The Circle

24 | Apology

When I woke up the next day, I found myself floating over my bed.

"Holy shit!" I scream and felt myself dropping down, and then my head hit the headboard, making me yell once again. "Motherfucker! Ow!"

I groan as I feel the pounding in my head and the pain from the impact against my skull and I watch from my peripheral vision as Bronte jumps up at the sound of my screams.

"What's wrong?" She says alertly and scans the room for anything misplaced.

"Well, I seemed to have woken up in the air." I say and clutch my pounding head.

"That's great!" Bronte beams and I frown.

"How is that great?" I ask and groan. "I'm pretty sure this is going to bruise."

"Stop being dramatic, you're a demigod. You don't bruise." Bronte rolls her eyes and smiles at me, "Your powers are developing, Lux! That's awesome."

"I just need to figure out how to control them. It's getting dangerous." I think about almost shocking Kit yesterday night with my electricity and dehydrating afterwords.

"We know that your lightning is triggered by strong emotions," she wiggles her eyebrows suggestively and continues, " but we need to find a way for you to access it whenever you want to."

I think about the tingling sensation that runs through my body whenever lightning is about to be created and how I light up like a christmas tree from within. The force always pools low in my belly as if it's concentrated there.

I close my eyes and imagine the energy flowing beneath my skin, traveling in rivulets through my body and making everything tingle.

"What are you doing?" I hear Bronte asking me.

"Shh." I say, trying to concentrate on the building feeling inside of me.

I can physically feel the cells in my body vibrating and giving energy, and I concentrate on that feeling. The rational part of my mind keeps screaming that this is insane, that I shouldn't be able to feel every particular cell's kinetic energy inside myself, but the other part of me, the demigod side, feels at ease. It feels right.

I try to convert the energy inside of myself into electrical energy, and I start feeling the tell-tale feeling inside my stomach. I imagine that the flow is traveling down to my arms, and I feel the spark begging to be released on my fingertips.

"Lux?" Bronte gasps, "Open your eyes."

My arms are glowing bright blue again, just like when I had my claiming. All the blood vessels in my arms shone brightly in a interconnected electrical field, and I felt my fingertips vibrating.

I take a deep breath and concentrate on releasing a small current out of my index finger. I tentatively allow the energy to be released and suddenly a tiny spark erupts out of my finger, and both Bronte and I jump.

I stare dumbfounded at my glowing hands and let out a curt, surprised laugh.

"Holy shit."

I did it.

I try something different and I release a larger amount of electricity on my palm, and then I mold it into a ball. The miniature lightening ball cracks and spins on top of my hand and illuminates the room with white light.

"Do you feel any heat?" Bronte asks with eyes glued to by hands, her lips forming a perfect O at the sight in front of us.

"Nope." I answer, realizing for the first time that I should feel the heat. Actually, I should be in pain.