Page 44 of Within the Flames

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Macey sighed. The beithir was probably right, but she didn't really like this magic. It felt wrong, especially when combined with her water magic.

"Are there any other ways I can use lightning?" she asked, hoping to distract Amber. Her eyes had begun to grow sad again.

"Well, sometimes I use thunder to scare people," Amber said with a shrug. "If you want to distract someone, create some thunder close to their head. They'll shriek and forget whatever they were about to do. I did that all the time as a child, until I almost burst someone's eardrums and my father forbid me to do it ever again." She grinned. "Not that I listened to that."

"Rebellious teenager?" Macey asked, remembering her own teenage years. She'd got up to a lot of mischief.

Amber smiled. "Something like that. That was until they sent me to Ben Veir though." She shuddered a little and Macey quickly changed the topic. She'd heard how other students had bullied Amber there and she really didn't want to open old wounds.

"Okay then, teach me how to do thunder," she said instead.

"This will sound weird, but just imagine two clouds and squeeze them together with as much force as you can."

"Seriously? Imagine clouds?"

"That's what I do," Amber said apologetically. "I don't think I can describe it any differently. It just happens. I learned it as a child so it's kind of instinctive."

Well, that didn't help.

Macey did what Amber had said, imagining clouds, but nothing happened whatsoever. Her magic wasn't based on imagining things that weren't there. Maybe thunder was a project for another day.

"Let's do some more lightning," she said with a sigh and to prove her point, created a tiny lightning bolt which singed the ground.

It took a couple more attempts for Macey to be able to conjure lightening along with her water magic. But now, she watched the two dance together, entwined as if they should have always been as one.

"Try adding another?" Amber suggested.

Macey nodded, trying to think what would work best.

"Fire," Amber whispered. "You can control it already and it is similar to lightening. You should be able to add it easily enough."

Macey's stomach cramped tightly as she considered summoning fire. When she'd been waking her markings up, she'd hastily put out her flames as she was too worried about them consuming her again. The last thing she wanted was to bring down destruction on their camp just because she'd got cocky.

Still, Amber was suggesting it and if the beithir could get past what Macey did with fire, then she could too. She closed her eyes for a brief second and pulled the fire to the surface. Holding back so it didn't all come out at once, she fed it into the lightening and water spiral, spinning it around so the three elements plaited themselves together.

"It's beautiful," Amber whispered, an ever so slight hint of envy tainting her voice.

Macey's gaze snapped to the beithir, who just shrugged.

"Wouldn't you be envious if I was the one creating this?" She waved her hand towards the beautiful tunnel of elements.

"I'm sorry, I don't know why..."

"It's fine. I'm not jealous, just having a little bit of envy. You make a lot of sense. You have Air, three of the other Wardens are your mates. It makes perfect sense for it to be you. Plus, being the hero sounds kind of exhausting."

"Isn't being the best friend exhausting too?" she teased.

Amber laughed, sounding a lot lighter than she had before. "I think it’s safe to say we're all exhausted. But we're also all determined. We can take the worst the Mahoun throws at us and still be stood up fighting. But you know that, or we wouldn't still be stood by your side."

"Mmhmm." Macey nodded quickly, trying to ignore the guilt over Izban. He'd agreed to do his part after all, she really had nothing to feel bad about. If she kept telling herself that, then maybe she'd start believing it.

"I know you know where he is, Macey."

"What?" she snapped, the elemental plait dropping into nothingness along with her shock.

"Get the magic going again," Amber instructed. "But also, I wasn't sure until you just confirmed it. But you need to be able to keep control of your magic no matter what is thrown at you. If one statement from me can do it, then you're not good enough."

Macey focused for a moment, pulling out her water magic first before adding the lightning and finally the fire. "How did you work it out?" she asked once she was sure the magic was stable again.