Page 149 of Illusory

“I think we should run some tests to make sure,” continued Gabriel, as though the conversation hadn’t been interrupted. He hadn’t yet realized that he’d just lost time. “The sooner the better.”

Dominic grunted and then jerked forward, away from the fireplace as he looked back and eyed the blazing fire that wasn’t there before and then snapped his gaze back to me. “I think she already did, brother,” he said, his eyes never leaving mine as a tiny smirk pulled at his lips. “Isn’t that right, angel?”

Smiling back at him, I nodded.

Gabriel looked between us. “What do you mean she already did?”

I turned my attention back to the roaring fire and lifted my hand again, squeezing my palm into a tight fist. The fire snuffed out behind Dominic, as though it were an extension of me. As though I had absolute control over it and could bend it to my will with nothing more than a thought. Because for the first time in my life…I could.

My abilities had always been weak and uncontrolled, as though the edges of my magic never quite reached the part of my brain that was meant to control it. As though the connection was unfinished and somehowfractured. But all of that was gone now. I feltconnectedin a way I had never experienced before. All the fractured lines were suddenly razor sharp and everything inside me just seemed…clearer.

“Can someone fill me the fuck in here? What the hell is going on?” asked Trace, his gaze flicking anxiously between the smoking hearth and me. “Did you just put the fire out?”

I frowned, trying to find the words that would explain everything to him, even though I didn’t fully understand it myself yet. “When Gabriel asked me about my other abilities a few minutes ago, I went ahead and tested them. I sloweddown time and then called on my fire element to light the logs.”

“You…oh,” he murmured, his voice dropping to a whisper.

“But it’s more than that. It’s not just the fact that I did it, it’s how easy it was to call on my magic. I can’t explain it but…something happened during my Ascension. Something changed,” I said, looking around the room at them. “I don’t know what it was, but I feel different now.”

“Different how?” asked Gabriel.

“Different…better,” I said, practically feeling the buzz of magic thrumming under my skin.

The last time I’d called on my fire magic with Caleb, the bends had hit me so hard that I was barely able to pick myself off the ground. I was so taken aback by how hard it had affected me that I didn’t even want to try invoking the other elements, out of fear that it would bury me just as badly—at a time when I couldn’t afford to be down and out.

But I didn’t feel any of that this time. This time, I felt strong and in control of my magic.

Completely grounded in it.

“What about the other elements?” asked Trace, his blue eyes dragging down the length of my body. “Have you invoked any of them?”

“Not yet.” I shook my head. “After the first time I called up fire with Caleb, it knocked me on my ass so hard that I didn’t even want to attempt the others.”

“And now?” he asked, cocking his head to the side.

I chewed my bottom lip, thinking about it. “And now, I think I’d like to try again.”

He smiled, his dimples appearing as he retook his seat on the sofa and relaxed into it. Gabriel and Dominic followed suit, leaving me as the only one still standing, as though I were about to give a speech.

Feeling awkward, I quickly sat beside Trace and folded my hands in my lap.

It struck me then that there would be no going back after this. If I invoked the other elements and had an affinity for them, they would be part of my being just as much as my wings were. Jaqueline had mentioned that she believed I might have an affinity to all nine elements—something unheard of among Anakim.

But I was Nephilim, and that alone made it a very real possibility.

Already as it was, I could feel my magic drumming under my skin as though it were trying to fit inside a space that was too small to contain it. Would invoking the other elements add more magic—more power—to the already cramped quarters? Was there a limit to how much one person could safely carry?

For some reason, the thought terrified me.

“Whenever you’re ready, Jemma,” said Gabriel, nodding over to me.

Pushing the thought out of my mind, I refocused on Gabriel, determined not to let my fear and anxiety get the better of me. “I was thinking I’d try wind first,” I suggested thoughtfully, feeling like it was the safer option.

Though I wasn’t entirely sure, I had a strange sense that I might have called upon some form of it earlier when I blew my fire magic to the hearth.

Taking a moment to center myself, I closed my eyes and focused on the air around me—the stillness of it. I held the image in my mind, the sensation of it, and began to call to it, beckoning it to move toward me and then around me. Slowly at first, then faster, I envisioned it swirling around my body, grazing my skin as it passed—around and around—until I actually felt the breeze ruffling through my hair.

It was faint at first, a gentle shift in the strands, but I clung to it, feeling the magic thrumming through my veins. I pulled harder, tugging at it, until the wind whipped around me, lifting every strand of hair, slashing against my cheeks like clawed fingers.

---