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There was also no sign of Zowen, which made for some really peaceful days, but also some worrisome nights. I saw no sign of him in my dreams and I was afraid that meant Leslie was gone from this world.
Kasi also reminded us about time in the Shadow Realm and how it was distorted, rarely matching how time passed in our world. Sometimes it stretched like it had when I was held prisoner there, and sometimes it compressed, like it had when we were in thesimulation.
In other words, it was possible Zowen was gone for good.
It was also possible that he believed only a few moments had passed and was even now, plotting his return.
Though I knew it was highly unlikely, I was hopeful that maybe my icy fire had hurt him so badly in that last confrontation that he’d crawled off and died. Or perhaps simply didn’t have enough power left to cross over again.
The more time that passed, the more hopeful I was that this was the case.
Unfortunately, the peace didn’t last and when I least expected it, Zowen attacked in my dreams once more.
This time, though, I used my fire immediately and vanquished him fairly quickly, which is when I got the most brilliant idea.
I don’t know why it didn’t occur to me sooner, but if my icy fire was all that was needed to stop him, maybe I could build a fire shield around my mind so that he couldn’t visit me in my dreams anymore.
The downside to this plan was that I had to consult the one person who had the most knowledge about our brains and magic: Professor Diaz.
It turned out that inner beasts weren’t her only specialty.
Professor Diaz had many books out about the power of our minds, mind over matter, manifesting one’s future and my personal favorite, mental health and magic.
I still mostly thought it was a bunch of hooey, but I also figured if anyone could figure out how to build a mental shield with magic,it would be her.
Unfortunately, since she refused to spend class time on this project, it meant meeting her for some extracurricular tutoring sessions.
Elliot had class when Professor Diaz was available to meet, but Jasmine would often accompany me, if only for moral support, which was greatly needed since invariably every session began with, “Clear your mind, sink deep into your consciousness and just breathe.”
It took all of my discipline to keep from cracking up at Miki-Leopard’s observations.
Already breathe.
I know.
Silly-Breath always say breathe.Silly-Breath was Miki-Leopard’s name for Professor Diaz. Just like Bad-Breath was her name for Professor Puddlemoan.
She does, doesn’t she?
Maybe Silly-Breath forget.
Forget to breathe?
Forget how.My mind filled with the sound of leopard chuffs as Miki-Leopard giggled in her very leopardy way.
I had to hold my breath so that I didn’t burst into laughter.
“Breathe, Ms. Mitchell,” Professor Diaz exclaimed. “You’re notbreathing!”
Mikaela forget too?
I exhaled on a laugh, shook my head as if that would help and said, “Sorry, sorry.” I took a deep breath in, slowly exhaled and focused, once more, on just breathing.
The truth was, although I found the concept a little hokey, the breathing did help me settle down so that I could find that spark inside alittle faster and eventually, as time went on, I was able tovisualizethat spark expanding, then doubling and tripling.
With a lot of practice and a lot of headaches, I eventually managed to push the flames at my core toward what Professor Diaz called my aura.
“Visualize that spark, your light, your magic as an aura that surrounds your physical form, that allows no one to trespass.”
