stretched his neck from side to side, giving himself another minute to recover.
Lena was right on the edge of his awareness, not touching him, but not backing away, ready to reach out if he fell again.
“That was good,” he finally said.
“Good? I almost knocked you out.” Her arms crossed and she was ready to argue. He didn’t yet know her well, but he could recognize that stance.
“You hit the target.” He couldn’t help but grin. “Try it again but draw less power this time. Just enough to feel it, not enough to send me to the floor.” He didn’t let any doubt into his voice. Lena had done exactly what she needed; she was so close to a breakthrough, and he wasn’t going to let a stupid thing like the limitations of his body stop them from moving forward.
“If you’re sure about that.” She only gave him three seconds to try and contradict her. He didn’t.
The pull came slower this time and he thought she had it. But the pull didn’t stop, and the longer it went, the more she took. Solan yanked his power back before she could shoot and took some of hers with it, his fingers lighting up with her spark’s power.
Lena whirled to face him and waved her arms. “What the hell, man? I was doing it.”
“You can’t take that much.” He couldn’t yell. He knew if he did, it would set her tumbling down whatever cliff she was standing on. His woman—no, his partner—wasn’t used to failure.
“Then you do it if it’s so easy. I can’t even tell how much I’m taking.” Her wings rustled, still so tightly bound up in her emotions that they gave everything away.
He wanted her to get this right. He needed them to get this right. But maybe if he showed her what she needed to do, she’d understand how she was going too far. And it would help Solan understand the process better. It wasn’t like he’d ever done this either.
Should he ask for help?
The thought taunted him, but he pushed it aside. They were fine. They would be fine. And in no time they’d be out in the field, defending the Synnrs from any Apsyn incursion. But they had to train hard and fast if they were going to be ready when the war came.
Solan focused, going deep into his spark and following it through the new pathways in his mind, into where it mixed with Lena and beyond. Her spark waited, glowing faintly, but bigger now than it had been when they’d first bonded. Her spark would take some time to mature. It was still only a few days old. But he looked forward to seeing what she would be able to do when the time came.
He reached for a wisp of her power, careful not to take too much. It should have been easy, but her power followed after him as he pulled the spark into the open and let it loose, incinerating the closest target. More power flowed into his hand like water out of an open faucet, and he couldn’t stop it. He heard Lena grunt and then felt a tug as she wrenched her spark away from him just as he’d done to her.
“Not so easy, is it?” she panted. Her hands were on her knees and she was bent over, chest heaving. Her brown skin had grown pale and she looked ready to fall over.
“One more time,” he said. He went as slowly as he could, as carefully as possible. And when he pulled her power this time, he made sure to take only a little and not let any extra flow. He hit the closest target. Barely.
“I’ve got an idea,” Lena said. Her color was coming back and her breathing had evened. “My turn.” That was all the warning he got before something tugged at his power. He stumbled, but before the loss could take him to his knees, the soothing balm of Lena’s spark bolstered him, giving him the energy he needed to stay upright.
She hit the three targets like it was nothing and then let go of his power. “Easy.”
He wasn’t about to be shown up. Solan reached for her spark and sent his own along with it, supplementing her power with his own. Then he hit all five targets in the room, starting with the one furthest away. He shot her a satisfied smile when he was done. “Easy.”
Lena narrowed her eyes and her spark crackled in the