Page 36 of Tino
“It’s not that,” Tino defended, rolling his eyes.
“Then what’s the issue?” Silver asked, his irritation over losing his sandwich clear. He was dabbing his shirt free of tuna, not even looking at Tino as we waited for him to answer.
“I don’t want Xarius anywhere near my man’s dick,” Tino said, crossing his arms and leaning back in his chair, daring any of them, andme, to argue.
Xari burst out laughing, causing the rest of us to follow. “I’m loving this!” he wheezed. “You want your first piercing there? Damn.” Was that pride I saw on his face? Admiration?
Sitting taller, I nodded. “But maybe we shouldn’t start with that.”
“I have to agree. Where else do you want one?”
Chapter 24
Tino
Altair looked all too pleased with himself as we made our way towards the training grounds. He’d decided on one nipple ring, asking Wilston kindly if he could add stones to both ends. Niam had been ready to remove his pain, but since it was such a small hole, the skin healed almost instantly on his body now that he had a little magic again. This caused him to be even braver and much to my dismay, but also my hidden pleasure, he’d made himself a piercing alone in the bathroom, one I’d yet to see for myself. But also one which I had a good idea where was located.
“This is huge!” Niam exclaimed, his excitement obvious as he almost ran the last feet into the training grounds. It had to be twice the size of the last place and with over one hundred dummies. It must’ve taken them hours to make all those.
Nujik laughed, pleased to see how excited we were to get started. “We’ll make sure the dummies get replaced every night so you can train daily.”
“Cool,” Xarius grinned, looking all too pleased seeing Niam light up from excitement.
“Julie, you stay here with me. I want to explain a few things about your role while they practice.” She simply nodded and stayed with Nujik while the rest of us entered the grounds. We had our familiars with us, but we still weren’t certain if they should be training with us until tomorrow, so for now we decided to let them watch as we tried different combinations of our magic. The book seemed to be our biggest help in knowing what we could do with two elements at once, and together with all four. It even said that if we were all connected by touch, we could reach the fifth element, it just didn’t say what the fifth element was.
“I think Altair and Tino should go first,” Xarius said, smacking Niam’s ass when he reached him.
“Show us what you got!” Silver cheered, making us all laugh. He hadn’t said anything, but I knew Tair was worried about messing up again. He’d at least tried out his elemental magic twice today, which had both gone extremely well. Or at least it seemed that way. I’d yet to see the evidence in his pants, after all.
“Together?” Tair asked, reaching for my hand and looking so nervous, I couldn’t do anything else than grab onto his hand and show him I was with him. He had my support. Always.
A laugh escaped me before I could stop it.
“What?” he asked, grinning, too, without even knowing why.
“That was the exact words I spoke to you before we rode down the hill and I broke my arm.” He burst out laughing, the memory clear in my mind was now undoubtedly playing in his too.
“Let’s just hope this doesn’t end up like that,” he said, wiping a hand over his face.
“I’ll protect you if it does,” I said, meaning every word. I would gladly break my arm if it meant he wouldn’t be hurt.
The smile he gave me was everything. So full of love and trust. It was one I’d seen many times before today, but each time I felt like I’d been given a gift. Having that smile aimed at me? It waslove.
“Let’s start with earth.” Ignoring my fluttering stomach, I refocused on training. “I can add wind to it. Say if you make tiny wooden stakes, I can use wind magic to throw them at the dummies.”
His eyes lit up and he nodded eagerly. With his hand in mine and a clear picture of what we wanted to make together, small dark wooden stakes were created and then, I willed my wind magic to dart them forward. As fast as possible they flew through the air, making a swooshing sound just before impact. The dummies broke apart from the force, causing ten to be cut open at once.
“Damn!” Silver exclaimed proudly behind us. “We’ve never tried that before.”
“The book,” Tair grinned proudly.
“I think we all need to read that one, then,” Niam said thoughtfully.
“We can do a reading every night, perhaps one of us can read aloud and the rest of us listen?” I suggested. “It would save us timedoing it this way, and then we could discuss what we learn and what to practice the next day.”
“That sounds good to me,” Xarius said, while the others nodded in agreement.
“Should we try lightning now?” Tair pointed to the far left of the dummies. “If we focus on those, it should be safe.” Nodding, I got into position, hoping we wouldn’t do any damage to others. Lightning was one of the most powerful things we could do together, heat and cold mixed and then wind magic to steer. The book had said it took focus and precision to master lightning, something I hoped we could do perfectly. It wouldn’t be good for Tair if we messed up our magic today. He needed more wins to erase the earthquake error.