Page 44

A nnelise relentlessly pulled me from bed first thing in the morning, when the sun had barely kissed the Siraleth sky. I sleepily pulled on my training leathers, strapping Stormslayer to my thigh and leaving Nik twisted among the sheets.

I met her out where we had conducted the binding ceremony, a fine mist clinging to the air in a way that reminded me of when I had seen Donika last night. The morning air was cool, raising the hair on my forearms and sending a chill through me.

Annelise was also donning her training gear, a glistening broadsword strapped to her back as she waved me over. She unstrapped the sword, resting it against the rubble.

“I figured this was as good a place as any. Plenty of open space,” she said, resting her hands on her hips. “You ready? ”

I ran a hand through my mess of curls. “As ready as I’ll ever be.”

I stretched my arms upward, cracking my back and stretching from side to side.

The last time I had trained with my storm magic had been with Isaac.

Pain lanced through me at the thought. I still couldn’t believe he was gone.

That he had been the leader of the resistance and my number one cheerleader…

and he wouldn’t get to see this war come to an end.

As if Annelise could guess my thoughts she cleared her throat uncomfortably, casting her gaze away from me. “This won’t be like training with Isaac,” she said.

“No?” I raised my brow, expecting her to say something about how she wouldn’t go as easy on me or something like that.

“No. Bound magic is different from unbound magic. Its control comes from a different place entirely. It will be… easier.”

That was good news, at least. I could sense a pull on the other end of the bond and could tell that Nikolai had woken, the bedsheets empty but still warm beside him.

“We can start with some defensive magic,” Annelise offered.

I nodded. “Isaac and I were working on that.”

“This time you’ll have another Stormshade to contend with.” There was a ghost of a smile on Annelise’s lips.

I narrowed my eyes at her.

“You’ll need to truly fight me. I know Isaac didn’t… but you need the practice.” Her voice was cold as I met her gaze .

“I have no problem fighting with you.”

She flinched ever so slightly. If I had blinked, I would have missed it.

“Good.” Her mouth was tight as she turned her face towards the sky. “Bring up your shield, and I will try to penetrate it.”

I nodded, focusing on the magic deep in my core and allowing it to flow easily through my hands, creating an invisible air shield around me.

I had practiced this many times with Isaac, and this kind of magic now came easily to me.

I could sense the bubble of protection around me as Annelise called on her own storm, the morning sky darkening rapidly with oncoming rain.

The storm formed quickly overhead, rain pelting against my shield and bouncing off. I remained dry beneath its protection.

“Good,” Annelise called from across the clearing, her strawberry hair now plastered to her scalp beneath her own rainstorm.

She narrowed her eyes in concentration, her brow creasing as lightning streaked through the sky right outside my shield. I was startled, and my shield faltered for only a moment.

“Hold tight!” She called.

I nodded, focusing once more. When the lightning struck again it hit my shield, bouncing off. It was as if it were a bodily pressure. As if the shield were a blanket on top of me and I was physically repelling the electric strikes.

Annelise’s lips curved into a smile. “Very good. I’m impressed. ”

“I had a good teacher,” I called out over her storm. Both Isaac and Nik had taught me well.

“Can you go on the offensive?” she asked, taking a step back.

I didn’t answer her, only let my magic reach out to the sky, sensing her own storm there.

I funneled my energy into the forming clouds, creating one of my own.

Two storms were warring in the sky, colliding together angrily against each other.

Thunder shook the earth as the rain became a deluge.

I held my shield in place, focusing my efforts on doing both things at the same time.

The last time I had done this I had lost control…

my storm had stolen my magic and lashed out at me, injuring me.

I still had the scar on my shoulder to prove it.

Splitting my efforts as a bound Stormshade was much, much easier.

Not only did the magic come easier to me, but concentration did as well.

I found that I barely had to focus on the shield to keep it in place…

as long as I didn’t get distracted. I released the storm overhead as Isaac had taught me, stepping towards Annelise.

She inclined her head, watching me.

Once I had released the storm it was easier to coax the magic out of it, instead of using the power from my own core.

This was the magic I had been yearning to practice.

This was the magic that had the Nightshades turning against the Stormshades.

I drew energy from the cloud overhead and lightning struck, Annelise barely avoiding it as she jumped back .

I was more confident than I had ever been before when it came to my magic.

The storm I had created raged on overhead and I siphoned a little more power from it, a swirling tornado forming at the tips of my fingers.

I released it as if it were a spinning top and it landed in the dirt before me, growing in intensity as I fed more magic from the sky into it.

I wasn’t even the least bit tired.

Annelise reached out with her hand and redirected the tornado so it spun away from us.

A grin spread across my face as I held my hand out, fire reaching the tips of my fingers and crackling in the ball of my outstretched hand. I firmly held the shield in place but allowed the fireball to pass through, and Annelise raised her arms in a shield of her own before it made contact.

“Good. Again.”

I pulled another fireball from the energy in the sky, throwing it once more. Annelise easily batted it away.

“Again.”

When I went to pull the magic from the storm above this time it bucked against me, roaring in a thunderous clap overhead that had me wanting to cover my ears.

“You have to remember,” Annelise called over the raging storm, pointing overhead.

“It isn’t yours anymore. It doesn’t belong to you.

You can siphon its magic, but it won’t give it easily.

You need to manage the power of the storm while taking its energy, little by little.

You’ll expend your own energy in the process, but it is a give and take. ”

I nodded in understanding. Using my Stormshade magic was all about balance. Multitasking. I couldn’ t lose control of the storm I had created and released, or I wouldn’t be able to pull from its energy easily.

I pushed against the storm with my own magic once more—and though it pushed back—it relented after a few moments.

When I was unbound, the magic of the storm had easily been able to overtake me.

But now… I was the storm . I forced it into submission once more, siphoning more energy from it over and over again to create another fireball.

My eyes still on the sky I released the fireball, lowering my shields only momentarily to allow it to pass, and it hit Annelise with full force, throwing her back.

She fell against the rubble behind her, cutting her arms on the jagged rocks. I released my shield, rushing forward with my hands outstretched.

“I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean—”

“Never apologize, Diana. That was quite impressive.” Annelise pushed her wet hair back from her face and her hand came away covered in blood.

I extended my own hand out to her and helped her to her feet as both of our storms continued to rage around us. I had soaked through my leather training gear the moment I had let my shield down, my hair plastered to my face. My eyelashes were wet as I blinked away rain droplets.

“Are you ok?” It had been a hard hit, and her leather training vest had a fireball sized hole burned right through the center of it. “You need to see a healer.”

“Diana… I am a healer,” Annelise said with a laugh, her palm hovering over the wound .

She spoke a soft incantation under her breath and when she removed her hand, the wound was closing before my eyes. She did the same to the cut on her head. I had almost forgotten about her healing prowess from when I had known her as Liss.

“Perhaps that’s enough for today?” I asked, pushing my wet hair back from my face.

Annelise nodded, placing a skin spell against her collarbone. She reached up to the sky with one arm and absorbed her own storm seamlessly.

I did the same, reaching out to the sky with my hand.

I could see the storm as it absorbed back into me, a swirling haze at my fingertips.

Pure energy. The magic was amethyst as it swirled back towards me.

I knew the moment I had absorbed it all, the swell of energy in my core causing me to take a step back beneath the force of it.

Annelise was healed, the only remnants that I had hurt her at all the dried blood crusted on her forehead and across her abdomen.

She smiled at me, the corners of her eyes crinkling.

The morning mist had cleared, and the sun beat down on us now, warming me from the inside out.

I dare say that was the best training session I had ever had.

“Thank you,” I said, stepping towards her tentatively.

Her grin was encouragement enough, and I pulled her into a fierce hug. She was shorter than I was, the top of her head coming to my shoulder. I could feel her sigh against me as I held her, and for reasons I couldn’t quite understand, tears stung the back of my eyes.

Was it… gratitude? Love? Relief ?

I wasn’t quite sure. But in this moment, I knew we were on our way to healing.

That I was on my way to forgiving her. I might not understand why she did what she did, but that was in the past now.

As I had told Nikolai, the only path now was the way forward.

And I wanted to move forward with Annelise.

I wanted to forgive her.

I wanted a relationship with her.

I pulled away to meet her gaze, and a tear tracked its way through the dried blood and dirt across her cheek. We didn’t say anything—we didn’t need to. She could feel in that hug more than I could ever say aloud.

My hand on her shoulder, I gave her a gentle squeeze as she wiped away the tear.

“I knew I would find you two here.” It was Zion’s voice that rang out from behind us.

I turned, his body silhouetted with the rising sun behind him so that I had to cover my eyes in order to see him.

“How are you… dry?” I called out, assessing the state of him.

Mere moments ago there had been two raging storms here, and Annelise and I were completely soaked through. I was due for a long, hot shower.

Zion grinned down at us from the hill of rubble he stood on. “I stood out of striking distance of the storm until you two were finished.”

He raised a brow at me as he assessed Annelise, the grime and blood caked on her .

“You got a hit in on her?” he asked, suspicion lacing his tone.

“I did,” I said proudly.

Annelise appeared equally proud as she nodded. “She did. She is a natural with the magic. She did well choosing a strong binding partner.”

“Does that factor into the equation? How strong the binding partner is?” I asked.

“Most certainly.” She nodded. “If you bind to someone who can’t share the magic, your ability to control will only weaken. Nikolai is a strong Shade in his own right. Though, with how much magic you have used today, you might find him a little tired.”

“Zion doesn’t look tired,” I pointed out.

Annelise crossed her arms over her chest. “He has more practice with the give and take of storm magic. This was your first time truly using your power and pulling on that energy. Nikolai will never have sensed anything like that before. We should train daily, maybe even multiple times a day so that you both can become accustomed to the effects of the magic.”

“I agree.” I nodded. “I need Nik to be one hundred percent when we storm The Stone City.”

Annelise placed her hand against my back reassuringly. “He will be.”

“I didn’t only come to check on your training,” Zion said from atop the rubble. “Tess has found something that you both might find of interest. ”

We exchanged a glance that felt as if I was gazing in a mirror, and we both laughed as we trudged through the mud and followed Zion back to the cottage underground.

Before I joined Tess and Puck in the library, I desperately needed a hot shower.

I was covered from head to toe in dirt and grime and I needed to scrub myself clean before I let anyone see me.

I returned to my own room to shower, hoping Nik was still getting some rest. I drew myself a bath, scrubbed my skin raw, and washed all the grime from my tangled hair.

By the time I had emerged from the bathroom I was an entirely new person. Not only was I now squeaky clean, but I was a bound Stormshade with control of her magic. A renewed sense of hope simmered in my chest, despite what I had seen at The Stone Palace last night.

I slipped into the library, my hair still wet and braided down my back leaving a wet mark against my shirt.

I found Tess and Puck standing, leaning over Annelise who sat at the table.

She had the Kotova grimoire beside another book, her gaze traveling back and forth between the two texts.

Nik stood across from them with Zion, his arms crossed over his chest.

I gave him a soft smile as I joined them, peering over Annelise’s shoulder to see what it was they were gazing at.

“What is it?” I asked .

My gaze met Nik’s across the table.

“Tess found the meaning of Donika’s wolf sigil.”