“You look troubled,” Nuala said.
“I just keep thinking about how easily Morgan destroyed my barrier.” Aiden rubbed at his arms. “I talked to Phoebe—she’s the tutor I told you about—but she doesn’t know how to fight dark fae.” He sighed. “I know she’s doing her best, but she’s only part fae, and she doesn’t really know what to do with me anymore.”
“Oh. I could certainly train you,” Nuala said.
“When you get here?” In three weeks the potion would be ready and he could bring her over from Faery.
“We could start now.”
Aiden blinked. “Would that… work? I mean, we’re not really here. This is a dream.”
“Held together by a dream walker. It will not be quite the same, but it will be very close. If you practice in the waking world, you will be able to adjust for any slight differences.”
Hope lit in his chest. “You can teach me to block Morgan?”
“You are the son of a king, Aiden. You are very powerful. With the proper technique and training, you could hold back an army.”
Aiden laughed nervously. “I might need to.” Morgan had brought almost a dozen dark fae with him, plus the extremists who hadn’t been captured and now all the people they’d broken out.
“Make a barrier.”
He took a breath, trying to clear his mind. Things were a little off—a fuzzy sensation in the back of his mind, and the plants and earth around him didn’t feel quite the same as they did in the real world. But Nuala was right. It was close. His magic answered and tingled through the air, forming a shield of magic all the way around him.
“Put as much strength into it as you can.” Nuala walked toward him.
She was going to try to break it. Of course. He put more energy into it, the kind of spell that would hold against Dylan’s attacks in Major Magical Control.
Nuala lifted her hand, set it against the faint green-gold barrier, and pushed. It held for one breath, two, and then it burst. Sparkling bits of magic fell through the air between them.
“I suck.” Failure made his stomach sink. He couldn’t protect himself. He couldn’t protect anybody.
“Do not despair. That was merely your first attempt.” Nuala smiled. “Now I will create a barrier and you will take the spell from me so you can feel the energy of it for yourself.”
“I can do that?”
“It may take a few trials, but yes.” With a light flick of her fingers, a shield sprang up around her.
She had Aiden press his hands to it and try to pull it away from her. He didn’t even have a body here, but after a few moments he was sweating. Taking a short break, he mopped at his forehead, breathing hard. “I’m not getting it.” He made a frustrated noise. Magic had been easier for him the past year or so, and he’d forgotten what a struggle it used to be. “How am I supposed to take it from you?”
“It’s not a forceful act. I am offering it to you as if it were a gift. You simply receive it.”
Aiden put his hands against the barrier again. “Okay.” It struck him that he was actually being trained by his birth mom. All the years that they’d missed out on together, but now they were finally spending time with each other.
She would understand better than anyone else how his magic worked. They had the same kind of magic. The energy of it tingled against his hands, then it shifted. Suddenly it was obvious, and he lifted the spell away from her, wrapping it around himself instead.
“Excellent!” Nuala grinned.
The barrier was so powerful. His own spell seemed like a plastic toy shield in comparison. This was like a brick wall. Fear skittered through Aiden, and he reminded himself this was a protective spell, not anything directed at him. “You think I can make one like this?”
“I know you can.”
Her absolute confidence rubbed off on him, and Aiden smiled. “Okay, I’ll give it a try.”