Touch of Fire (Into the Darkness Book 1)

by Jasmine B. Waters

  “Please, Silas?” Rena whined, somehow drawing the word “please” out into a three-syllable word. She was bouncing on her toes looking up at her brother expectantly. “Can we please just skip today? Just this once?”

  Silas sighed, shaking his head, as he turned away and went in search of his own cup of coffee. He had no idea how he’d drawn the short straw and been put in charge of training his errant younger sister, but he wanted a recount. He met Mari’s eyes with an exhausted smile of his own. He leaned closer to her and whispered, “You okay?” as he turned his attention on the piping hot liquid he was pouring.

  “I’m fine,” Mari replied with a minute shrug, “Just tired. Haven’t been getting much sleep. What’s up with Rena? Why is she so bent out of shape about training today?” She was anything but fine, but having something to distract her from the discomfort in her pants and from sleep was perhaps the best remedy she could think of.

  Silas was launching into an in-depth play-by-play of what had gone down between himself and Rena when Mari placed a small hand on his arm to stop him.

  “Want me to take her for today?” She asked tilting her head in Rena’s direction, “Maybe just mixing it up will help get her back on track.” Mari couldn’t help but wonder if she was a genius or insane, either way she would decide if she should put her foot in her mouth later. In that moment, she just needed distraction of any kind.

  “You are a goddess, sister. You have no idea,” Silas sighed with relief and whispered, “I didn’t have to as hard a time with you, but Rena is a totally different story.”

  Mari patted him lightly on the arm and gave him as much of an encouraging smile as she could muster though it fell a bit short. She dazed out watching Rena as she chatted with Alren over their respective bowls of colorful cereal. Mari was lost in her thoughts, exhaustion, and aching pain when she felt someone poking her hair. She turned her head slowly, glaring at Eryn who was poking at her hair.

  “Is there something nesting in there? Some sort of woodland creature?” Eryn broke out in an impish grin and hopped away from Mari as she tried her best to swat at him. Someday, she was sure he was going to meet someone who didn’t appreciate his humor and finally put him in his place, she just hoped she would be there to take a picture for posterity.

  “Rena!” Mari snapped as she set her mug down a bit harder than she intended, “Come on, you’re working with me this morning.” She ushered Rena out of the kitchen, and out towards the courtyard that led to a building for all manner of training. Eryn’s laughter following her out into the hallway.

  Mari took advantage of the small walk outdoors. She could at least maintain her mental shield, even with so many of her family members around. She wasn’t sure if it was the salve that she had applied, or just that they were better about not letting themselves get overly emotional around her, but the small reprieve had been refreshing. She inhaled deeply as she and Rena walked down the small path beneath the yellowing leaves of the Aspen trees that lined the path. She felt energy drawing up from the ground.

  Mari led her sister into a small room off the main hallway. There was a small table in the middle of the room, with a flat, oblong dish in the middle of the table. The dish was filled with water, the surface reflecting the soft white light that filled the room. Mari sat down gently in one of the chairs, wincing as her rather abused body reminded her that her salve hadn’t been completely effective.

  Mari motioned to the chair opposite her and watched as Rena sat down across from her. They were almost the same height. Somehow, Rena was growing into womanhood before her very eyes, and Mari was uncertain just how she felt about that. She had very much been in the role of mother for her younger sister throughout the years.

  “Alright, Rena. Has Silas had you in here before?” Mari asked gesturing lazily at the room around them. She wasn’t sure where Rena’s training with their older brother stood, but she knew that Reflection was always something that Mari had enjoyed when their mother had worked with her on her training.

  Rena shook her head slowly side to side and eyed the dish in front of them tentatively. “No, Silas keeps making me go read more books. We’ve spent weeks in the library working on family history. It’s so freaking boring! Anyway, what’s with the bowl?”

  Mari chuckled lightly at her sister’s rapidly shifting train of thought. She remembered all too well the days of endless studying to learn all the intricacies of the magical community they lived in and governed. It wasn’t just that they had to learn about Fae history, but all shifters and magical creatures.

  “Don’t you dare tell Si,” Mari laughed, “But I’m pretty sure I said the same thing when I was your age. Si does love his books.”

  They shared a light conspiratorial chuckle over their brother and his penchant for boring them. Mari knew it was an important piece of their training, but she could relate that sitting around and reading countless books was far more interesting than what she had intended.

  “Well, good. I can teach you something new,” Mari said motioning to the bowl between them, “This is the room we use for teaching Reflection. The idea is, you basically are going to meditate, then you’ll focus your energy and force it into the bowl. There’s an enchantment in place and it will be rebounded back to you. It helps you gain clarity and insight, and will give you a temporary boost with your power. It lasts longer the better you get. I’ll show you first, then we’ll do it together, ok?”

  Rena nodded at Mari from across the table with wide eyes. She idolized her older sister, and getting to spend time with her working on something that meant she got to use her power was more fun than reading in the library any day.

  “Alright, just watch first and I’ll talk you through what I’m doing as I can, okay?”

  Mari sat up straighter in the chair so that she could lay her arms in front of her on the table, palms facing up. She closed her eyes and took slow, deep, steady breaths. She felt each breath filling her lungs, and filling her body with more and more energy. After several breaths, she brought her hands together in front of her, laying one on top of the other with her palms up and facing her.

  Mari took a few more deep steadying breaths, then as she opened her eyes she envisioned herself shaping the energy she was pooling within her into a small ball. She slid her hands around so that her thumbs and index fingers were touching, creating a small triangle and her palms faced the shallow bowl on the table. With a final deep inhale, Mari exhaled and forced all the stored-up energy into the dish.

  A soft yellow light flared from within the shallow water, and Mari turned her hands slowly so that she could welcome her own energy back. She watched with a slow breath as a small ball of yellow light rose from the dish and floated back to her, settling straight into her chest. The additional energy hit Mari like three pots of very strong coffee. She felt every inch of her body tingling with power, and sensed her sister’s awe easily without even trying.

  “Right,” Mari said with a smile, “So that’s the idea. Start palms up, once you can feel the energy gathering, slide them one over the other, then you’ll push the energy out on an exhale, and kind of picture shaping it into something tangible. Then once it hits the bowl, open your hands and inhale while calling it back. It’s all about the breathing, ok? Slow, deep breaths. You’ll want to sit up as straight as you can.”

  Rena nodded lightly as Mari was explaining the process and was itching to try it herself. She shifted lightly in her chair, preparing herself to do what she had watched her sister do moments before. Rena was so excited to be learning anything that involved actual skills. Silas was always going on about how it was too unsafe for her to learn anything, that she lacked the control. Rena could only hope that getting the hang of this would help her show Silas that she was ready to work on other skills.

  Mari nodded at the table before them and placed her arms out again to mirror what Rena should be doing.

  “Okay, now we’re going to close
our eyes and take several slow, deep breaths. Ready?”

  Rena followed suit and they both began breathing deeply, their breathing rhythm syncing up after a few seconds. Rena was focusing, she was feeling energy coursing through her but she wasn’t quite sure if she was doing everything right. She opened one eye, peeking at her sister from across the table, opening the other eye as confusion took over.

  Mari looked like she was sleeping more than meditating, but for some reason, Rena couldn’t shake the image in her mind that a huge shadow was hovering behind her. Rena’s mouth fell open in shock as she watched the shadow take a more human form and wrap its monstrous arms around her sister.

  Mari was breathing in and out, her chest rising and falling as if she had fallen asleep. As the shadow enveloped her though, she arched her back and moaned.

  Rena reached forward and grabbed Mari’s arm shaking it gently. Rena watched as her sister’s eyes flew open and the shadow faded from her vision. Mari gripped Rena’s arm and her eyes faded to a bright white for a moment. Rena gulped as her eyes searched Mari’s, seeing so many things that were overwhelming and confusing to her. Rena kept seeing people she’d never met before, and she couldn’t make heads or tails of it.

  Rena was attempting to pull herself back from the vision, but something had a hold of her in that moment. She gasped as pair of bright amber eyes flared in the shadows. The eyes seemed to bore straight through her, and Rena was filled with nothing but the purest fear she’d ever experienced. She felt the power taking over and the necklace on her neck began to glow hot, siphoning off power from her until finally she slumped back into her chair. Rena’s head hung down over her chest as she took ragged breaths.

  Mari pushed up from her chair and was around the table in a step. She had no idea what had happened, but her sister was passing out and it looked like her pendant hadn’t stopped pulling power from her.

  “Rena? Rena!” Mari called, frantic as her sister slumped towards her unconscious. Mari swore and scooped her sister up, attempting to keep her in the chair. She wasn’t sure what to do. Mari knew she couldn’t carry the girl all the way up to the house. She shifted Rena’s weight so that she could reach into the deep pocket of her sweatpants to retrieve her cell phone. Her fingers slid over the screen tapping on Val’s number.

  “Val,” Mari said with relief flooding over her at the sound of her brother’s voice, “I need you down in the Reflection room. Something is wrong with Rena. Hurry.” She could barely get the words out before her brother hung up reassuring her that he was on the way. Within a few minutes, both Val and Magni entered the room with serious expressions.

  Magni crossed the short distance quickly and scooped Rena up in his arms. Val was looking at Mari with a confused look which continued as they all turned to leave the room.

  “Mari, what the hell happened? And what happened to your arms?” Val asked pointing to Mari’s forearms which had two large red handprints on them visible beneath the sleeves of her shirt.

  Mari was so worried about Rena she hadn’t thought about the actual repercussions of the small dream she had slipped into. She reached down trying to pull her shirt sleeves a little further down to cover the marks, but to no avail.

  “It’s nothing,” Mari assured him, “We just need to get Rena up to the house. I don’t know what happened. I must have fallen asleep when I was meditating, and when Rena tried to wake me up, she was locked into some sort of vision. She shouldn’t have been able to with her pendent in place, but it was like something back fired, and the pendant didn’t just bind her, it drained her.”

  They rushed into the main house, Mari calling out for their father as they entered. Magni continued cradling Rena in his arms as they went through a few rooms in search of their father. Their uncle came around a corner with a concerned look. “What happened?” Illwyn asked as he reached a hand out to lay it softly on Rena’s head.

  Mari watched, stunned as her Uncle read through Rena’s memories and unconscious thoughts. It was truly remarkable to witness. Mari had often wished she could have such an easily controlled power, but apparently, fate had other plans for her. He seemed so at ease with his powers. It seemed like nothing about it controlled him.

  Illwyn met Mari’s eyes with a strange look. He motioned to the couch behind him, letting Magni know that he could lay Rena down on the couch. “I don’t know how this is happening,” Illwyn explained, “But something went very wrong today. Rena’s power is completely contained within her pendent, instead of it just binding her power, which shouldn’t be possible.”

  “Can you fix it?” Mari asked as she crossed her arms, trying to hide the fact that her hands were trembling with the fear that she had done something wrong. She felt like she had endangered Rena in what she had chosen for a subject for her training. At least books never back fired and sucked all the essence of your power out of your body. She chastised herself for being over-ambitious when she was already tired.

  “It’s something I’ll have to confer with several others about. In the meantime, she’s at least resting peacefully,” Illwyn explained as he glanced at Mari sideways, still surveying her with an intense look. He couldn’t help but wonder if he had brought all this trouble along with him, or if it was just some sort of twist of fate.

  “Boys, one of you stay with her, please. I need to go make a few phone calls to figure out the best way to handle this, and I’ll explain more at dinner. I promise I will help shed a little clarity on what has happened today. With both of you,” Illwyn said with a pointed look down at Mari’s arms before meeting her eyes with a serious look.

  Chapter 6

  Mari had retreated to her room, skin yet again burnt and angry. She had forfeited and decided to at least take a shower before she went back down for dinner and the explanation that was supposed to follow. She stood, forehead pressed against the cool tile, as the water rained down over her. She couldn’t believe that she had been so foolish. She kept telling herself that she should have known better, or that she could have prevented her sister’s accidental overload if she had just told someone about what was going on before.

  Mari glanced down at her arms, where the two red marks were throbbing from the contact with the water. The marks on her legs and up into her most intimate parts were still visible, but not nearly as angry as they had started out, just slightly tender. Her fingers traced around the faint hand print left there. In all her training, she had never heard of anything like this and she wasn’t even sure where to start researching. There certainly weren’t any books titled, “My Subconscious is a Pervert: How to Deal with the Aftermath”.

  Mari cut the water off with a frustrated sigh. She went through the motions of drying off and getting dressed and simply let her wet hair hang down, leaving wet splotches all over her shirt. She applied yet more of the healing mixture to her angry skin. Mari was grateful that she at least had access to the salve, if she didn’t, she wasn’t sure what she would have done with the back to back burns.

  After finishing up getting dressed, Mari glanced at her phone, where she had left it on her dresser. Four missed calls and five text messages from Ben. Her heart sunk a little as she read through the text messages. He was apologetic, concerned, and confused. She was only marginally less embarrassed having put some distance between herself and Ben, but she couldn’t ignore her friend. With guilt nagging at her she tapped the screen reluctantly.

  I’ll call you later so we can talk, ok?

  Mari was sure she needed to figure out some sort of explanation for Ben, but she needed to figure out how to get herself under control more than anything else. She hoped buying herself a little more time to think would help her come up with something at least reasonable. She hit send and set the phone back down with a soft sigh escaping her.

  Mari felt like her life was spiraling into chaos. Her dreams were groping her. Her friend probably thought she was a crazy tramp and things had progressed way beyond “friendship” b
etween them in that moment they had shared. Her sister was knocked unconscious by her failure as a trainer, and Mari was fairly sure her uncle was aware she was having weird psychic sex dreams. Awesome. She thought surely there must be some sort of full moon or something that was causing it all.

  The shower had helped her feel remotely more like her normal self. Mari headed down to the dining room, where she assumed everyone would be gathering to hear what their uncle thought had happened, and to see if he got any solid leads on how they could fix whatever happened to Rena.

  Mari entered the large room and found it empty. She pulled up her usual chair and settled in, pulling her knees up to her chest and propping her chin up on them. Mari tapped her fingers idly against the polished wood of the table. She wondered, idly, if it had all just been a bad dream and perhaps she would wake up the next day with some sort of realization that it was all just an intricate trick she was playing on herself.

  Mari’s head popped up off her knees, as she heard the door creak open. Her uncle entered with quiet footsteps, crossing the room to sit next to her. Mari met his eyes with trepidation. She wasn’t sure what Rena had seen, and wasn’t sure if her uncle had now seen all the same images, but based on how he had looked at her, she thought he knew enough. Mari blushed fiercely from head to toe. She couldn’t possibly face him ever again if he had seen anything that she had done in her dreams over the past several weeks.

  Illwyn folded his hands in his lap carefully, glancing sideways at Mari as he considered how exactly he was going to approach the conversation with his niece. He felt completely out of his element, and couldn’t imagine what she had been going through.

  “You know we need to talk about what’s happening, right?” He asked with what he hoped was an encouraging smile, though he felt like it was strained. He felt like he was drowning, out of his depth in how to help both of his nieces with what was going on around them.