Page 77 of Dreams of Magic
The water spewed up into the air in a fast gush and followed the arch of her arm, dousing the fire completely and soaking the ground around it.
“YES!” She did a little happy dance, then turned and threw her arms around Marshall. As she hugged him, she reached out to Aiden,“Thank you.”
“Always, love.”
Marshal squeezed her in a tight hug then pulled back, “Great job Kenz. Thanks for not dropping it on my head this time.”
She grinned at him, “This time. Can’t make any promises for next time.”
“Okay, enough celebrating.” Raven smiled, “That was great, but it was just the beginning. Did you both feel where the magic came from when you pulled it?”
Kenzie put a hand to her chest, “I feel it here first, then it starts to build up and then it kind of bursts out of me. If I concentrate too hard, it’s like I can feel it sitting there, like a rock on my chest but it won’t move. You were right. If I don’t think about how to do it, and just do, then it flows out of me.”
Raven nodded, “Good. Marshall?”
“I feel mine in my gut first. And it’s like a pulling feeling when I use it.”
“Okay perfect. Let’s move on then.”
They spent an hour practicing over and over. Raven made them try several different exercises to try and learn control. She made Kenzie hold a ball of water in one hand and bounce it back and forth like a hacky sack. Then she had Marshall try the same thing with fire. They both just about had it when Colin and Sabine walked up to them.
Colin spoke first, “We are done watching for today, but your progress is slow. You need to work faster.”
Raven scoffed, “They are learning control. They need that before attempting anything else. It’s the first rule of magic, always.”
Colin glared at her, “Then they need to learn it faster. Tomorrow, you need to start on offense and defense.”
“I’d say we’re doing pretty damn good for only finding out we had magic a few days ago. And Raven is doing an amazing job instructing us.” Marshall was nearly growling at him, clearly irritated by the demand.
Wanting to diffuse the situation, Kenzie stepped in, “What is your element?”
Colin just looked at her for a moment. Long enough that she thought he wouldn’t answer, “Air.”
She tried not to make a face but that just didn’t sound like a fun element to her. She asked, “How can air be used as a weapon? I get that it can like, erode mountains and stuff, but that takes a while. How can you protect yourself with wind?”
Sabine took a step closer to Colin, “Colin.”
“Hush Sabine. She asked. How about a demonstration?” His eyes were cold as he waited for her to answer.
Kenzie glanced at Marshall who just shrugged. He didn’t know either. She was curious, “Okay sure.”
Colin’s hand waived through the air, just a graceful flick of the wrist and suddenly she couldn’t breathe. It was like all of the air had been sucked out from around her and her throat was constricting.
She dropped to her knees as she started to claw at her throat. Her lungs were laboring, trying to suck in air unsuccessfully, burning like they were filled with sand. She started to get dizzy and the edges of her vision began to blur.
“Enough Colin. She gets it.” Sabine spoke sharply, disapproval clear in her voice.
Suddenly Kenzie was able to suck in a deep breath, panting to try to catch her breath as she wheezed over and over. Her throat was so dry she started coughing. It felt like there were shards of glass cutting her throat as she sucked in gulps of air.
She hadn’t realized Marshall was beside her, but he gently pulled her into his arms as he confronted Colin, “You’re a fucking bastard. That wasn’t necessary!”
Colin shrugged, “But it was fun.”
Aiden dropped down next to her and Marshall, “Here Kenz, drink some water. It should help.”
She reached for the water bottle and chugged the contents greedily. Her throat was parched, and even though the water burned going down, nothing had ever felt better.
When she tried to talk, nothing came out but a croak, so she leaned over and placed a light kiss on his cheek.“Thank you, Aiden.”