Fearless (The Blue Fire Saga) (24 page)

“What about Rave? When’s he coming back?”

“I’m not sure. There’s some stuff going on at home he has to take care of.”

Cali grinned. “You sure he’s
not just
tired of you after spending so much time together?” she teased.

“Ha! I hope not.”

Leesa smiled
, feeling warm inside at the thought of Rave
. If there was one thing
she was sure of amidst all the crazy
stuff
going on
, it was that h
e was not tired of her.

17.
LIGHT AND HEAT

B
ack up in her room, Leesa was both anxious to get started practicing her magic and nervous about how it would go, now that she was away from the magical energy in the volkaane settlement that had seemingly enhanced her abilities. She sat on her bed with Dominic’s book unopened on her lap, unable to decide whether to open the book and see what was next or to jump right into practicing something like the illumination spell. The pros and cons of trying the spell were the same
thing
—she would know immediately how much being back home was affecting her magic. She was afraid of
the disappointment that might bring
.

Finally, she decided to just bite
the bullet and try. Delaying wasn’t going to change anything, so she might as well get started.
She pushed the book off her lap onto the bed and held her right hand out in front of her, palm up.

“
Illuminati
verdus
,” she said softly but forcefully.

The familiar glowing sphere appeared immediately, floating just above her palm. To her surprise and delight, the light was as big as it had ever been, and nearly as bright. She moved her hand slowly back and forth, counting to see how long she could make
the light
last. When she reached eight, the orb winked out.

She
was thrilled. Ten seconds had been her max at Rave’s house, so the drop off in duration was only a slight one, just like the decrease in brightness. This was way better than she had expected.
Apparently, the increase in confidence and belief in herself
that
she had gained from her successes of the past few days was carrying over now, even without the enhanced magical energies of her previous surroundings.

Just for the fun of it, she decided to try something just a bit different with the spell.

“
Illuminati
verdus
,” she said again, this time picturing the light as the same color as the flames she had seen many times flickering from Rave’s fingertips.

She almost squealed in delight when a
blue
sphere appeared above her hand.
It was
smaller and
not
nearly
as bright as
the yellow light,
but Leesa didn’t care.
Just seeing the blue glow reflecting on her fingers made her feel more connected to
Rave
than ever. She couldn’t wait to show him her new trick.

The
blue
light lasted less than five seconds, but ev
en that was longer than she
expected for her first try. A wide grin curved her lips. She wondered if this new twist on Dominic’s spell might one day come in handy. She didn’t know why, but she had a feeling that somehow it might. And even if it didn’
t, the closeness it made her feel
to Rave made it worth the
extra
effort.

Excited and energized
by her success
, she grabbed the spell book and started thumbing through the
pages, looking for the next spell. When she read it, she knew immediately why Dominic had placed it in this position.

The spell combined two things she had already worked on—light and heat. When mastered,
the user
would be able to create a laser-like beam of energy that could burn through
anything combustible.
She wondered if this was a kind of precursor to the beams of magic she had seen Dominic and Josef shooting at each other.
She had a feeling those beams were many times more powerful than what was described here. Still, this one was dangerous enough that
Dominic had included a
notation
warning
her
to be caref
ul how she practiced it.

She read through the spell a second time, memorizing all the important parts. When she was satisfied she understood it thoroughly, she pushed the book aside.

Since she had just successfully done the light spell several times, she decided to work with heat for a few moments before trying to combine the two with
the new spell. It wasn’t
cold in her room, but
she knew how to fix that. She crossed to the window and opened it. Cold air immediately blasted
across
her face and hands. She waited a
few
moment
s
, letting the cold seep into her body
until she was thoroughly chilled
, and then called forth the familiar image
of fire in
her belly. In just a few second
s, she felt as warm as if she was sitting outside in the sun on a summer day.
She stood in front of the window for several minutes before finally shutting it.
She was ready
to try the new spell
.

Taking Dominic’s warning to heart, she pointed her palm away from her, angling it do
wn toward the front of her mini-
fridge. Just in case she was more successful with the heat ray than she expected, the metal door was not combustible and should absorb the energy without any damage.

“
Magnus
irrundi
,” she chanted, trying to combine the images of light and heat at the end of her hand.

Nothing happened.

Leesa frowned. She’d been doing so well
with her magic
lately she had expected at least a teeny bit of success. To have
absolutely
nothing happen was beyond disappointing. She told herself this was
just part of the normal learning curve
and
tried again,
concentrating ha
rd. Once again, she failed completely
.

She picked up Dominic’s book and read the section again to make sure she hadn’t missed anything. If she had, she didn’t see
it. Putting the book aside
,
she closed her eyes and thought about what she had done.

In a minute, she had an idea what she might be doing wrong.

Her best success with the light had been using the yellow glow, but for her heat, she imagined blue fire inside her. When trying to combine the two, she had pictured blue, because heat was the new element. T
hat was probably her
mistake, though
. She was stronger and more confident producing a golden glow—she should probably go with that. Besides, Domi
nic’s magic beam had been
yellow
-white, which
was much closer to gold than blue. As much as she liked the idea of shooting blue fire from her hand
like a
volkaane
, she knew she would be better served going with yellow
. Later, when she got good
at this, she could fool around with trying to make i
t blue
if she desired
.

She pointed her hand at the mini-fridge again.

“
Magnus
irrundi
,”
she said, concentrating hard
on seeing a yellow beam
.
“
Magnus
irrundi
.”

This time, a fain
t yellow glow extended two
inches from her palm. More importantly, she was sure her
hand felt warm
, too
. Just to be certain
, when the glow disappeared, she pressed her palm against her cheek. Yep, it was definitely warm.
It wasn’t
nearly
hot enough to burn anything, but it was a start.
She smiled.

She spent the next hour practicing. By the time she was done, she could send a beam six inches from her hand that was warm enough to cause a
very
faint browning to a piece of paper.
She would have loved to keep practicing, but she remembered Dominic’s admonition not to overdo it, so she forced herself to stop.

She
sat down on her bed and
picked the book up again. Just because she was done practicing didn’t mean she couldn’t do some reading. She wondered if the book had anything
in it about wizard dreams. Flipping
to the back section, which dealt with magic other
than spells, she was pleased to find she had opened
to
the
exact
page she was seeking—the beginning
of a chapter about dreams.

She
wondered if it had bee
n luck or magic that had guided
her to this page. She closed the book and then carefully
re-
opened it to a spot
she thought was
much closer to the back. She was only mildly surprised when she found herself looking at the same page
as a moment before
. It was magic, al
l
right.
Somehow, the book
was sensing
wha
t she wanted and neatly providing
it for her.

Wondering what else this amazing book could do, Leesa began to read.

18
.
DREAMING