Page 80 of Reforging Onyx

Definitely.

It didn’t matter what kind of truce they had; if he saw a realistic opening to take Dominic out with, he’d do it.

Which was why it was important to both of them that he never got a chance. It could ruin everything if he failed, Dominic’s death wish or otherwise.

Onyx looked at the shackle around his ankle, half exasperated and half curious. He’d never said that he wouldn’t try to take it off, and he wondered… Dominic had made it sound like Onyx could rival him in strength in some ways. Would he be able to override the locking spell Dominic had cast to keep him from breaking free?

It was something he’d have to talk to Cecile about. If he could come up with a way to break a spell like that, it would give him more options. It probably wasn’t what Dominic had intended from the magic lessons, but… Well.

Onyx still had some spirit left,[9] and he was in a situation no one like him would thrive in. The ease with which he’d touched Dominic that morning had been concerning, for all that he didn’t want to think about it. Could anyone blame him for wanting a way out?

He poked at the spell with his magic, but it seemed impenetrable. It wasn’t the type of magic he knew how to perform, and without training, he didn’t think he could break it. He might be able to make it explode, but that would be dangerous. Maybe he could melt it? He looked dubiously down at the metal. No, the chain wasn’t long enough to melt without also melting his skin in the process.

Besides, without knowing where Dominic was, it would be pointless. If he was going to make any sort of escape or assassination attempt, he needed Dominic dead before he could knock him out again.

He finally rose, stretching, and he smirked as he saw the shirt on one of the targets. He was about to throw a torrent of flame at it when he remembered what Dominic had said, what Cecile had said. He was using too much of his magic all at once, and if he slowed down and was more precise, he could cast for longer. He wanted to play with some of the things he’d been learning, and if he didn’t drain himself, he’d be able to do it for longer.

He had three hours. He might as well use every minute he could instead of burning himself out in the first half hour.

So he summoned up the magic from within, and as he watched, the shirt caught on fire at the hem with barely a whisper of power. For all that it had taken little enough power-wise, it still spread quickly, engulfing the shirt within seconds in a small blaze.

That was satisfying.

If only Dominic had been wearing that shirt when it caught on fire.

Onyx tried to pay attention to how the magic materialized, but it was difficult for him to put into words even as he worked through the process. He concentrated, and a small flame danced in his palm. He hurled it at a target, watching as it exploded on contact and threatened to spread to another target.

Time was going to fly, and he mostly wanted to enjoy feeling awake, alive. Between the magic coursing through his body and the vampire blood in his system, he was on top of the world.

For a little while, he played with small spells, preserving his strength. He thought about poking at the dome spell, to try to figure out how to dismantle that. It was probably beyond him — for now. Once he understood the principle behind it, he might be able to figure out how to unravel it or overwhelm it, too. If he could find Dominic, the source of the spell, he could kill him… then the rest would collapse.

But the spell was effective, and even as Onyx closed his eyes and sent out a pulse of questioning energy, he felt it stop at the edges of the dome. He didn’t know how much more to do than that. He could find things in the vicinity, he could set up simple alarm spells, he could cast illusory magic to a degree, and he could cast basic wards. None of those things would help him in his quest to escape or kill Dominic.

At least, he didn’t think so.

He spent an hour testing the dome in various ways, poking and prodding at it with small spells. If he tried to overwhelm it, Dominic would know for sure what he was doing, and he would shut Onyx down. He couldn’t say anything about indulging curiosity, though.

Finally, he called out, “I don’t guess you’d teach me how to do the dome thing?”

Dominic’s chuckle filled the space. When he spoke, the words seemed to be coming from everywhere, with no specific directional source. “So that you can understand how to dismantle it, you mean?” he asked, amusement rich in his voice. “It seems to me that that might not be my best course of action.”

Onyx shrugged, unashamed. He wasn’t clever or manipulative, not like Dominic; he wasn’t subtle, either. He didn’t think Dominic would’ve missed how he was testing the dome, especially since the witch would’ve expected him to spend his time hurling flames at the targets. Which he would do, but he had more appreciation for his magic this time than the last. He might exhaust himself, but he was curious about so many things after talking to Cecile that he didn’t want to run through his reserves that quickly.

Still, he did grow bored of that after a time, and he started to play with the flames he’d thus far avoided summoning too many of. This took the least out of him; throwing a fireball was instinctive, something he’d always known how to do and had practiced so many times.

“You told me I could take out an army,” Onyx remarked, turning slowly in place as he scanned his surroundings. “I need to be more precise. How?”

“I did,” Dominic agreed. “And I could think of a few ways that fire could be used in such a way. You cast fire out from yourself, and you can start something burning from a distance. Can you cast the fire from below something and send it up? Or from above something and send it down?”

Onyx frowned at that, unsure of why that mattered. “I could?” he ventured, and he focused on one of the targets, letting the fire descend from above and drip down like melting candle wax until it caught on fire. “It feels funny. It takes more effort than just throwing fire.” But was it actually taking more power? He couldn’t tell. He needed to have Cecile there with him because he had a feeling she’d teach him more than Dominic would.

The price for that, though…

He closed the door on that thought.

“Good!” Dominic said. “Now, when you make a fireball, how small can you make it? Can you make a very small, very dense fireball over the target and shoot it straight down into the target?”

There had never been any point in making small fireballs before. Onyx had always been ready for full-fledged destruction, and anyone who saw him use magic had had to die, clearly. No one could find out that the rebellion had a pyromancer on their side — or a witch at all, really. It felt silly to make something small when he might need something larger.