A Drop Of Haunted Blood

Chapter Twenty-Four: Soul Sweet Soul

In the week that followed, Mason didn't say a word about his plans to get the wand back from Ernest, despite his insistence that he wasn't giving up. Felix was dying to know what he was planning, but he had bigger things to worry about. Every time he felt he was really beginning to master his family's abilities, Sebastian would throw a new challenge at him that made him feel like a beginner all over again.

It only added to his stress when Archer, Kendra, Hana, and a few Guardians Felix didn't know the names of showed up at a training session one afternoon. Archer insisted it wasn't an official assessment, simply a check on Felix's progress, but Felix still felt the way he did when he walked into a test he hadn't studied for.

"Ready?" Sebastian asked.

Right. Time to focus. Felix lifted his hands and adjusted his stance. "Ready."

Sebastian nodded at Arisa. "Go ahead."

"Remember, they'll be harder to destroy because they're imbued with magic," Arisa warned. The tiny garden statues Sebastian had picked up at a hardware store came to life. A gnome, a plastic flamingo, and a stone rabbit launched themselves at Felix.

Felix torched the flamingo first. Its plastic body began to melt, but it continued its approach. Felix jumped out of its way and fired a blast of flame at the gnome. The fire barely left a mark. He switched to Helena's lightning and hit the gnome with a blast that completely shattered it.

A vine burst from the ground and wrapped around the flamingo. Thorns popped out and sank into the plastic. While the flamingo was pulled into the dirt, Felix turned in a circle, searching for the stone rabbit.

It tackled his calf with enough force to send him toppling over. He flung his hands up in front of his face as he landed on his back. The rabbit sprang at him with outstretched paws, aiming for his chest. Felix sent a wave of electricity at the rabbit to fling it backwards.

"You don't have much power behind your fire," Sebastian noted as Felix sat up.

"What do you mean?" Felix asked. "It's fire." The rabbit jumped at him again. He summoned a vine from the dirt. The vine wrapped around the rabbit and slammed it against the ground.

"It feels weaker than your other abilities. Like there's not as much energy going into it." Sebastian shrugged. "It's not that big of a deal. It will probably strengthen over time. Let's work on May's ability."

Felix groaned. "I hate using that one. When is it ever going to be useful?"

I saved your ass from those demons, remember? May chimed in.

"I don't like turning into water. And why would I do that when I can throw fire or lightning at something?"

"You might be in a situation where you have stone, but not metal," Sebastian said.

"Okay, slim chance, but sure." Felix climbed to his feet. "Water's still weaker."

"You'd be surprised. Don't underestimate it. Especially holy water." Sebastian lifted his fists. "Here, give it a try against me in combat." Lowering his voice so that Archer and the other Guardians couldn't hear, he asked, "How much have you used it without May being in control?"

Felix couldn't keep his surprise off his face. "How did you—?" He hadn't told anyone besides Mason or Arisa about the possession thing, still terrified he'd be locked up.

"I suspected it could be a possibility from the start. You described using May's ability in the fight against the demons, but when we first tried it in training you could barely move," Sebastian replied. "Then there was that tree Ezra grew in the clearing with the wolves, which was far beyond anything else you did with his ability—"