Carnage in the Castle

Chapter 1

Heat burns under my skin, fire constantly lurking in my blood, waiting to rise to the surface.

"Focus," my dad instructs calmly.

Focus.

It's impossible, not when I can practically already feel the familiar flames lick my skin, no longer repressed under my skin. It would be so easy to-

I burst into blue flame.

After a moment, I extinguish it. Getting rid of the flames is easy.

That hard part is stopping them from coming out in the first place.

No, not hard.

Impossible.

My dad sighs, no doubt disappointed. Years of him trying to train me to control my combustion, to no avail. He and North are the only ones immune to my fire, which means I'm only every allowed to train with them.

Jett is proof of why that rule needs to be in place.

"Better," he says slowly from a few feet away. "The flames barely touched me this time. You're keeping it slightly more contained. We still have a lot of work to do."

No shit.

I keep that remark to myself, nodding once as I take a drink of water, trying to lower my temperature, something North does when he's around.

I hate when he does that.

Luckily, Blood Lake is always cold, and my skin cools quickly, though I see smoke rise from myself as the frigid air hits my burning skin.

Even more luckily, whatever magic that lurks in my Gift also stops anything attached to me from burning, including my clothing.

"North told me about what happened during war," my dad says, an edge in his voice I recognize all too well: disappointment.

"I didn't hesitate," I lie. Hesitation is a weakness, Blood Lake does not allow those.

He frowns. "He showed me what happened through our mindlink. You hesitated."

My blood boils. That fucking snitch.

"Calm down," my dad orders, no doubt literally seeing steam rolling off me. "He just told me because he's worried about you."

I snort. "I can take care of myself. I don't need my brother babysitting me."

"He's your Alpha too, Drake," he says, his voice calm, though I know he's just as mad at me for hesitating. My parents have taught me better than that.

"How could I forget?" I mutter, turning away, trying to suppress the flames, but I can't.

I never can.

****

"How did training go?" Jett asks, sliding into the chair next to me.

"Same as always," I respond shortly.

"Dad is in a bad mood."

"So?"

"You hesitated. You know how that looks."

Weak.

I don't reply.

"The triplets are moving tomorrow," he says, wisely letting the subject go, though I'm sure he was not the last person who would lecture me on what happened during the war.

"I'm surprised they're waiting," I say disinterestedly, pushing the food on my plate around. "They've been dying to get out of here."

"Can you blame them?" Jett snorts. "Things are getting cramped around here."