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“Let’s go see what else you can do,” the spy told her, leading the way toward an open area beyond the sparring pairs.

“Five years, and someone can still find ways to surprise you,” Kiva mused, watching them walk off.

“She moves like a fighter,” Caldon said. “Haven’t you noticed?”

Kiva tried to remember everything Cresta had shared about her life before Zalindov, but she’d said nothing about having had any physical training. Although... she and her mother had traveled alone after losing their family, surviving day by day, so it made sense that she would have learned some self-defense moves.

“I don’t see you stretching,” Caldon said pointedly.

Kiva quickly began to loosen her muscles, after which he tested her fitness levels. By the time she was sweating and cursing at him, he acknowledged that she’d made at least some improvement from when they’d first started training at the River Palace.

“Small steps are still steps,” he said sagely.

But when it came to strengthening her magic, they hit a rock wall.

“I don’t understand why you’re struggling with this,” Caldon said after nearly half an hour of Kiva trying to summon her power. “I thought you said you’re not afraid of yourself anymore?”

“I’m not,” Kiva said. Everyone else had finished sparring, and while Eidran and Torell had gone to help pack up the camp, Jaren, Naari, Ashlyn, and Cresta were still cooling down and drinking water from leather skins, watching her fail over and over again. “Or — I don’t know.I probably alwayswillbe, in the back of my mind, but that’s not what’s stopping me now.”

“Then what is?” Caldon asked.

“You just told me to wave my hand and ‘do the shiny thing.’ That’s not how it works,” Kiva said, exasperated. “It’s not like your fire magic where you can throw it around or whatever you do.”

“Then whatisit like?” Caldon pressed. “Howdoesit work?”

Kiva threw out her arms. “If I knew that, I wouldn’t need training, would I?”

Caldon scowled at her, and she scowled right back.

“I’m sorry to add to the pressure,” said Galdric, who had joined them mid-training as soon as he’d awoken. He’d just begun explaining the basics of windfunneling to Ashlyn before Kiva’s lack of progress had caught all their attention. “But Prince Caldon is right — youshouldbe able to throw your power in a similar manner to elemental magic. That’s what Tilda learned to do with her healing magic. And that’s what Zuleeka can do with her death magic, as you’ve seen for yourself. There’s no reason why the same isn’t true for you.”

Kiva transferred her scowl to him. “Telling me what I should be able to do and telling mehowto do it are two very different things. So far, I’m hearing a lot of the former, and none of the latter.” Her glare shifted back to Caldon. “Fromeveryone.”

The prince’s lips twitched. “You’re delightful when you’re cranky.”

“I’m not cranky,” Kiva said, barely keeping from stomping her foot. “I just have no idea what I’m doing, and you’re not helping to change that.”

“I —”

“For everworld’s sake,” Cresta cut Caldon off, causing everyone to look toward where she sat on a boulder beside Jaren. Before they could blink, she picked up the sword she’d been sparring with —

And stabbed it straight into Jaren’s thigh.

He roared with pain, and then three things happened at once:

The first was that Naari and Ashlyn both tackled Cresta, while Cresta yelled at Caldon, “Hold her back!”

The second was that Caldon wrapped his arms around Kiva like steel bands, stopping her from rushing to Jaren’s side.

The third was that, seeing the blood gushing from Jaren’s leg, seeing his pain,feelinghis pain, Kiva didn’t think, she just acted. Magic erupted out of her and shot toward him, like a blinding comet streaking through the distance between them. Caldon hissed a shocked expletive into her ear, and even Naari, Ashlyn, and Cresta paused their scuffle to watch.

It was over in seconds, the light fading as quickly as it had come, the wound gone as if it had never existed, leaving behind wet bloodstains on black leather and a stunned but otherwise perfectly healthy Jaren.

“See?” Cresta said cockily, despite being on the ground with both Naari and Ashlyn holding her down. “She just needed the right motivation.”

Kiva turned furious eyes on the redhead.“What the hell was that?”

“You’re welcome,” was Cresta’s only reply, her eyes lit with humor.