Page 25

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

I ce and fire roar through the room. I wince as the two forces almost cancel each other out instead of working together against Draven, Lyra, and Galen, who are facing Alistair and Isera from across the room.

Sand rises from the ground, whirling like a tornado, as Draven throws a blast of wind back at them.

Jocasta snaps her fingers in front of my face. “Pay attention.”

Blinking, I give my head a quick shake to clear it and focus on my own training instead. “Sorry.”

“I know you wanna fuck him, but keep it in your pants until you’re back at the house at least.”

A jolt shoots through me, and my cheeks practically catch fire, as I snap my gaze away from Draven. Shaking my head, I blurt out, “What? No, that’s not what I?—”

“You didn’t even ask who .”

Heat sears my cheeks even deeper.

Jocasta chuckles and shakes her head at me, but there is a smile lurking on her lips. “Kid, even my blind and dead grandmother could see if from a mile away.” Her gaze turns pensive. “So what’s stopping you?”

My heart twists uncomfortably at the question.

What’s stopping me? Before all of this craziness started where I almost died and we got trapped in the Unseelie Court, Draven told me that he loves me. And I didn’t reply.

I don’t want him to feel as if I’m just playing with him. He has had enough people manipulate him already. So first, I need to figure out how much of my feelings are my own.

That is what’s stopping me.

But I can’t tell Jocasta that, of course, so I just clear my throat and reply, “Can we just focus on the lesson, please?”

“Oh, now you want to focus on the lesson?”

I give her a flat look.

She chuckles again but thankfully lets the issue drop. Instead, she draws in a long breath and motions at me. “Alright, this frustration that you’re feeling right now. Try to share it with me.”

“Share it?” I frown at her. “What’s there to share? I’m frustrated because I can’t do the things you’re telling me to do. But you already know that. So what else is there to share?”

She laughs. “No, I mean share the emotion. So that I feel your frustration too.”

I stare at her, my eyes wide.

She stares back at me, looking confused. Then she heaves an endless sigh. “Malachi’s balls, you don’t know how to share emotions, do you?”

“No.”

“Alright, it works like this. You take an emotion that you’re feeling, and then you reach out with it towards?—”

“What do you mean reach out ?”

She ponders for a second. “Visualize it like you’re stretching the emotion.”

“Alright.”

“And then you attach it to the other person. Once it’s attached, that person will feel half of that emotion while you feel the other half of it. So it decreases the feeling for you but makes them feel it too.”

I raise my eyebrows in surprise. “It decreases the feeling for me and they feel the other half?”

“Yes.”

“That’s cool,” I begin hesitantly. “But also kind of… useless. What am I supposed to use it for?”

“I’ve mainly used it while being tortured.”

I stare at her. The casual way she said it makes me wonder if I actually heard her correctly. “Tortured?”

“Yeah. If they inflict pain on me, they feel half of it too. Great way to make them reluctant to do it.”

That had not been what I was asking at all, so this time, I spell it out. “You’ve been tortured a lot?”

“Well, yeah, of course.” She looks at me as if that should’ve been obvious. “Everyone in the Unseelie Court has been trained in how to withstand torture.”

And just when I thought our courts might not be so different after all, she hits me with something like this.

“Uhm… right. Of course.” I clear my throat, trying to focus on the task at hand again. “Alright, stretch the emotion and attach it.”

She nods encouragingly.

I know that I am frustrated. We’ve been training every waking hour of the day, for three days now, and I still haven’t been able to create emotions from nothing like Jocasta does. Which is why we switched to other techniques today. But I am apparently bad at those too.

Frustration burns inside me, eating at my soul and making me feel like a failure. I know it. I can feel it. But how do I take that emotion and stretch it out to attach it to someone else?

When I reach out with my magic to manipulate someone else’s emotions, I just cast it towards them. So I try doing the same to my own chest.

It doesn’t work.

A snarl slips from my lips. Clenching my jaw, I flex my hand in annoyance and then try again. I have no idea how to even connect the magic to my own emotions.

“I can’t even see them!” I snap.

Jocasta, entirely unfazed by my outburst, just raises her eyebrows in question. “See what?”

“My emotions.”

“Hmm.” She taps her chin, considering in silence for a few seconds.

Across the sand, Draven, Lyra, and Galen are working in perfect synchronization as they try to advance across the room and make it past Isera and Alistair.

The two fae, however, look to still be having massive issues working together.

They’re stopping the dragon shifters’ advance separately instead of trying to coordinate their attacks.

Embers flutter through the air as Draven forces Alistair’s flames away with a blast of wind. Outside the windows, soft white clouds drift across the heavens and temporarily block the midday sun. It makes the light inside our training room dim and brighten at irregular intervals.

“What do they look like?” Jocasta finally asks. “When you see the emotions in other people’s chests, what do they look like?”

“Like flames, of course,” I reply, frowning at her in confusion.

“Really?” She raises her eyebrows. “Huh. That’s interesting.” She cocks her head, making her long white hair slide across her shoulder. “I see them kind of like balls of water.”

Shock clangs inside my skull as I stare at her, mouth open. “What? You don’t see fire?”

“No. Mine are elegant orbs of liquid that ripple and shift softly.”

I gape at her. “Mine are raging fires.”

She laughs and slaps my shoulder playfully with the back of her hand. “You must be one angry girl then.”

Her words strike something deep inside me. Not hurt or any sense of being offended. But instead… panic.

When I don’t immediately reply, she gives me a look and smiles. “I was kidding.”

“Yeah, I know,” I press out, and then also force out a laugh for good measure.

But her words still rattle me to the core.

Because I’m terrified that she might be right.

I barely dare to acknowledge all the emotions I’ve suppressed throughout my life, but the few times that I have dared to peek down into those hidden depths of my soul, all I’ve found is burning rage and festering hatred.

Thankfully, Jocasta doesn’t seem to notice my panic, because she just claps her hands and declares, “Alright, let’s get back to it. So visualize those fires in your own chest, and then?—”

A chunk of ice shoots through the air. We throw ourselves backwards, barely managing to get out of the way before the wayward shard can hit us. It flies through the air in the space we used to occupy and then slams into the pale stone wall to my right.

Jocasta whips around and stabs a hand at Isera and Alistair. “That’s it! I’ve had it.” Stalking forward, she advances on them. “You two, with me. Right now.”

“We just—” Alistair begins, but she cuts him off.

“I don’t want to hear it. We only have three and a half days left before the first game starts.

And I am going to make you work together if it’s the last thing I do.

I’ve bet my entire fortune on you, and if you don’t win, I will be forced to suck the Red Faction’s cock for the rest of my life.

And guess who will be right there on your knees sucking cock with me?

That’s right. You . So you will work together if I so have to tie you together for the next four days. ”

“I thought you said there were only three and a half days left,” Alistair drawls.

A growl of frustration rips from her lips. While still stalking towards Alistair and Isera, she stabs a finger at the rest of us. “You four, practice sparring while I beat some sense into these two.”

Galen quickly hurries out of her way so that he won’t get mowed down by our furious faction owner while Lyra flashes Alistair a grin, which only makes him scowl deeper.

To my surprise, Isera doesn’t object. Rather the opposite, she walks up to meet Jocasta halfway, and there is an intense look in her eyes.

“Well then,” Draven suddenly says from right next to me.

I jump and whip my head around to stare at him. How someone so big can move so quietly still baffles me. And when I meet his gaze, I find a slight smirk on his lips as if he’s way too pleased with himself for sneaking up on me and startling me like that. I shoot him a glare.

“Two against two?” he asks, shifting his attention to Lyra and Galen, who are standing opposite us.

“Sure,” they reply, unsheathing their swords.

Next to me, Draven does the same. I still don’t know how to fight with a sword, so I take out my dagger instead.

Two days ago, Jocasta managed to persuade the Unseelie King to return our weapons to us so that we would be able to give the audience a more entertaining show during the games.

Though I have a feeling that she might have had to bribe him a little too.

Regardless, I’m glad to have my familiar dagger back.

“So, how should we—” I begin.

Draven spins around and lunges at me instead.

I yelp, leaping back and out of range. “What the hell?”

He grins at me while thrusting his sword at me again. “First rule of battle. Always be on your guard.”

From a few strides away, Lyra chuckles. “I knew it!”

Galen nods. “Does the same thing to all the new recruits.”

“I’m not a new recruit,” I huff as I try to parry his thrust.

But because of how massive his sword is, I only manage to redirect it a little and then I’m forced to duck instead. Behind Draven’s back, Lyra and Galen form up and begin sparring with each other instead.