On a Razor's Edge (Darkness #3)(10)

The boys had the bugs cut down with their swords and much stronger power before Stefan or Dominicous could even step up. I sucked in the purple magic, the least power level and therefore not a big deal to reel back in. Although, that stare was back.

“What’s up?” I turned to Toa.

“That magic did not dissipate, is that correct? You drew it back, like a yo-yo?”

“Like a yo-yo…yeah, I guess. I can’t do it with the higher power levels—it needs to find a home. Or else I need Stefan around to brace me, but otherwise, yeah, I try to suck it back in when it isn’t trying to kill me in some horrific way.”

“Although, the bugs were making their way back to you…”

“Yeah, they do that. I give them life—accidentally, obviously—and they try to kill me. Ungrateful bastards.”

“Yo-yo. Please.” He made a large sweeping motion with his hand, indicating I should move on to the next stage. He stepped next to me again.

“Okay, well, now we move into the more serious power levels. Stefan and Dominicous, you might step closer. Things will probably get interesting…”

“Can she do anything right?” I heard to my far right.

The answer was no. I’d cried about that fact on Stefan’s chest so many times I couldn’t count. I had no idea what I was doing wrong. I could follow the spell exactly, mimicking the teacher or student identically, applying power just the way it was described, and while someone else got a happy little dog that waited by a gate, and then ran to its owner with a magical message of some kind, I got a killer wolf trying to kill me. It wasn’t the power level, either. I still got a giant, man-eating dog when I used purple, the lowest level I could possibly use. Stuff just didn’t work right for me.

The overall consensus was that my magic was weird because I was human. I had long started to agree, regardless of what Stefan said.

I took a cleansing breath, trying to focus even though that blue-eyed stare could throw the most experienced off track. If the guy would just blink once in a while it wouldn’t be so bad. Or else, I dunno, move a finger or something!

“I am going to attempt…oh man, what do I want to attempt?”

I thought for a minute into the quiet of midnight. The darkness permeated my awareness, sifting through my fingers and sliding past my skin. I sucked in power, feeling the glow in my chest and the tingle in my limbs. “No one touch me.”

A long delicate pale finger slowly reached into my line of sight and poked my bare arm. A blast of magic burst into Toa’s skin. A resounding, bone jarring shock rocked him backward. He made a, “Whooee,” sound as he shook his hand.

Not able to help my chuckles, I said, “I told you.”

“What just happened?” Dominicous asked, stepping forward and peering around a once again staring Toa.

“She electrified her skin somehow,” Toa explained in his musical tone, leaning forward to look at my arm, his hands at his sides. “I’ve never seen that before. Fascinating. Her magic, or a new spell?”

“How did you do that?” Dominicous asked, suspicious of something.

I shrugged, still trying to think of something to try that wouldn’t result in a lot of crushed people. “I feel the darkness around me, and then my chest and limbs get hot. Physically hot, I guess, because whenever someone touches me other than Stefan they get a shock.”

Toa’s stare found Stefan. “Why aren’t you affected?”

He shrugged, heat of a different kind filling our special link. “She calls to me, and I to her. I always thought it was because of that, somehow.”

“Proceed,” Dominicous said suddenly. “I am eager for this portion of the testing to be over.”

“There’s more after this?” I whined before I could help myself.

“Are you tired?” Toa asked softly, almost mockingly.

I looked at him in confusion, completely unsure why he insisted on talking at the very lower end of his volume level. He looked back—as usual—but this time his gaze was condescending.

I crinkled my nose. “Just wait and see Mr. Marathon.”

“Don’t do it, Sasha,” Charles warned.

“Yes, do it,” Toa challenged.

Fine.

Orange, a step above my default red. It wouldn’t hurt for very long.

I drew in a nice, big shot of air, mixed it with fire, added just a touch of earth so it would linger, and summoned up a thickening spell tinged with a furnace flare. The object was to solidify the air around an opponent to slow them down. Mine produced one hell of a shock as it did so. It took a lot of energy to execute, like physically holding someone still that wanted to run, but in this instance, it would be worth it.

I left my hands at my sides, because I didn’t need those, and flashed a grin in Toa’s direction. “Surprise!” I let the magic settle down onto him.

“Aaaeeeee!” Toa convulsed for three seconds before the orange haze started crackling with white and disintegrated into the harmless air around him.

“Oooh, you’re fast at that,” I commended, giving him a praising downward smile. It was also my thinking smile. I had no idea how he’d done it.

His stare had some of that left over voltage in it. I raised my hands in surrender, “You told me to!”

“When do Stefan and I get to work?” Dominicous asked smoothly.