Chapter 25

 

 

 

 

The next morning, I sat cross-legged in the center of a field, miles away from the nearest road or gas station, idly pulling apart blades of dead grass. A few yards away, Ori, Eileen, Sophia, and Ted were discussing the training schedule for the day. Robert and Evelyn were spending the day at a mall on the other side of town, at my insistence. If anyone ever questioned the others, I didn’t want them to have to admit to displaying Elemental powers to non-Elementalists. I also didn’t want Evelyn anywhere within the vicinity of me and my uncontrolled, unpredictable abilities.

And, if I were to be honest with myself, some part of me wasn’t ready to directly expose that part of myself to Evelyn. I clung to the notion that one day we’d be able to go back to the life we once had: milk and cookies on a Friday night in front of her old TV set, heading to the town library together in the Buick, me trying – and failing – to crochet a scarf under her direction while she tsk-ed my irregular stitches. If she actually saw me hurling Fire or splitting the ground apart, as opposed to just hearing the others’ accounts of my abilities, her perception of me would change even more… And more than anything, I just wanted some sliver of normalcy to remain in my life once everything was finally over.

“Are you sure the Containment Division won’t track us down?” I heard Eileen press, repeating Ori’s same question from five minutes ago.

“I told you, I took care of everything,” Ted replied crossly. “We’re good.”

I still wasn’t sure if I trusted him or not, and I’m ashamed to say that my spirits were finally low enough that I didn’t care. Whether I failed or succeeded, was killed or captured – it made no difference to me in that moment. Short of Evelyn – who had Robert now, anyway – I had nothing else to lose. Even the thought of freeing my mother – the woman who had headed the program that employed Electromantic torture methods – was now a bittersweet notion. Did she deserve to be free?

Did I, a killer, deserve it any more than she did?

The only thing I cared about in that moment was the others’ well-being. Earlier that morning, I’d taken Ori and Eileen aside, tried with all my might to convince them to go home, to call Savannah and tell her the truth about what they did so they could remain on her good side. When I’d finally finished my impassioned speech, they both were staring at me as though I were out of my mind.

“We can’t just go back to a Community that commits these kinds of atrocities, then resume our normal lives as though nothing has changed,” Eileen had argued. “We have to get to the heart of it – discover the truth, determine just how high within the Order the corruption goes.”

Ori had been quick to side with her. “The short one is right,” he said, as Eileen scowled in his direction. “I, for one, need to find out if this is just a crazy American anomaly or what, so I can go back to Tel Aviv and tell my chapter heads there what’s going on. But it’s not enough to report hearsay. I need to see it for myself.”

I begrudgingly agreed, all the while concocting plans in my head to ensure their safety should Ted betray us – which, I figured at that point, was about a fifty-fifty chance.

That’s what I was thinking about as I sat alone in the damp grass– how to convince the Asterians that the others were innocent in case of our discovery – or worse. Maybe I could say I performed Empathic Electromancy on each of them in order to manipulate them into following me. It was a total fabrication obviously, but given my mother’s powers, perhaps the Containment Division would buy it…

“So, this Ted guy – he’s an old family friend?” Eileen asked, walking over to sit beside me in the grass. She stretched her bright green sneakers out in front of her, turning her face upward to soak in the mid-morning sun.

“Yeah, something like that,” I replied.

“Well, he gets props for being an Earth-mover,” she commented. “I saw he has some secondary Terramantic ability… But he also works for the Security and Containment Division?”

I nodded.

“Do you trust him?” she asked, glancing at me from the corner of her eye. “What do your Electromantic Spidey Senses tell you?”

That I’m in way over my head, is what I wanted to say.

Instead, I simply replied, “They tell me he’s telling the truth… At least, I think he is.” Suddenly, I cocked my head to look at her. “Wait – Robert told you about the empathic weirdness?”

“Aiden did, actually – and it’s not weird, it’s awesome. Ori and Robert both agreed that, while rare, it does tend to be a reliable trait among certain Electromancers… such as yourself,” she grinned.

I sighed, yanking another handful of dead grass from the ground.

“Where is Aiden?” Eileen asked suddenly.

“I don’t know,” I replied, a little too tersely. “We, um… had a fight last night.”

She nodded. “Well, I won’t pry… Unless you want me too?” she asked hopefully. I shook my head. “Figured,” she smiled. “But I will say this: while you were slumbering away yesterday, and we all had a chance to catch up and get to know one another, it was… evident – at least to Sophia and me – how much Aiden cares about you.”

I kept my eyes glued to the blade of grass I was fiddling with. “…Have you ever kept anything from Sophia?” I asked carefully.

“Kept anything?” Eileen repeated. “Not… explicitly, no.” She glanced at me sideways, her head still tilted skyward. “But in the beginning of our relationship, I did have my secrets… Things I didn’t necessarily want to share, past experiences I was ashamed of. Sophia was the most amazing person I’d ever met in my entire life, you know? I was scared of losing her; afraid she’d lose interest in me if I let her see my flaws. But she didn’t have the patience for any of my nonsense; she’d been hurt too many times in the past by people who supposedly loved her. Right up front, she wanted to know the real me – ‘the good, the bad, and the ugly,’ she’d joke.”

“Yeah?”

Eileen grinned. “Over time, even though I’d been used to keeping my little unspoken secrets, I learned that I could tell her anything, and her love for me – her acceptance of me – never faltered.”

I stared at the blade of grass in my fingers that I’d been splitting over and over again with my thumbnail. It had become as thin as a strand of hair. I tossed it into the air, sighing.

“Here, I brought something for you,” Eileen said, casually changing the subject. She passed me a thick, brown, leather-bound binder.

“What’s this?” I asked, awkwardly hoisting the heavy book in my lap.

“Open it,” Eileen smiled.

I carefully flipped open the cover. Inside were pages and pages of clear plastic sheets, and every sheet had about twenty-five pockets. At first, I thought it was a coin collection because each transparent pocket contained a small, disc-shaped object, all perfectly uniform in size and shape, about the size of a nickel. But as I regarded the pages, I quickly realized that the colors and textures varied widely from coin-sized sample to sample. I glanced up at Eileen, my brows raised with bewilderment.

“It’s my collection of Earth elements and useful alloys,” Eileen explained, gazing at its pages lovingly. “I’ve fashioned samples of just about every non-radioactive element and alloy that one could accrue from common soil and rocks, collected from thirty-five countries so far.” She smiled. “It’s nowhere near complete, but it’s my pride and joy.”

Fascinated, I stared at the vast collection of materials she had assembled. Beneath each of the samples was a small, handwritten entry. Flipping through the hundreds of descriptions, which were meticulously arranged throughout the pockets by name and function, I read through several of them:

“You must have hundreds of samples in this thing,” I marveled, turning through the dozens of mineral-laden pages.

“There are only two hundred and fifty entries in this binder, but I have two other books back at home,” Eileen grinned. “I’m up to 672 samples so far.”

My eyebrows arched.

“But that’s nothing,” she said, waving dismissively. “The Smithsonian has something like 600,000 specimens in its collection – rocks, minerals, meteorites, gems… Savannah had promised me that after I devoted 250 hours of Terramantic training at the Denver Chapter, she’d arrange for me to intern there in the next year or so.”

She smiled wistfully and I could feel my stomach knot with remorse.

“Anyway, there’s not enough time to get into the details now,” she continued easily, “but I want you to borrow this for a while. There aren’t very many Level-Three Terramancers in the world, but of those who achieve that rank, a good percentage are what we jokingly call ‘Allomancers’, though not in the fantastical sense you may have read about in books.”

I nodded cluelessly; I had no idea what she was talking about.

“I can’t be sure about your abilities in this area until we test out my theory, but in simplest terms, Allomantic Terramancers memorize the ‘feel’ of various physical elements, and are then able to retrieve and manipulate those specific substances – mainly minerals and metals – from the Earth itself. They can also use a form of Metallurgy to affect the behavior of metallic elements and their man-made mixtures, which, I probably should have mentioned earlier, are called alloys. They can even separate metals from their ore… Remember how I told you about the South African Terramancer who’s able to convert coal – well, technically graphite – to rough diamonds?”

I nodded, remembering our lesson from last week. It seemed like it had been ages ago.

“Not only can he do that, but he’s also working with a team in Johannesburg to seek out and extract raw diamonds directly from remote volcanic Kimberlite pipes in order to gain more funding for the Asterian Order. It’s diabolical but fairly brilliant,” she chuckled.

I frowned slightly. “So – you’re saying that some Terramancers can memorize the feel of – I don’t know – gold, for example, and then just walk into a mine and call that specific element to them without even having to search for it?”

She beamed. “Exactly! If the mine has any appreciable amount of gold nearby, that is.”

“Are you able to do that?” I asked, fingering the disk of pure gold inside one of the pockets.

Eileen looked somewhat abashed. “I’m only a Level-Two Terramancer, but I can summon a handful of minerals and metals, mostly transition and post-transition metals like copper and tin. But, unlike some of the most powerful Terramancers in the world, I don’t have the ability to manipulate or combine elements.”

Combine elements? My mind was spinning.

A shadow fell across Eileen’s face; I looked up to see that Sophia had joined our impromptu Chemistry lesson.

“But even the best Terramancers don’t mess with gases,” Sophia smiled. “That’s getting into advanced Auromancy. Speaking of which, it looks like I’m first up to train you today, if that’s alright with you, Aspen?”

Eileen pouted at Sophia from the grass. “But I was just getting to the good stuff.”

I held back a chuckle as I carefully passed Eileen her treasure trove of mineral samples.

“Would you hold this for me, just for now? I promise I’ll sit with you later and go over these samples in more detail.” She nodded, still evidently put out by the abrupt end to our Terramancy lesson.

I stood up, brushing the dead grass from the seat of my pants, and gave Sophia a tight smile. “I should warn you, I have very little Auromancy training, save for musical theory,” I admitted, trying to refrain from rolling my eyes.

“Jo?” she asked with a soft chuckle.

I nodded.

“I’ve heard stories,” Sophia said, winking at Eileen. “In that case, let’s get started. I hope you don’t mind a small audience?” she asked, motioning to the others; Ori had settled onto the grass beside Eileen and her thick binder. Ted stood a few feet away from them, his arms crossed over his polo shirt.

“Having a little extra pressure will be good for her,” Ted said. “She always used to get a little gun-shy in front of others, and if we’re gonna get in and out of the D.C. facility successfully, we need her at her best. She’s the key to everything.”

“No pressure there,” I muttered.

“Well, in any case, let’s get started,” Sophia said, clasping her hands together. “Eileen tells me that, to her knowledge at least, you’ve never had a formal Hydromancy lesson, is that correct?”

I nodded.

“Well, that’s not necessarily true,” Ted intervened, causing me to crinkle my nose. “Her father was a powerful Hydromancer. He routinely took her out to practice, until just a few years ago…” He trailed off. Our eyes met briefly.

It was disconcerting, at times, the way Ted looked at me, reminisced about my own past – he had all these memories of me, of my family, yet he was a complete stranger to me. It occurred to me then that he probably felt as awkward as I did – but for the opposite reason.

“Anyway,” he continued, “She was good. From what I remember, she was an expert in most aspects of Hydromancy but struggled with Cryokinesis.” I shifted uncomfortably.

Sophia nodded. “Well, we have a breeze today, but not much viable water – I mean, we certainly have the humidity in the air and the water in our bodies – but I’m not comfortable starting right off the bat with that topic. So, let’s start with Wind. It sounds like you’ve already conjured tornadoes – and pretty powerful ones at that. Did I hear correctly that you toppled a moving truck earlier this month?”

I grimaced at the memory. “Yes… Well, not exactly – I mean, I did – but I didn’t mean to. It just sort-of… happened.” I clamped my mouth shut before I could utter any further incoherencies, but Sophia was nodding thoughtfully.

“Wind naturally parts around objects. Because of this, only extremely skilled Auromancers can incite currents powerful enough to cause that kind of result. Despite the fact that you can’t actively remember it, you clearly have a powerful foundation in Auromancy.”

“Her mother was also a Level-Three Auromancer,” Ted grunted, lowering himself down to sit in the grass a few feet away from Ori and Eileen.

“Ah, there you have it,” Sophia remarked. “And I think Aiden mentioned something about you combining Fire and Wind in the arena, which is most impressive. Combined, those two Elements can be rather difficult to control.”

I nodded grimly.

“Well, when it comes to Auromancy,” Sophia continued, “I tend to differ from Jo, the Denver instructor you previously worked with.”

“That’s perfectly fine by me,” I muttered, remembering the torturous windchime session. I still had nightmares where a poorly-rendered tune of Mary Had a Little Lamb played in the background over and over again. I shuddered, trying to clear my head of the tune before it could lodge itself in my brain and became a full-blown ear-worm.

Sophia smiled. “The thing that virtually all Auromancers struggle with at the beginning of their training is the concept of “control”. That can be found at the heart of all other Elementalist practices, but it doesn't quite work here. If Wind embodies one thing, in my opinion, that thing is freedom. And so, as an Auromancer, you shouldn’t seek to control the wind. Instead, you should focus on guiding it; on forming a sort of symbiosis with the wind currents and losing yourself in them.”

“For the record, Aspen, this is the exact opposite of what you should be doing with Lightning!” Ori called. “Do not ever get lost in electrical currents – it does weird things to a person’s mind.”

“Shh!” Eileen hissed, nudging him in the ribs. “Just shut up and try to learn something.”

“I’m just saying, it’s kind of crazy how different the Elements are… Can you imagine having to control all five of them?”

I took a moment to feel the breeze in the air, letting their voices fade into the background. At that very moment, the thought of losing myself in the wind sounded quite nice.

“Come,” Sophia said, putting a gentle hand on my arm. “Let’s give ourselves some extra space.”

We headed away from the group and farther into the field, where the grass gave way to long, slender stalks of wheat that waved lazily in the breeze. Out of earshot from the others, Sophia turned to look at me, her honey-brown eyes glinting in the afternoon sun, reflecting tiny flecks of gold.

“It sounds like you’ve had a rough few days,” she said softly.

For some reason, my eyes brimmed with tears.

“It’s a good day for Auromancy, I think,” Sophia smiled, her voice gentle. “Wind manipulation is a practice in calmness and passivity; to surrender one's self entirely to the air that surrounds us all, as opposed to forcing one's will onto the thing we wish to shape… Instead of jumping straight to offensive tactics, such as the tornadoes you already conjured during moments of fear or panic, I’d like to spend our time today working on more deliberate defensive actions: making your footfalls lighter, negating air currents that would normally be disturbed by your movement… Later on, we’ll practice amplifying your hearing by changing the magnitude of air displaced by sound waves. There’s a lot to cover.”

I must have been giving her a strange look, because she laughed. “I know this all sounds very complex – and it is – but if you can knock over an out-of-control semi-truck, you can certainly do these things.”

“I just thought Wind was for blowing things around… knocking things over,” I confessed.

“Auromancy is an art in delicacy and elegance – as well as a powerful weapon,” Sophia said. “Once you’ve truly learned to enter the right meditative state, you can use Wind to replicate sounds by precisely moving air molecules, create force fields, even breathe underwater.”

I raised my eyebrows at that. “If I’d only known that last week…”

“Which brings me back to the meditation component,” Sophia said, standing in front of me. “I want to help you find that quiet place – to learn it, become familiar with it, like an old friend – so you may enter it quickly, even in the most stressful of circumstances. Now close your eyes.” I did so. “What do you feel?” she asked.

“My heart is pounding,” I said, squeezing my eyes shut. “My chest feels tight.”

“And your thoughts?”

“Everywhere.”

“I want you to try and release all of those thoughts, clear your mind,” she said softly.

Easier said than done, I thought to myself.

“Can you feel the wind? Do you feel it brushing past your hair, caressing your face?” Sophia pressed gently. I nodded. “Feel it. Smell it. Breathe it. Open yourself to the wind flowing around you. Its infinite molecules interact with one another in a seemingly random way, but truly, it isn't at all random. Everything is connected. The flow of every single molecule will inevitably affect every other molecule to form the flowing waves and currents we call Wind.”

The wind picked up just then, as though it was blowing from below me. I took a deep breath, filling my lungs with air. When I exhaled, I felt lighter, somehow. Not calm, exactly. But calmer.

“Keep breathing,” Sophia coaxed. “Lose yourself in the breeze.”

I nodded, feeling the calmest I had in weeks.

A moment later, she spoke again. “Now open your eyes.”

When I did, I gasped. My boots were hovering an inch above the ground. “Did I do that?” I asked, stunned.

Sophia smiled as my feet gently lowered against the crunchy dirt once more.

“No – that was me. But I’ll teach you how – just as soon as we conquer all the fundamentals of Auromantic Meditation.”

I did my best to suppress a groan.

***

It took an hour or so, but I eventually was able to get to a tranquil enough state to guide the wind in basic movements – at least about half of the time. It was certainly different than what I was used to doing in the recent past, which was essentially panicking and getting lucky.

As we headed back to the others, my breath caught; Aiden had arrived and was talking to Ted. Their conversation appeared civil, but when Aiden’s dark eyes rose to meet mine, my heart immediately began racing.

“Aiden, welcome,” Sophia called to him as we approached. “Good timing, too. I was just about to raise the subject of Pyromancy.”

“Oh?” he asked, facing us. I took that opportunity to pick at a loose thread on my shirt tail.

“I wanted to take a moment to talk about the interplay between Auromancy and Pyromancy,” Sophia said, motioning me to follow her. “A skilled Auromancer can empower a friendly Pyromancer – or hinder an unfriendly one – by manipulating the oxygen in the air. If you don’t mind, I’d like to take this opportunity to help Aspen practice that skill.”

I refused to look Aiden in the eye; an awkward silence ensued.

“I’ll do it,” Ted said, taking a step forward. “What do you say, Ro – er, Aspen? It’ll be just like old times.”

“Sure – why not?” I replied, trying to sound more nonchalant than I felt.

“Excellent,” Sophia said. “Here – Ted, you stand right here. Aspen, come stand about ten feet away from him, over here.” She flashed Eileen a quick smile before walking over to stand in the middle of us. “Aiden, if you don’t mind remaining on standby just in case Aspen needs some help?” He nodded, crouching on the grass a few feet away.

I swallowed tightly.

“Okay – so the concept is fairly simple, though the execution itself is somewhat complex.” Sophia said. “Ted, I’d like you to maintain a small flame – preferably not on the ground, since the grass is so dry – but in the air. That’s all; just maintain its size and potency, and let Aspen do the rest.” She turned towards me. “Aspen, without using any Pyromantic influence, I’d like you to try and strengthen that Fire, with the focus being to assist Ted in fueling it. The trick here is to increase the oxygen fueling the flame, allowing Ted’s Fire to become stronger without him needing to use any additional Pyromantic resource.”

I nodded.

“Ted – if you don’t mind?” Sophia asked.

He took a match from his pocket and deftly lit it on his boot, then pulled the flame away from the tip and held it in front of him. That simple action, paired with the smell of the burning match, jarred something in a far corner of my mind. But before I could think on it further, Sophia spoke again.

“Now, Aspen, I want you to do like we practiced before. You’ll need to clear your mind, enter a trance-like state. The wind won’t bow to your pressure, but it will realign with your guidance.”

Doing everything I could not to glance at Aiden, I took a deep breath and shut my eyes. Still, I could feel his dark eyes burning into me.

Clear your head, I reminded myself. Don’t think of him, don’t think of Ted… just feel the wind.

“Very good, Aspen,” Sophia said softly. “Now, touch the wind, see it… use its tendrils like fingers to wrap around the flame and breathe oxygen into it.” Across from me, Ted snorted, but I did my best to ignore him, reaching forward with the wind to embrace the fire, to breathe life into it as Sophia had instructed.

A moment passed, and then another.

Ted let out a sharp yelp. My eyes shot open just as the flame erupted into a white-hot plume, like a welder’s flame. He yanked his hand away but didn’t extinguish the flame. Aiden was on his feet; Eileen and Ori were standing as well, shielding their eyes from the fire’s incredibly bright light.

“Excellent!” Sophia beamed.

Distracted by her voice, I let go of the wind and the fire burned away, leaving only its residual marks on my retina. I tried to blink away the bright purple splotches fluttering across my vision.

“So, you see,” she continued, “Even at low pressure, pure oxygen will do incredible things to Fire, providing an assist to even the strongest Pyromancers.”

That’s a handy defense, I thought to myself. But my thoughts drifted to Aiden and Tom fighting in the arena, and it suddenly felt as though a fist had connected with my solar plexus.

“Now, let’s try the opposite,” I heard Sophia say. “Let’s try using the wind in self-defense, and extinguish a flame by pulling oxygen away from it.”

“I’ll take over,” Aiden said, stepping forward.

“As you wish,” Ted replied, before I could summon the words to protest. Aiden took his place, standing directly across from me. I did my best not to scowl at him. As for him, his expression remained unreadable.

“Take a few steps back, Aiden… Yep, that’s perfect. Okay,” Sophia said, standing between us. “Now, Aspen, this should be relatively easy, since you’ve just successfully attempted the counter-movement, which is frankly harder to master. Aiden, I want you to send Fire in Aspen’s direction, as though you were attacking her. Aspen, I want you to extinguish his Fire by cutting off its oxygen source. Make sure you’re concentrating on the air around the fire itself, so we don’t inadvertently cause Aiden any discomfort in breathing.”

Aiden glanced at Sophia. “Can Auromancers do that?”

“What?” she asked.

“Suffocate a person by removing oxygen from the air?” I clarified, for the same question was burning in my mind as well.

Sophia looked slightly uncomfortable. “It’s not anything that’s ever really talked about or sanctioned, but yes… Hypothetically, a Level-Three Auromancer would be able to suffocate a person by displacing the oxygen around them… But to be perfectly honest, an easier way to do it would just be to withdraw the air directly from their lungs.”

A few yards away, Ori blanched as he gave me a horrified look. Eileen looked unfazed. I imagined she’d probably heard all of this before.

“Average Auromancers can affect Wind – primarily its speed, direction, force, temperature, and so on. It takes a rather adept Auromancer to be able to affect the molecules of the air itself.”

“It’s a good thing Sophia is such a gentle creature,” Eileen chimed in, “because Level-Three Hydromancers and Auromancers are always the worst villains in all the old Elemental stories – between boiling peoples’ blood and sucking the air right out of their lungs, I certainly wouldn’t want to cross someone as powerful as Sophia in a back alley.”

“On a lighter note, I’ve actually led Elemental CPR training sessions to help Auromancers to coax air back into the lungs of a person in respiratory distress,” Sophia added brightly. “Well-intentioned Auromancy saves lives! Anyway, let’s focus on the matter at hand. Aiden, I want to up the ante a little bit. Aspen seems to have a fairly good grasp on entering a meditative state, so try not to hold back with the fire, okay?”

Aiden glanced at me uncertainly.

“Hey, if you don’t feel comfortable, I’ll do it,” Ted offered. “Now’s not the time to be babying her.”

“No, I’ve got it,” Aiden replied tersely. Ted shrugged.

“Sophia is right,” I said, finally meeting Aiden’s eye. “We don’t have time for slow-pitch.”

He nodded, his mouth pressed into a thin line.

“Okay, Aspen,” Sophia instructed. “Get ready – only this time, keep your eyes open. You must let yourself go, while also being present. Aiden… Give her until the count of ten, then proceed at your leisure.” Aiden’s right hand went to his pocket, where I knew he always kept his lighter.

I took a few shaky mouthfuls of air, doing my best not to think about the night before. It was also incredibly difficult, I noted with no insignificant amount of chagrin, to watch Aiden without my mind naturally wandering. He was undeniably good-looking, wearing a white t-shirt that was stretched tightly across his chest; his angled jaw tightened in concentration, his toned biceps flexed as he prepared to attack.

Stop it, I chided myself, feeling blood rushing to my face.

At that exact moment, a ball of Fire shot at me, catching me entirely off guard. I yelled out an expletive and flung myself to the grass, feeling the flame’s sizzling heat against my skin as it soared past me, inches from my face.

“Aspen, are you okay?” Aiden called out, running over to me.

“I’m fine,” I groaned, heaving myself up from the ground. I refused to look at him or anyone else, instead brushing the dead grass off my pants. I could feel my face burning furiously.

“What happened?” Sophia asked, a worried look on her face.

“Nothing. I’m fine,” I replied brusquely.

“Maybe we should—” Aiden started.

“I said I’m fine,” I interrupted.

Ori gave Eileen a pointed look. “I think we can safely assume the cause of the power outage last night,” he whispered. I shot him an angry look. “Just speculating!” he called to me, shrugging impishly. Eileen punched his arm. “Ouch! What’d you do that for?” he whined, rubbing his shoulder.

I gave Aiden a level look. “Again. Don’t hold back.”

He looked as though he wanted to argue, but simply walked back to his place and nodded.

“Tell me when,” he said.

I took a deep breath, forcing all errant thoughts in my head away. I felt the familiar breeze gently whipping at my hair. It was there, waiting. I could almost hear it whispering in my ear.

“Now.”

A plume of Fire came at me, and I could feel the blast of heat against my face; a split second later, it evaporated – extinguished almost as quickly as it came. I smelled something acrid.

“Aspen, your hair!” Eileen cried out. A piece of my hair, just below my chin, was smoking.

“I’ve got it,” Sophia said, waving a casual hand.

I curiously examined the singed strand of hair between my fingers, now no longer burning.

“Thanks,” I called to Sophia, then turned to Aiden. “Did… did you do that? Exterminate the fire?”

“That was all you,” he replied, running a hand through his hair.

“It was?” I asked, looking to Sophia for confirmation.

She nodded, a smile spreading across her face.

“Well… in that case,” I replied, “Let’s do it again. Give me everything you’ve got,” I said, giving Aiden a steely look.

“I really don’t think –”

“What? That I can handle it?” I asked.

“She can handle it,” Ted said. “I used to throw plenty worse at her, back in the day.”

“I’m a Level-Three Pyromancer,” Aiden said, his jaw clenched. “How much worse could she have possibly have handled?” Ted looked slightly affronted.

“Just do it,” I said, planting my feet on the ground firmly. “I can handle it.”

Aiden rubbed his forehead.

“Don’t hold back,” I warned.

“Fine,” came his terse reply. “Get ready.”

We stared at each other for a long moment. Whether it was a few seconds or a few minutes, I can’t rightfully say; but within that interminable moment loomed a growing compendium of emotions we’d been hoarding for some time between us – desire, betrayal, attraction, pain, fear. The tension between us was so palpable, I could taste its sweet, bitter corrosiveness on my tongue. Then it came, as he promised it would – a wall of flames that erupted like an explosion. The crimson fire roiled and churned in a mesmerizing, almost liquid manner as it billowed forward. The sheer, staggering heat emanating from it was like nothing I’d ever felt before. My eyes widened as it came right at me, momentarily blinding me with its unbelievable intensity.

For a split second before it hit, I was reminded of the time a deer had jumped in front of my motorcycle in the middle of the night on a narrow, unlit mountain road. Even as the glaring white light from my headlamp filled its terrified, unblinking eyes, it stood there, completely still, as though it openly greeted death.

In that moment, much like that pitiable animal, I stood completely paralyzed, greeting death as though it were an old friend.