Page 37 of Tino

I grabbed his hand and followed his gaze, focusing on what our target should be. “The middle one,” I said, hoping he caught on to what I wanted to do.

“Even after all these years we still think alike,” he said, amused.

I focused my energy on the one I had in mind, making its head catch fire. “Ready?”

“Ready,” he agreed, and then we merged our magic. Hot and cold. Raising our free hands, we directed our building powers andthen we let go. A booming thunder sound reverberated around us followed by a crackling sound accompanied by our lightning strike. It only took a split second, but the dummies were all torn to shreds, eviscerated by our powers alone.

“That was amazing,” I breathed in awe, looking at the burnt ground that held the fried dummies.

“I want to try with ice this time,” he said, a determined glint in his eyes as he refocused on the dummies. “I can make ice spears and then you’ll do the rest.” Chuckling and feeling so much pride for my man, I nodded and got into position again.

We trained for five hours before Willow told us it was time for dinner. She’d thankfully known we wanted privacy so she had our food delivered to our house. We were now sitting around our dinner table, enjoying a delicious roast with potatoes and gravy. Julie was asked to join Willow and Nujik for a conversation about her role in this, so it was only us six in the house.

“Do youthink Julie will be able to do it? Help us win, I mean,” Niam asked.

“I doubt others have ever been in her position,” Xarius said. “All of this is trial and error. But one thing I’m certain of, is that Julie will do everything in her power to help us win.”

“Do you think they’ll try to convince her not to do it?” Silver voiced the thought I had myself.

“I hope not,” Xarius sighed. “I want our anchor to be someone we all trust, and even though all the mages here are with us that doesn’t erase the fear that they could betray us in the middle of the fight. Julie, on the other hand, I trust with everything I am.”

“I want it to be Julie, too,” I said, needing the others to know I was all in with her, too. I was the one who knew her the least, so it was important to me they knew I trusted her.

“So, we agree to tell her we still only want her no matter what they say tonight?” Silver asked, looking at all of us as we nodded in agreement.

“But we might need to practice with her, so we know how much she can manage,” Wilston said.

“Fuck,” Xarius muttered. “What if she can’t do it?”

“Then we’ll figure it out before we face the council,” Niam said, taking his bonded’s hand affectionally. Xarius grabbed on and gave Niam a soft smile in return.

“Now,” Silver clapped his hands excitedly. “Who wants to be the one reading to us?” His eyes sparkled with humor as he watched all of us. It seemed none of us wanted the honors. He sighed. “Fiiiiine. I’ll do it, then.”

I shared a relieved smile with the others as we followed Silver to our new living room. It had three couches, which meant that for once we could all be comfortable. The cabins had served their purpose, but some of us always had to sit on the floor, which wasn’t comfortable at all.

The light outside was dimming, something I’d forgotten about our home world. The sun was always setting around eight pm this time of year. A few small lamps were neatly placed around the room, making it cozy and warm. I grabbed the blankets from a basket that stood to the side, and threw Xarius and Wilston one each, then grabbed the last one for me and Tair to share.

Silver had grabbed the book from our room and was now sitting next to Wilston. We’d each grabbed our own couch, snugglingtogether like it was a movie night. I found I loved this, and wanted more of it. All six of us together in our own home. I hoped they wanted us to live in one big house in the future. The thought of us living apart was hard, which should’ve been weird, but considering our long history together, being reborn with our souls the same, it made sense we needed to be together. Maybe Julie could move in too.

Silver opened the book and began reading.

Chapter 25

Altair

After two chapters, we were all beat. Training had taken a lot of our magic and energy today, and once the others joined in on the training, it had become a competition, which had been lots of fun, but now we all felt the fatigue hit.

Silver closed the book and narrowed his eyes at our slumped figures. “Was I truly that boring?” he sniffed indignantly, but we knew he was joking. He’d unsuccessfully hidden a few yawns himself as he read.

“I liked the part with our familiars,” Wilston replied, ever the dutiful partner.

“Ah ha, which part?” Silver asked, one brow raised.

“The um, power part?”

I suppressed a laugh as we watched Silver stare poor Wilston down.

“I liked that part too,” Xari helpfully supplied. “We need them to eat more mages.”