Page 109 of My Pleasure

Caiden lifted his right hand and soon it began to glow yellow.

Kiera’s nose tickled with the distinct scent of ozone. Just like with Kendrick’s fire, she slowly began to pull yellow threads towards her other hand. She watched in amazement as a tiny tornado formed. It spun and wobbled in her palm. Never in her life had she ever been able to use elemental magic like this.

“Aww it’s so cute!” Meryn gushed.

Caiden’s eyes were huge. “Are you seeing this?”

Kendrick passed a shaking hand over his mouth. “I am.”

Meryn sat up. “Can you mush em?”

Kiera looked at her. “Huh?”

Meryn made the motion of flattening her hands together.

Excited, Kiera tried just that. She brought her hands together and let the red threads of the fire magic tangle with the small tornado. It spun and spun until a large fire plume shot from her hand, up past the roof of the estate. In the summer’s heat, the wind from it was almost overwhelming.

Kendrick brought both hands up as if to calm her. “Kiera, take a deep breath and imagine the tornado getting smaller and smaller,” he instructed in a calm, even voice.

“Why are you talking to me like I’m holding a bomb?” she asked.

She looked up and his expression told her everything. She was.

She began to panic. “What do I do!”

Kendrick eased forward. “It’s okay, me and Caiden are here, we won’t let anything bad happen. We promise. Now, take that deep breath.”

She inhaled a shaky breath.

“Imagine it getting smaller,” he repeated.

She closed her eyes and every time she saw the firestorm she created in her mind, all she could think of was what would happen if it jumped free. She could feel that it wanted to hop down and race along the ground. It almost seemed to be asking her free it.

“Maybe imagine it rotating in the opposite direction to break it apart,” Caiden suggested, from her other side. The witch had positioned himself between her and Meryn.

She couldn’t help it. The calmer they got, the more freaked out she became.

“Tell the little baby firenado, thank you for coming to play, but it’s time to stop now,” Meryn said, in a clear voice.

Kiera felt tears run down her cheeks as she looked at the small woman past Caiden’s shoulder.

“Meryn, hush!” Kendrick ordered.

Meryn rolled her eyes and smiled up at her. “Just thank it for coming, then say we’ll play again later.” She seemed so sure of herself, that Kiera began to believe her.

Kiera nodded slowly, then closed her eyes. ‘Lil baby firenado. Thank you for coming out. I’m sorry I don’t know how to play with you yet.”

“Amazing,” Caiden whispered.

Kiera opened her eyes, the plume had shrunk down to about a foot high, still spinning in her hand. Feeling more confident now that she had actually connected with this magic, she continued. ‘When I know what I’m doing, we can play again’ she promised.

The plume flickered as if acknowledging her promise, and it shrunk, then disappeared.

Hunter stood next to Aiden, both frozen in place. Zev, Konstantine, Aedan, and the twins stood behind them.

“What in the hell were you thinking!” Kendrick demanded, his hands on his hips.

Kiera blinked, then pointed at Meryn. “It was her idea.” She shamelessly threw the cute pregnant woman under the bus knowing they wouldn’t do anything to her.