First Magic - Raven Steele (read along books txt) 📗
- Author: Raven Steele
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Book online «First Magic - Raven Steele (read along books txt) 📗». Author Raven Steele
For several minutes, I used my hands to tighten the light into a hard ball. I found if I didn’t do this, the moment the ball crashed into anything it would dissipate like fog. The night before, I’d gotten it to ricochet off the walls in my room like a pinball machine. It was sort of fun, but still nothing that would frighten, let alone hurt, an attacker.
With the ball finally tight enough to manipulate, I raised it up and let it hover in the air. What could I do to make it fearsome? I thought about stretching it and using it like a whip again, but since that night, I hadn’t been able to duplicate the same results. After ten minutes of me doing nothing, the ball dissipated. Frustrated, I started over.
I concentrated again and lifted a newly formed Light-ball into the air. Instead of focusing on how to use it as a weapon, I let my thoughts wander to the dark shadows of my mind. It was a place I normally didn’t dwell in, but tonight I lingered within the anger I’d kept hidden for so long. I let my desire to hurt and mangle the Vyken fill my whole being until every nerve ending hummed with violence. It was the cruelest I’d ever felt in my life.
Before I realized what I was doing, the Light-ball flew from my hands and crashed into the wall opposite me. I gasped and moved to examine it, but before I could, Christian flung open my door and snapped on the light.
“What’s wrong? What happened?” He looked shockingly alert, like a hunting tiger.
“Congratulations,” I blurted. “You win the lightest sleeper award.”
“Huh?”
“I just tripped, very quietly I might add.” Christian stared at me with a blank look so I continued. “I was on my way to the bathroom, but I tripped on that shoe.” I pointed to a turned over shoe near my bed.
Christian picked it up and examined it.
“It’s not going to tell you anything, Christian. Shoes are funny like that. Can I get by you?” I actually did need to use the bathroom now.
"Um, sure.”
I did my business and returned to the room.
“Can I go back to bed now?” I asked and mentally turned off the light when Christian drew closer to the hole in the wall.
“You sure everything’s okay?” he asked.
“Daisies and bunnies.” I climbed into bed.
He waited a second before he said, “If you need anything, you know where I am.”
I faked a yawn and mumbled, “Uh-huh.”
I waited ten minutes before I dared slide out of bed again. I recreated a Light-ball, but this time it was purely for vision sake. I held it up to the hole in the wall. The dry wall was caved in where the ball had struck. I stuck my finger into the depression. It didn’t go in as far as I would’ve liked, but at least it did damage. I was finally on to something.
It was a cold, wet morning. An unexpected spring storm had rolled in overnight, drenching everything. With it came warmer temperatures. I stared outside and watched the rain slowly disintegrate a pile of plowed snow in the school parking lot.
“Llona? Earth to Llona.”
I glanced over, blank-faced. The English teacher was staring down at me. Several students snickered.
Her thin lips twisted open. “When you are done daydreaming could you please go to the office?” She waved a yellow slip in her hand.
“Right. Sure.” I quickly stuffed my book into my backpack and stood. I kept my head down as I made my way out of the classroom.
As soon as I was free from my teacher’s stare, I picked up my pace. I’d never been called to the office before and it made me nervous. But my nervousness quickly changed to anxiety when the secretary behind the desk told me my uncle was waiting for me outside.
Jake should be at work. Why would he be here? I wrapped my arms around my light jacket and stepped into the rain. I was glad I’d decided to wear a beanie to school today. The rain was coming down even harder.
I glanced around for Jake’s car. Nothing. I was about to walk through the parking lot to see if I could find him when Christian’s black truck pulled up. He rolled down his window. “Hop in.”
“What are you doing?”
“Skipping school and taking you with me.”
My eyebrows lifted. “So there is no Jake?”
“Nope.”
“What did you have in mind?”
“Get in and I’ll tell you.”
My heart leapt, thinking maybe we were going on date. I’d loved spending so much time with him lately, but very little had progressed in the romantic department. He cared too much about the rules, something I didn’t care about.
After I had slid into the passenger seat and closed the door, he said, “I think you’re ready for our next training exercise."
“Can’t it wait till school is over?”
“Nope.”
“How come?”
“You’ll see. Be patient.”
“Yes, Master.”
Christian turned toward his house and drove up the hill. “There are clothes for you in the back.”
“Can’t I change at your house?”
“We’re not going to my house.”
“Then where are we going?”
“We’re training outside today.”
I glanced out the rain-streaked window. “In this weather?”
Christian motioned his head toward the back of the truck. “Hurry and get changed. I don’t want to waste any time. And you can’t wear your beanie.” He turned up the radio before I could protest.
I sighed and climbed in the backseat, deliberately bumping the rearview mirror toward the ceiling.
“I wasn’t going to peek,” he said over the loud music.
“Yeah right, pervert,” I joked. I couldn’t see his expression to tell if he knew I was kidding or not. Sometimes he took me way too seriously.
Just when I finished changing, Christian turned onto a dirt road and into a canyon. It was not one I recognized. “I’ve never been here before.”
“It’s not that popular.” He shut the car off in the middle of the road. “Now as soon as we get out, I’m going to move fast, and I want you to keep up. It’s going to be cold and because of the rain you won’t have much footing.”
I peered out the window and up to the dark, cloudy sky. “Not to be a party-pooper or anything, but the moon just barely came out last night. I don’t think I have the energy for this.” Fighting was one thing but even thinking about a hard run made me tired.
“It doesn’t matter what cycle the moon is in. You still have Light in you regardless of what time of the month it is. You just have to learn to access it.”
“Easier said than done.”
He grabbed me by the arms and bore his gaze into mine. “Llona, you are the most competitive person I’ve met. Do you really want me to waste you?”
He knew me too well.
“I didn’t say you would waste me,” I back-peddled. “I just said it would be harder than usual.”
That was the understatement of the year, but I wasn’t about to tell him that.
“Just follow me and concentrate. Ignore all outside stimuli. Sometimes it helps me if I play a song in my head.” He placed his hand on the door handle. “You think you can keep up?”
I wanted to adamantly say no, but instead I said, “Bring it on!”
He bolted out the door. I moved to join him but fell as my foot slipped on wet mud. I looked up just in time to see Christian disappear into the woods. I groaned and stood up. Here goes nothing.
I took off after him, slowly at first. I could barely see him in front of me, sprinting up a steep trail. The cold wasn’t as distracting as I thought it’d be, but the rain was horrible. It drenched my hair in a matter of seconds, and I kept getting distracted from having to wipe it out of my face. Only when I started humming the same song that had been playing in the car earlier, did I start to focus.
Once I eliminated the cold and the rain as a distraction, I concentrated on finding the dormant Light inside me, which proved to be very difficult while sprinting. I was running fast but not nearly fast enough to keep up with Christian. Already I couldn’t see him anymore.
“Not on my watch,” I whispered to
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