Annie Hayden's Arc

Chapter 7 of 27

At dawn Annie returned to the apothecary. Aelindor waited at her workbench, golden hair loose over her shoulders. She lifted a wand from a cloth. A purple crystal crowned its silver shaft, runes cut down the length. "I steeped the petals into this," the mage said. "Their light is inside the crystal now. You will pull the fox's fire through the wand, not through your bare skin." She set it in Annie's hand. "Do this wrong and the borrowed power will burn through you. First tries kill the careless." The fox pressed against Annie's leg, tail throwing warm light. Aelindor lit a candle. "Reach for the fox's fire. Feel it. Then let a thread of it climb the wand. A thread, no more. When you feel enough, tip the crystal at the flame and lift it. Do not grab. Coax." Annie closed her eyes. She felt the fox's heat against her calf, steady as a stove. She reached for it the way she might dip a cup into a stream. Warmth crept up her arm. It felt good, then too good. Her hand shook. The crystal flared white. Heat scorched her wrist. "Less," Aelindor said, sharp. "You are drinking the whole river. A thread." Annie let most of it fall away. She held one thin line of fire. Her arm still burned, but she did not drop the wand. She opened her eyes and tipped the crystal toward the candle. The flame bent, lifted, and rose off the wick. It floated a hand above the candle, small and steady, held by her. "There," Aelindor breathed. "You have it." The door opened. Cold air rolled in. Kaelen stepped through, snow on his dark coat, the crystal on his brow catching the light. He had come to speak with the mage and clearly had not known Annie was there. He stopped short. "You," he said. His stern face broke. He almost smiled. "You stayed alive. And you are holding fire." The candle flame guttered. Annie's focus cracked. The thread of borrowed power surged loose, and the crystal blazed. Pain shot up her arm. The floating flame snapped back to the wick and died. Annie gasped and pressed her wrist to her chest. "You lost it," Aelindor said, "but you did not burn out. You held the fire and let it go clean." She took the wand, turned it, and nodded. "The focus works. You can channel." Kaelen crossed the room. He caught Annie's wrist and turned it over. A red mark bloomed on her skin, but the burn was shallow. His cold fingers eased the sting. "She needs teaching she cannot get here," he said to Aelindor. "Small flames are not what hunts her." Aelindor's determined eyes narrowed. "And you would teach her?" Annie looked at the wand in the mage's hand. She had touched the fox's fire and lived. But her wrist throbbed, and both mages were staring at each other over her head, as if a harder lesson had already begun.