Owen shook his head. “Nope. Krew will be.”
My eyes tried to leave my head. “Have you lost your mind? My magic went insane last time. It’s like it still recognizes him or something.”
Krew put a hand at my lower back while Owen and I continued to argue.
Owen tapped his chin. “But it is important you use magic around people and on people, Jorah. It’ll help you learn to trust it. I don’t think you fear it quite on the level as you did when you chucked Keir across the meadow, but I don’t think you really trust it yet either.”
He was right, but I wasn’t about to tell him so.
“Okay, fine.” Owen put a finger in the air. “I’ll go in the barrier. Krew can coach you through it, and Keir can try a variety of things to take it down. Normally they are pretty easy to break through, so I don’t know if the other night was a fluke of your magic or your Iron Will or what.”
I tipped my head back to look at the night sky. I’d tried the lake again this morning, and not even the viscosity of the lake had changed this time. It was safe to say it was going to take a substantial amount of magic to fix the lake, if magic even could. “I would like to sleep before dawn tonight, so let’s get to it.”
Owen bowed. “Yes, Your Highness.”
I rolled my eyes.
As soon as he got to the middle of the meadow, I called my magic up. I wasn’t even mad about that part because the night breeze kept clawing at me, sending shivers along my neck. The warm hum of my magic was a welcome respite to the chill.
I took a step forward. I’d been working with Owen on releasing magic through my palm and not my fingers, so I did that, sending the magic along the ground, and then to encase Owen just like it had with Krew, in a dome shape around him.
“Ready for Keir to try to shatter it?” Krew asked. “You might want to send a steady stream of magic on it, keeping in mind that you are strengthening it.”
“Let me try to break it first?” Keir asked. “I want to know how strong this thing is.”
I gestured with a hand. “Have at. Bonus points if you knock Owen on his ass.”
“I heard that!” Owen hollered. “You didn’t make this thing soundproof.”
I looked back to Krew. “Oops.”
Keir’s magic took to the sky. It wrapped around my magic and looked as if it were trying to squeeze it, but then all the blue magic just disappeared.
“Hmm,” Keir muttered to himself. “One more time, hang on.”
This time more of Keir’s magic traveled along the ground and then gathered at the top of the dome, striking it through the middle. The dome shattered, a silver flash the only indication it was gone.
Keir gave Krew a look. “I had to use quite a bit of magic to do that. And she wasn’t sending more.”
Krew’s eyes were on me. “Can you put it back up and then try to steadily strengthen it while Keir goes again?”
I gave him a shrug. “I can try.”
Owen sat down, propping a foot up to hold his elbow. “I’ll just be over here. In a bubble.”
With one hand sending magic to form the barrier, I used the other hand and sent a sound barrier, muting Owen’s comments for this round.
Krew chuckled next to me.
And then I kept a slow stream of magic heading at the dome. I visualized strengthening it as if surrounding it with a brick wall. My magic weaved around and around the barrier, constantly in motion. Soon the magic was so thick, it was getting hard to see Owen within.
“He can still breathe and stuff in there, right?” I asked Krew while keeping my eyes on the dome, focusing on where I was sending my magic.
I could hear the amusement in Krew’s tone. “Yes.”
“Ready, Jorah?” Keir asked. “If what I tried last time doesn’t work, I’m going to throw a whole bunch of stuff at it, just like I do when training with Krew.”
“I guess?”
