The demon sat silent in the back of my skull, watching. Its amusement leaked through like a low hum. Itwouldn’t lift a finger. The shockwave, the force—all of it came from the creature. And it would never give me access unless I begged. Once I handed over a piece of myself, I’d lose more. Until it took over.
Full fucking possession.
At the instructor’s urging, I tried again. And again. Cadets glanced over between their own drills. Some smirked. Delia’s satisfaction was palpable, reaching across the yard.
“Maybe we need a push,” Instructor Greer said, studying me through narrowed eyes. “Magic’s tethered to strong emotion. Fear. Anger. Survival instinct. A lot of magic users carry a block.” She paused. “The reasons vary.”
My heart kicked. My block had a name, a personality, and a penchant for taunting me at the worst moments.
“Let’s sort it out.” Instructor Greer clapped her hands. “Delia. Brennan. Step forward.”
A redheaded male cadet—freckles on his nose—moved to one end of the yard, Delia to the other. I stood between them.
“Provoke Max,” the instructor said. “Controlled strikes. Do not harm.”
Delia smirked. Shit. Controlled and Delia didn’t belong in the same sentence. Accidents happened in training. Instructors couldn’t watch every millisecond.
“Wait—”
Delia didn’t give me a break. Two fist-sized fireballs erupted from her palms. Roaring with heat. Fire magic. Drakken and his girlfriend were both nasty with flame. No wonder they deserved each other.
From the other direction, Brennan launched a volley of ice shards, blue-white, jagged, spinning toward me in a tight cluster.
Fire from one side. Ice from the other.
Shit, shit. I’m dead. I’m dead.
My hands flew up instinctively.
Both attacks stopped dead. Suspended two feet from me—fireballs on my left, ice shards on my right. Then, slowly, they began to rotate in a lazy spiral.
I hadn’t commanded that.
Fuck.Did I do that?
I could command other people’s magic the way I commanded metal?
I could test it—send the fire and ice back at their owners. Let Delia eat both and see how she liked it. I could be nasty, too. But I shouldn’t show my hand too early. Not until the stakes demanded it.Progress gradually,I told myself.Don’t be an impulsive idiot.
Instructor Greer’s eyes went wide. She stepped forward, caught herself, stopped. Then she moved again, circling me, examining the suspended magic from every angle.
“This is something, isn’t it?” she murmured.
The cadets had stopped honing their own magic. They turned to stare at me and the ice and fire swirling on either side. A water channeler near the wall let her stream splash to the ground, unnoticed.
Whispers started low and multiplied.
Delia tried to recall her fire. It didn’t obey. Brennan reached for his ice and failed. They strained, their faces tightening, panic in their eyes. Their magic refused tolisten. The fireballs and ice shards kept rotating in their orbits, unconcerned.
Instructor Greer extended her own kinetic magic. I felt the pulse brush against the suspended elements. It slid off like a breeze over stone. She couldn’t break my hold either. Even though I wasn’t exactly hijacking Delia’s and Brennan’s magic.
It just fucking happened.
And I had no clue if the demon in me was having a hell of a good time with this.
“Think you’re someone special, witch?” Delia spat, her face red. “You’re nobody!”
I rolled my eyes. “This nobody just checkmated you.”