Page 73 of Lies That Bleed
Onyx and Liana stood off to the side with the other creatures and watched.
“Lieutenant Ashendell, would you please direct your attention to that bush over there?” Kohen pointed to a shrub that stood at the edge of the tree line over forty feet away.
The lieutenant’s brows pinched together in confusion but she did as he asked. We all did. I turned to face the plant, my gaze flicking back to Kohen and then the bush, and back to Kohen. Kohen looked to be in deep concentration, arms at his side as he stared at the shrub and then…
We all gave a collective gasp as the bush burst into flames.
Wow, to be able to direct flames to something from so far away… without shooting the flames across the lawn. It was pretty incredible.
My fellow cadets burst into applause, myself included, and Kohen gave a slight grin of pride.
“Wow, okay, that’s very impressive, Mr. Badshah.” Ashendell had her clipboard with her and marked something in it.
Then she turned to me. “Miss Everhart?”
‘I’m going to vomit,’I told Liana.
‘Well, then vomit and get it over with, because they expect great things from you, and that’s what you need to give them right now,’Liana said.
Oh great. That wasnothelping with the pressure.
I stepped forward, sweat beading my brow as I stood in the center of the practice field with my fellow cadets all around me. A few higher-level soldiers who were here for officer training stopped what they were doing and walked over to watch me.
I was Aisling Everhart, future empress. If I couldn’t handle pressure now, I couldn’t run this country.
‘How do I make the fire come?’I asked Liana.
‘Tell everyone to step back,’Liana advised.
I raised one eyebrow at my creature. “Take a step back!” I told everyone.
They exchanged curious glances but took a giant step back.
‘More,’Liana said.
Oh stars, this was embarrassing.
“Farther,” I told the surrounding crowd, and they stepped three paces back.
I took a deep breath.
‘Now crouch down, make yourself like a ball.’
If this didn’t work I was going to look like such an idiot.
I did as she asked and lowered my head to my knees, tucking myself into a ball.
‘Now go inside your mind. Remember the fire beast? Remember what it felt like to fight her? That all-consuming heat, the way she grew when you cut her down and didn’t let up…’
‘Yes,’I said, because I did remember. I would notsoon forget that experience. Even more now that Liana had told me the fire beast was a part of her.
‘Reach for her, and let her out,’she coached.
I was keenly aware of the fact that I likely looked like an idiot curled into a ball on the practice field while I had a conversation in my head with my creature and everyone stared at me. But I didn’t focus on that. I focused instead on the heat in my core, the fire beast who was wild and terrifying and glorious and impossible to control. She was there, inside of me, like a second creature almost, Liana’s alter ego, this one slightly terrifying. I reached out and touched that power and then opened the invisible cage she’d been resting in all this time.
One second I was just sitting on the ground concentrating on this power, and the next there was a flash of heat and dozens of screams. A blast exploded from my skin and I looked up just in time to see a wall of fire rushing outward from me towards my fellow candidates. People ran farther back, screaming, including Instructor Ashendell, and then the fire dissipated as its pressure was released.
My skin, hair, and clothing were untouched, though I was sweating and felt slightly warmer than usual. With a hard swallow, I stood and surveyed the giant circle of scorched grass I was standing in the center of.
