The Ritual of Blood and Bone

Chapter Forty-Four

The clouds darken and the wind starts to thrash against them. Magic swirls inside Seraphina, tingling and burning. It isn't a painful burn though. It is bright and brilliant. She breathes quickly, her heart racing with exhilaration.

Thunder sounds in the distance, deep and booming. Blinding white light flashes across the sky with a deafening crack.

Fat blobs of rain begin to fall, starting off slowly at first, but then coming down so heavily that it is blinding. Seraphina is soaked through immediately, but she doesn't care. Her body is alight with magic.

Lightning dances in the dark grey sky above them, a perfect white crack quickly followed by a boom of thunder so loud, that the ground shakes beneath her feet. Seraphina stands up, smiling widely as the rain pours over her face, tickling her skin and soaking her hair.

More.

She pushes on her magic, releasing more of it. The clouds begin to twist and slowly move towards the ground. Wind hurls against her body, growing stronger and stronger. But Seraphina's stance remains steady.

Lightning pulses through her, dancing across her body, almost making her glow. More thunder booms around them and the twister hits the ground. The rain falls sideways from the force of the wind. It stings as it hits her skin, but Seraphina doesn't even notice it.

She stares in awe at the twister as it spins and closes the distance towards her. She wants to push further, make it grow and grow until it is an uncontrollable beast.

But she can't. This is enough.

She closes her eyes and calls back her magic, putting up the walls that keep it from escaping. The twister fizzles away and the rain lightens. The clouds slowly return to how they were before, puffy and white.

Seraphina opens her eyes again and smiles, panting heavily. Then, she turns to face Marina. She is grinning widely and soaked to the bone. Nathanial has a less-than-impressed expression and Seraphina can't help but giggle at his drenched body. He raises an eyebrow and crosses his arms.

"You chose to come," Seraphina says. He doesn't respond.

"That was magnificent," Marina says, stepping towards her. "And that is only the beginning of what you can do. You reflexively turn to lightning and wind when you reach for your power. But there is so much more. You have snow storms at your disposal, hurricanes, hail, heatwaves, freezes, cyclones..." she trails off breathlessly. "The possibilities are endless and, even more incredible, is that you can harness all of these things through your body. Seraphina, do you have any idea how incredibly powerful you are?"

Seraphina's cheeks warm and she flushes slightly. Marina ignores it.

"I am going to make you magnificent," she says, her eyes bright with excitement.

Seraphina smiles, hope bubbling through her and making her stomach flutter. She could learn to control her power instead of it controlling her. So many times people have told her how powerful she is, and how she has so much potential.

Today is the first time she's properly believed it.

"We start immediately," Marina says. "The train isn't coming to collect us for another hour and a half."

"Okay," Seraphina agrees giddily. 

"Theory starts tomorrow. Today, I want to see more of your wonderful storms."

***

For the next hour, Seraphina summons her storms and stops them. Marina doesn't have her do anything more than that, saying that Seraphina should focus on understanding how the magic inside her feels while she's using it.