Guardians Of The Zodiac

Chapter 11

"Just focus, Tara," Ryder's voice bounced throughout my mind as I kept my eyes shut tight.

"I am focusing, Ryder," I snapped, feeling the weight of four hours worth of training putting a strain on my patience.

"Hey, you're the one who asked me to help you develop your magic," he reminded me.

"Actually, it was the Master who asked you to help me," I corrected.

"No idea why. There are so many other more advanced mages that could have helped..." he muttered under his breath.

That's when I opened my eyes and gave him a look when I saw he had his eyes down scanning over the book in his lap. It had been a little over a week and he had been working really hard to do his best as my Handler and I was doing my best to be a good student, but forming the Handler-Guardian connection between us was proving to be harder than either of us expected.

"I thought it was pretty obvious why he chose you," I told him honestly and it just made him glance up at me with a confused expression. "You're the reason why I'm here in the first place. Without you I never would have even imagined being able to join a Guild. Sure, you kind of forced my hand, but it didn't go to waste. I'm learning a lot here. The Master probably just figured you knew me better than the others did and since being able to establish a Guardian-Handler connection depends on trust, you were the obvious choice. Plus, it was also probably the fact that you're the reason why I was able to use magic in the first place, opening my valve and all..." I rambled on but my voice trailed off when I felt the heat rush to my cheeks because of how lame I sounded. It was like I was a child who was trying way too hard to make friends. But the heat I felt washed away immediately when I saw that he started to blush as well.

"I have no idea how I even did that though..." he murmured under his breath, sounding even more frustrated than before.

My pep talk seemed to get lost in translation and it was very possible that I accidentally put even more pressure on him.

"Maybe you should try what you did last time. What triggered your magic? Were you thinking about anything specific?" he wondered as he continued to flip through the pages, his eyes scanning the words vigorously.

"Well..." I started to say but stopped myself, even more embarrassed by how just thinking about him and the rest of the Guild is what triggered it for me. "It's just not working," I sighed instead as I laid down fast onto my back and stared helplessly up at the clouds.

Silently, he moved to lay beside me. "Don't give up. It's only been a few days. Mastering magic can take years," he tried to encourage me.

"Yeah, well, you'd think that since I'm a Guardian it would just be easier. How hard could mastering my own magic really be?"

He started to laugh under his breath.

"What?"

"Nothing. You just sound like a Guardian."

I shot up in my spot and looked over at him. "And what's that supposed to mean?"

He laughed harder. "Nothing. It just means that because you're a Guardian it'll be a little harder. You've gone through most of your life thinking you had no magic inside you and no one really bothered to teach you this stuff before. It's not your fault that you don't know the first thing of how to conjure your own power."

"Spoken just like a real Handler. Look at you," I mocked and huffed, crossing my arms as I faced forward again.

"Plus, you've lived a privileged life until now so you're acting a little spoiled," he added and I just scoffed at him.