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He was staring out at me expectantly.

“It’s your turn,” he put to me when I didn’t make a move to do anything.

“What?” I looked out to see that everyone else, aside from the three of us, had added their magic to the prism, and stood there holding their streams steady, creating quite the stunning magical light show. “Shouldn’t Ariana and Kai be next?”

“They need to come in at the tail end. You now, Kai afterward, then Ariana last.”

I nodded, and drew in a couple of centering breaths as I identified one of the few areas within the prism that had already been filled up with magic by the nine students who’d already had their turns.

I called my power, beginning to stream my vibrant-blue magic carefully and steadily, heading for one of the edges of the prism.

“Fill it between Rennick and Jovik’s magic,” Gabriel told me.

“But I—”

“This is the perfect opportunity to work on overcoming your concern about interacting with other magic-wielder’s power.” He gestured at Ariana and Kai. “You’ve done it before with them. This doesn’t need to be any different. Trust in your control over your sorcerer side and use the instincts of the Incubus to guide you.”

I stared out at him in awe. He got it. It made sense because I knew he spent a lot of time with Warlow, not just as family, but from the lens of being very close friends.

Knowing there was that understanding really helped to fuel my determination to do this, the conviction that I could, and it tampered down all the rest, those doubts that nagged at me alltoo often. Those doubts that had resulted in it taking me until my fourth and final year here to start pushing my power.

Sure enough, I managed it, settling my magic perfectly.

I marveled at my work, how it filled the gap seamlessly and interacted with their power without pushing at it or impacting it negatively.

Kai and Ariana beamed at me, so much pride there that was so heartwarming.

Just as Kai was about to add his magic to the prism, Mira’s flared. She was glaring at the awe-inspiring magical tapestry with indignation, not liking that our power was sharing space. The sorceress was known for her aggression and she’d had several outbursts since she’d been here, arrogant and forthright about her magic usage. Kind of like Vorzyr’s approach on steroids. Kai thought that she was a prime candidate for magical corruption with the dangerous attitude that she had.

Instead of intervening as Mira’s power flamed all the more violently, sparks flying and hitting other students’ magic and making them grunt from the attack, I saw Gabriel give Kai a chin lift.

Still fighting to hold my power steady in spite of this turn of events, I watched Kai’s magic enter the prism, moving like a knife through silk. Direct, precise, no theatrics. His stream wrapped around Mira’s, forming a containment sphere that had her cursing.

She tried to break through it, but she failed, Kai holding steady.

Then, even while he was doing that, he released another stream with his left hand and filled up the second-to-last space left in the sphere.

“Sweetheart,” Kai said to Ariana. “If you will.”

Ariana let her silver magic stream carefully toward the last remaining spot to be filled in the prism. It moved fluidly andgracefully. I thought I picked up on a faint hum as her power threaded into the bottom corner and filled up the last part of the prism.

“Very good,” Gabriel commended us. “What you are doing here is harmonizing different types of magic. Now feel the different magical tones belonging to each of you. Identify them and further your awareness at the same time. This is magical resonance, something that will prove vital if you find yourself in a group battle down the road, where you must join with other magic-wielders in order to prevail.”

The prism started shuddering after a few moments.

A flash of panic could be seen in Ariana’s eyes.

“No,” Gabriel spoke quickly. “It’s not your doing. In fact, outside of Kai and also Thalen, your power is the most stable here currently. I’m very impressed.”

Before that could sink in, Gabriel identified the source, and we looked to see Mira, Rennick, and Kelsana being ridiculous and trying to override the prism, the three of them working to dominate.

Kai’s eyes narrowed as he held Mira’s power at bay, clearly intending to do more than that, and to incapacitate Rennick and Kelsana’s power as well.

But he didn’t get to react as, all of a sudden, Ariana’s power radiated out through the entire prism, a glittering silver film covering it, which had the three power flares calming instantly.

Whoa.She’d managed to contain the eruptions while also holding her own steady.

And she’d done it in such a way that not only didn’t hurt anyone, but which showed major restraint as well.