November Reign (Northarbor Coven #3)

5. Magic 101

Magic 101

Thyme

“When do we start?” Cody asked eagerly.

Oak checked with me. I nodded at him. “Now.”

We were all in the training room, but I wasn’t sure it was the right venue for what we were about to do. I’d asked Barr to take me to the old coven house to grab some training materials we used in the school, so I had some basic books for our students. Barr had told me Oak had apologized to him, which made me strangely proud of Oak.

Admitting you were wrong and making up for it was some sexy emotional intelligence. My weakness was for capable people. Either gender, obviously. I’d had a brief relationship with Damon’s mom after his birth, though I had a slight preference for men. As far as I knew, Oak only liked guys.

Dwelling on Oak was distracting me from the task at hand. Magic 101 and my students.

“We’ll get the basic elements set up. Just the four. Metal is more advanced and also more likely to go wrong.” It had been such a long time since I’d taught anyone magic.

“Not fire?” Damon wondered aloud.

“Metal can be shaped in so many ways.” Oak jumped in to explain. “It requires a finer control because of the different densities of each metal.”

“Huh.” Damon seemed appeased by the explanation.

“I think we should move to the kitchen. We’ll need more water than we have here.” I tried to get the lesson on track.

“Uh, I’ve already set something up in the kitchen for you.” Oak’s cheeks darkened with a blush.

“Oh! That’s awesome, thank you, Oak.”

Damon eyed us suspiciously. “Did you two finally fuck? What the hell is going on with this?” He pointed between me and Oak.

“Um, well, Oak came up with the idea for your training and I’ve had more experience with teaching so…”

“Pft, whatever. I want to play with fire!”

Sure enough, when we got to the kitchen, the table was set up in the corner with the things we needed to call forth the elements.

Oak had laid out a bowl of water each, a bowl for the fire along with the matches they would need at first. There was a little mound of earth in the middle of the table. Air was all around us, and was also the most finicky element to control, aside from metal. It also required a careful hand.

To start the lesson, I took Cody and Damon through a meditation exercise, asking them to find their well, the magic within them and check that it was calm, steady.

Oak’s shoulders brushed mine as he took the same deep breaths, demonstrating for the others how it was done. His proximity was heady. I tried not to let it divert me from my meditation. It would have been embarrassing to mess it up in front of my students all because I was crushing on the other teacher!

Then we worked with the pile of soil Oak had taken from the garden. Solid, always under our feet, the earth element was the perfect starting point. I asked them to move the little mound. To make shapes with it. When they were more confident. I asked them to call it in from outside.

The kitchen became chilly when Oak brushed by me to open the patio doors. We didn’t want to have to replace the glass!

It was worth it to see the smiles on Damon and Cody’s faces when they successfully called more soil to their side and created a sandcastle.

Their confidence was growing in front of my eyes. I shared a grin with Oak, and in a daring move, I squeezed his hand. His eyes went wide with surprise, making me pull away quickly.

“Sorry,” I muttered, too low for the others to hear.

“It’s fine.” As if to show it was true, he took my hand and pressed it in his quickly. “Just not used to people touching me.”

My heart gave a pang. Oak always came off as standoffish, but he wasn’t nearly as cold as he appeared. I guessed that was why everyone gave him a wide berth. They didn’t initiate physical contact with him. The only people I’d ever seen touch him were Zinna and Poppy. Now, with them in Abrocaelum, he didn’t have that.

“What’s next?” Damon looked longingly at the matches. “Fire?”

Oak laughed, surprising Cody and Damon. “No. Water. Gotta learn how to heal those burns before you create them.”

Damon shrugged. “Makes sense.”

Water sustained life. It was healing. We were born in water, so for Damon to take to the element so quickly shouldn’t have been so surprising.

“Can I try healing a cut?” he asked.

“Where—?”

Too late. Damon used a knife he had on his person to cut along the back of his hand. I felt ill seeing the blood. I rushed around the table to his side, ready to step in.

“Damon! Hold on, that looks deep!”

“I’ve got it,” he assured me. Sure enough, he directed the water over the cut and focused his gaze. He didn’t use words like the rest of us would, but his intent to heal clearly came through because the water washed away the cut, leaving a white line behind.

“Here,” I took his hand, inspecting the healing. “I’ll get rid of the scar.”

“Not like I’m not covered in them.” Damon tried to wriggle free. I held firm. With a muttered word, I smoothed away the fine scar his cut had made.

“All done. You could have probably done that yourself. You were amazing with the cut! Wasn’t he, Oak?” Damon needed the praise to encourage him. If I knew him, he’d feel like he hadn’t done enough because of the mark left behind. He hadn’t known it was possible to remove small scars, though.

“Yeah, you did great,” Oak affirmed. “Will we do fire now? Cody, are you okay with water?”

I smiled at Oak as I returned to my place by his side. Our hands brushed, giving me a jolt. I tangled my pinky with him for a minute, earning myself a sharp look from Damon.

“Sure. I don’t want to cut myself, but I feel like I’ve got a hold of water easily enough.” Cody looked uncertain, like he thought we would ask him to injure himself so he could be tested. Toth would murder us.

Echoing my thinking, Oak shuddered. “Nope, staying alive, thanks.”

It made me laugh. Oak grinned at me, standing close enough to touch. He was so tempting. I wanted to hold his hand, kiss his cheek, bask in all his smiles.

Damon struck the match. “So, what do we do with fire?”

The kitchen was on fire. Well, the table was. Fire had gone well, with both of them working up to creating fireballs in their bowls without the need for matches. A click of their fingers and a spark word for Cody, and they had fire ready to burn at their command.

We got too cocky.

My little brother thought he was so proficient at the elements that he was able to handle two at once. Of course, instead of earth or water, he had to go for air to blow the fire around the kitchen.

Floating fireballs were cool and all. Until they grew too big to handle. The fireball hung above our heads, doubling in size as the air fed the fire. That was when Damon’s shaky control of air wavered. The fireball expanded again and shot across the kitchen!

We ducked and dove as fire spread onto surfaces, papers, a dish towel. Nothing was safe from the fire’s rage.

The fire alarm started wailing, bringing the rest of the inhabitants of the house to the kitchen.

Toth took one look at the situation, ran for Cody, threw him over his shoulder, and ran outside.

“I’m fine!” I could hear Cody cry from the yard. Not that the demon would listen. When it came to Cody, he was always cautious.

“Damon! Call off the air.”

“Can’t!” he cried. His horrified face took in the state of the kitchen. If we didn’t get it under control soon, we’d need to replace everything.

“Call water with me,” I said, taking his hands. “Come on, you know this one well. Ask it to wash the fire away.”

A cloud formed above the worst of the fire, on the table we’d been working on. All it took was a little push for it to rain down on the fire, putting it out.

“Good,” I praised. “Now for the rest, okay?”

Damon’s eyes met mine. Trust in those blue depths. The same eyes I had .

Together, we put the fires out. With more practice, Damon could just ask the fire to sleep, but he was a long way from that.

We surveyed the damage. Really, it wasn’t all that bad. Some burned patches in places, but the kitchen was fully functional once it dried out a bit. At least the coffee machine was safe.

“Well done, Damon. Part of doing magic is fixing your mistakes. You got the hang of it quickly with the water.” I didn’t want him to focus on everything that had gone wrong.

“Yeah,” Oak agreed. “Water really seems to call to you. Maybe we need to teach you more healing.”

“Jorgoth is a great healer. I wish he could be here.” Barr’s face fell, remembering where the elemental, Jorgoth, was. He was still imprisoned for his safety after Basil summoned him.

“Why don’t you guys rescue Cody from Toth, maybe let them know the kitchen will be fine? The house isn’t going to burn down. I’ll order in for lunch.” At my suggestion, the others all left, leaving me alone with Oak.

“So, what did you think of your first magic 101 session?” Oak asked as he got a mop out to clean up with me.

“Better than expected, actually.”

He bumped his shoulder against mine playfully. “Yeah, it was.”