Page 43 of The Incendiary

Before breaking for supper, I could feel someone—Elias—watching me from the far corner of the hall. The blonde who fawned over him this morning had just walked in, golden locks flowing freshly over her graceful shoulders. She wasn’t in armor of any kind but wore tight black pants and a loose, revealing top, which made me wonder why she was even here. She brushed her hand along Elias’s forearm, leaned in and whispered something to him. Finally, he gave her his attention and smiled coyly.

Good riddance.

“Fera, are you coming?” Mavic and Mina called for me at the entrance to the hall.

“Later,” I answered, gesturing at the punching bag. “I want more practice.”

The last thing I needed was boredom. Boredom would only lead me to think of Gavin, and I couldn’t stand the emptiness.

The punching bag didn’t keep me occupied for very long. I’d been thoroughly conditioned never to ignore hunger, and thirty minutes later I gave in and joined Mina and Mavic in the mess hall.

“I heard Finch went hunting last night and got a stag.”

“Hunting?” I asked. “They permit us to go outside the walls?”

Mavic shrugged. “At your own risk. If you stay close and notify one of the guards.”

I mulled this over. There was plenty of space inside the fortress. The showers felt like a place of refuge, but only when I had them to myself. In the calm silence with the water falling on my skin to soothe me.

Before it got dark, during the few hours after dinner while everyone else showered and cleaned up, I notified a guard I needed knife-throwing practice, slipped out of the western gate and through the buzz of Simeon’s surrounding wards, and found a small clearing with a few thick trees that could double as targets.

The thickest tree had vines crawling up and around the sides. It would take too long to cut through all that with a blade.

Using my elemental powers was like opening a door to something dangerous that I couldn’t always stop. I reached for it, not needing much, and Floris’s forest-green light flickered across my vision. The vines began to recede, slithering away like snakes, until a quick, unexpected surge of power leapt out of me. The vines snapped off and fell, desiccated and broken at my feet.

So much for just a little.

“I heard and felt that. That wasn’t your smartest move,” Shera remarked as I carved a target in the bark. “You can’t control it.”

“I didn’t torch anything or hurt anyone,” I objected. “It’s fine.”

“I thought you weren’t going to use your powers.”

“Technically, I’m using them every time I talk to you. Would you rather I find a way to shut you out?”

A long pause, then, “No.”

“That’s what I thought.”

Truthfully, knife throwing wasn’t my strong suit. Gavin’s books outlined the technique in detail, but something wasn’t sticking for me. I needed someone to show me, and no one was as good as he was at these things. He once threw a blade across the temple in Tovick and pierced a woman through the skull.

I was counting fifteen steps away from my target tree when I froze, mid-stride, at ten. Goose bumps scattered across the back of my neck. Someone was here.

“Hello, Fera.”

“Gods! Shit!” I spun around and squeezed my fists to hold back the colorful spectrum of fire, ice, water, and wind trying to escape. Elias Winterton leaned lazily against a tree, intent on scaring the shit out of me. Of course he was stealthy enough to stalk me unnoticed.

“Did you follow me?” I demanded.

He glanced around like he expected whatever Insidion I was secretly meeting with to jump out from behind a tree. “What are you doing out here?” he asked casually.

“I needed a tree. I heard it was allowed,” I countered, looking around for signs of anyone else that might have come with him, and finding none. “What are you doing out here?”

A lazy chuckle. “It is allowed, before curfew, which is soon, and with notice to the posted guards.” Elias watched as I marked my throwing spot with my boot. “Were you taught to be antagonistic just for the sake of it?”

I thought of all Gavin had written to me about being difficult and smiled proudly. “Yes, I believe I was.”

“It’s very annoying.”