“The ward won’t allow me to tap into my darkness.”
Rob nodded far too enthusiastically. “That’s a good thing.”
“That’s what I said,” Bryan added.
Not helping, bro.
“That’s not a good thing,” I countered, fighting the urge to bare my teeth. I was so over having this argument. My darkness didn’t make me dark. I had learned how to control it. It boosted my powers. Besides, I only tapped into it when absolutely necessary. “The darkness is a part of me now. It always has been. I don’t use it all that often, but I want to be able to use it if I have to. I’ll need every bit of juice I can get when we take the fight to the Council. The wards are coming off.”
Rob’s face reddened, and he turned away, shaking his head and muttering something about stubborn women.
“Look,” I said and softened my voice. “Let’s just go to Renee and have her reverse the spell. We’ll still be us. Nothing will change that. No one can take that away.”
“On one condition.” He brought his hands to his hips and kept his back to me as he glanced over his shoulder, snagging eye contact. “We stay with you.”
Not this again. “You already know why I need you guys outside the grove.”
“And we need you. Period.” He turned and acknowledged the guys with a quick sweep of his gaze. “If you want us to agree to remove the ward, that’s the condition.”
“You speak for all the guys?”
Clay and Leo exchanged glances before both nodding.
I regarded Bryan. “What do you think?”
He didn’t waste any time moving next to Rob and slinging his arm over his shoulders. “I’m with my bro.”
“Of course, you are.”
“Face it, Reed.” Rob smiled smugly, and I wanted to blast that smile from his perfectly whiskered face. “You’re outnumbered.”
“Do you guys even understand what could happen if I call light?”
“No,” Rob fired back. “And neither do you. So, let’s just get that out of the way right now. Do it, Reed. Call light.”
I stilled. Was he calling my bluff? Was it even a bluff? “Excuse me?”
“You heard me. Do it. We’re inside an abandoned warehouse. If it shorts out our powers, then so be it. We’ll just stay here until we recover.”
“You’re crazy. I’m not going to call light to see if it hurts you.”
“Actually,” Clay chimed in as he scratched his beard. “He’s got a good point. Better to do it now and see what happens than to be in the middle of a battle and find out the hard way. I’m with the hothead on this one.”
Rob glared at him. “Thanks.”
Clay flashed a wide grin. “You’re welcome.”
They both turned to me. When Leo and Bryan sided with them, I rolled my eyes and accepted that I had to call light, or they’d never let this go. “I can’t believe you guys are serious.” With a sigh, I shook out my hands and walked around to get into the zone. Calling light came second nature anymore. This time last year, I barely had control over any of my elements and hadn’t learned to harness the power of light yet.
You’ve come a long way, baby.
“Do you want me to just call it in general? Or hit you with it?”
They all looked at each other before Rob stepped forward. “Hit me.”
My mouth fell open. I wasn’t planning on attacking them and was only kidding with my question. I didn’t expect any of them to volunteer. “No, Rob. I’m not going to hit you.”
“Do it, Reed.” He took another step.
I took a step back in response. “No.”
“Goddammit, Reed. For once, stop fucking fighting me!”
His outburst—him literally screaming at me—immediately triggered my temper. I hit him with a fireball hard enough, it sent him reeling back. He stole my call and killed the flame. “Wrong element.”
No shit.
“It’s the first one that came to mind when you yelled at me.” I thrust out my chin. “I stand by my choice.”
“Do it again.” Bryan’s request sent me around to face him.
“You want me to attack him again?” Was he serious? What the hell was going on with my guys? Why did they want me to hurt them?
“I felt it. The fire, I mean. When you called it, I felt it.”
I stiffened and glanced to Rob as he rejoined the group, his clothes a little singed. He brushed off the charred remnants as he thinned his lips. “This was a new shirt.”
I ignored him and kept my attention on Bryan. “What do you mean, you felt it?”
“It felt like my insides immediately heated, like I had a fever and…I don’t know…like I broke out into a sweat under my skin.”
“That’s how I felt when fire first came to me,” Leo pointed out. “You’re the only one who can’t call fire in the group, so you wouldn’t know how it felt unless you actually called it.”
Interesting concept. Bryan had loved it when I called fire while we were in the heat of the moment. Could he be developing into a trio as Leo had? Or was it the ward allowing him to channel my fire?
Only one way to find out.
“I’m sorry about this,” I said as I regarded Clay. His eyes widened right before I called earth, sending up a tidal wave of dirt through a giant crack in the floor. It crashed down, swallowing my air elemental.
We all watched in amazement as the dirt fell all around him, but never touched him. It was as if he had a protective barrier around him. Once the dirt settled on the floor, Bryan asked me, “Did you direct earth to avoid him?”
“No. You?”
“Nope.”
Clay checked his arms and shook out his beard. “Would you look at that? I’m not covered in grime. Guess the ward really
