suggested.
“Dessert before dinner? I will never say no to that, especially when I skipped lunch.” We’d been so busy that I hadn’t even realized it was nearing four in the afternoon, but it had been a good day. A day that made me feel a hell of a lot better about being thrown into this insane world. I had thought I was prepared for it, but not even close.
When we arrived back at the house, Ryland was just leaving, and I froze in place as soon as I appeared in the yard.
Jordan nudged me, then whispered, “You have to act the same. He can’t know I told you.”
That was going to be harder than I realized, because I immediately felt sympathy for him instead of irritation.
He nodded to Jordan. “Did you finish her training for the day?”
“Yep. She’s proficient in orb creation now. What time are we beginning tomorrow?” she asked.
“Good. Let’s see if she can keep from almost killing anyone again. Let’s start tomorrow around seven. There’s no reason to be there before sunrise.”
I knew that last bit was a stab at me and tried not to let it piss me off, but I failed. “Can the two of you stop speaking as if I’m not standing right here?” I snapped.
Ryland glanced me over, then turned back to Jordan. “Don’t be late.”
Trying to be the bigger person, I held my tongue as he disappeared. I really wanted the animosity between us to go away. Hopefully tomorrow would be a better day.
Chapter Thirteen
The following day was utter hell. Jordan was no longer my best friend. Stryx was going to be de-feathered then cooked for dinner, and Ryland… He was going to be gutted just before I tossed him over a cliff. The only person I didn’t personally want to kill was Oliver, but it was still early, so anything was possible.
“Kali, quit being afraid of the magic. You’re only hindering yourself and making me late for lunch,” Jordan complained.
Yeah, easy for her to say. She hadn’t been knocked on her ass like I had more times than I cared to admit and laughed at when I blew up one of the boulders instead of just chipping it with the least amount of power.
Apparently, before I could move on, I had to learn control of the storm raging within me, but when Stryx lifted the block even a quarter of the way, I screwed up every time. I’d had all this confidence going into the morning. I was going to do better and prove I was capable of handling things, but that strength was slowly ripped away as I continued to fail at what was asked of me.
On top of not being able to control the endless well inside me, everything hurt. The magic burned my insides and made it hard to breathe when I tried to wield any sort of control over it. Part of me wondered if I wasn’t already dark and these were the consequences of it. Maybe no matter what we did or how they tried to prepare me, the ending for me wasn’t going to be all sunshine and roses.
Stryx flew into the back of my head and smacked me with his wing before landing on the table beside me. “Kaliah Grace, I don’t want to hear another word about going dark. This is all in your head, and you need to move past your fears. I will not let anything happen to you. Not during training or when we go to the Otherworld. You need to believe you’re safe; otherwise, this will be a waste of time for all of us.”
“You don’t understand. I can’t control it!” I screamed in his face as my frustration hit a new high.
“Yes, you can. You are more than you believe, and I’m going to prove it. It’s time to sink or swim, young one.”
With those final words, Stryx snapped his beak and began to flap his wings, but instead of flying away, he hovered above the table while wind slapped me in the face.
Glancing back at the others, they all stared wide-eyed, likely just as surprised as me at Stryx’s actions. Though, none of them intervened. Then, the burning sensation within me turned into a scorching one, and panic raced through me more than ever before.
“Stryx, you have to stop. Whatever you’re doing isn’t working!” I yelled above the roaring of the wind coming from him.
He ignored me, even as I fell to the ground and a glow