Divine Blue [Book One]

Chapter Sixteen

The room began to tremble around Taylor. A deafening, high pitched shriek filled her ears. Taylor clasped her hands over her ears as she struggled to keep sight of the dark figure escaping from the box. It rose as a plume of dark smoke from the small dome, like an evil genie being freed from the imprisonment of its bottle. A wild wind began to move around them, rustling loose articles around the room, blowing Taylor's hair in all directions.

"Taylor!" Sarai yelled from beside her, her eyes glowing white. "Put him back in the box! Concentrate with everything you have!"

Taylor was both petrified and transfixed by the presence of the dark figure in front of her. At first glance, it had no face. It was just a black cloud, translucent. Right before her eyes it transformed into the shape of a human. It was a woman in a long, flowing red dress, pale skin, and dark hair. Taylor immediately recognized the human as the woman in her dreams, Jessica, her mother.

She sensed Sarai standing next to her, moving closer.

"Taylor, don't let it take your focus away!" The wind was whipping around them, the shriek it was emitting still echoing throughout the room.

Taylor closed her eyes tightly and concentrated. Rage coursed like poison through her veins as she realized the creature was using the image of her mother against her, almost taunting her. She held her hands out, with each pointing in the direction of the box and the figure hovering above it, her eyes still closed. The palms of her hands began to tingle and shake.

"Yes, Taylor! Keep going! Keep fighting!" she heard Sarai scream next to her.

Her hands became electrified, pulsating with fury. She willed the beast back into the confines of its box. Get the hell back inside!

Taylor's hands began to burn. She opened her eyes in time to see Sarai using her own hands to make the final push into the box. The room went quiet and the wind stopped. Taylor's hands were shaking. She was still holding them outward, but the flow of energy from them had ceased. She turned them palm-side-up and brought them closer to her face, staring at them. Then, she looked over to Sarai.

"What happened?" Taylor asked her.

"You had a very good hold on it, and you were successfully working it back inside. But it was taking longer than your powers have capacity for at one time this early in your training. I jumped in to assist."

Taylor felt failure.

"Taylor, the look on your face appears to be defeat. Do not feel this way. You made it much farther than the vast majority of those like you the first time they face this task. This is not something you can truly defeat without honing your skills."

"How do we do that?"

"I enjoy your ambitious attitude. You will get there, I promise you. I needed to gauge your abilities, and I now have a very clear idea of those. We will use what we know and polish it from there."

"Yeah, but what exactly do we need to do in order to make that happen?"

"First, I want you to tell me what you were feeling as you did this."

"I felt... determined. I wanted to stop this thing from making a mockery out of a woman who didn't ask for this to happen. It made me mad."

"Are you still upset?"

"What do you think?! Aren't you supposed to kinda know?" Taylor didn't wait for an answer. "I'm angry at all of it!" She could feel herself begin to boil again. She imagined Jessica holding her in her arms and having to let Taylor slip away. She thought about what she had just witnessed, this... thing... exploiting the person that had given her life. Further, Taylor was angry at this new burden of hers. Whether this was a blessing or a curse, though she thought it to be the latter, remained to be seen. It jeopardized everything she fought to build.