Page 41 of Awakened and Betrayed
“Who said that? Old man? I’ll show you old… I demand a sumo!” he shouts from the ground.
“I walked right into that one,” Knox admits with a groan, as he takes the suit from me and starts climbing into it.
Best family night ever.
22
"Again, Vinna," Kallan shouts at me.
He may look like a young Jared Leto, but the resemblance is only skin deep. I’ve had thepleasureof discovering that Kallan’s true calling in life should be a drill instructor. He has an uncanny knack for insults, yelling, and pressure-tested results. He's been relentless when it comes to my training.
Initially, it was just when I trained with him, but now he's taken to joining me in my other tutoring sessions and yelling at me all through those too. If he wasn't so fucking effective, I'd have ripped his vocal cords out by now. To my utter displeasure and annoyance, I've discovered that I perform better under pressure. Apparently, a constant heightened state of stress and anger are the key ingredients I need to master my magic.
Over the past week, I trained every day with all of Enoch's coven. I spend the mornings with Becket training in Defensive magic. Mid-afternoon is spent training with Offensive and Elemental magic with Enoch. After lunch, the resident drill instructor, Kallan, works me through Elemental, Offensive and Defensive magic, and then I get to spar. Sparring is my favorite time of the day. I'm paired up with one of the others, and we work through various obstacle courses that Kallan creates. We make our way through as if we're in a battle, and we simultaneously attack and defend against the rest of the coven as they come at us.
It feels more like fun than work, and after a week of mock battles, I'm discovering that all of us are starting to act like a well-oiled battle machine. After the magic battles are complete, I work on healing with Nash for the rest of the evening. By the time dinner rolls around, I'm so exhausted that I barely have the energy to chew. It's getting significantly better, but yesterday Kallan insisted that I start training to use multiple branches of magic at the same time, and I've since then reverted back to a zombie-like state by six pm.
“Vinna, you’re distracted. Focus! Now, try again.”
I glare at Kallan, but he’s unfazed by the empty threats simmering in my eyes. I scan our surroundings and spot the perfect weapon. I don’t let my eyes rest on it too long; I don’t want to give myself away. I maintain the appearance that I’m still scanning my surroundings, and Kallan maintains the appearance that he’s only watching me and not preparing for whatever I’m about to throw at him.
I call on my magic and work to keep it contained and focused on what I want, instead of allowing it to spark all over my body. I previously thought that standing around like a harbinger of doom while colorful magic crackled all over me was the definition of badass. Now, I realize that it’s actually evidence of lack of control. I’ve been working like crazy not to let my magicleakout, but I’ve been doing it unknowingly for so many years, it’s a hard habit to break.
My fingers twitch, and I strain to keep them still. It feels natural to use gestures to help direct my magic, but it also shows me for the amateur caster that I am.Man, Harry Potter made this look so much easier than it is. If only it was all about using wands and incantations. Magic floods my limbs and just when it’s about to spill over and out of my body, I taper my pull on it.
Almost out of nowhere, the dead tree trunk that was laying on its side goes hurtling toward Kallan. I open the tap on my magic and let it flow, causing the long-dead tree to pick up speed. Effortlessly, Kallan magics the trunk to explode, and dry bark rains down on both of us. Rocks begin to fly, and large chunks of tree bark stop mid-fall as Kallan and I start to attack each other with nature-supplied projectiles.
I look like some video game character as I dodge, incinerate, explode, and redirect the things Kallan sends at me. A man-sized boulder comes hurling out of nowhere, and my instincts are screaming at me to dive away and avoid being crushed. Instead, I grit through the rush of magic it takes to force the boulder to change directions. It slams down against a tree that snaps and falls toward Kallan.
Kallan’s focus moves from me to the tree tumbling toward him. I press my advantage by throwing the huge boulder at him as well. In an attempt to distract him further, I open the soil beneath him and then close it, trapping his feet. Kallan magically flings the trunk away from him and does the same with the boulder. He releases the ground’s hold on his legs and turns to renew his attack against me. He freezes when he takes in the sharp levitating pieces of bark surround him. The pieces of the exploded tree, that I’ve magically sharpened, inch closer toward him making the threat clear.
“Well done,” he offers, with a proud smile on his face.
I drop my magical hold on the wooden weapons surrounding him. They fall to the forest floor with light thuds, and Kallan and I both try to brush the evidence of this battle from our clothes.
“Your Elemental control has improved a lot over the past couple days, and your ability to improvise with what’s around you is excellent.”
I try not to smile at the praise as Kallan makes his way over to me. He pulls out a piece of tree bark from my hair, and we start making our way to whatever obstacle course he’s created for the day.
“What did you and Becket work on this morning?” he asks me, using his teacher voice.
“Shielding other people, sensing others, and illusions.”
“And Enoch?”
“Water, creating clouds, directing lightning, and weaponizing magical barriers.”
Kallan angles toward the house, and I look at him confused.
“It’s Sunday. Elder Cleary invited us over for dinner,” Kallan reminds me.
I wrinkle my nose in distaste and bite back the groan that wants to escape.
“Come on; it’s not so bad. All of our families will be there tonight. You missed last Sunday, and that didn’t go over too well, and technically, Elder Cleary is your guardian, so just suck it up,” he teases.
Missing the dreaded Cleary Sunday dinner last week was completely unintentional. But I need to figure out a way to do it again because I can’t think of anything I’d rather do less, than go sit and pretend to be friendly with any of the elders. Maybe getting captured by Adriel, but honestly, they’re about neck and neck at this point. The issue with my going AWOL for last week’s dinner seemed to get lost in the Pebble, lamia drama that came out the next morning.
Pebble was pulled off lead duty, and now he and his coven guard me from afar. Apparently, it was decided that I was a bad influence on poor sweet Pebble, and his coven felt protection at a distance was the best way to move forward. I had to bite the inside of my cheek to keep from laughing when his coven came in and announced this to me the morning of his missed check-in. If they only knew what he was really up to, but the secret is safe with me. I move around under the adopted delusion that I no longer have a babysitter. At least not one I can see all the time like I used to see the ever-lurking Pebble.
