Veils of Storm

19. Storm Coming

The magic bubbled beneath Cage's skin, much like it did when the beast was begging to come up. The beast was silent now and it was Cage himself pushing the magic to the surface in other, more useful ways.

"It kind of hurts," he muttered as he kept his eyes on the flat rock placed on the deck.

"You're still thinking about it as something malevolent," Jinx said, sound impatient. "It won't like you and will try to hurt you."

That made sense, but it couldn't change his feelings about it. As much as he tried to think of his curse as something positive, he was terrified he'd grow fangs again.

With a sigh, he stopped pulling his magic to the surface and looked away. The burning feeling in his veins subsided at once, the magic content with him leaving it alone.

"You're not going to make any progress by giving up," Jinx pointed out the obvious.

"I know. And I really appreciate your efforts. You've explained it to me well enough so that I can have a basic understanding of how it works."

"You're not using that basic understanding."

"I'm afraid I'll lose control."

Jinx huffed, her lips lifting in a rare half-smile. "I can take you, big guy. I don't think even your beast likes fire."

That was the pure truth. "Show me again."

Jinx rolled her eyes, but the small smile on her lips had him stepping back. Right on time, too, because she burst into flames. Her hair floated above her head as if she were dunked in water and every inch of her body that wasn't covered in clothes was on fire, shades of red, orange and yellow flickering into the late afternoon light. It only lasted a few seconds before she extinguished herself and her hair fell back over her shoulders, still looking like fire. Smoke rose from her clothes and she patted them down to make sure they didn't catch fire.

It wasn't the first time he'd seen it, but it looked more impressive each time, to see the full power of Jinx's magic. Too bad the fire burned her clothes if she kept the flames up longer. But the amount of control that allowed her to choose which part of her skin she lit up was amazing.

"I still can't believe you can do that," he said.

"You better believe it. And if I can do that, you can surely lift a damn pebble."

"If only it were that easy."

"It is that easy."

"Just as easy as you speaking to Jazz?"

She huffed and crossed her arms over her chest. "It's not the same thing."

"Jinx, you two need to talk."

He'd said that to Jazz as well, but he'd just knocked the sword out of his hand as an answer. Cage hated seeing them like this, and a part of him felt guilty because he knew it had all originated from Kat and his own inability to tell her no. It had escalated into something way beyond what he'd thought and the tension was killing him.

"It's not that easy," Jinx said, her voice low.

"Why not? He must understand why you'd want to take Leila along." Though Cage had to admit that he was a little confused by Jinx's lack of interest in her after she'd risked her relationship with Jazz over it.

"That doesn't matter," she said. "I forced his hand. And I'm very aware that his feelings for me clouded his judgement. Jazz is an amazing man and he didn't deserve this."

"So you think you giving him the cold shoulder shows him this?"

She shook her head. "I need to stay away and give him the chance to do what needs to be done. The right thing." When she raised her eyes, they were filled with pain. "I'm very impulsive, Cage, and not always in the best way."