Page 55 of Anomalies

“Yeah, well, not everyone can figure it out as quickly as you did,” I sigh, pushing my hair behind my ears. “The Dame told me it only took you a few hours.”

“It took my whole life.”

I meet his stare and am suffocated by it.

“I knew magic before I could walk, Lucina, that’s what was expected of me; to know it before I even had it. I was expected to wield and control it as soon as I Split—to master it in hours. I didn’t have any other choice.” The weight of his words settles around us, heavier than the rock we sit on. “You, on the other hand, did you even believe in magic before you came here? Did you even know anything about it?”

“Not really.”

“Well, you can’t control it if you don’t understand it.”

A steady thump begins beating against the deep well inside me. He’s right, I don’t understand it. It’s…foreign to me.

“Show me,” he says, and I whip my head up to find him scanning the rocky ground on the other side of the shallow pool. He jerks his chin to the stones above the waterfall. “Pick up that rock over there and toss it into the water.”

The ‘rock’ in question is the size of my head.

My shoulders fall. “Callan, I can’t even pick up a fucking flower, what makes you think⁠—”

“Just try,” he insists. “What’s the worst that can happen?”

“Don’t say that.”

“Superstitious?”

“Very.”

He ponders that. Tucks it away somewhere in his thoughts. Then he reverts his attention to the rock. “Quit stalling.”

I exhale a deep breath, summoning magic until it crackles down my arms, and I swear his entire body goes rigid as I raise my tingling hand towards the rock. I envision what I want it to do, just like Delia said, then I release my hold on it.

My heart rate picks up when the rock begins to vibrate, then it lifts, hovering a few centimeters in the air.

“Good,” Callan says. “Now toss it.”

My hand starts to shake as more magic seeps through, and I can feel my hold on it slipping⁠—

It comes out all at once.

“Oh, fuck,” he curses when the rock bursts into a million tiny pieces, the sound cracking through the forest like a firework. I move to cover my head, but Callan beats me to it, forcing me underneath his arm while rocks fly out around us. Most fall into the awaiting pool below, and it takes several seconds for the splashing to subside.

Several seconds spent tucked tightly under his arm.

My entire body has fallen into him, my ear pressed against his ribs, close enough that I can hear his heart beating. “Lucina…” he says, and I readjust quickly, pulling my legs back into my own space.

“I told you,” I blurt, when I feel him staring. “I don’t know why it’s like that.”

“I do,” Callan says plainly. “You’re scared.”

My head whips up. “I am not scared.”

His brow rises skeptically, then he presses his thigh back against mine as if the feeling isn’t as jarring to him as it is to me. “Right before the rock exploded, your hands started shaking, and your magic took advantage of your doubt.” Callan holds my palm up to my face and I stiffen at the contact. “You control it, Lucina. You never let it control you.”

My eyes narrow. “You speak of it like it’s a living thing.”

“It is. Magic is the very essence of life, and it only gets stronger as it’s passed down from generation to generation. It is living. It’s as alive as you are.”

I let out a heavy breath, taking my hand back out of his. “Assuming I am scared…” A hint of a smile plays at his mouth. “Which I’m not. But if I were…how do I…not be?”