Page 37 of Rising Out of the Darkness
He dropped his hand. “Try again, Elena. Please.”
Inhaling deeply, I prepared myself for whatever was about to happen. “Fine, I’ll try.”
Instantly, my body jolted, overwhelmed with a searing sensation. This must be what rage, anger, or maybe even frustration felt like. Its flames scorched their way through my body. I could feel it burneverywhere. My skin sizzled uncomfortably, my legs squirming. The pressure was unbearable. There was no way could I hold onto this any longer. I needed to release it,now.
A bead of sweat slid down my neck as my teeth pierced my lips. Grasping an imaginary hold of the feelings burning through me, I shoved them out of my body. A rush of wind tousled our hair.
“Whoa,” I whispered.
“What did you feel?”
“Anger…I think? A whole lot of it.” I shivered, remembering the feeling. “It felt like I was burning alive.”
“Hmmm…”
“What are you thinking?”
“Something tells me that you may have several more layers inside of your newfound dynamis we’ll need to uncover.”
I swallowed deeply. If only he knew that there was so much truth in that prediction, in the form of a whole other dynamis I hadn’t told another soul about.
“Try again.”
“I—I don’t know if I can handle that again.”
“Just—” He pinched the bridge of his nose, and his tone grew impatient. “Trust me, Elena.”
With a heavy sigh, I debated whether to share the truth of my dynamis or not. Uncertainty hovered over this entire journey, and I wasn’t sure if admitting I had two unique dynamis to the king’s son was such a brilliant idea.
“Try again,” he pleaded.
Against my better judgment, I met his gaze. They lacked any anger at all. Only genuine curiosity stirred inside them as they stared patiently into mine.
“I’m also an Empath.” I paused as his brows rose nearly to his hairline. However, he didn’t utter a single word. My nerves clawed their way up my throat, and I swallowed them back down. “The gods blessed me with Empath dynamis before they made me the Light Phoenix.”
Silence passed between us for longer than felt comfortable. He ran his fingers through his hair as he processed my words. Finally, he shifted his body back towards mine, and there was no escaping the full attention he was giving me. “Right, well…let’s try one more thing then.”
I sat stunned, surprised that that was all he had to say. “Okay.”
“Good. This time, I want you to use your dynamis to search inside for my emotions. Without me sending them out to you.”
Hesitation prickled for a second before I relaxed my body and cleared my mind. Eyes closed, I waited for the worst. It was an unnatural feeling to be searching for someone’s emotions, but I tried my best to will my mind and dynamis to continue its quest.
When I was ready to surrender, I felt something dark and turbulent ahead. The skin between my eyebrows scrunched together as my mind felt its way around this seemingly inflexibleemotion. Impatiently, I launched my mind forward, trying to capture it.
Instead, a flurry of clouds, thick and gray, swallowed me up and shoved me. The feeling of falling felt so real that it wasn’t until my body twitched that I realized I was sitting firmly on the ground.
“What in the Hells was that?” My fingers wrapped around my nauseous stomach. “I don’t think I ever want to feel that again.”
A smile spread across his lips as he opened his own eyes. Smug bastard, he really did like watching me in pain, didn’t he?
“That was my ward.”
“You ready, Elena?” Killian shouted as Declan and I approached the rest of the group.
“As I’ll ever be.” I sighed dramatically, causing Killian to laugh.
He was already mounted on top of his horse, so he adjusted himself to the back of the saddle to provide room for me to join. Killian lowered his hand and I reached up to grab it when we were interrupted by His Royal Highness.
