This is it. He's going to die, and I'll be free.
At the last second, he moved, and I was suddenly pinned up against the wall, the silver dagger now in his hand. He pressed the blade to my throat, a sadistic grin creeping across his face.
"Oh, Reese...
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The small ball of light floating in the corner of the room spluttered and died, allowing a colorful stream of curses to fly out of my mouth as my concentration wavered.
A bead of sweat appeared on my forehead as I doubled my efforts. This time, I let a soft breeze fill the room to remind myself that it was me who kept screwing up, not my magic. The ball of fire reappeared, though it was pathetically small, no bigger than flame in a candle. A minuscule candle. My eyes narrowed further, the beginnings of a pressure headache starting in my left temple.
Fantastic.
I don't know whose brilliant idea it had been to have me learn fire magic before I'd even gotten the hang of air magic, which was actually coming somewhat easy to me since my spectacular failure in Opal's room last week. Actually, scratch that. I knew exactly who had talked Opal into teaching me some basic fire magic. Rebecca had been my greatest cheerleader, but right now? She was the bane of my existence.
Still, despite how much I wanted to curl up in my bed and sleep until Elijah dropped out of annoyance, I had to get the hang of this very simple skill - Opal's words, not mine - before my lesson-slash-strategic-meeting tomorrow morning. The ball of fire had to be the size of a softball and maintained for five minutes without faltering. So far, I could hold a ping-pong-sized ball for approximately twenty seconds before it sputtered out.
"It's easy," Opal had promised. "I learned how to do it in half an hour."
"You're a fire witch," I had countered. "I'm not. My magic is geared towards putting fires out - or spreading them, - not making them out of nothing!"
Rebecca, who had been in her place next to Evangeline on the couch, had winced. "Please don't set the building on fire, Reese."
I had paused, musing. "Will a fire kill Elijah?"
"I'm not sure." Rebecca had picked a bit of lint off of Evangeline's shoes. "But I'd rather not find out."
"I agree." Evangeline had raised an eyebrow at Rebecca's action, taking her feet off of the lycanthrope's lap. "It's better to kill him in a more personal manner. Having him die in a fire isn't all that personal."
Her comment had earned a startled look from Rebecca, and the two launched into a pros-and-cons argument over whether or not Elijah needed to die. While I would naturally have taken Evangeline's side - shocker, I know - that part of me that is mated to the Alpha thought that the idea of him dead was the worst thing in the history of the world.
I really hated the mate bond.
During that lesson with Opal, she'd done her best to coach me on what to do - and what not to do - in order to get this stupid skill under control. Why couldn't she have told me to get upset, lose control over my magic, and create a windstorm in the middle of the building? I knew I could do that without too much trouble. Plus, there was a chance the wind would sweep Elijah away and accidentally impale him on a silver pole somewhere in the city.
