Midnight Truth (Shifter Island #4) - Leia Stone Page 0,14

you asshat! I wanted to scream.

I looked at Reyna and rolled my eyes. She rewarded me by sucking her lips into her mouth to stop herself from laughing.

I squared off against Kian and folded my arms. “Shall we do this? Or should I go and get my grandfather and tell him you’re refusing to test me?”

He narrowed his eyes at me and growled. “This way.”

Kian merely waved for me to follow him through the gate and into his courtyard. “Your first initiation course is with me.” He pointed at a stone table with a small bench on either side. The top was empty except for one empty drinking glass. To the left, a fountain chortled and bubbled, but instead of being crystal clear, the water appeared brackish and dark with algae. “Please sit. We’ll assess your water knowledge first, and then you’ll proceed to the other elements.” His gaze flicked up to Reyna. “Would you like to stay? Take a seat.”

She pinned him with a glare. “Nice try. You know that’s not allowed. She’ll do this on her own.” She then looked to me, and I nodded nervously. This place looked benign enough, but what if Kian decided to strangle me with a garden hose?

I took a deep breath and shrugged. “Let my grandfather know I’ve made it safely to High Mage Kian’s grounds to start the initiation.”

Reyna let her gaze scan the grounds before returning to me. Then she winked. “I’m sure he’ll keep an eye on you. He does love to spirit walk.”

I turned to Kian just in time to catch his pinched expression before he smoothed it out.

“There’s no need for Geoff to spirit walk. Each obstacle is magically recorded.” He waved at the sky where an iridescent orb floated. “All the masters can watch your progress at their convenience,” Kian said as he led me to the table. He then took the seat nearest the fountain.

As I walked to the other side of his garden bistro table, I tried to not think about the weird drone orb recording us. Maybe that was a good thing, right? Like, if he tried to kill me, all of the high mages, including Gramps, would know it.

“Tell me, mage heir,” he said, clasping his hands on the table. “Have you had any training with water at that alpha school?”

I decided to treat him like a normal professor and not someone who had tried to kill me. If I was going to make it here, I needed to be fake nice to everyone, at least, for now. Politics, right?

“Yes, sir.” I gave him a sugary smile.

“You know, I’m curious: how were you able to exhibit so much power at the capture the flag final on Alpha Island?” He leaned forward, pressing into my personal space. “Do tell?”

My guard went up. Maybe that power wasn’t something I was supposed to have.

“That’s the weirdest thing,” I said, giving him a wide-eyed fake smile. “I have amnesia about that night. Maybe all the stress? Or maybe I fell and hit my head.” I shrugged. “What power do you mean?”

His expression morphed into a visage of anger.

Did I trust him? Not even 0.1%.

He gritted his teeth and gestured to the empty glass on the table.

“Fill it. This is your test.”

What the mage?

“That’s it?” I asked, letting the mass of power within me relax. I teased out my powers, thinking of cool spring water, blue, buoyant, and soothing. “You just want me to fill the glass with water? No tricks?”

“No tricks,” he said, pointing to the fountain behind him. “Just pull enough water from there to fill the glass—” he waved, and a stream of the brackish water curled through the air and poured into the glass, stopping an inch below the rim—“like that.”

I watched as most of the green and brown sediment settled to the bottom, but the water remained silty and cloudy.

Kian grabbed the glass and emptied it onto the ground, and the liquid seeped into the dirt at my feet. Then he sat the empty glass before me on the table.

Okay, here goes nothing. My gaze flicked to the orb floating above me, and I wondered if Gramps was watching.

After a deep breath, I relaxed and teased out bits of magic from the dense sensation of power within me: loamy earth, refreshing water, and crisp, cool air. Then I reached out with my water power, funneling it toward the fountain where a colorful, iridescent, magical netting seemed to overlay the entire surface of