Page 27 of Tino

“We should call Nujik over here and ask him,” Tair said, turning in his seat to look behind him. But before he could indicate for him to come, Nujik’s eyes met mine and he got up wordlessly from his table and walked over to us.

“Huh,” Xarius exclaimed in surprise. “Guess he somehow knew we needed him.”

Nujik sat down at our table with confidence. “What can I help you with?”

I blinked in surprise and so did the others. Could he read minds? Instead of thinking it, I tried to project it into his mind, willing him to speak the truth of his powers.

“I have wind magic and am stronger than all mages here except for you six,” he said, answering my unsaid question. “I have no other abilities than that.”

I doubted that.

“Then how did you answer my unsaid question?” I looked at him and waited for him to deny it, to lie to our faces, becausesomehow,he’d heard what I’d thought.

“I…” he frowned. “I don’t know.” He looked truly puzzled. “I just needed to tell you about my powers.”

We looked to Xarius, silently waiting for his verdict if this was a lie or not. He frowned as he looked at Nujik. “He’s telling the truth.” That had even Nujik frowning in confusion.

“Wait,” Niam said, looking with narrowed eyes at me. “You said you asked him a question. Was it telepathic? Like can you communicate without speaking?”

“Oh! That would be so cool!” Tair exclaimed excitedly. “The book so far hadn’t told what our abilities were, maybe yours is telepathy.”

I had no idea if they were right or not, our magic couldn’t be felt like that. “I can try when we train to project my thoughts to any of you.”

“It would be wise to train your abilities, too, since they’re the one thing you have that differentiates you from the council of mages. With those abilities you can tip the scale in your favor.”

“I thought we were stronger, too?” Niam said, voicing it like a question rather than a fact.

Nujik nodded with a smile. “You are stronger too, but don’t count on that being the thing that wins you this battle alone. The council won’t fight fair. Trust me on that.”

“What did I miss?” a raspy voice to our left asked and we turned to see Julie standing there with messy bed hair and a soft smile on her lips. We’d let her sleep when we came here, knowing she needed it. After they’d protected us yesterday while we bonded, Julie had been with the others and helped them control their magic, something that had taken a lot of her energy.

“We’ll catch you up,” Niam said, scooting over to make room for her on the bench.

After Nujik left, we filled her in on what she’d missed. She was devastated to hear about Silver’s grandma, but found it a blessing in disguise for him. Now the council couldn’t threaten him with her safety and life, something that had Xarius, Tair, and me terrified, because she was right. The council could hurt our loved ones, just as easily as breathing. The question left unsaid was if we would let our loved ones die in order for all mages to be safe.

Chapter 19

Altair

Man, I was nervous! This was it. It was time to see what my powers were, and even though Silver and Wilston weren’t here with us, I still felt their presence as I stood before the training dummies.

“You got this,” Tino whispered in my ear. I closed my eyes and leaned back against his comforting form. He was always there when I needed him now. Never apart from me again.

“What about you?” I whispered so only he would hear. “Are you nervous?”

“Terrified,” he admitted softly. “Especially with the telepathy thing not working anymore.” We’d tried to see if he could read our minds after getting to the training grounds, but it hadn’t worked, not even on Nujik, who’d come to help us hone our skills. Willow would join us soon, but she had a meeting with the others about getting supplies soon.

“We just need to rip the bandage off,” I said determinately. The thought of the other mages running low on necessities had me remembering they were waiting for us to have trained enough to return to the Realm of Mages. They used their magic to grow food for us, like we’d done ourselves, but it took a lot of magic to feed everyone, and most weren’t as powerful as we were, meaning they couldn’t make as much as we could. Besides, their magical core couldn’t hold as much magic as we could when fully charged. They simply needed more resting time between using their magic, and since food helped with that, it made it even harder to have enough for everyone.

Tino chuckled and kissed my neck before stepping away, leaving room around me so I could focus on the dummy in front of me. It was several feet in the distance, but we needed to be far so we wouldn’t get hurt ourselves.

Xarius and Niam were to my left while Tino stood to my right. Nujik was a few spaces behind us, watching over us.

“Try making it rain over it first,” Xari said encouragingly.

I nodded and raised both hands to do just that, picturing small rain drops falling around the dummy in a circle and then, they did.

“Yes!” Tino jumped in place, one hand raised in a fist to pump into the air with excitement. “You got water magic!” I grinned at his excitement, this was big, I guessed, but somehow, he made it seem so much bigger than I believed it to be. He made me feel like I’d done something amazing and I loved him even more for it. He was my very own cheerleader, like always.