Page 9 of November Reign
“When do we start?”Cody asked eagerly.
Oak checked with me. I nodded at him. “Now.”
We were all in the training room, but I wasn’t sure it was the right venue for what we were about to do. I’d asked Barr to take me to the old coven house to grab some training materials we used in the school, so I had some basic books for our students. Barr had told me Oak had apologized to him, which made me strangely proud of Oak.
Admitting you were wrong and making up for it was some sexy emotional intelligence. My weakness was for capable people. Either gender, obviously. I’d had a brief relationship with Damon’s mom after his birth, though I had a slight preference for men. As far as I knew, Oak only liked guys.
Dwelling on Oak was distracting me from the task at hand. Magic 101 and my students.
“We’ll get the basic elements set up. Just the four. Metal is more advanced and also more likely to gowrong.” It had been such a long time since I’d taught anyone magic.
“Not fire?” Damon wondered aloud.
“Metal can be shaped in so many ways.” Oak jumped in to explain. “It requires a finer control because of the different densities of each metal.”
“Huh.” Damon seemed appeased by the explanation.
“I think we should move to the kitchen. We’ll need more water than we have here.” I tried to get the lesson on track.
“Uh, I’ve already set something up in the kitchen for you.” Oak’s cheeks darkened with a blush.
“Oh! That’s awesome, thank you, Oak.”
Damon eyed us suspiciously. “Did you two finally fuck? What the hell is going on with this?” He pointed between me and Oak.
“Um, well, Oak came up with the idea for your training and I’ve had more experience with teaching so…”
“Pft, whatever. I want to play with fire!”
Sure enough, when we got to the kitchen, the table was set up in the corner with the things we needed to call forth the elements.
Oak had laid out a bowl of water each, a bowl for the fire along with the matches they would need at first. There was a little mound of earth in the middle of the table. Air was all around us, and was also themost finicky element to control, aside from metal. It also required a careful hand.
To start the lesson, I took Cody and Damon through a meditation exercise, asking them to find their well, the magic within them and check that it was calm, steady.
Oak’s shoulders brushed mine as he took the same deep breaths, demonstrating for the others how it was done. His proximity was heady. I tried not to let it divert me from my meditation. It would have been embarrassing to mess it up in front of my students all because I was crushing on the other teacher!
Then we worked with the pile of soil Oak had taken from the garden. Solid, always under our feet, the earth element was the perfect starting point. I asked them to move the little mound. To make shapes with it. When they were more confident. I asked them to call it in from outside.
The kitchen became chilly when Oak brushed by me to open the patio doors. We didn’t want to have to replace the glass!
It was worth it to see the smiles on Damon and Cody’s faces when they successfully called more soil to their side and created a sandcastle.
Their confidence was growing in front of my eyes. I shared a grin with Oak, and in a daring move, Isqueezed his hand. His eyes went wide with surprise, making me pull away quickly.
“Sorry,” I muttered, too low for the others to hear.
“It’s fine.” As if to show it was true, he took my hand and pressed it in his quickly. “Just not used to people touching me.”
My heart gave a pang. Oak always came off as standoffish, but he wasn’t nearly as cold as he appeared. I guessed that was why everyone gave him a wide berth. They didn’t initiate physical contact with him. The only people I’d ever seen touch him were Zinna and Poppy. Now, with them in Abrocaelum, he didn’t have that.
“What’s next?” Damon looked longingly at the matches. “Fire?”
Oak laughed, surprising Cody and Damon. “No. Water. Gotta learn how to heal those burns before you create them.”
Damon shrugged. “Makes sense.”
Water sustained life. It was healing. We were born in water, so for Damon to take to the element so quickly shouldn’t have been so surprising.
