Magic Forged (Hall of Blood and Mercy #1)(41)

“Oh yeah,” I said. “Totally. That’s why everyone is scared of wizards.”

Josh tilted his head as he studied me, his forehead wrinkled. (I think I confused him about as much as he confused me.) “Very well, it seems you require a demonstration. Take up a kata—overhead cut.”

A kata is a Japanese sword form—sort of. It’s really a set of choreographed movements, but since I was a total newbie to the art form the only kata I had learned were pretty limited in length. They all have fancy Japanese names, but Celestina had decided it wasn’t worth trying to teach me when she laughed so hard at my initial attempts she almost impaled herself on a wrought-iron fence.

The stance Josh ordered me to use was actually super difficult. You hold the sword above your head, then cut down directly in front of you. There’s way more to it—balance and pressure play a huge role in it—but it was tough for me to do with as many repetitions as the vampires liked to give me because it required holding my sword steady and lifting it above my head, things my chicken arms had a difficult time doing.

Josh waited until I had completed the motion twice before interrupting. “Hold,” he said when my sword was shoulder height. He drifted closer and tapped the blade of my sword with a finger. “Put a spark of your magic there.”

I blinked. “Not my hands?”

“Correct. It might take some practice, but try to isolate your magic to the sword blade—not the hilt.”

I pulled at the magic that freely floated around the air, channeling it through my blood and into a usable state. Since I had so little this was pretty hard, and I was grimacing before I’d even managed to produce a spark. But it was even harder to make the magic manifest on the blade, not my hands. It took about five minutes, then a tiny spark of blue magic flickered on the edge of the blade.

Josh waited a minute before the magic stabilized, then nodded. “Good. Now continue.”

I gritted my teeth as I continued with the kata, raising my sword above my head and then swinging it down. It was hard to keep my magic flowing and wrapped around the sword like tiny sparks of electricity.

“I believe your lack of magic will be a boon as you learn finesse.” Josh folded his arms across his chest and nodded in satisfaction. “It should be easier to maintain control over your spark of magic and learn how to control it with your movements as opposed to struggling with a great deal of magic and spending most of your concentration on keeping the amount right. Here, try on this dummy.”

“Celestina said I shouldn’t practice on dummies—I’m so weak I might hurt my arms on impact,” I gloomily said.

Josh forcibly made the dummy—a creation of hardwood lined with cut lengths of tire rubber—bow its box-shaped head at me, then stepped back. “It won’t be a problem this time.”

I approached it—moving slowly so I could more easily keep the spark of my magic going. I adjusted my feet into the proper stance, then raised my sword above my head and dropped it down in the practiced cut.

The spark of my magic flared on impact, burning through the layer of rubber as if I was cutting through butter and digging into the dummy’s wooden shoulder. The smell of burnt tire filled the sword studio, but I stared at the mutilated dummy, shocked at my own success.

“You’ll get better as you expand your sword stances,” Josh said. “I’ve been researching the possibilities, and it seems to me that you could use a sword to point and direct your magic. I don’t understand why fighting with weapons fell out of fashion with your kind. It’s much more efficient.”

“That’s amazing.” I stared at my sword with new eyes. “It’s that powerful, even with magic as small as mine.”

Josh shrugged. “You are layering your magic—however thin it may be at the moment—over a deadly weapon with an edge that is fearsome on its own. It’s expected.”

“Josh!”

We turned around to see my “favorite” vampire—Rupert—standing at the other side of the sword practice studio, his jaw clenched.

“Must you teach the wizard here and stink up the rooms?” he growled.

Josh blinked. “The burnt rubber smell should fade soon.”

Rupert rolled his eyes and pointed to me. “I meant her! Her rat-blood reeks.”

Josh shrugged. “That seems like a personal problem. You should meditate on it—lest the void will take you.”

Rupert curled his lips back in an almost werewolf-like snarl. (Vampires usually liked to be much more refined.) “Your bizarre words have been tolerated long enough. I’ll—”

Before he could utter his threat, another vampire smacked him on the back of the head. “Enough with that—or haven’t you learned your lesson? You don’t want to tangle with Josh.”

I wasn’t certain I heard the other vampire right, so I glanced at Josh.

He looked especially benign today in his black workout pants and bright orange t-shirt that had a video game logo on it.

But he was apparently stronger than Rupert? Interesting…

“Don’t touch me.” Rupert ran a hand through his short red hair. “You might be too frightened to challenge him, but I will.”

I adjusted my grasp on my sword, but I didn’t dare lower it yet. Last time I let the tip touch the ground Celestina made me carry my sword on a pillow for half a day. “Challenge?”