Page 23 of Shadow Wings

Another no-answer, but I wasn’t about to retract mywords.

We reached the apex of the bend and began around the other side. Hopefully we’d take to the air soon. I was eager to stretch my wings again and maybe score thatruby.

“Think of our telepathy as flow of energy,” Tyrrik said when I landed next tohim.

I ground to a halt, watching him continue. “What?”

He inhaled through his nose, his face fixed in the mask I knew too well. “You wanted to learn how to blockme.”

Everyone, I immediatelycorrected.

“Do you want to learn or not?” he asked, jawclenched.

Sheesh, someone wasn’t used to not getting his way. I couldn’t understand his tone. He was offering to teach me but also didn’t want to, and there was another element I couldn’tidentify.

“Yes, Tyrrik. I would love to learn,” I said demurely. I peeked through my lashes as he threw me a suspicious look through his narrowed obsidian eyes. When he turned back around, I poked out mytongue.

“When you communicate with me, you send a bolt of energy through our Drae connection. If you send a lot of energy, if your emotion is high, not only do I hear you, I also get a sense of the sentiment behind the words. If you put a lot of energy in and focus, you’d be able to send a visual too.” He faced me, his features soft and open. “Maybe even a smell andtouch.”

“Whoa.” Those threads actually did mean something. Staring up at him, I scooted closer as I asked, “Really?”

He grinned, a wide carefree smile, and the boyishness it lent his face stunned me. I stumbled on the uneven ground, and my heartflipped.

“You okay?” he asked, frowning as he closed the distance tohelp.

I regained my step and ignored his hand but couldn’t stop the blush from creeping up my neck. I forced a laugh and quipped, “Pretty sure I’m a Drae and aPhaetyn.”

“So, if you send out energy to communicate, you simply draw it in, in orderto—”

“Become a fortress of silence,” I finished inawe.

“Sure,” he said drily. “Something like that. Want to give it a try?” When I grimaced, he added, “Perhaps try to identify how it feels to communicate telepathicallyfirst.”

Testing, testing,teeeeeesssstiiinnng.

Tyrrik winced, and I smirked, but now that he’d pointed it out, I could see the thinnest of tendrils weaving between us when we spoke. I’d seen them intermittently ever since I shifted. I focused on the thin threads of energy; their essence was black and blue, a silky connection linking the two of us. I worked on pulling the blue threads in, but the notion of drawing anything in with my mind was counterintuitive. Even with my Phaetyn powers, I tended to push, and pushing was what I wanted to do here as well, not pull. I suddenly wondered if I would be able to see my Phaetyn power now too. Wow. I could fly, sense crazy far, and now feel and evenseemy energy. I tried to grab the wispy form, but couldn’t make sense of it. I had to put it in normal terms. Letting my mind wander, I thought of my mother towing water in from the well. Lowering the bucket and hauling it back up, the rope winding around the woodenreel.

Taking a deep breath, I did the same with my energy, imagining it was the full bucket of water and I was at the top of the well, pulling it up to me. Gathering that energy, my energy, closer andcloser.

“That’s it,” Tyrrikwhispered.

He was right in front of me; I could feel his presence, but I ignored him as I continued drawing the energy in like winding up the rope in the well to get the bucket of water at the end. As our contact disappeared, I shivered at the loss. It was uncomfortable, unsettling. But I kept drawing the energy in until it was within my body. “Nowwhat?”

“Now, you practice holding it there,” he bit out. “See if you can hold it until we takeflight.”

I took a firm grasp on the energy and opened my eyes. When my hold didn’t break, I began to walk after Tyrrik again. “That will keep my thoughtsprivate?”

“Your thoughts, yes. I will teach you to block others from invading your mind once you have the hang of pulling your energyin.”

He was right. A light sweat broke on my forehead as I held my energy tight. The idea of keeping others’ thoughts out soundedfantastic.

“You didwell.”

I smiled, feeling his pride through the link he sent, though the tendril of Tyrrik’s thought made me battle to keep hold of my own energy. After a moment, I had control again and cleared my throat. “Thanks.”

Over the next thirty minutes of travel, the boulders we hopped over flattened into a clearing. Tyrrik scanned the area as I focused on keeping the thread of energy inside. He jerked his head to a raised shelf and grunted in satisfaction as we crossed to it to find a small drop on the otherside.

“Think you can manage that?” heasked.

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