“That is a lot harder, you're right,” I said with a sigh. “Does it get easier? I noticed the magic slipped out from under me, like it didn't want to do that. Is that normal?”
“The short answer is yes,” Larkin said. “Our strength lies in making things cool instead of warm, and your magic is out of control because you're so new. It'll ‘slip out from under you' a lot in the beginning. You'll need a lot of discipline to be able to control it well, and especially under dangerous circumstances like a battle with a Sun Witch.”
"But the shower, and the stove..." I glanced at Celeste. How had she made a flame or kept the water warm enough for me to take a long shower? Making heat had been almost draining, like I'd just run for a long time, even though I hadn't moved from my spot on the beach.
Larkin followed my gaze. “Celeste is strong in all magic."
"All magic?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. "Even sun magic?"
"Let's just say I'm old enough to have picked up a few tricks from the Sun Witches," Celeste added with a mysterious smile.
Did that make her centuries old? Or more? It was hard to fathom being in the presence of someone with so much power and wisdom. Or believe that she was my mother.
“Let me show you how to make these rocks into icicles,” Larkin said. “I think you'll have more fun with this.”
As she cast the spell, ice quickly grew along the rocks like a head of hair. Thicker and thicker it grew until it coated each rock entirely in a hard shell of ice. When I picked one up, it was icy and cool under my touch and I dropped it quickly. “Impressive. Can you freeze water as well?” I asked, glancing out at the ocean.
“Yes, although it's harder when it's moving water,” Larkin said with a wry smile as the ice melted away. “How about you start with these rocks before you try to freeze the entire sea?”
I huffed out a breath of laughter. She was right, I was getting carried away, feeling giddy and powerful with the magic pulsing inside me. I didn't even know if I could encase the rocks in ice like she had.
I followed Larkin's instructions for imagining the stones becoming so cold that they iced over, and the magic rushed out of me. The stones easily froze, but so did the sand, and when I glanced at Larkin she was hastily stepping back as ice sped along the ground toward her and then ran up her leg. I let go of the magic immediately.
“Oh no,” I said, “I'm so sorry!”
Larkin shook her head as she brushed ice off herself. “It's okay. I should have expected this. You have a lot of power, but you need to learn how to control it, especially since you're starting so late in life. Normally we learn these things when we're young."
I nodded, feeling a mix of emotions ranging from worry, guilt, and sadness all at once. I desperately wished I'd been raised among the Moon Witches and had been trained in magic from the beginning, even though I knew there were good reasons that I wasn't.
“Did I hurt you?” I asked.
Larkin scoffed. “What, a little ice? It would take a lot more than that to hurt me."
"You'll learn control with more practice," Celeste said, resting a hand on my shoulder. "That's why you're here now, to learn, and we'll be here to guide you every step of the way."
Her words sank in and calmed me immediately. I wasn't alone anymore, and they would help me with all of this. Over time, I would get better. I had to—for Kaden.
I took a deep breath and said, "Let me try again."
CHAPTER SIX
The next few days—or rather, nights—passed in a blur. I spent most of my time learning magic, and only dragged my aching, tired body to bed when I couldn't cast spells anymore. It reminded me of the early days of training with Kaden, when I had no idea what I was doing and felt like I would never get better. But slowly, I did—both then and now.
Larkin taught me a few more spells, and I practiced alone on the beach even when she wasn't around. I was so determined to learn quickly that I pushed myself hard, and though Celeste said I was progressing at a rapid, almost unheard-of pace, it didn't feel fast enough. I was driven by desperation, knowing that the sooner I mastered the magic, the sooner I would get back to Kaden and my pack. I missed them so much, but I kept reminding myself that I had to stay strong and focused or I'd never be able to save them.
The rest of the time I stayed in the house with Celeste, and although there was some awkwardness at first, everything soon fell into a strange sort of rhythm. She helped me learn a little more ancient Greek, and over meals, we talked about all sorts of things, like two strangers trying to get to know each other better. Although I wanted to learn about Celeste's history, she insisted on asking me questions about my life instead, saying we'd have plenty of time to talk about her later. She wanted to know everything about my childhood, my friends, my hobbies and interests, and of course, about Kaden. I told her all about what had happened to me at the Convergence and afterward, about joining the Ophiuchus pack, discovering my mate was my half-brother, and how the Sun Witches had arranged it all. Yet every time I asked her about herself, she gave vague answers or turned the question back around to me. I knew she was old, much older than I'd imagined, but little else.
I spent a lot of time with Larkin too, of course. She also wanted to know all about my life, but she was much more open than Celeste about her own. I learned she grew up in Boston and that both her parents were Moon Witches, though it pained her to speak of them much.
"Supposedly one of my great-grandmothers was burned in the Salem Witch Trials," she told me one night while she was teaching me how to shoot moonbeams, similar to how the Sun Witches hurled sunlight as a weapon.
"Really?" I asked as I tried to get a moonbeam to fly across the beach. I couldn't even make it float from my hand slowly, let alone lob it through the air like a softball. The moment I tried, it fizzled out and died.
Larkin gathered moonlight into a projectile again and launched it toward the waves. "So I'm told. Witch trials around the world were originally started by the Sun Witches to root out Moon Witches. They like fire, as you know. But then humans got involved and took it too far."
When it was my turn, I focused the energy into my hand. Okay, Ayla. Pretend a big, scary Sun Witch is over there and you need to kill her before she kills you.
I lobbed the bolt of moonlight toward the waves, but it flew a few feet before fizzling into nothing again. Damn. That was a bit better, but not good enough. And I didn't have time to make mistakes.
"Let's take a little break," Larkin said.
I opened my mouth on a firm denial—I needed to keep working until I got this—but one look at her face told me that wasn't an option. We were taking a break whether I wanted to or not. She sat down on a large piece of driftwood and motioned for me to join her, as well.
I sat beside her with a sigh. "Why am I not getting this?"
"Because it's hard and takes a lot of practice," Larkin said wryly. She rooted around in her backpack, then pulled out a travel mug with water in it, along with a bag of potato chips. "Here."
I took a long sip of water, then eyed the chips. "How did you get these?"