Casting Flames

Chapter Nine

There are thousands of bugs crawling up my skin, creeping underneath the fabrics of my clothes, and digging their way into my flesh. They burrow underneath the surface, their tiny, furry little legs tickling the hairs on my skin and causing me to feel as if I am covered in thick, sticky spider webs.

And I can't stop itching.

I can't breathe.

My lungs are filling with webs, with bugs trying to take over my body like parasites and control me. They find their way to my brain and begin swelling, covering, destroying. Soon I will no longer be in my own body. I will no longer be my own person.

Soon I will succumb to the bugs. The insect crawling all around. Soon, I will no longer be me. Because they have found me.

Which is exactly why I refuse to do magic again. I have to find a way out of casting, or I have to find a way to escape. I take note of the time the guards change shifts that night. In the morning when Pierce brings me breakfast, I count the amount of soldiers at both corners of the hall and the weapons they carry on their waists.

He sets the plate of toast down on my desk and gives me a look.

"What?" I ask, looking at the small cup of jelly on the plate and picking up the butter knife to spread it on the bread.

"I have orders for you."

I cock an eyebrow. "Do you now?"

He smiles at me, revealing his goofy grin. "I knew you'd take that well." He sets down a metal thermos, and I uncap it quickly to find cold milk inside. "Jackson wants you in the training field in thirty minutes."

I lean against the desk, pressing my lips into a hard thin line. "Of course he does."

"Can I ask why you're so against training?"

I sigh before picking up my toast and taking a bite. "I just don't like to use magic," I say with my mouth full.

He sits on my bed and shrugs. "You don't really have much of a choice."

I narrow my eyes at him, swallowing my second bite of toast. The hell I don't.

Thirty minutes later, I'm standing in the muddy grass with heavy boots that reach my ankles, and the baggy soldier uniform hangs on my body loosely. It'll take weeks before I can gain enough muscle to fill it out, considering how long I've been half-starved.

"Today I want you to work on fighting your fellow soldiers with magic."

This is going to be a disaster.

"From what we have learned by studying elemental Casters, we know your magic derives from one of earths natural elements. I'm assuming since you can shatter glass and make things explode, yours either derives from heat or air."

I know that it's heat from the spell book my mother stole from my father before she ran away. But I don't make it easy for him by saying that. The healing spell worked on Fritz  because I channeled the heat energy in his body, manipulated the heat in the cells and the broken flesh, and made his body heal faster by forcing the tissue and blood to grow together. In Ella's case, I'm guessing it was more about manipulating the heat to removing the disease in her body. Though, I'm not certain. All I do know is that the spell releases my body's ability to manipulate heat, and it tells that heat to do what the spell says.

"If it comes from heat, you should eventually be able to conjure fire. If it comes from air, you should be able to manipulate wind. I want you to fight these soldiers, and try to connect with your element and manipulate it."