Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 88613 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 443(@200wpm)___ 354(@250wpm)___ 295(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88613 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 443(@200wpm)___ 354(@250wpm)___ 295(@300wpm)
“No, no,” I said. “We were just leaving.”
Chapter 23
Work & Play
Caleb
The warm sand shifted under my toes as I tried to ground myself.
“Focus on the earth. Focus on the flow of energies all around you,” Claire said. She sat cross-legged with a notebook in her hand, different shades of red mana visibly floating around her. “Listen to the ocean, feel the breeze, hear the seagulls. Then think of the undercurrent that runs all through that. Think of the energy being passed around and used, but never destroyed.”
My head hurt and my stomach growled. I glanced at my watch. Claire sent a thick maroon red strand whipping my way, the physical thread of mana smacking my arm. I dropped it.
“No need for the time,” Claire said. “We’re here until you can cast an illusion spell without attaching it to anything. This is vital.”
I swallowed down my nerves and pushed away all the doubt I had. Clair was right. The pressure was something that would wake me up in the middle of the night. Now that we had the keycard and also had a good idea of where the third and final painting was, I had to work overtime to learn how to use my powers effectively.
And that was the key: effectively. Every Marvel—even the one’s who resented their own powers—could usually tap into the invisible threads of mana that surrounded us all without much effort. Before I started training with Claire, it would take me minutes to access the mana, but now I’d gotten it down to seconds.
I kept my eyes aimed directly ahead, on the endless blue horizon. We were on a private slice of beach near Claire’s magic shop. Studying inside had gotten stuffy so we decided to take today’s lesson on a field-trip. I sucked in a deep, refreshingly salty breath and focused on pulling back the veil. A flash of blue entered my peripherally, and then another. As if a curtain was being pulled back.
The blues solidified, the long and seemingly endless threads of mana appearing around me, swirling and floating and bouncing off of Claire’s red strands. I smiled. It wasn’t a reaction I ever used to have whenever I had to used my powers, but lately it was the only reaction that felt natural.
“Perfect,” Claire said. She stood up. With a swish of her hand, a bright red thread of mana passed over her, brushing off any grains of sand that had stuck themselves to her jeans. She held a mirror in her other hand. “Now, remember what we talked about the Masking spell. You’ll need which threads?”
“Navy blue,” I said, pulling a navy thread in my direction so that it floated in front of me. “And a sky blue.” I looked around and mentally tugged one of the sky blue threads to me. With practice, I wouldn’t need to see the colors before using them. Many Marvels instinctually knew how each thread felt as they manipulated them, but that was for the advanced lessons.
“And….”
I nearly forgot, shit. I pulled a teal strand in front of me. Then I wound the navy with the sky blue thread first, before wrapping the teal around those two.
“Nice,” Claire said. “Do you have your illusion in mind?”
“Yes,” I answered.
She motioned toward me. “Go ahead then.”
I sent the woven threads forward and wrapped them around my face. It was very much like the spell I’d used to meet with Kyler, except I had no idea what I was doing back then and picked the most inefficient combination of strands. It caused the spell to become a drain on me, which lead me to passing out. It was also similar to the spell I’d used to get into C.O.B. except this one wouldn’t need to be attached to any kind of items.
The mix of blue threads wrapped around my face, covering my sight for the briefest of moments before they disappeared again. I looked to Claire and raised my eyebrows.
“Did it work?”
“Judge for yourself,” Claire said with a smirk as she lifted the hand-mirror.
A stranger stared back at me. A man, older than me by about ten years, smiled wide in the mirror, face cracking with wrinkles, hair wispy in the wind. I gave a hoot—voice still sounding like me—and jumped in the air.
“Easy there, cowboy, don’t want you breaking a hip or something.” She gave me a wink, patting my shoulder. “Good job. Now let’s see how long you can keep it up for.”
I cocked my head and arched a brow.
She rolled her eyes. “Jeez, you’ve been hanging around Madds way too much. Get your mind out of the gutter and let’s keep training.”
I laughed, the sound being amplified by just how accomplished I’d felt. For years I’d been running away from using my powers, thinking they were the bane to my existence. But working with Claire these past weeks had given me an entirely new perspective, and being able to properly use my powers gave me motivation to keep going.