Steel Victory (Steel Empire Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page B

said. “Help me set up the containment spell, and then pour when I tell you to.”
    He grasped the beaker between thumb and forefinger and looked unsure how tight to hold the glass. She gave him an encouraging smile, and he relaxed. He would trust her. He always would.
    What she and Kane formed was unique in Limani—a warrior-mage pair. Before Kane, Toria was just a regular mage. A bit precocious for her age, but nothing special. Before Toria, Kane had zero magical ability, despite both of his parents being mages. But when they first grasped hands at age twelve, their energies meshed with such completeness that the jolt of power even activated Kane’s latent magical ability. Together, their power was so stable that they had control over their abilities that most mages took decades to achieve. Some bonded mages took advantage of that control to expand the reaches of their power, becoming legends in magical circles. Toria and Kane, on the other hand, had decided on the more traditional road of warrior-mages after bonding, focusing their extra time on martial arts, swordplay, and tactics and apprenticing themselves to Limani’s Mercenary Guild.
    With Kane helping her, she could place the load of the containment spell on him and concentrate on spreading the alloy. She shouldn’t have juggled both magical processes at the same time. Her lapse of mental control over the containment circle had resulted in the earlier thunder as her power echoed through her affinity element of storm. She didn’t have enough concentration for the circle while doing two other things requiring such physical dexterity.
    They locked gazes. Toria nudged the mental switch in her head that allowed the world around her to flare into real color. Every time she used her magesight to illuminate the world, she wondered how mundane humans could stand such bland surroundings. But now her silver vials glowed, and the beaker Kane held gained more depth of light and shadow than seemed possible. The knife in her open palms shimmered with electricity, the result of a charm she placed on all of their weapons to protect them from rust.
    Kane overshadowed every other magical object in the room. His fluid emerald aura enveloped him, shimmering over his deep brown skin and representing the powers of earth he aligned with. While both of them were mages, and all mages could affect the magical power inherent in the world to an extent, Kane’s true talents lay in growth and healing.
    She tuned out her own familiar aura by habit but knew Kane saw her body encased in a delicate crystalline structure glinting deep violet, deceptive in its strength. The power of her own element of storm reacted with the leftover electrical charge in the room, and she smiled when the hair on their arms stood on end. Her alignment with storm allowed her to manipulate the power that flowed through all people and objects, from the electrical power of a storm or a wall outlet to the bioelectricity in all living beings.
    Other mages aligned with air, water, and fire, rounding out the so-called circle of planetary life. Warrior-mages could come in any combination of the five elements, but Toria and Kane counted themselves lucky that storm and earth worked so complementarily with each other.
    Toria’s personal shields fractured, then spread out to form the framework of a globe around them, using the chalk circle on the floor as a guide. Kane’s fluid aura expanded to flow in and around the prismatic shapes of her shield.
    A small sigh escaped her lips, and Toria recognized the matching look of contentment on Kane’s face. She felt Kane pour more of his energies into the shield and took the weight of powering her half of it. She remained connected to the energy, but now it was Kane’s responsibility to maintain the containment spell. When they shared magic, they were as close as two hemispheres of a brain, working in harmony to accomplish one goal.
    She paused for Kane to regain his own internal