My eyes bounced between the rapidly filling tub and him. “Can you move, please? I can’t think right with you just casually sitting there bossing me around while naked for my first time using my magic.” My chest began heaving. The buzz was getting louder in my ears. Stronger. I bit out, “Not at all how I imagined this going.”
He must have sensed I was about to lose it. He grabbed two towels from the towel rack and crossed the room. He wrapped one dangerously low on his hips and offered the other to me. Which I gladly took, tucking it around me.
I felt my hair move before his hand settled at the back of my neck, gently massaging with his fingers.
“Watch me.” He closed his eyes while I turned to look at him, one of his hands still massaging the back of my neck, the other free. “I am going to think of wanting to use my magic to turn the water to steam.” His blue magic flared in his veins, while still touching me, and he turned his palm outward. “Then I think of a small amount of magic flowing toward the water and release it.” A strand of magic shot out of his hand and went toward the water, a small amount turning to steam as soon as the magic touched the water. He’d barely finished telling me what he was doing before his magic had already done it.
He turned to me. “Your turn.”
I shook my head, feeling my panic growing. I was... not ready for this. I had figured the first time I’d need to use my magic was days from now. I would have more time to prepare. More time to figure out...how.I was nervous. No. It was more than nerves. When I had thought I was only getting a drop of magic, I had been nervous. Now I knew I held all but a drop of Krew’s powers, I was terrified. Utterly terrified. And also hot. The magic was buzzing and almost burning beneath my skin.
“Jorah.”
A tear slipped down my cheek. I managed to whisper, “I’m not ready. I don’t know how.”
He reached across to wipe it away. “I know. And this is my fault. Just try. Please. I promise you’ll feel better once you try. I’m right here with you.”
He moved his hand down to mine, turning it palm up and holding it between us. “Close your eyes.”
I did.
“Think of turning the water in the tub to steam. Picture it in your mind. Like I just did. Then envision letting loose just a strand of magic toward the water, okay?”
I took a deep breath, feeling my palm get hotter and hotter by the second.
“Good. Now release it,” Krew encouraged.
My breath caught. I didn’t know how? Did I just will it?
“Jorah.” Krew sounded more frantic. “Picture it in your head. Just like you’ve seen mine do dozens of times. Let it go. A small amount. Let it turn the water to steam.”
Okay, magic. Just a little.
I gasped and opened my eyes as I felt something like a phantom touch skirt across my palm and down my pointer finger. Silver magic raced across the bathroom, landing in the water.
There was a loud hiss as the water began turning to steam. I was about to take a step forward to see how much water I had turned to steam when there was a cracking noise.
Not only was the tub completely dry, but it had split. Into two pieces.
Krew moved forward to quickly turn off the water still coming out of the faucet before it made a mess over everything.
I looked at my hand, which was now back to normal. I felt a bit better. Like I did after stretching my back after a long day at the bakery. Not as... tense. Yet I had apparently used far too much magic. I had broken a tub in half?
“I’m sorry,” I heaved. “I tried to use only a little.”
Krew came back and took me by the shoulders. “Don’t be sorry. It wasn’t your fault. Breathe, please. If you start to panic, so does your magic.”
“No. So doesyourmagic. All but the drop of it you gave to me,” I argued.
He tipped his head toward his shoulder. “Well, yes. That. We can talk about that in a bit. Let’s get you outside to try to use your magic one more time. Then we can talk about it all you want, all right?”
He was gone into the closet before I could say more.
We should have talked more about this last night, but it had been late. And the wolves had shown up. And Keir had stormed in. And then as soon as we’d made it back up to Krew’s wing... well thenwanthad superseded all needs.
Breathe, love.
I looked toward the closet confused. I was fairly certain he hadn’t said that out loud. I hadn’t heard it with my ears, yet I had somehow still heard it.
