Claire swallowed hard. “So, this is a test?”
I sent a trickle of flame behind her ear, and she swatted at it.
“Don’t worry, sweetheart. You can’t fail a test here. This is about embracing your fire.” I kissed her on the cheek and she stiffened, her eyes darting to our audience.
Everyone was staring.
Most of the students had done this exercise before, but they wanted to see what Claire could do. She suffered from a bad reputation born of her mother’s doing and was then framed for stirring elemental chaos on campus. But she was innocent, proved to be a victim herself, and she’d survived. What she didn’t realize was the respect that came with her survival. I saw it in the eyes of our fellow fae. They wanted to admire her for coming through the firestorm alive.
I needed to give Claire all the courage to feel accepted here. All she had to do was believe in herself.
I pointed at a distant patch of straw with a red flag poking out the center of it. “See that middle marker? I’m going to ignite it without touching any of the other piles nearby. The goal here is control, Claire.” I teased her skin with a caress of heat, causing her to arch an eyebrow at me.
“You? Control?” She glanced pointedly at the goose bumps creeping across her arm. “Uh-huh.”
I responded with another brush of warmth, stirring a shiver from her. “Doubting my ability already, sweetheart?”
Her eyes narrowed, her focus falling to me instead of our audience. “Show me what you can do.”
“We both know what I can do,” I said, flexing my mental muscles and locating the marked pile. “Ready?”
“Stop teasing and do it,” she said, her feistiness coming through.
I waggled my brows and ignited the straw with barely a thought.
She eyed the field and nodded. “Not bad. So I’m supposed to light another on fire?”
“Yep,” I said, withdrawing my flames. “Any pile you want, just make sure it’s one of the marked ones and nothing else.”
She sucked her lip between her teeth, her gaze wandering the field and the various targets.
I wondered which one she would pick. She should be conservative and choose the closest marker for her first try, but of course, that wasn’t my Claire.
She extended her hands, and flames licked at her fingertips. Stripes of blue wound through her fire like an elemental rope, sizzling with barely contained power.
That’s new, I thought.
The other fae murmured in reaction to the display. I leaned in closer to Claire and pressed my lips to her ear. “Is that water?”
She glanced at the flicker and frowned. “Yeah.”
“Can you rein it in and use just your fire?”
Her lips twisted to the side. “I don’t know.”
That was the problem—Claire’s powers controlled her, not the other way around. Which created an issue when she engaged non-fiery elements while surrounded by Fire Fae. If her water magic grew out of hand, I couldn’t help. And it would likely take the entire class to restrain her if she unleashed whatever was dwelling inside.
Which meant I’d have to speak to Cyrus about it since the element taking control of her now appeared to be water.
Great.
If only he hadn’t dismissed River…
Except we all knew that was the right move. Cyrus’s renowned familial ties to the Water Fae King made him exceptionally powerful and proficient in the element. Even if it wasn’t the sid
e of his nature he chose to acknowledge most. He was too busy serving as the Spirit King.
Alas, he’d volunteered to take on her water mentorship, and given the strengthening blue swirl around her fire, he’d better get started sooner rather than later.