“Change the apple.”
“Change it? How?”
“However you wish to. Make it smaller. Larger. Change its color, its shape, its nature. Turn it into a bird or into glass. Move it without touching it. Burst it into flames.” He hummed. “Perhaps avoid explosions, if you can help it.”
“Change it.” She sighed. “Cool. And how am I supposed to go about doing that?”
“In the same way you summoned that ‘train’ of yours. Let your instinct guide you. Choose what you wish it to be, and force it to happen. Enact your will upon it.” He stood almost behind her. She could just see him out of the corner of her eye.
“But…how?”
“In the exact method, I cannot guide you. Your thoughts are your own. I can set the stage. I can provide to you the footlights. The actors. The setting pieces. But I cannot tell the playwright what story to spin. You must find what calls to you.” Serrik crouched down behind her, his knees close to her sides. His nearness made a warmth rush over her that she tried not to overthink. A flash of gold jewelry in her peripheral vision, and he stroked another strand of hair behind her ear.
His touch sent a thrill through her, making her swallow reflexively. The fae really had no sense of personal space. Not even Serrik, who seemed more remote than most.
His fingers lingered at her throat, which didn’t help matters. “The grimoire is merely a tool at your disposal. A method to assist you in your focus. But your access to my magic exists outside of it. Here, in this dreaming state, linked as tightly as we are, you will not need it. To begin, think of the grimoire as a knife to aid in cutting down a deer. You could do it with your bare hands, should the need arise.”
“Never cleaned a deer, but I get what you’re going for.” She turned her attention to the apple. Okay. Cool. Change it.
“All magic is an extension of will. All that separates those who wield the unseen arts are who they draw power from and what tools they use to channel that power.” He was still so close to her. She had to fight the urge to lean back into him. To want to feel his arms circle around her. But he’d probably just shove her to the floor.
“And I have spooky spider fae magic. Cool.” She stared at the apple. Fae magic was nature magic. That probably made it easier, right? As opposed to like…a rock. Though she supposed rocks were a part of nature. Steel, then? Well, steel was made out of things that were from nature.
Shit, this was going to get confusing.
“I—well—” He didn’t seem to know what to do with that description. “In…so many words…”
“But the tome doesn’t seem verynature-y.”
“Grimoires have served your kind for a long time, though I admit they are seen as a bit of a…corruption of the art to many of your elders, made only by those who would risk being shunned. The ability to store such power and knowledge on the page, when it should pass between mother and child, tutor andstudent, is offensive to many in this world. Many have suffered for their creation.”
She had to look at him. The way he said those words—he’d lost his calm,I-just-work-here,professor-ish demeanor. There was an emptiness in his eyes that was as deep as the void.
Yellow-gold eyes met hers. He captured her chin, firmly but not roughly, in his hand and turned her attention back to the apple. “The task at hand remains, little butterfly. You have a lesson to finish.”
A shiver ran down her spine. The message was clear—drop it.But she couldn’t. She just couldn’t. “Who are you, Serrik?”
“Someone with whom you have allied yourself and who seeks to see you become a power that no one will meddle with. One whom you have no choice but to aid.”
Yeah. For now. “Sorry. But I don’t have the tome with me.”
“You do not. But you have me, as I said. You are surrounded by the source of magic you can now tap into. It will be enough to do this small task.”
“If you say so.” She let out a wavering breath. “Change the apple…”
Rolling her shoulders and cracking them, she focused on the apple in front of her.
Focus. Change the apple. She had everything she needed. She just…she could do this. Right? Right.
Focus.
Change the applesomehow.
Make the apple dosomething.
Do. Something.
Do.
