knees. She settled her head on his shoulder and gazed at his profile rather than the world around her.
When they had been flying for some time and he was looking tired, she dragged her eyes away from him and took in their surroundings, trying to find a suitable place for him to land for a moment. She spotted an area that was all black sand and dark shrubs.
“Fly there.” She pointed to the desert-like patch of land.
He didn’t question her, simply banked left and swooped lower, seemed to pick up speed as they descended. When he reached the rolling black dunes, he lowered his feet and landed without so much as a bump. Again, she wondered what it would be like to have wings. She imagined he’d had to master them, learning to control them, just as she needed to master her power.
“I travelled through an area like this once.” She pushed from his arms and landed on the sand. It was warm beneath her bare feet. Her gaze darted over the rippled surface. “There were beetles with incredible blue shells.”
“You want to collect some beetles?” He arched an eyebrow at her.
“No. I want to test my powers on them.” She spied one a short distance away and ran to it, cornering it before it could scuttle under a bush.
Calindria crouched and drew down a breath, focused on her power, unsure how to actually do that but unwilling to admit it. When she reached out and touched the beetle, it instantly charred and turned to ash.
Pain bloomed inside her, guilt chasing on its heels.
She didn’t dare look at Thanatos. He would probably laugh at her for feeling bad about killing something so small, but all life was life. It was all important. Her mother had told her that. Everything in this world was an important part of it, and all life should be valued.
Thanatos presented her with another glossy blue beetle, the size of his palm. He set it down before her and this time she covered her hand with her tunic and touched it. Nothing happened to it. It merrily moved around in the sand, leaving little tracks behind it.
She looked at her hands. So covering them did work. But that didn’t mean she could go around as she pleased as long as she wore gloves. What if someone touched another part of her? She felt terrible as she leaned over and pressed her cheek to the beetle, drew back and stared at it as she held her breath, waiting to see what would happen.
It scuttled towards Thanatos, completely unharmed.
He caught it and placed it back in front of her and she tried again, just in case it had been a fluke. She touched it with her cheek, and then with her shoulder, and even with her foot. It survived every time.
“It has to be skin contact with my hands?” She cast Thanatos a hopeful look.
He shrugged and picked the beetle up. “It does appear so, and in many ways, it would make sense. I cannot make fire with any other part of my body. My hands are the tool, the pathway for that power. If I were to say… stare at a log and will it to burst into flame, it would not. If I held my hand out to it and willed it, it would.”
So her hands were the only route her power could take to reach another? If that were true, then it was a blessed relief. It meant she could wear thick leather gloves around others and her fear of hurting them would be gone. She wasn’t going to just accept it as fact though, not without further testing.
The beetle seemed to sense her desire to continue experimenting as Thanatos set it down before her. It burrowed into the black sand, disappearing from view. She let it go. She had put its life at risk enough times, would find something else to experiment on.
As soon as she stood, Thanatos stepped up to her and stooped, scooped her up into his arms again and spread his wings.
“It is not far now.” He kicked off, beating his wings, carrying them back into the air. “Perhaps when this is over, you could test your powers on… You could test them on something in your family’s palace. I am sure your family would be able to supply you with living things.”
Her heart ached for Thanatos as he refused to look at her, as he flew harder, his handsome face