Neil looked shocked. “How are you doing that?” he demanded.
“Oh, the stop-the-fireball-in-midair thing? Yeah, as it turns out, I’m actually stronger than most people thought. Funny how that works out. Also helps when this guy is with me.” I nodded up at Kevin. “He acts as a conduit of sorts. Focuses my magic with a precision that you wouldn’t even believe.”
“I tamed him,” Kevin said. “All he needed was a stern hand. Call me Master Kevin of the Winds.”
“Oh my gods, we talked about this.”
“Right. Just making sure you hadn’t changed your mind or anything.”
I looked back at the Darks over the fireball. “Sorry about that. Where were we? Oh. Right. Hey, Brad. Catch.”
I barely put anything into it, and the fireball flew back at the Darks. Neil screamed in warning, but Brad was already moving, fingers twitching, and the earth broke apart before them, a wave of dirt rising and colliding with the fireball, which sputtered and hissed before it went out. The dirt fell to the ground, but it was already too late for them.
Before, with the sand mermaids and again with Myrin in Mashallaha, I couldn’t control the furious burst of magic that exploded from me. It was rooted in desperation, in the fear that I was losing those closest to me. Seeing Tiggy and Ryan sinking in the sands had whited out all thought, and I acted instinctively.
I wasn’t in control then.
But I was now.
It wasn’t so much pushing or pulling the magic anymore.
It was about thought.
Almost like I was wishing it so.
Kevin helped, as did the others, but it still came from within me.
I raised my hand.
The air rippled like the surface of a lake, and the pulse of green and gold was brighter than it had ever been. Lightning pushed through the scars on my chest and crawled along my skin, wrapping around my arm and hand and fingers. The ripples became electrified, and with Kevin growling low behind me, the lightning leapt from my fingertips, crisscrossing until it became like mesh, a web far larger than anything I’d created before. It fell upon the Darks, cocooning them in a domelike structure that crackled and sparked.
It took seconds.
I barely broke a sweat.
I lowered my hand.
“Huh,” Kevin said. “That was new. They don’t seem too happy about it.”
I tilted my head up at him and grinned. “Pretty cool, right? You could say I’ve found them… en-lightning. Get it? Because they’re trapped in ligh—ow. You didn’t have to hit me!”
“You deserved that,” Kevin said. “I approve of your sex puns because they’re about sex. But I draw the line at lightning puns. Because those are stupid and I hate them.”
I rubbed the back of my head as I watched Brad get electrocuted when he tried to touch the dome. He was knocked back on his ass, smoke curling up from his ears, eyes sliding unfocused.
“Ha! I bet Brad found that that hertz. Get it? Hertz with a z, because—ow! Kevin, if you hit me one more time, I’m going to—oof.”
I was knocked off my feet and landed on my back, suddenly covered from head to toe by a rather frisky knight. His lips were on mine and his hands were wandering, trying to find as much skin as he could. His tongue was in my mouth before I could think, slick and hot, and I couldn’t stop the groan that rumbled from me. Ryan ground his hips against me, and I pulled away from his mouth with a gasp. He proceeded to nip at my jaw before attacking my throat, sucking up a mark.
“What the hell—” I tried to say, but it fell off into a strangled squawk when his tongue went into my ear and my eyes rolled back into my head.
“Ungh,” Ryan said.
Oh. Oh.
“You liked that?
” I growled at him. “You liked me putting my magic all over them?”