Page 25 of In the Blood (The Forgotten Fae #1)

“I do. Our powers aren’t always passed through lineage. It’s much too random. I can wield water. Galen, fire. Raf, shadow and earth. My mother also has earth magic, but as you now know, Raf isn’t related to her. Animal forms are even more unique. It’s rare for family members to take the same form.”

I yawned, the lack of sleep beginning to catch up to me. Louis shot me an expression of mock-outrage. I grinned back and said, “Are you ever going to show me what you’re capable of? Or are we going to discuss the theory of magic for the rest of the lesson?”

Louis narrowed his eyes at me before stepping back and aiming his palms towards the sky.

His shield dissolved into mist. Water droplets began forming, hovering above his cupped hands.

Soon he was rotating a ball of water the size of a dinner plate—moving it up and down with an invisible force.

He formed the ball into a life-sized dolphin, making it race circles around us.

Suddenly it was an eagle, soaring above us, before turning into a puddle and dumping on my head.

“You-You’re going to pay for that!” I sputtered, my soaking hair hanging over my eyes. I was drenched. Louis laughed as the surrounding birds crowed along with him .

“Will I? Why don’t you try getting me back… with magic. ” I wanted to wipe that smug smile off his face more than anything.

I tried to reach inside and search for any type of feeling or source I could pull from.

It was impossible—I felt ridiculous. I held my hands up in a threatening posture, before dropping them to my sides.

The frustration that followed caught me by surprise as tears threatened to fall.

I would not cry at my first training session.

I would not.

“Hey, it’s alright. I haven’t even told you what to do yet—what to feel for. I just thought your anger might bring something to the surface. Don’t worry, you’re just too sweet for retaliation. It isn’t a character flaw.”

Sweet? My blood froze over at the idea that I was sweet. Women were little more than chattel in Aurelius. Men wanted us docile. We weren’t allowed to show any personality besides sweet. It made me furious.

My rage awoke something in my veins. I felt a wave of dizziness before a pins and needles sensation covered my hands. I leaned into the discomfort and frost began to form on my fingers. I gasped in surprise and the ice vanished, like it had been a mirage.

“Did you— Did you see that?!” I’d found magic inside of me. The rush was exhilarating. Glowing pride washed over me.

“Ice wielder.” Louis smiled. “Now, can you please stop insisting you’re not Fae?” I tried to bring back the magic, but it was elusive, like trying to force a sneeze.

“Ugh. Why is it so difficult?” I kicked a rock and sent it sailing towards a column. Apparently, I had a faerie temper to go with the magic.

“You’re not ready to use serious magic. It’s impressive that you were able to access anything on your first day of training. You need to be cautious when experimenting with it until you’re stronger. Don’t practice without me until I say so. Understood?”

I was dying to see the ice again—to master it—to feel less vulnerable in this foreign land, but I agreed and meant it. “You said faeries are difficult to kill. What does that mean exactly?” I flexed my hands open and shut, straining to bring magic to my fingertips.

“Yes. While most of us don’t heal as quickly as a healer would, we do heal from most injuries as long as we have magic in our blood. If we don’t have magic, we’re just as helpless as humans. ”

Helpless as humans. Humans weren’t helpless. We were clever, adaptable… capable. I felt a flicker of frost coat my fingers again.

“If we’re decapitated, we’re dead. Unless there happens to be a healer nearby who can put us back together.”

“You mean to tell me, if someone cut off your head , and I learned to use my healing powers… I could make you whole again? That is the most absurd thing I’ve heard so far.” Even as I tried to accept that I was one of them, my humanity shuddered. No wonder humans had wanted faeries out of Erador.

“Correct. We can regrow most of our organs as well, although it hurts like a bastard. The easiest way to kill us is to go for the heart. Fire can burn a heart to ash, shadow can turn a heart to dust, and ice can freeze a heart until it shatters. It’s the one thing we can’t regrow—well, that and our heads—but if the brain or heart are simply injured, we can heal them. ”

He was so nonplussed about this. Meanwhile, I felt warning bells going off, telling me this world and its inhabitants were dangerous—telling me to run .

Finally, it was time for the physical side of training. Louis proceeded to kick my ass for the next hour. He made me run laps, lift weights, exercise different muscle groups, and practice my balance as he came at me from different offensive angles.

He taught me how to get out of several different holds using my size to my advantage and how to throw him off balance so I could escape his grasp.

He showed me how to break a nose with a headbutt to the face and how to strike with a dagger in a downward thrust. There was also a spin maneuver that ended with a knee to the groin.

There were a few noblemen in Aurelius I would’ve like to use that particular move on.

By the time we were finished, my mind, body, and spirit were mush. I was so sore and overwhelmed by all the new information that I requested dinner in my room that evening. Galen did not visit me.