Closing my eyes against the wrenching pain, I focused all my energy inside of myself and wrapped my own pull of power around my soul, attempting to hold it in place. I tapped into the swirling energies around me, strengthening my hold so he could not pull my soul free of my body. If he removed it from where it resided in its little hole deep within me, he could set it free, instantly killing me, and yet I had a feeling that my soul would be trapped forever on this plain, never able to move forward to the next level of existence.
After more than a minute of tug-of-war with my soul, Nick finally released his hold and lifted his hand from my chest. I remained perfectly still on the ground with my eyes closed and my powers wrapped tightly around the remnants of my soul in case he should try to attack me a second time. Energy flowed into me from all directions, from the earth and nearby humans. I could even feel some of Nick’s powers mixing with the other energy pouring into me. I felt stronger, more powerful, than I ever had before. I felt as if I could take on Jabari and at last crush him like an insignificant insect.
While I lay there, I felt Nick’s powers increase again as he prepared for another attack. Balling my hands into fists, I pushed the power deeper inside of myself and then I disappeared. Stunned shock gripped me so quickly at the unexpected ability that I immediately reappeared exactly where I was, which did me little good against Nick. My eyes popped open and my mouth formed a perfect O in surprise. The only time I had been able to disappear and reappear before was when I tapped into Jabari’s powers. Now I either had the power to do it on my own or I could simply tap into Nick’s powers to do it.
“You can do it on your own,” Nick said.
“What else can I do?” I demanded with an eagerness I couldn’t hide. The world had suddenly opened up to me in a new way, and I needed to know the extent of what I was capable.
Nick gave a slight shrug of one shoulder as some of the anger started to drain out of his expression. “You will never know until you try.”
With a small smile, I wrapped a ball of energy tight within my chest, gathering together as much energy as I could stand. It crawled along my skin like a millipede and pounded against my chest like a heartbeat, but it was nothing more than power looking for an outlet, and I was willing to give it one.
I directed the energy at Nick, sending it crashing into the center of his chest, throwing him several feet backward across the yard. As soon as he was standing again, I hammered him once more, knocking him off balance while I set him on fire in a towering inferno that threatened to light the nearby trees. I paused long enough to watch the flame-cloaked figure brush off his jacket and take a few easy steps toward me.
“The fire bit is getting old and stale, Mira,” Nick said in a singsong voice.
“Then how about this?” I said. Pushing to my feet, I directed my hands down to the ground, feeling the pulse of the earth beneath me. Straining to maintain the flames, I directed the roots of the surrounding trees to explode from the ground and wrap around his ankles. The roots pulled and slammed him to the ground again as he extinguished the flames. Pulling in different directions, I attempted to split him into two different pieces, but he disappeared before I could even get a grunt of pain out of him.
Nick instantly reappeared before me and cocked back his fist to punch me, but I was gone this time before he could touch me. I reappeared a few feet away, my mind scrambling for some new way to attack him that could make some kind of impact when it dawned on me: use the same attack that had been so effective on me. Gods had to have souls as well, right?
Gathering up as much powers as I could possibly stand before a scream could be torn from my throat, I reached out toward the energy flowing from Nick. I plunged the powers inside of him, searching for that faint wisp that was his soul. I found it in a heartbeat, but it was like trying to wrap my arms around an angry grizzly bear. The energy thrashed about, shoving me away anytime I grew too near. His soul could actually fight me, where mine lay limp and helpless against his attacks.
“And that is why you should never have become a nightwalker,” he calmly said, before finally brushing me and my powers aside like an annoying fly. I was thrown back again, slamming into the ground.
I pulled the energy back to me and disappeared again before he could attack me. However, it felt as if a hand grasped me around the neck and pulled me back so I was standing directly in front of Nick.
“Enough playing for one night,” he declared. “I think you’ve begun to understand exactly what kind of power is at your fingertips if you only try.” To my surprise, his words sounded heavy, as though he was struggling to catch his breath. There was a slight flush to his cheeks, indicating that he might actually be tired from all the exertion of fighting me. I tucked that little mental note away in the back of my brain and kept my face clean of any expression.
Of course, it was only after I released the powers I’d been holding onto that I felt a wave of exhaustion pour over me. My knees turned wobbly and threatened to buckle under me, while my arms felt as if lead weights had been tied to my wrists. I needed to sit down and wait for the feeling to pass, but was unwilling to show any weakness to Nick, knowing that he could potentially take advantage of it.
“Do you think you can handle Jabari now?” he demanded.
“It feels as if the fight will be a little more even,” I admitted. “He can still control me, which gives him an edge.”
“And you can stop him from doing that if you truly want to. Take care of this, Mira, because you do not want me to,” he warned. Nick took a step back, and I did the one thing I thought I would never do. I stopped him. My curiosity had gotten the better of me.
“The nightwalkers didn’t really cage the naturi, did they?” I quickly blurted out when I sensed he was preparing to disappear.
The energy in the air seemed to dissipate with the spring breeze. He frowned at me, and I felt myself clenching all my muscles as I waited for him to strike me again. It was that statement earlier that had set off his temper in the first place. For reasons I didn’t understand, the story that had been told to me centuries ago about how the naturi and bori were caged was proving to be false. I had a feeling that only a creature as old as Nick might hold the truth I wanted.
“No, the nightwalkers were not the ones to cage the naturi,” he said with a sneer. “Nor were the lycanthropes the ones to cage the bori. I will give you that both races aided in the capture of the naturi and the bori, but you were not the force behind the act.”
“Then what happened? How were the two races drawn into their cages?” I asked, still inwardly cringing as I waited for his temper to explode again.
“They both chased after the one thing they want most in the world.”
“Control of the Earth?”
“More power.”
“I don’t understand.”
Nick sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose with his thumb and index finger. He wandered over to the patio at the back of my house and silently settled into one of the wrought-iron chairs around the table. He waited until I slowly walked over and took a seat opposite him. It was the first time either of us had come close to a civil conversation, and I had a feeling it might be the only time. Nick’s temper was too like my own and could flare up with the smallest provocation. I was treading on thin ice.