is no one better suited for the job.” He crossed his arms. All smug as he looked down his nose at her.
“I’m sure your brother would be just fine.”
He shrugged. “He could be, but he’s not here, is he? You’re stuck with me. Now, do it again, this time without breaking concentration.”
There was no telling how long they went at it that way. Her trying to sense his heart, finding that pulsing light that belonged to him alone, anticipating his movements. And him constantly tripping, pushing, and even tugging on her hair. At times they were the smallest ways to distract her. A mocking whisper or the annoying cracking of knuckles that grated on her ears. By the time he finally told her to stop, she was out of breath, as though she’d been running up a steep hill.
If he noticed, he hardly seemed to care as he asked her another series of questions. Taking his role as her teacher quite seriously, despite how often he loved to mock her.
“What is it you think anevit’spower consists of? What are their limitations?”
“They can control the use of one’s blood. Sense heartbeats. Stop them entirely.”
“What else?”
“There is nothing else. If there had been, my father would have told me. He knew all about the Vedrans and the extent of their powers,” she said through gritted teeth.
“Are you sure about that?”
“I’m sure.”
“You’re sure, yet when I told you to use your power on the Watchman, you looked at me like I was mad.What else?”Adan insisted, his hands tucked behind his back as he slowly walked around in the makeshift circle he’d made in the last hour or so of his pacing about. His boots brushing over the hay in a softhiss. His movements were slow yet not relaxed. If she attacked him, she had no doubt he’d be on her in a single blink of an eye.
“Anevit’spower is derived from life. Life is driven by the energy we produce within ourselves, it is consumed and rejuvenated with rest or basic necessities such as eating. You can take as much as you can give if you know how to use just enough energy. Aeric, for instance, can wield as much fire as he wants but not if a flame or spark don’t already exist. Either you make use of what is at your disposal, or you create it yourself. Slowing an opponent down isn’t the only way to protect yourself if you know how to use your power. Draw your blood again.”
She hesitated. Trusting others had never come easily to her, though she certainly wasn’t feeling too confident that Adan wouldn’t do something to hurt her if only toget her to draw out her power. Regardless, against her better judgment—which appeared to be waning as of late—she once again cut the pad of her finger.
“Slow my heart.”
“What?” she gasped.
Adan repeated, “Slow my heart. Everynevitknows how to. They can bring down men twice their size without killing them. Long enough for them to get away or go unnoticed. It’s a skill that should come as second nature to you. Go on then, do it. Prove to me you can.”
“No. I will not go anywhere near your heart. Not like that,” she asserted.
He tilted his head to one side, considering.
“If it’s a Watchman you’d like to try it on, I can bring one easily enough. Might have to kill him once you’re done, though.”
“I saidno.”Her voice sliced through the room like a hot blade.
