Page 81 of Reforging Onyx

But he did it anyway, forming a ball the size of a tennis ball in his hands and letting it orbit slowly above his palm. He regarded it thoughtfully. It felt like it would still pack a punch despite being smaller, and he sent it flying at another target. It went up in flames just as easily as it would have with the larger ball of fire, and he hummed with interest.

“It’s so hot that the size doesn’t really matter,” Onyx commented. “It wouldn’t kill a person on contact, though.”

Dominic hummed. “Not yet,” he agreed. “Now make it smaller, and hotter, and see if you can send it through the target.”

Onyx nodded, then summoned another ball — a golf ball sized one this time — willing it to burn hotter. He wasn’t sure if it was working, not at first, but then he let it get closer to his hand and hissed in a breath. He didn’t ordinarily have to worry about being burned by his own flames when they were still in the stages of creation, but this seemed different.

Of course, the second it was out of his hands and hitting something around him, everything changed. His surroundings could be the death of him once the fire manifested in full and caught anything else aflame. He knew that. And letting go of this little ball of death…

He hurled it at another target, and this time it went straight through before erupting into flames when it hit the warehouse floor on the other side.

Onyx let out a triumphant sound. “Okay, that could burn right through someone,” he announced cheerfully. “It’s not taking much to do that, either.”

He went back to playing with fireballs of varying sizes, amusing himself with seeing just how small he could make them. Bullets, too, wrought of liquid fire that burned and sizzled their way through the targets.

And he’d thought he’d been deadly before.

Still, this was all well and good, but it wouldn’t get him out of his situation.

Yet.

He just had to keep learning. Dominic had made it clear that he’d be able to come out here fairly regularly, and that meant he’d have other opportunities in the future to learn things that could help him find, target, and destroy Dominic before the witch could do anything about it.

He was pretty sure he’d already been playing for two hours, though, and he didn’t think he’d be able to manage to take the Bancroft witch down with a single strike. He wasn’t tired, even remotely, but he’d been going through enough power to where he’d need to work to bring Dominic down. In an ideal world, he’d have his magic and his body and maybe even one of those staves.

He daydreamed about taking Dominic out, about getting rid of all the confusing thoughts and living on his own… but that wasn’t a fun idea either, because what did he know of living on his own? Besides, he’d be on the run if he killed Dominic. There would be no point in even trying to stay in one place. They’d hunt him down and do worse than put him into Tartarus when they caught him.

It would be worth it, though.

“About thirty minutes left,” Dominic said.

Onyx wondered if he could send those projectiles in a circle around himself, fling them in all directions, and catch Dominic in the crossfire. If he was fast enough, if he spun them around, he could theoretically hit him with one of them, and if he did…

Only half an hour left. It was practically nothing. But it would give him time to launch into a full scale attack if he so chose. He was pretty sure he could get through the dome; it wasn’t a shield, per se. He didn’t think it was tangible, and something to stop his fire would need to be dedicated to doing just that.

He considered it for a long moment, then abandoned the idea with a sigh. Not here, not now, not yet. Next time, maybe. Once he understood more about the dome, and maybe once he could detect where the spell Dominic used to speak to him was originating from.

He spent the next thirty minutes playing with the small projectiles, watching them burn through the targets to set what lay beyond them on fire while leaving pools of fire behind. They were hot, and he almost burned himself a few times on them.

It was exhilarating.

“It’s time, Onyx,” Dominic said. “Please lie down, so I can cast the spell.”

Onyx glared at the target that had once held Dominic’s shirt. He considered casting a shield around himself and trying to fight it off, but he was still shackled and was now operating at maybe fifty percent of his regular power level. Powerful elemental witch or otherwise, he lacked the training to avoid being put to sleep.

He sighed, then sat down on the ground.

Next time. Next time, he’d have a better plan and make sure he was still at full power at the end of the time in the warehouse. He’d make sure to get vampire blood right before they came out here, too, instead of only having had it a few days earlier. It might not help but… It couldn’t hurt.

Chapter 34

Dominic

Dominic cast the sleep spell, monitoring carefully as Onyx eased into sleep. He strengthened his own shields with extra layers, just on the off chance that something went wrong, before crossing the dome to where Onyx was lying on the concrete floor.

He latched the collar back around Onyx’s throat before unshackling him and lifting him to carry him back out of the warehouse. Once the dome came down, the other security personnel rushed around to put out any lingering fires and ensure that the area was fully secured while he headed back to the vehicle with Shane.

“Any issues?” he asked Shane.