decisions.
She turned her head slightly and found Callum watching her.
Now, she had even more reason to keep him at a distance. She was going back to Arroway; she couldn’t let her feelings get in the way of what she had to do.
She was going home.
Chapter Five
“The moon magic lives inside you. It’s always there. You need to learn how to call it, work with it.”
“But how?” Shayla asked.
Shayla had grown up in a world where no one remained to show her the way. When Cass had been born, there had been an Order of Witches just as there was now an Order of Warlocks.
It had been disbanded when the Laws of Segregation had been introduced. By the time Shayla was born, the witches had all but been eradicated from Arroway. Either slaughtered by the Order, escaped to this world, or reduced to empty vessels whose only purpose was to kneel before the warlocks and produce more witches for the Order to mutilate.
Bastards.
The anger rose in her again, and she had to force it down. She couldn’t afford emotions. She made bad choices when she gave in to emotions.
Her own powers had manifested at an early age, and when it had become clear exactly how powerful she was going to be, her training had been taken over by the Order of Witches. She’d been taught from an early age how to channel her magic, and ironically, how to ensure she stayed in control. In the end, the training had been for nothing. But her temper had always been her weak-est point. She suspected Shayla shared that trait with her. Shayla was her niece, after all.
“You need to learn how to become partners with the magic instead of allowing it to rule you.” They were seated cross-legged on the floor in one of the training rooms down in the basement. It was the day after Shayla’s return from Arroway and their third session together. It kept Cass busy and stopped her from thinking too much. Or that was the plan, though she found her thoughts straying to Callum at the oddest of moments. He refused to stay out of her mind. She shook her head and forced herself to concentrate on the matter in hand.
“Visualize it as a flame deep inside you; feel it burn. Remember it’s moon magic, but also blood magic, trace it through the blood that pulses in your veins.” Closing her eyes, she found the source of her own magic in the very center of her being. As usual, here on Earth, her magic slept. She nudged gently, waking it, and immediately felt the power respond. Raising her right hand, she fed the magic through her body. She drove it with the pulse of her heart, along her veins to her hand. Small scarlet flames alighted from her fingertips.
“Ahh,” Freya whispered.
Cass snapped out the flames and lowered her hand. “Party tricks, that’s all we can do here on this world. But the principle is the same. Now try.” For the next hour, they tried. Strangely, Freya gained control first. Freya who had had her magic torn from her at birth and only returned by the Goddess recently. Soon she held a small flame in the palm of her hand.
Shayla scowled. Everything was a battle for Shayla.
“Stop fighting it,” Cass told her.
“I’m not.”
“You are,” Freya said. “Relax, baby.” She began to sing, an old lullaby from Arroway. The lines smoothed from Shayla’s face, and she gave a slow smile. Closing her eyes as Freya continued to sing, she held out her hand.
Cass could see the concentration on her small face. As the minutes passed, her brows drew together, her mouth turned down in a frown. Finally, her whole hand burst into flames.
“Shit,” she yelped. “Ow.” Cass reached out and extinguished the fire with a thought.
“Perhaps we should stop there for the day.”
“But what can we do with it?” Shayla asked, staring at her undamaged hand. “Will you show us?”
“Here—very little.” She thought for a moment. Then reached out and flicked off the lights with her mind. Then back on. She shifted a chair across the room, raising it from the