Braving the Elements (Darkness #2)(6)

“So let’s go, let’s go. Follow me!” Master Bert gestured everyone out through the doors.

As everyone shuffled outside—the girls all throwing red faced glances Charles’s way, as usual—Charles said, “You’ve hit red, I don’t understand the problem…”

I didn’t, either.

I stepped through the backdoor of the mansion and onto a stone path. We followed the rest of the students through swaying trees, huddling in the darkness, the inky black licking my senses.

I closed my eyes as we walked, feeling that pulsing in my chest—the one I had tried to find inside, but hadn’t been able to. Now, with the night looming around me, pressing on all sides, it felt like something was released.

Something inside me relaxed, the block dissolving away.

Suddenly, I felt the magic crouching in Charles where he touched my back to direct me. The darkness whispered in the form of leaves rustling, of night birds calling, of the tickle of the wind as it stirred my hair. I connected with my childhood; peering through the darkness, seeking out the imaginary people. Feeling the whisper in my body, the tickle of my senses.

It had always been magic. I just hadn’t known. And I attributed it to the night. I’d probably learned to control it, as Charles said, when on my own, feeling my way through the darkness.

Joy filled my body, sensing Master Bert now, a glowing orb burning within him. Onto the other students, many with tiny sparks, nothing more than colored winks, and only two with a small flame.

I stopped, eyes closed, feeling the ground beneath me. Shoes quickly shed, I stepped off the path, dirt at my feet, clutching Charles’s hand and dragging him with me. His inner orb felt my petting and started to dance, spinning and twirling.

The air brushed my face, wanting to be let in. The dirt at my feet wanted to climb up my body. The heat grew, the joy making me laugh. I raised my hands, my smile twisting, electricity filling the air, humidity squeezing out water. Charles stood mute behind me, his orange orb starting to flicker brighter, a deeper color, merging with my power and intensifying.

“Isn’t it wonderful?”

Was that my voice? It sounded deep and sultry, sensuous. I laughed, carefree and light, my fingers crackling with power, spikes of pain pricking my skin.

“No, Sasha!”

My body whipped around, brought into an iron chest and surrounded by bands of steel arms. The joy cut off by a control more fastidious. Somehow, my magic was smoothed out and balanced, dissolving the danger.

In opposition, my heart jumped, beating wildly in my chest. Heat filled me, but not from magic. I leaned my head against Stefan’s hard chest and sighed.

“What are you playing at?” His words bounced off my head.

“I don’t know, it felt wonderful. I was so happy for a minute.”

“You were trying to draw too much. You have to learn to control each element before you bring them together. Most importantly, you have to learn to cut off the draw.”

His heart pushed against my cheek pleasantly. “That’s what I did?” I backed off his chest so I could meet his intense black eyes. His handsome face took my breath away, his strength and power had me floating, his presence and charisma making me melt. It wasn’t fair, this thing he did to me.

It wasn’t fair that his choice as mate was an equally beautiful jerk named Darla who didn’t deserve him.

“How’d you know I needed to come outside?” I whispered.

His head leaned down fractionally, getting closer. “You feel things. You respond. React. You’re not a planner or a plodder. I figured if you were exposed to it, your body would remember how to do it. But you have to control it. It was dangerous what you just did. You know what happens when you draw too much.”

“I don’t…” I shook my head. “I don’t know how to control it.”

“That’s why you’re in school,” he whispered, his pupils dilating. His eyes roamed my face, touching my eyes, my nose, glancing across my cheek, then to my mouth. He sucked in a deep breath, his eyelids drooping. His fingers tightened on my arms, drawing my body closer.

My hands landed on his lateral muscles, bumpy and delicious. I breathed in his smell, musk and masculine. Safety and protection.

“Boss, Bert is nearly here. This the way you want him to see you? Damn it, she smells good when she’s turned on!”

Stefan jerked me away from him, his eyes blinking quickly as they refocused. He let me go and stepped back.

I could have kicked Charles!

Master Bert hustled up, his eyes catching me and relaxing. A second later, they hit Charles with a scowl, then hit Stefan. “Oh my gosh! Boss! What are — hello! Did you detain them? Maw, I feared something had happened to them, the tricky little monkeys.”

“Something did.” Stefan gently pushed me toward Charles. Before he took his hand away, I could have sworn his thumb brushed my collarbone.

“Sasha tried to draw too much. Charles let her do it, staring at her like a googly-eyed teenager. She needs to be watched. She’s above the other students in power level—dangerously so.”

“Well, hmm.” Master Bert put his hand to his chest in thought. “I confess, I didn’t know if she could even reach her power. What an excellent suggestion, then, coming out here. Maw, yes. Hmm. Should I separate them?

Move them up a level?”