wild spark that came to life in me since the day Eliph came into my life. I need to become one with it, in a sense, to send it out of me and connect with my outer world as Eliph instructs.
I’m afraid of it because it is as wild and fickle as any horse, and just brings back my insecurities when dealing with the creatures.
“Eliph, I don’t think I can…” I say with worry. “It’s too big. Too aggressive. I don’t think I can control it.”
“Shh, of course you can,” he responds softly, a note of tenderness in his voice. “It is yours to direct and take into your keeping. It will answer to you because it knows you and is bonded to you. It knows you are worthy to trust. You can ride this magic. Trust me.”
My eyes skate up to meet his, and my breath gets lodged in my chest for a terrible moment before I’m able to exhale. It dawns on me that he’s comparing my fear of my lack of control over this magic with my fear of him and my fear of riding. I learn this control and I can finally set that fear behind me.
A shiver races through me, but I don’t drop my gaze from his.
Yes, I want this liberation. To not be afraid anymore so that I can embrace anything I want with both hands. It’s so clear to me right now.
“Okay, I’ll trust myself with it as I trust you,” I whisper, my eyes fluttering half-shut as his purple eyes shine with emotion.
I don’t pause to dwell on that, however. I slip into myself, toward that well of magic within me that took root there. That bright spark of magic deep within me coils and pulses. Now that I’ve settled my mind near it, it feels far vaster and more powerful than I realized. This isn’t a tiny gem of magic or a pebble of power thrown into me. This is a vast sea beyond my comprehension pooling within me and responding to my first tentative touch to it.
It rips through me like a current as it fills my consciousness, and I gasp from the blinding presence of it. I can’t see, breathe, or hear without that power present coiling through everything within and around me.
“Control it,” Eliph says, his voice piercing through the chaos, providing safe harbor.
I cling to it, to his presence as I shudder and struggle with the twisting coils of it.
“It is a part of you,” he reminds me, his voice hard, no longer the sweet male I knew just moments before but uncompromisingly powerful.
A part of me. It doesn’t feel that way as it snaps like a heavy coil of a serpent’s tail. The only way this would be a part of me is if it were like the blood pounding through my veins. I’ve never been on blood pressure medicine, though it’s probable I would be if that connection was accurate, but it’s the only one that comes to mind. It thumps through me, pulsing, beating hard as I direct everything to that imagery. I feel like my heart is about to explode with the pressure, and I gasp for breath when it finally slams through once more before settling into a hum in the background, filling my veins.
I let out a shaky breath and open my eyes wide at the sensation of allowing all that power to merge with me completely rather than rest coiled and caged inside of the deepest parts of me. I look around with that sense of wonder until I hear Eliph speak again, his voice drawing me, tantalizingly.
“Now with that power, feel the magic within the water. Connect with it. Join with it as a part of you.”
I close my eyes again, seeking once more that sensation of the water kissing my skin, slicking against the folds of my sex. I shiver with desire and want, need crawling under my skin when Eliph leans close and his hot breath fans against my neck.
“Good. Touch it, ask it to dance for you. Draw it up around you,” he whispers.
Thousands, millions—perhaps billions—of tiny sparks within the water light up in my mind’s eye as I cajole them to answer to my call, to lift with my power. The little sparks rise up in my mind’s eye and begin to shift around me, moving higher as their dance becomes more frenzied. A joyful laugh bursts from me as I feel each dewy