“This should do,” she said, surveying the land around her. She had managed to find one of the most desolate areas in the park. I wouldn’t have been surprised to see vultures circling overhead. “Did you bring what I asked for?”
“Yes, ma’am.” I knelt on the ground and rifled through my bag. In it was the spell book, along with some herbal and liquid compounds I’d mixed up at her request.
“Take out the fireball kindling,” she instructed.
Adrian’s eyes went wide. “Did you just say ‘fireball’? That’s badass.”
“You see fire all the time,” I reminded him. “From Moroi who can wield it.”
“Yeah, but I’ve never seen a human do anything like that. I’ve never seen you do anything like that.”
I wished he didn’t look so awestruck because it kind of drove home the severity of what we were about to attempt. I would’ve felt better if he’d treated it like it was no big deal. But this spell? Yeah, it was kind of a big deal.
I’d once performed another spell that involved throwing a painstakingly made amulet and reciting words that made it burst into flames. That one had a huge physical component, however. This spell was another of those mental ones and essentially involved summoning fire out of thin air.
The kindling Ms. Terwilliger had referred to was a small drawstring bag filled with ashes made from burnt yew bark. She took the bag from me and examined its contents, murmuring in approval. “Yes, yes. Very nice. Excellent consistency. You burned it for exactly the right amount of time.” She handed the bag back. “Now, eventually you won’t need this. That’s what makes this spell so powerful. It can be performed very quickly, with very little preparation. But you have to practice first before you can reach that point.”
I nodded along and tried to stay in student mode. So far, what she was saying was similar to what the book had described. If I thought of all this as a classroom exercise, it was much less daunting. Not really scary at all.
Ms. Terwilliger tilted her head and looked past me. “Adrian? You might want to keep your distance. A considerable distance.”
Okay. Maybe a little scary.
He obeyed and backed up. Ms. Terwilliger apparently had no such fear for herself because she stayed only a few feet away from me. “Now then,” she said. “Apply the ashes, and hold out your hand.”
I reached into the bag, touching the ashes with my thumb and forefinger. Then I lightly rubbed all my fingers together until my whole palm had a fine gray coating on it. I set the bag down and then held out my hand in front of me, palm up. I knew what came next but waited for her instruction.
“Summon your magic to call the flame back from the ashes. No incantation, just your will.”
Magic surged within me. Calling an element from the world reminded me a little of what the Moroi did, which felt strange. My attempt started off as a red glimmer, hovering in the air above my palm. Slowly, it grew and grew until it was about the size of a tennis ball. The high of magic filled me. I held my breath, scarcely able to believe what I had just done. The red flames writhed and swirled, and although I could feel their heat, they didn’t burn me.
Ms. Terwilliger gave a grunt that seemed to be equal parts amusement and surprise. “Remarkable. I forget sometimes what a natural you really are. It’s only red, but something tells me, it won’t take long before you can produce blue ones without the ashes. Calling elements out of the air is easier than trying to transform one substance into another.”
I stared at the fireball, entranced, but soon found myself getting tired. The flames flickered, shrank, and then faded away altogether.
“The sooner you get rid of it, the better,” she told me. “You’ll just use up your own energy trying to sustain it. Best to throw it at your adversary and quickly summon another. Try again, and this time, throw it.”
I called the fire once more and felt a small bit of satisfaction at seeing it take on more of an orange hue. I’d learned in my very first childhood chemistry lessons that the lighter a flame was, the hotter it burned. Getting to blue anytime soon still seemed like a long shot.
And speaking of long shots . . . I threw the fireball.
Or, well, I tried. My control of it faltered when I attempted to send it off toward a bare patch of ground. The fireball splintered apart, the flames disappearing into smoke that was carried off by the wind.
“It’s hard,” I said, knowing how lame that sounded. “Trying to hold it and throw it is just like an ordinary physical thing. I have to do that while still controlling the magic.”
“Exactly.” Ms. Terwilliger seemed very pleased. “And that’s where the practice comes in.”
Fortunately, it didn’t take too many attempts before I figured out how to make it all work together. Adrian cheered me on when I successfully managed to throw my first fireball, resulting in a beautiful shot that perfectly hit the rock I’d been aiming for. I flashed Ms. Terwilliger a triumphant look and waited for the next spell we’d be moving on to. To my surprise, she didn’t seem nearly as impressed as I expected her to be.
“Do it again,” she said.
“But I’ve got it down,” I protested. “We should try something else. I was reading the other part of the book—”
“You have no business doing that yet,” she scolded. “You think this is exhausting? You’d pass out attempting one of the more advanced spells. Now.” She pointed at the hard desert floor. “Again.”
I wanted to tell her that it was impossible for me not to read ahead in a book. It was just how I operated with all my classes. Something told me now was not the best time to bring that up.
She made me practice the throw over and over. Once she was convinced I had it down, she had me work on increasing the fire’s heat. I finally managed to get up to yellow but could go no farther. Then I had to work on casting the spell without the ashes. Once I reached that milestone, it was back to practicing the throws. She picked various targets for me, and I hit them all effortlessly.
“Just like Skee-Ball,” I muttered. “Easy and boring.”
“Yes,” Ms. Terwilliger agreed. “It’s easy hitting inanimate objects. But moving targets? Living targets? Not quite so easy. So, let’s move on to that, shall we?”
The fireball I’d been holding above my hand vanished as shock shattered my control. “What do you mean?” If she expected me to start aiming at birds or rodents, she was in for a rude awakening. There was no way I was going to incinerate something alive. “What am I supposed to hit?”
Ms. Terwilliger pushed her glasses up her nose and backed up several feet. “Me.”
I waited for the punch line or at least some further explanation, but none came. I glanced behind me at Adrian, hoping perhaps he might shed some light on this, but he looked as astounded as I felt. I turned back to the singed ground where my earlier fireballs had struck.
“Ms. Terwilliger, you can’t ask me to hit you.”
Her lips twitched into a small half smile. “I assure you, I can. Go ahead, you can’t hurt me.”
I had to think a few moments for how to phrase my next response. “I’m a pretty good shot, ma’am. I can hit you.”
This earned an outright laugh. “Hit, yes. Hurt, no. Go ahead and throw. Our time is running out.”
I didn’t know how much time had passed exactly, but the sun was definitely lower in the sky. I looked back at Adrian, silently asking for help in dealing with this insanity. His only response was a shrug.
“You’re a witness to this,” I told him. “You heard her tell me to do it.”
He nodded. “You’re totally blameless.”