Wings of Lomay by Devri Walls Read Free Book Online Page B

helpful,” Alcander said. “And may be worth the risk.”
    “Could you teach them?” Emane asked Drustan.
    “I would expect some resistance to my methods, but yes.”
    “Then it’s a plan. Emane and Alcander can continue to train the recruits, and Drustan can train the Shifters.” Kiora said.
    ***
    KIORA LAY IN HER bed in her usual state of wakefulness. She had expected the knock at the door when it came, but was surprised that the thread at the door was not Alcander. She opened it to find Emane leaning against the frame and looking at her suspiciously.
    “What?” she asked.
    He slid past her without waiting for an invitation. “I was thinking,” he said as she shut the door. “Alcander and I are doing weapons training and Drustan will be training the Shifters. But you haven’t once mentioned what you are planning to do.” He turned to face her, one eyebrow cocked. “Which usually means you are concocting some wild plan that none of us will like.”
    She grimaced. “You caught that?”
    “I knew it.” He rolled his eyes skyward, shaking his head. “Well? What is it?”
    “First, I’m going to pay another visit to the Dragon Queen. We need their help.”
    “Do you think they will agree?”
    “I don’t know. She said she wouldn’t fight, but she also said I could call on her again. I have to ask.”
    “All right, you said first. Then what?”
    Kiora bit her lip. “Then I need to find somewhere isolated.” She walked past him to the balcony.
    “Isolated?” Emane said, following. “You’re going off alone again?”
    “I need to see what I can really do.” She plopped in one of the chairs and motioned to the other. “We can’t devise a plan until I know what I am capable of doing.”
    “We already know what you’re capable of doing.”
    Kiora pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. “No, we don’t. I have Lomay’s magic now, and . . .” Her cheeks pinked. “On our way to Tavea, Arturo accused me of still holding back. He was right.”
    “ That was holding back?” Emane asked.
    Kiora nodded. When Emane was silent, she looked up at him. “What are you thinking?”
    Emane’s brow creased. “I don’t understand. We have been through so much. How could you still be holding back?”
    “I have only let my magic truly go in Meros. You must remember how much it terrified me.”
    He frowned and moved his weight to the other side of the chair, as if looking at her from another angle would help him see through her reasons.
    Kiora looked up to Lomay’s glistening gold barrier that flickered just beneath the blackened one, trying to garner enough courage to be honest. “Letting it go like that felt so . . . good. I didn’t want to shut it off and I almost lost myself. Now I have so much more magic than I ever did, and I can’t begin to imagine what it would feel like to truly let it go, to feel it rushing through me . . .” She shivered as goose bumps ran up her arms. “I’m worried that if I do, I will crave it.”
    “There’s nothing wrong with feeling good,” Emane said. “The magic is a part of you.”
    “It doesn’t just feel good,” Kiora said, leveling her gaze with his. “It feels like power.”
    “And you’re worried that if you let it go, you will turn into Jasmine,” he said slowly.
    Kiora closed her eyes, nodding in shame. “I have the magic, and I have the talisman. Who’s to say I won’t?”
    “Kiora, as long as you fear it, you will never let it happen.”
    “What if I stop fearing it?”
    “You won’t.” He reached out to grab her hand, but hesitated, dropping his hand on the arm of her chair instead. “Would you like to know why?”
    Kiora looked over at him, desperately hoping he had an answer.
    “That innocence, that goodness you think makes you so weak—it’s exactly what will shield you from the power. Jasmine was bitter and angry, and her power fed it. Your very nature is what makes you exceptional. That is why you