Grounding the Storm ✓

Chapter 19

Despite the rain and the wind, Renit orders training the next day. I do as he asks and throw on a heavy jacket and a cloak. After trudging through the mud and into the clearing, my boots are soaked and my toes are freezing. But like every other day, I don't complain. Instead, as I approach the impatient prince, I smile and bow. He scowls.

There is no pleasing him.

"Hurry and settle your power. We need to get started," he barks, snippier than usual. Renit grabs my wrist forcefully, burning the skin, and unlocks the titanium band. I want so desperately to punch him right in the jaw but I avoid that by keeping my hand clenched into a fist at my side.

I take one step back and like all the days before, wake my power with a calming touch. After a full day without training, there is more force than usual but with one quick rumble of the ground and a slight shift of pebbles on the surface, my power is ready to bend at my will. The progress I've made in such a short time is substantial. If only I could show my father how far I've come. He would be proud of the control I have over the very rare and very difficult power of ground. The only person not pleased is Renit.

He ushers me with a damp hand covered in rain. The dark hood over his face conceals the angered features but the furrow of his brows and his frown are not hidden underneath. Neither is the unrelenting hate he has for me simmering off his skin.

"I'm ready," I tell him.

He twists his neck from side to side and rolls his shoulders. That's all the stretching he needs for his power. "Should have been done a long time ago."

He stuffs the titanium band in my pocket and ushers me forward, a few feet away from him. "Sorry." I try to meet his eye but he won't look at me. There is something different about today, something he doesn't want me to know. Is that why there's a storm swallowing the entire courtyard? Is he the cause of this?

Renit ignores my apology. "You need to learn how to finish your power. Settle it, turn it off. If you can't stop the power then you have no chance of controlling it."

Instead of bickering with him like I normally do, I plant my boots firmly on the ground and get to work with a nod. Rain patters on the shoulders and the hood of my cloak and I use that to calm my soul and distant my thoughts from the rest of the world. Renit isn't standing there, he isn't looming over me like a ghost. I don't have to master this right away, I can take my time. No matter how hard he pushes, I cannot let myself falter.

The ground shifts as I pull up a chunk, cracking and grumbling as it separates from the solid foundation crafted at the beginning of time. The strain is easy now, my body doesn't feel like collapsing when I hold that chunk of ground in the air, forcing it to elevate off the surface. Power fills my arms and my hands, sparkling at my fingertips with whorled dust and sand.

"Now put it back where it was. Imagine yourself throwing the lid over your power and pressing down on the force. Snuff out the strength," Renit orders.

I can do that. I've been snuffing out my power for years so I don't hurt anyone. All I have to imagine is Silas or Celestine standing on top, their life is in my hands. Their life depends on whether I can manage my power.

Slowly, the chunk of ground—filled with rainwater and sopped grass—slowly shifts back to where it was. The ground knits together, resembling what was before, when Silas was here a week ago. Popping and sighing, everything becomes one and as I look through the strain, it seems like the ground was never removed. Now, I can do what I've been trying to do for the past week.

Renit's words flow in my mind. Throw the lid on your power. Snuff it out. The titanium band in my pocket is a crutch and one I will not use. If I keep using that, I'll never know how to properly control my power. All to Renit's demise.