Page 36 of Hunted

After a few moments of waiting, I gingerly opened one eye. Then I sighed and dropped my hands. “It’s not working,” I said.

Tallin poked out from under the pillow. “Thank the Gods.”

“No, not thank the Gods. I want this to work.”

“Well, are you doing something different this time?”

“I’m not sure. I mean, I guess I’m using the sigil… that’s new.”

“The bedroom door opened, if that helps.”

“It did?” I looked the other way. “Oh… actually, I suppose thatissomething.”

“You didn’t mean for it to open?”

“No, but I’ll take what I can get.” I sighed. “I really have no idea what I’m doing, though. It’s all guess work.”

“It will come to you. I know it will.”

“All I want to do is prove to myself that I can control these powers. I thought if I could just make all those little items move—”

“—Amara, look!”

Tallin had his paw up, and he was pointing at the desk. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing! Each and every one of the objects I had put down was hanging in the air, hovering about a foot off the desk. The pencil was twirling lightly, the dice was rolling around itself. I could feel the quiet thrum of magic at work around me. As I examined the desk more closely, I noticed the sigil I had drawn on that piece of paper was glowing slightly.

“Woah…” I gasped, breathless. “I did this?”

“Did you?” Tallin asked.

“I must have, right? Wait, how am I doing this?”

“I know about as much as you know.”

“Maybe it just takes a moment? You know? Like, maybe this kind of magic takes longer to… manifest.”

“Perhaps. Can you stop it?”

“I’m… really not sure.”

“You told them to float off the desk, so tell them to land?”

I nodded. “Right,” I said, taking a deep breath and raising my hands. I was about to open my mouth and issue the command, when I spotted Valerian standing at the bedroom door, an impressed look on his face.

I had meant to tell him to, please,leave. Instead, I swiped my hand through the air, Ithoughtthe word. A pulse of magic tore out of me and surged toward him. This invisible blast ripped through the door, causing it to splinter in several places. It then struck Valerian in the chest and sent him hurtling into the wall behind him with enough force to crack it.

Valerian then fell to the ground, crumpled.

I wanted to scream. I wanted to speak. I wanted to do anything except stand there, staring at the mark he had left in the wall when he struck it, but I couldn’t. I didn’t feel like I could move, not even an inch, not even to breathe.

I only snapped back into my own mind once I heard Evie trundling up the stairs. I raced toward Valerian and threw myself on my knees beside him. I turned him around, panicked, my heart thundering inside of my chest. He had hit the wall hard enough to crack it, but when he fell to the floor, he had also hit his head, and he was bleeding from a small gash.

“Oh no,” I said, touching his face. “Valerian, please wake up,” I said.

I heard Evie gasp. “What happened?!” she asked.

“He’s hurt,” I pleaded, “Get me a wet towel, I need to stop the bleeding.”

Valerian opened his eyes, blinked hard, and rubbed his head. “Wow…” he croaked. “That was a rush.”