Page 41 of Cursed By the Veil

A while later Volker returned and I said, "If you're okay with it, I think I'd like you to try." For a moment he was confused. He'd forgotten what the two of us had been talking about while he was helping Wyn. It wasn't surprising. "Checking to see if my magic is blocked?"

"Oh! Yes!" It all came rushing back to him by the look of it. He turned to stand in front of me and held his hands up. "Just stay in front of me in this general area and I'll take care of the rest."

Easy enough. I had nowhere to go anyway. The air surged with magic and I heard the same music I'd heard before at the veil and again when I was standing in front of the moon blades.Not yet, child. My magic is too much for him to handle.The woman's voice sounded in my head, startling me.

I hadn't realized that my eyes had closed until Volker patted my shoulder lightly. "All done. I can't find anything wrong, but I can't sense any active magic in you. It's like it's all passive."

Active? Passive? "What does that mean?"

"Passive magic is something like a permanent boost to your health or stamina. Active magic is more like a glamour, or what I just did. It's an incantation or spell that has to be put into action for it to work. Some incantations once cast cannot be undone and those are considered passive as well." Volker explained, though a lot of it still sounded like something out of a fairy tale to me.

"I already warned you that Senara wasn't magically inclined," Wyn's voice came from just behind Volker. Her tone was teasing, but her words stung slightly.

"That doesn't mean I don't want to learn," I replied quietly.

Volker looked at me with an expression I didn't understand before he diverted his attention to Wyn. "Are you ready to try?"

She gave him a firm nod. "As I'll ever be."

I watched as Wyn stepped into the magic circle. Her red hair seemed to lift at the ends like there was wind coming from somewhere though I couldn't feel any. "Remember your pronunciation," Volker said sternly.

"Yes, sir," she said before giving him a saucy wink.

I glanced at the fae and saw a faint blush staining his cheeks, so that's how it was? Well, I couldn't blame him. There was something captivating about Wyn, even more so now that she was able to full embrace her magic.

A needle of jealousy stabbed through me. I didn't have much going for me right now, but Wyn seemed to be conquering everything in her path. I was happy for her, truely, but I also wished that a few more things would go my way as well. Like maybe Thorn showing up for training. Or just treating me like a person. I'd even take some magic at this point, anything so I didn't feel completely useless, which was exactly how I'd been feeling ever since I failed to pick up the moon blades.

What good was I if I couldn't do the one thing I was supposed to be destined for?

Before I could dwell too much, Wyn started speaking in a language I didn't understand and making complicated hand gestures and symbols with her fingers, moving them in a way that looked almost painful. The longer she spoke the more her hair lifted until I realized it wasn't just her hair. Wyn was now floating a little ways above the magic circle that she had been standing in the center of.

My jaw dropped. I'd never seen anything like this before.

Wyn looked like she was made of pure magic. Blue...energy, for lack of a better word, rolled over her entire body andher chanting words took on an almost harmonic quality with multiple pitches of her voice seeming to sound at the same time.

Her body tensed, limbs splaying and her head was thrown back as she arched backward, looking like she was trying to become a circle herself. I glanced over at Volker and saw that his mouth was set in a grim line. Clearly this had been somewhat expected though he didn't seem happy about it. His lack of surprise was the only thing that was keeping my feet in place.

I wasn't sure how long we all stayed like that, Volker and I watching Wyn while her body hung in the air like a fish on a line. At least she wasn't flopping around like one, although in some ways that would have been more comforting than the stillness she was showing at that moment.

Eventually, her chanting stopped and she drifted down to the ground, collapsing in a heap as her body writhed, though it didn't seem like she was in pain. A ripping sound cracked through the air, the only sound aside from the thundering of my heartbeat in my own ears.

The sleeves of her dress parted and I saw black marks scrawling up her arms like writing. I glanced over at Volker who didn't seem bothered by what he was seeing, but as the fabric tore even more he looked away, moving to a table toward the back that had supplies of some kind sitting on it. To my surprise he picked up a blanket and shook it out, averting his gaze as he moved and laid it over Wyn's form.

"Thank you," she croaked.

I took an involuntary step forward before forcing myself to stop. The last thing I wanted to do was mess up what she was doing by bumbling into her magic circle, so I stayed where I was and watched.

After a few more moments Wyn sat up and shook herself lightly, reaching out and flexing her ink-black fingers like shewas stretching after a good night's sleep. "Did it work?" I asked quietly.

"No, all magic just makes my clothes tear." She stuck her tongue out at me. "Of course it did, silly. This is me we're talking about." There was that confidence again, the thing that she hadn't been able to have as much of in the human lands because she had to constantly deny part of herself.

Volker offered her a hand and helped her to her feet while she clutched the blanket against her chest. A yelp of surprise left her as her dress fell to the floor and she was left in nothing but the blanket.

"Please tell me you have something else to wear?" I asked.

Volker was already back to the table that had held the blanket though and though he seemed to be fascinated by the ceiling when he turned back around he held out a bundle of cloth that Wyn took and quickly shimmied over her head. Once the robe was covering her she turned to me and gave me a twirl, showing off her body. She was certainly taller, just bigger overall, in a good way. In fact, she was taller than I was now, though still shorter than Volker.

Her actual height and changes didn't matter, all that mattered was that she'd succeeded. If the grin that was on her face was anything to go by then she was over the moon about it. I couldn't suppress a twinge of worry when she announced, "Your turn."

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