Page 48 of The Mating Fire
The cell phone tumbled from her loosened grip, falling on the ground. Jared picked it up and handed it to her.
Abject misery filled her. Shoulders slumped, she stared at the ground. So it was as Jared said, this horrible reality of not having an existence. No friends, no confidents, and surely no more professors urging her to finish her thesis, go the extra mile for her studies.
What life do I have left? What do I do now? Everything I’ve ever known is simply gone.
“I don’t need a cell phone anymore. My best friend in the whole world doesn’t know me. No one does. No one cares what happens to me.”
“Not entirely true,” he said gently.
She fiercely wiped at a tear threatening to leak out of her eye. “I could go anywhere, and no one knows me. I am alone.”
“No, it’s never easy to be alone, so alone you go out to public areas simply to be among people and hear their voices. You are not alone, Harper. You must think of your status now, your new life like this – you were given this power to help Others, and Skins.”
“Char was my bestie.” A lump clogged her throat. “We did everything together for years.”
“And with your newfound powers, you can save her from a terrible fate,” he said softly.
Hard to believe she could save anyone, not even herself right now. Harper felt as if all the energy drained out of her. “What if I never learn how to use this terrible power I’m supposed to have? Worse, what if I hurt someone by accident?”
Jared slowly nodded. “This is why we’re here. So you can learn and gain control over your magick. As it stands now, you have no control and your emotions are in a frenzy. You must never let your emotions best you with this kind of power or you will hurt someone unintentionally.”
Harper knew Jared had a point. Until she could effectively manage her magick, she was a walking time bomb. At least this was something she could do, something she could control.
“Where do I start?”
“Come with me.”
Following him over to the bank of the lake far from the trees, Harper tried to keep an open mind. She’d accepted the fact she did have magick, more than she could comprehend losing everything she’d ever known.
Here, without worrying about damaging anything, she could find out exactly how powerful she had become.
“Now, raise your hands and point them over there.” Jared indicated a rotting tree stump near the water’s edge. “Think of someone you wish to destroy, someone who did you harm.”
“I can’t do that.”
He gave her a level look. “Surely there is someone who displeased you.”
She thought of all the nasty people in her life. Even her adoptive parents, as unpleasant and neglectful as they’d been, didn’t warrant death.
“Not like that.”
He rubbed his bearded chin. “Harper, I’m trying to work with you here, teaching you what I know.”
“Is that all you know? How to destroy someone who hurt you?”
Ooops. Didn’t meant for it to slip out like criticism.
A haunted look entered his eyes for a minute, then he became cynical again. “Far better than being weak and caught unaware so people can use your weakness against you.”
He made an impatient gesture. “Do it. Think of the nastiest incident you can recall, if not the people themselves.”
She thought of the time when she’d failed her mid-terms and the sense of panic and gloom that she’d lose her scholarships. Harper released all her emotions.
Blue fire sailed out of her fingertips at the stump. It exploded into shards and then turned to ash.
She studied her hands. “I don’t understand. Why did I have to summon an unpleasant memory? Back at your castle, when Sonia was there, I summoned power only to please her. She asked me to demonstrate my magick and I did.”
Jared looked surprised, as if caught off guard. “Sonia did?”
