Synnr's Hope - Kate Rudolph Page 0,29

sucked in a deep breath. “We’ll need to add wing etiquette to the training as well. That is a very...” he had to clear his throat to get around the gravel that made him husky, “intimate gesture.”

Lena snapped her wings back, and they would have made a sound if they were more than just magical electricity. “I’m sorry.”

“You didn’t know.” He put a little space between them and lifted her arm. “You’ve called your spark to the surface. That’s a good first step. Eventually you won’t need to, but we’ll get there. What you need to do now is concentrate it before you aim. See how you have all these separate strands? You want to consolidate those into one strike.” He traced his fingers through the power, nudging it all towards the center of her palm.

“Does it sting?” She wasn’t sure exactly how this was supposed to work, but it looked like he was playing with live electricity. That couldn’t be safe.

He looked up from her palm and she couldn’t read the look on his face. Or maybe she just didn’t want to. “We’re bonded,” he said. “Your power recognizes me, just as mine recognizes you. We can’t harm each other, no matter how hard we try.”

“Handy.” With his fingers still swirling in her power, Lena tried to do as he said, concentrating all the filaments and strands into one. Her palm grew warm, and though she hadn’t consolidated everything, she’d certainly made progress. “Let me try again.”

Solan dropped her hand and she did.

This time she hit the target. It didn’t go up in flames, but there was a definite scorch mark.

“Yes!” Lena shot her hands in the air and did a happy dance. She didn’t realize her power was still active until Solan jerked her hand down, eyes frantic.

“Don’t bring the ceiling down on us!” His wings had flared out around them, bigger than seemed possible.

Lena wanted to run her fingers through them, but that was apparently a no-no. She clenched her hands into fists and kept them pointed towards the floor. “Just like a firearm. Got it. Won’t do it again.”

Solan retracted his wings and Lena concentrated her power once more. She didn’t think she could hit anything but the closest target, so she aimed for that again. And again. And again.

She lost count of how many times she tried. Her arms ached and sweat poured down her face, but she wasn’t going to give up. Solan didn’t try to stop her, though he did offer her a small glass of water after a while. She drank gratefully and returned to her task.

And on the hundredth or thousandth try the paper target went up in flames.

She would have jumped for joy if she had the energy. Solan nodded, but offered no more congratulations.

She was ready to turn to the next target when a buzzer beeped.

“Braz,” said Solan. “That’s our time. I only reserved the room for five hours. We’ll come back tomorrow.”

“We’ve been here for five hours?” An hour on Aorsa was roughly as long as an hour on Earth, but Lena had completely lost track of time.

“Yes,” he confirmed. “I need to go over our training plan to adjust some things. Same time tomorrow.” He gave no other farewell before leaving Lena there.

She looked at the charred paper target and tried to conjure up a sense of accomplishment. Instead she could only focus on what they hadn’t done. She’d only hit one target, not three. And they hadn’t even tried to use their powers together.

She’d thought this training thing would be easy. Now she was beginning to fear they’d be stuck here for a long time.

SOLAN DIDN’T WANT TO be frustrated with Lena. By most standards she’d performed well and come far in a handful of days. But he was being stifled. Until she was field ready, he wouldn’t be able to go on any missions. Their powers were tied together, and unless they were together, or their bond was broken, his power would never completely be his own. And since he didn’t want Lena to die so the bond could break, that meant training her.

Perhaps it had been unrealistic to expect her to take to the training as quickly as a Zulir military recruit. Her own frustrations were making things even more difficult. From the dark circles under her eyes, he was almost certain she was staying up late to continue training, running herself to the point of exhaustion to try and get the control she