Shadow Wings (The Darkest Drae Book 2)(22)

“You okay?” he asked, frowning as he closed the distance to help.

I regained my step and ignored his hand but couldn’t stop the blush from creeping up my neck. I forced a laugh and quipped, “Pretty sure I’m a Drae and a Phaetyn.”

“So, if you send out energy to communicate, you simply draw it in, in order to—”

“Become a fortress of silence,” I finished in awe.

“Sure,” he said drily. “Something like that. Want to give it a try?” When I grimaced, he added, “Perhaps try to identify how it feels to communicate telepathically first.”

Testing, testing, teeeeeesssstiiinnng.

Tyrrik winced, and I smirked, but now that he’d pointed it out, I could see the thinnest of tendrils weaving between us when we spoke. I’d seen them intermittently ever since I shifted. I focused on the thin threads of energy; their essence was black and blue, a silky connection linking the two of us. I worked on pulling the blue threads in, but the notion of drawing anything in with my mind was counterintuitive. Even with my Phaetyn powers, I tended to push, and pushing was what I wanted to do here as well, not pull. I suddenly wondered if I would be able to see my Phaetyn power now too. Wow. I could fly, sense crazy far, and now feel and even see my energy. I tried to grab the wispy form, but couldn’t make sense of it. I had to put it in normal terms. Letting my mind wander, I thought of my mother towing water in from the well. Lowering the bucket and hauling it back up, the rope winding around the wooden reel.

Taking a deep breath, I did the same with my energy, imagining it was the full bucket of water and I was at the top of the well, pulling it up to me. Gathering that energy, my energy, closer and closer.

“That’s it,” Tyrrik whispered.

He was right in front of me; I could feel his presence, but I ignored him as I continued drawing the energy in like winding up the rope in the well to get the bucket of water at the end. As our contact disappeared, I shivered at the loss. It was uncomfortable, unsettling. But I kept drawing the energy in until it was within my body. “Now what?”

“Now, you practice holding it there,” he bit out. “See if you can hold it until we take flight.”

I took a firm grasp on the energy and opened my eyes. When my hold didn’t break, I began to walk after Tyrrik again. “That will keep my thoughts private?”

“Your thoughts, yes. I will teach you to block others from invading your mind once you have the hang of pulling your energy in.”

He was right. A light sweat broke on my forehead as I held my energy tight. The idea of keeping others’ thoughts out sounded fantastic.

“You did well.”

I smiled, feeling his pride through the link he sent, though the tendril of Tyrrik’s thought made me battle to keep hold of my own energy. After a moment, I had control again and cleared my throat. “Thanks.”

Over the next thirty minutes of travel, the boulders we hopped over flattened into a clearing. Tyrrik scanned the area as I focused on keeping the thread of energy inside. He jerked his head to a raised shelf and grunted in satisfaction as we crossed to it to find a small drop on the other side.

“Think you can manage that?” he asked.

It was a quarter of the drop of yesterday, but I couldn’t manage a witty retort. Instead, I nodded agreeably. “I should be okay with that.”

“You can release your energy now. We’ll need to shift.”

I’d been wanting to for more than twenty minutes now. With a heartfelt groan, I let the thread fly free. My energy shot straight to the other Drae, and I shivered in bliss as we reconnected. My gaze went to his face which lit with a fierce joy as our energies brushed against each other.

That . . . seemed unusual. Unease skirted down my spine at what that could mean. He better not tell me I was his other half or something stupid like that. “Umm, so all Drae can do energy thread stuff, right?”

His face smoothed. “No.”

I felt him pull his energy back, and I narrowed my eyes. “No, what?”

He schooled his features. “Not all Drae can do ‘energy thread stuff.’”

“But Drae other than us can, right?” I wasn’t sure I could handle that kind of special right now.

“Yes, Ryn. We’ve already established we’re not the only two Drae that can do energy mojo.”

I grinned. “You said mojo. I knew I was rubbing off on you.”

He rolled his eyes, and the air around him shimmered.

Drak, he’d known I was procrastinating. I could feel him gathering his power into himself.

“Think of the ruby, Ryn,” Tyrrik said. “I know you really want the shiny gem. You just need to . . . poof. It’s as simple as that.”

A moment later, a chuffing sound came from the Drae now standing over me. I tilted my head back and stared at his onyx scales.

With a booming leap, Tyrrik dove off the drop. With powerful draws of his wings, he rose into the air, just above the tree line, and began to circle.

My stomach churned. What if I couldn’t do it? I pushed some tendrils of my silver hair back.

Stop procrastinating.

I glared at the huge Drae and mentally ventured through the streams of energy between us until I was at his Drae form. I reached to feel his power; it was dark and mysterious and endless. I allowed my energy to dip into his, surprised at what I felt. It wasn’t cold—which is how I often saw Tyrrik—rather, his power was warm and comforting, like the dark nights in Verald with the hot air rolling in from the southern deserts.