Page 94 of Legacy of the Heirs
“What do you mean?” She opened one eye to peek at him.
“Close your eyes,” he said without even opening his own to check she did. “I started this when I first used a power that was not my flame. It helped to understand and differentiate them.
“Vines, right? When you were seventeen?” she asked. He hummed in agreement. “How old were you when you finally had all four?” she asked. Kazaar sighed heavily.
“Are you using this as a distraction?”
“No!” Elisara exclaimed, closing her eyes again. “If I understand how you came to have four, maybe there is a commonality between them all, which can help us find this source of power within.”
“Well, you know about the vines when I was seventeen. At eighteen, I accidentally sunk the ship.”
“Air is the only one you have not told me about.” She sensed his eyes open and opened her own. Kazaar’s sleeves were already rolled up, revealing the marks on his arms. None suggested a tie to air. He unbuttoned several more on the shirt and pulled it aside.
“These swirls.”
“Huh. I thought those were decorative.”
Kazaar shook his head. “Nineteen. It is not a riveting story. Razik had come to watch training drills. Afterward, he came to my room and told me how disappointing I seemed before storming out. In a teenage fury, I thought about slamming the door behind him, and a gust of air did it for me. That’s when I realised I controlled it.” Kazaar leaned back on his arms, focusing on her face. “So, anydeductions?”
Elisara roamed his other inked scars, hovering over the flaming knife again, the one he was reluctant to talk about.
“I will tell you when you can wield all four.”
“Bribing is unfair,”Elisara responded, running through the different origin stories in her mind and watching his fingers flex in the gravel. After arguing with Razik, Kazaar discovered his power for air. It made sense anger could trigger his powers, given his fiery nature, yet his earth power emerged when he stole from his father. That made less sense to Elisara, who struggled to connect the two. After failing his father’s plans for a ship, his water power appeared. Elisara’s eyes snapped up to Kazaar’s face.
“Your father,” she said. “Each time your power emerged was on occasions relating to King Razik.” Kazaar frowned. “Stealing the bottle with vines fromhisoffice, sinking the ship uponhiscommands, slamming the door afterhisdisappointment.”
Elisara leaned forward, tracing patterns in the gravel as she waited for Kazaar’s reply. She watched him, staring off into the distance towards the palace.
“Anger,” he finally said. “There was a common emotion of anger towards him on each occasion.”
Elisara nodded slowly, allowing him time to elaborate if he wished. There was seemingly far more to his relationship with his adoptive father than she realised.
“Should I try focusing on anger?” she asked.
“I do not think you have enough hatred or anger in your bones, angel.” He turned back to her. “Focus on any powerful emotion that comes to you and the memories associated with it.” Kazaar reached for her hands and shuffled closer, his knees brushing hers. Elisara watched as he inhaled and exhaled before mimicking him and closing her eyes.
One strong emotion.Grief? An image of Elisara’s father’s eyes flashed, and her fingers trembled, revisiting the fake mirage of him at the Vellius Sea. Betrayal? She thought of Caellum kissing herlady and searched for the emptiness she had felt, but it was difficult to imagine when Kazaar filled her entire being. How could she envision emptiness when all she saw was him? The tension at their proximity, their laughter on the Unsanctioned Isle, the first time he called her queen, their dance in Nerida, and the first time she wished to kiss him. Every part of her was filled with Kazaar. Her frustration at his secrets, his presence in her mind. His flirtatious words, his teasing words, their first kiss. His hands, his mouth. His understanding and desire. Him. Every part of her was filled with him. Passion was the only emotion she could fixate on as she focused on every memory with him, darkness engulfing her mind as she embraced the feeling of him, and then a flicker. Elisara gasped as it flickered again, deep in the corners of her mind.
“Anything?” Kazaar asked.
“A flame,” she breathed.
“A flame? Or pure light?” Kazaar asked. Elisara kept her eyes closed to focus and explain the feeling and image in her mind. A white glow appeared, but it moved like a flame.
“A flame,” she said confidently and opened her eyes. Kazaar’s eyes remained their usual deep brown, crinkling with his grin. Elisara glanced down at the flame dancing in their palms.
“I am honoured that the first you should find creates flames in your eyes,” he breathed, staring deep into hers and Elisara gasped. The flame disappeared. “You did it!”
“Did my eyes really glow?” she asked, shocked to finally conjure something after all their hard work.
He nodded. “A flicker of amber, like mine or Nyzaia’s.”
Elisara covered her mouth with her hands.
“But yours do not glow a different colour depending on the element.” She frowned, and Kazaar shook his head.
“They used to, but they stopped changing not long after I mastered the powers.”
