Fearless (The Blue Fire Saga) (37 page)

“Really?
Do you think it could?”

“I’m not sure. But I think it’s possible. All magic is energy. Our
magics
are different, but maybe not so different that there might not be some effect.”

Leesa liked the thought of something enhancing her magic, especially right now, with it so diminished.

“Let’
s try it, then.
Do you need to do anything special?”

Jenna shook her head.
“No, just to concentrate.”
She pushed her fingers a little more firmly against Leesa’s forearm. “Go ahead.”

Leesa drew in a deep breath while she mentally repeated her trigger word. She held out her palm.

“
Illuminati
verdus
,” she said.

To her surprise and delight, the glowing orb that appeared above her hand was more than twice as large as it had been previously, more like a golf ball than a marble. It was several degrees brighter, too. While it still paled in comparison to what she had been able to just a few days ago, it was a definite improvement over her last few attempts.
It lasted longer
, too.

“I’d say that was better,” Jenna said
when the light disappeared.
“Wouldn’t you?”
She lifted her hand away from Leesa’s arm.

“
Ha!
For sure.
Can we do it
again? I have another spell I want to try.
”

Jenna chuckled. “Sure. Go right ahead.” She rested her hand on Leesa’s shoulder this time.

“This next one is pretty new to me,” Leesa explained. “Even before my magic grew weak, I wasn’t very good at it. Since yesterday, I haven’t been able to do it at all.
That’s why I want to try it now.
It’s a baby version of the beams you saw the wizards shootin
g.
”

Leesa did not expect too much from the attempt, but just to be safe, she pointed her palm toward the non-combustible front of her mini-fridge. She concentrated hard on seeing the yellow beam extend from her hand.

“
Magnus
irrundi
,” she said.
“
Magnus
irrundi
.”

She was thrilled to see a pale yellow beam extend almost two inches out from her palm, about as far as her first successful attempt a week or so ago.
When
the beam disappear
ed
, she pressed her hand to her forehead and found it was slightly warm. She smiled.

“I take it from you
r
smile that was a success?” Jenna asked.

“Oh, yes.
Definitely.
Any beam at all is better than what I’ve been able to do the last two days. And it was warm, too.
When I get good at it
, I’ll be able to burn things
with it
.”

“I’m glad to be of some help, then,” Jenna said.

“Can you stay a bit longer?” Leesa asked. “I’m sorry I can’t tell you why just yet, but I
really
need to practice my magic, and I think I’ll do much better if you’ll stay and help me.”

“Cautious again, I see.” Jenna smiled. “Like I said, cautious is good. I think I can probably guess why you need to practice so badly, but you can tell me in your own time.
Meanwhile,
I’m happy to help.”

For the next two hours, Leesa practiced her magic, always with Jenna’s hand touching her. It wasn’t the same as before her magic weakened, but it was definitely better.
And better was good, because she had no idea when being able to control her magic might be of crucial importance. She was willing to bet though, that it would be sooner rather than later.

Finally, Jenna left, but not before promising t
o come back in a few days
to
work with
Leesa some more.

30
.
A NIGHT OUT

F
or the rest of the week, Leesa concentrated on two things: school and her magic. She wasn’t certain how important her schoolwork
really
was in the overall scheme of things, even with midterms drawing steadily nearer, but she was a college kid, and college kids went to classes and did homework—at least most of them did. Besides, school kept her distracted from other things, like missing Rave
terribly and wondering where
Dominic was
and how he was
doing. So she dutifully attended all her classes and kept up to date on her homework.

Practicing her magic was
difficult and frustrating, but she
hung in there and
did her best.
Dominic had stressed the need for her to increase her practice so that was what she was doing. With her magic weakened, everything took more effort than it used to, and by the end of her
daily
two-hour practice sessions she was usually drained
, mentally and physically
. Even if she’d wanted to practice longer, she didn’t think she could
manage much more than she was already doing
. She hoped
this would
all
turn out to be
like exercising with ankle weights on
—
when you finally removed the weights, everything seemed so much easier. She hoped the same would hold true with her magic, that when it
finally
returned to
its
normal strength, all her hard work would pay off with extra progress
and ability
.

True to her word, Jenna had come by on Wednesday evening and lent her strength to Leesa while she practiced.
Jenna’s timing was perfect, coming after two nights of very difficult practice without much to show for it. With Jenna’s magical energy magnifying Leesa’s, Leesa was abl
e see to more success, meager though
it was.
It was
far
and away
her best practice session of the week.

Jenna had continued to be a bit quiet and reserved, sharing only a few
more
minor det
ails about herself and her life, but
Leesa was fine with that.
Jenna was more than four hundred years old and had been a loner
almost
all
of
that time. Old habits were di
fficult to break, as Leesa
knew
as well as anyone
. Besides, Leesa
was also reserved and cautious by nature and was keeping secrets of her own
from Jenna and others
. Still, the two women shared a bond of magic and were slowly forging a deeper and more trusting friendship.

The enthusiasm generated by Jenna’s help carried over into Thursday evening’s
solo
practice as well, even if the success of their dual magic did not. Lees
a kept reminding herself that it was
the
process, not
the
results, that
mattered most right now.
The important thing was to keep on working, trusting that the effort would eventually be worth it.

So here she was on Friday afternoon, practicing her magic in her room once again. She was doing it during the daytime
today
because Cali had insisted they all go out and have some fun tonight, calling
Leesa a “boring, sorry-assed excuse for a best friend” because of
how busy she’d been
all week.
Cali ha
d said it with a big s
mile, though, so Leesa knew she
wasn’t really upset. But Cali had also refused to take no for an answer, so Leesa would be heading to The Joint tonight for open
mic
night with
Cali, Andy, Caitlin and anyone
else
who
might want to come along.

For now, though, she
wanted to get in a couple of hours of magic practice. She was concentrating on magic and spells she already knew, seeing no sense in building failure experiences by trying new things that almost certainly wouldn’t work in her weakened condition. While she practiced a little bit of everything she’d already done, she focused
mostly
on her telekinesis and her energy beam, since those two seemed the most likely to be useful in any upcoming battle with the black waziri.

She could still move small things, especially rounded ones like a tennis ball or a pencil. But when you had
already
moved rocks and chairs, causing a ball to roll off a desk was hardly a
cause for cheering. Still, she
practiced diligently, determined to make Dominic proud of her when he finally returned.

With a sigh, she bent and picked up two tennis balls and a pencil from the floor beneath her desk and got ready to move them again.

A
t seven o’clock, Leesa headed down to Cali’s room, ready for their night out. She was looking forward to it. They’d been to The Joint once before on open
mic
night and had enjoyed themselves immensely. She wondered if Andy was planning on playing the piano again. Since the place was casual and she wasn’t looking to attract any attention anyway, Leesa was dressed simply i
n jeans and a long sleeved purple
and white check
er
ed shirt.
Her hair was pulled behind her in a thick ponytail.
She expected to take a bit of grief from Cali
about her lack of “glitz
,
”
but she didn’t care.

Cali did not disappoint.

“Whoa, look at the party girl,” Cali said when Leesa walked through the open doorway. “You shouldn’t have gone to so much trouble.”

“Ha! I’m just going
out
to listen to some music,” Leesa replied, “not
to
get up on stage
or
to make people
notice me. Besides,” she a
dded, taking in Cali’s ensemble, which just might have been the wildest Leesa had ever seen on her friend
, “i
t looks like you went to enough trouble for both of us.
”