Carrier of the Mark (20 page)

I couldn’t look away. The danger and the strength of Rían’s power had me trembling. Áine’s power was awesome, magical—pretty, even—but Rían’s felt darker somehow.

Rían slowly opened his eyes. They had returned to their normal green color, dark and distant.

Áine walked over to her brother with her hands on her hips. “Impressive, Rían. You’ve been practicing, haven’t you? Are you trying to outdo me?”

He smirked. “Shut up, little sis, or I’ll incinerate your precious sprouts.”

It was a joke, I knew, but I still shivered a little at his threat. If he wanted to, he could destroy everything that Áine brought to life.

Fionn walked closer to us. “Did you feel anything this time, Megan?”

I shook my head. “Sorry. I don’t think so.”

Adam, still holding my hand, took a step forward. “I guess it’s my turn then. Just something small, to see if we can get your magical juices flowing.” He smiled at me. “Try to feel what I feel. Focus on the connection in our fingers.”

I tried to home in on the feeling of Adam’s hand in mine. He lifted his left hand, held it out to the trees, and closed his eyes. Then he grasped at the air like he had just caught something. In that instant, all the individual droplets of rain that were hanging on the leaves and branches around us flew into the air. There were thousands of them, maybe millions. The delicate evening light reflected off them, making each one sparkle like a diamond. They hung in the air totally motionless. Then Adam moved his hand gently and the droplets danced. They stopped directly in front of me. I reached out my free hand to touch them.

I definitely felt something moving through me from Adam, but I couldn’t identify it. Each droplet I touched was wet, but had form. It didn’t burst or break ranks. It just bounced back into position.

“Now watch this,” he said with a grin.

He snatched at the air with his hand. A wall of water shot up from the bottom of the valley. The water floated high above our heads, until it formed a dark and heavy cloud that made a low rumbling sound.

Adam grasped at the air again. This time a shimmering mist of water rose above the fields and trees. It looked like fog as it climbed steadily up to join the now loudly rumbling cloud high above us. Adam winked at me and snapped his fingers. The cloud shuddered a little and collapsed into a downpour.

“Adam, for Christ’s sake,” Rían shouted, before making a run for the yard.

Áine pulled a tiny umbrella from her purse, and with a quick click, her shelter was complete. She shrugged. “You live and learn,” she said, walking over to Fionn.

I turned to Adam with my hair drenched and stuck to the sides of my face. “That was so awesome.” Forgetting that we had an audience, I stood on tiptoe and kissed him while the rain poured down on us. “I think I felt something that time,” I whispered.

The rain stopped. Adam held my face in his hands; then he ran them over my hair and down my arms. With his touch every drop of moisture evaporated, leaving me as dry as I had been before the downpour.

Fionn coughed. “Adam?”

Áine made a puking sound. “Yeah, if you could pass the bucket, we’re trying to get her to evoke air here, and not our last meal.”

I pulled away and looked at them excitedly. “I felt something that time, with Adam. There was definitely a sensation: a coolness that ran through me, like a chill deep inside. I don’t know how to describe it.”

Fionn moved toward us. “You’re onto something. You need to focus on that feeling. Try to harness the sensation, learn to identify it. It will eventually become more obvious.” He bent down and picked up a small leaf and placed it on my hand. “See if you can move this with your mind. Focus on the coolness you felt. Clear your head of everything except that feeling and the leaf in your hand. Try to remember how you felt at Halloween. Try to recapture the sensations you had that night.”

I looked down at the small leaf, willing myself to believe I could do it. Adam squeezed my other hand.

I closed my eyes and tried to feel the chilling coolness from before, to harness it. I visualized the leaf moving, blowing delicately off my hand. I pictured the leaf gone from my palm. Then I opened my eyes.

The leaf was still there. It hadn’t moved at all.

“Damn,” I muttered.

Rían jogged back over to us and stood right in front of me. He held out his hands for me to take them. I swallowed hard. I had seen what they could do.

He smiled. “Are you chicken?” He cocked his head to the side. “Trust me; take my hands. Let me show you.”

I looked up at Adam and gave my hands to Rían. They were warm, but not scorching, the way I’d expected.

His face turned serious. “Close your eyes and feel the heat. Take a deep breath and hold it. Now let the coolness trickle down to your arms, to the heat you feel in my hands.”

His voice was so calm and reassuring, hypnotic almost. I did as he suggested. I felt my hands getting hot and found the coolness inside me. I willed it to move to my hands and push the heat away.

“Now, breathe out, and with the air you expel, move the cool energy through your fingers.”

I did exactly as he instructed. I felt the cool air move through me, and as I did Rían slowly let go of me. I felt like I was in a trance. I heard a gasp and I forced my eyes open. Rían had a small ball of fire in each of my hands and they were being gently pushed away from my palms. He held his arms out and the flames shot back to him. He gave me a huge smile and stepped aside.

“You did it!” Adam picked me up and spun me around. “You repelled fire.” He kissed me passionately.

“Again, we’re right here,” Áine said beside us.

Adam smirked. “Go away, then.”

Fionn started walking toward the house. “Áine, Rían, let’s go dry off and get dinner ready.”

Adam smiled at me. “You repelled fire on your first go. You are going to be one powerful girl.”

“Let’s do it again.”

He put his arms around me and laughed. “No, no more magic for you today.”

I laid my head on his chest. “Speaking of magic, what you did before was amazing.”

“Ah, that was nothing. I’ll show you what I can really do, another day.”

“I’ll look forward to that. Come on; let’s go for a walk until dinner is ready.”

He put his arm over my shoulders and we headed off into the trees on one side of the field.

I looked up at him. “Rían was amazing too. Scary, but amazing.”

Adam looked back down at me. “I told you. He has a talent. He’ll really help you. But just remember whose girlfriend you are.” He stopped and turned to me with an expression of mock horror.

I fluttered my hands to my chest. “Well, Rían is devastatingly handsome, with that whole smoldering, brooding-eyes thing he’s got going on. Maybe I picked the wrong brother.”

He grabbed me and pushed me up against a tree. “Oh, I have ways of convincing you that you chose right.” He kissed me with such passion it left me breathless. I felt my legs starting to give way under me.

“Yeah, that could do it.” I gasped, breaking away and smiling coyly at him. “Could you convince me some more?”

He leaned his body in closer and put his hands around the tree, holding me. He slowly kissed my throat, then up my neck to my ear and back to my mouth. I melted into him. I never wanted this moment to end.

“Megan, Adam…” Áine came into sight and she looked at us in disgust. “Guys, Fionn says dinner is ready, but it looks like you two have already eaten.” She started back through the trees toward the house, giggling.

I flushed with embarrassment, but Adam just laughed. “Come on; let’s go get some dinner.” He held out his hand in front of him, then grasped the air and closed his eyes for a moment. I heard Áine screaming off in the distance.

I looked up to him. “What did you do?”

He grinned. “You’ll see.” As we walked toward the house I could see Áine standing in the yard, soaking wet and glaring.

“You know the rules! We’re not allowed to use our powers on one another. You’re an absolute git!”

I tried hard to keep a straight face, but she looked so funny standing there in a pool of water, with her hair stuck to her face. Beside me, Adam had tears streaming down his cheeks, he was laughing so hard.

“Fine! An eye for an eye.” She closed her eyes and waved her arms. Randel appeared from the house. He landed on her hand and she whispered something to him. He launched himself into the air.

Adam grabbed my hand and started running toward the house. “You didn’t!” he roared.

“What? What did she do?”

“Just run!”

Something hit him on the head with a loud
splat
. Adam stopped dead. He had a load of bird poo dripping off his hair onto his face. I burst out laughing. I couldn’t help it.

“You think this is funny?” He grabbed me around the waist and tried to rub his head on me.

“No, no!” I finally broke his hold and ran for the protection of the house, making it inside just in front of Áine and Adam. They both headed upstairs to clean up, heckling each other as they went. I walked into the kitchen to help Fionn and Rían set the table. We worked in silence for a few minutes; then Rían looked at me.

“You were quite good, you know. You’re very strong. I’m looking forward to working with you.”

I hadn’t been expecting such a nice compliment from Rían, and at first I didn’t even know what to say. Finally, I just mumbled, “Yeah, me too.”

He handed me the glasses to put on the table. “I’m sorry about how I acted when you first got here. I was obnoxious.”

“It’s okay; I think I understand. I’d probably have acted the same way.”

Rían gave me a small smile and I felt a huge weight lift off my shoulders. Maybe working with him would turn out all right after all.

I
t had been decided at dinner that Rían and I would train every day after school, to get as much practice as possible in before our trip to Dublin the following weekend.

I ran the trip by my dad when I got home, telling him that we were going to check out Trinity, since it was Adam’s college of choice and Rían would be going there next fall. Luckily, he thought it was a great idea for me to check out the school, and only asked that the DeRíses pick me up at our house so that he could meet Fionn.

During the week, I spent every moment that I could working on my power. Caitlin and I covered for each other. We had more free rein when our parents thought that we were hanging out with each other instead of with the boys. She told her mom and I told my dad that we were spending time in the stables helping out Killian. For her it wasn’t stretching the truth
too
much—she really was spending her evenings with Killian, but very little cleaning was going on. I, of course, was spending my time with Adam and Rían. Caitlin could never know what I was really up to, but she thought she was in on the big plan, so she was happy. I still hated lying to her, but it had to be done.

My relationship with Rían had altered dramatically in just a few days. While he was still a dark character, and I knew it would take a long time for him to really let me in, he was making a tremendous effort and I appreciated it. We mostly focused on working together with fire. It seemed to be the one power that helped me recognize where my element was and what it felt like.

Adam would always sit on the scullery steps, out of the way, watching, but not getting involved. I would gaze up at him every now and again, my mind wandering, imagining how much nicer it would be to run my hand down his gorgeous face, how his tall, lean body would feel under my fingers. I had to pinch myself constantly to remind myself that this wasn’t just a dream. Adam was mine.

At the same time, I was constantly stressed about my power. I still hadn’t been able to accomplish anything notable, and I needed to evoke as soon as possible. Fionn told me about previous air Marked and the power they possessed. Some even had the ability to manipulate the air around them so that they appeared to be able to fly. I had gotten a taste of my power on Halloween and I was hungry for more.

By the time Friday night rolled around I was starting to feel exhausted from exerting myself. I glanced back up to Adam, sitting as always on the steps, patiently observing from a distance.