Wyrd: Book One of the Witch War Trilogy - WATTYS 2018 WINNER!

Chapter 20: Where Laina Struggles with her Ineptitude

The wind was whipping Laina's hair around. It roared in her ears, whilst the choppy waves tried to make themselves heard, a soft cascade of murmurs lapping at the gunnels of the boat. The warm sun beat down on her golden head. It was blue skies and blue waves as far as the eye could see, one bleeding into the other in a wash of ombre all around her. But it didn't matter one iota how beautiful a day it was; Laina was in an absolutely foul mood.

She blamed three people for her bad humour: Joel, because he refused to stop being the conceited-good-for-nothing-annoying-ass that she had met on day one. It was almost as if he went about his day trying to irritate her.

Sky, because she was up to something. Exactly what, Laina wasn't sure. But no three-hundred-plus-year-old demi-Goddess could truly be romantically interested in her brother. He was sweet and smart and all, with a heart the size of both worlds combined, but he was also only a few weeks from seventeen and not exactly knowledgeable in the ways of the 'worlds'. Laina was suspicious. Deeply so. And having to play 'accidental' chaperone was really starting to cramp her style.

Last, and most importantly, Laina was furious with herself. When she had first made the decision to journey to Htrae and meet her sister, Rowan, Laina had been certain that she could be of some sort of help. She was going to discover her magical aptitudes, and poof, the burden Laina watched the girl in her dreams carry would be lighter, because of her. Because "magic".

But apparently magic was not that damn easy. Nothing was going the way she'd planned. She would be meeting Rowan tomorrow, and so far, Laina still hadn't found any reserves of magic inside of herself.

In fact, during the fight against the Epicurean soldiers, she'd been utterly useless. Three ten-year-olds had managed to tie her up and she'd missed the entire battle. If she wasn't a match for preteens, what exactly would she have done against magical soldiers and wyverns? She felt outmatched, outwitted, and outdone. The last thing she wanted was to be a disappointment to Rowan. But the journey was almost over, and she had been failing every single test.

She was clearly not kinetic. Holding a sword was less intuitive than playing basketball had been during P.E. She was not strong, or fast, or physically skilled. She was more prone to getting hit in the head with a ball than catching it. No, definitely NOT kinetic. Laina had proven this by falling on her face a few times, but she still hadn't gotten smacked in the head with a sword, so at least that was a win.

The day after the attack, Joel had introduced them to the art of manipulating the elements. She had thought maybe elemental magic would work for her, since she had always been fond of nature. She loved walking on the beach and swimming in the sea. They'd grown up in cottage country in Canada, hiking and skiing and camping. And yet, trying to make the water in a cup move with her mind had proven impossible. At one point, she had thought she saw little ringlets moving out from the middle of the cup, but it had only been Joel being a jerk and teasing her. She stared for a full hour at the glass anyways, but absolutely nothing had happened. Will had given up a half-hour in, but she had refused to stop trying until she heard a smash up on the deck.

She'd run up, concerned it could be trouble. The rigging on the main sail had come undone and fallen, and then apparently the boom had swung loose and hit an unsuspecting Joel in the gut. It had made her feel momentarily better. But it hadn't changed anything. She couldn't voodoo water, but she was determined to find some magic she could do.

She gathered Will and Joel and forced them to come back down the hatch to attempt the rest of the elements.

Once Joel had stopped groaning and whining about the gut-punch that had winded him, he finally rattled around in the boat pantry until he found a jar of dirt.