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“That’s the fear talking. And it’s not yours.” Realization sparked in his eyes with a whole lot of heavy sadness and regret.“It never was, was it? It was always theirs. Your family’s. The supernatural world as a whole. The True Celestials. It bled into you, and over time you internalized it. But it’snotyours, sweet Ari. Do you hear me?Youknow you’re capable of managing this, of owning your power andeverythingthat you are. This is your chance to prove that, tobethat. Take back who you are. Fuck everyone else. This isyou.Your moment, your power,yourfucking life!”

As I latched onto his words, letting them land, register, and infuse me, an eruption of blue light caught my attention, and then Nyx teleported right beside Kai with Vorzyr grasping his shoulder, along for the teleportation spell.

“Kai was right,” Vorzyr told me with a rumbling power to his words. “You don’t need me to make your power submit, to help you do anything like that. This is who you are, who you’ve always been. Who they all tried to stop you from being, what they tried to take from you. With Cassius in the picture, there will be more of that. So do this now, make an empowering choice that will mean no one can ever take or twist who you really are again.”

Nyx smiled at me in his usual gentle and understanding way. “You’re feeling it. You’re ready. Let the rest of that fear they all infected you with go.” His eyes sparkled at me. “There’s so much freedom in that. And it’s what you’ve always wanted. I know, Halo.”

Kai drew a little closer and crouched down. “Do you remember the anchor exercises we were taught at the Maven Coven?”

“Yes, but they… they couldn’t holdmypower… remember?” I choked out, and I had to lift my hands from the grass as my power threatened to rip right through the ground and toward him, Vorzyr, and Nyx.

I held them up unsteadily either side of me, my palms turned up toward the sky as my silver power shot up in a rush, streaking into the clouds overhead.

Natural lightning was forced into being as my magic called a fucking storm, thunder rumbling and cracking overhead within moments, which then brought torrential rain down upon us, beating down on us and our surroundings. That natural lightning was joined by my silver magic doing the same and firing off dangerously all around it.

Shit!

“It will work,” Kai spoke calmly, despite what was happening, and the three of them being drenched because of me. “They never knew how to adapt it to your power level.Ido.” He smiled. “Not because I know your power, but because I knowyou.That aspect was always left out by Coven teachings, because of the emotional constipation involved in all their instructions and approaches.” He then sat down into the now muddied ground and moved into a cross-legged position. He rested his palms on either knee and turned them up. “First, focus on your breathing. It’s not about calming down, it’s about being present, acknowledging your current state and what your power is doing and how it’s reacting.”

As I tried to take his words in, panic surged when I looked at the magic shooting out of control from my palms and impacting the natural world and our environment. Hurting it. Causing damage.

“It’s not about containing it right now,” Kai reminded me. “Focus only on theAnchor of Air.”

“Breath,” I rasped.

“Exactly. Your breath. Forget about everything else. Close your eyes if that helps.”

I took his advice and squeezed my eyes shut.

No longer able to see the damage I was doing, and the shocking impact of my uncontrolled power, all I could do was feel.

The instability.

The rage, really, with the way my magic was releasing.

It was angry that it had been basically caged for so long.

No. More than that.Iwas angry. About that, about all of this. My whole life being the way it had, what it had done to me, how it had stripped me of who I really was at my core and at my heart.

No more.

They were right—this was my chance now.

To undo what had been created in me.

To reconnect with the core of my true identity,notthe one I’d taken on out of the fear I’d been infected with.

No more repression.

I managed to draw in an unencumbered breath.

I kept going, over and over. Slowly but surely deepening my breathing, regulating it.

And through it, I felt not just the fury of my power tearing through me, and out of me, but the essence of it as well. I could feel how it was connected to me, fused to me. No longer just viewing it as a separate and wild entity, but as an inherent part of me.

As one with me.

It wasn’t an outside force, nor an enemy to be controlled or beaten back.