Air {Elements of Power 3}

Chapter 26: Jasmine

"Come on, Jasmine, you've done it once, so you can do it again. You just need to try harder." Tristan was leaning against a pergola draped in delicate white flowers. The cold season was approaching and as he exhaled I could see his breath in the air. I pulled my jacket tightly across my body and attempted to stop myself from shivering.

"I am trying!" I told him, pulling a face. He only grinned back at me though. That grin was infuriating: so smug, so Tristan.

"No you're not. You're staring at my lips." He laughed as I jerked my gaze away, glaring up at the sky. "I could kiss you again if you want..."

"No!" I protested, a little too loudly. I took a step backwards, to ensure that I was making myself perfectly clear. I did not want Tristan to kiss me again. My emotional life was complicated enough right now. I really didn't need Tristan making it any more complex.

"Well keep your eyes off of me then, and focus on the sky!" He came closer anyway and stood beside me. "I believe in you. You did it once, you can do it again."

"But I'm not even really sure how I produced the lightning last time! And even if I could start it up again, I still don't know how I would control it-it was a complete fluke that it hit the drakon before."

"Well it was a fluke that saved hundreds of lives. So please try."

I groaned in frustration, but I was clearly losing the battle so I might as well give it a go. I positioned my feet firmly on the ground and raised my hands and eyes up to the sky.

I tried to think about the combination of my two powers. Rain tumbling from the sky stemmed from my Brizan powers. But the lightning itself made me think of fire, of heat, of light. It was as though I had to turn all of the water in the sky into a fiery electric current. Using my mind...

The whole thing was crazy. Impossible. Yet... I could almost see a logic to it.

I thought about the clouds, the rain, the water. I focused on storms, turbulence and power surges.

I felt something begin to build in my fingertips, something incredibly powerful and strong. It was nothing like the tingling I got from flames, or the flow of the water. It was pure. It was lightning.

My eyes were blinded by the momentary flash, as small forks of lightning erupted from my fingertips.

"What on earth?" Tristan shouted, jumping back. "How did you do that? I didn't know you could do that!"

"I didn't know I could do that until a second ago. I just... felt it, and it happened."

My hands continued to crackle and spark.

"Can you aim it?" he asked, taking a step back towards me.

"At what?"

He glanced around. "Let's start close, then we'll work on your range." He gestured to the pergola he had been leaning against.

"I can't destroy that! It's palace property!"

"Jasmine, if we can't stop the Helians, there won't be a palace to give a stone about destroyed property!"

He had a point. Even if his Sephan idiom was a bit weird. Even so, I glanced over my shoulder. I had the strangest sensation we were being watched. From the corner of my eye a shadow seemed to vanish around the side of the palace wall. I watched for a moment longer, but nothing moved. I was being paranoid; we were alone.

My hands felt as though they were full of static. As I extended them out towards the pergola, forks of light jumped from them and shot straight at the wooden beams.

"Whoa," Tristan said, as he took in the structure before us. The wood had turned a sooty black; it was intact and standing, but completely charred. I was surprised the whole thing hadn't burst into flames. It was, however, giving off a strong smell of bonfire. Even the flowers had been burnt to a crisp. There was a small pile of blackened petals on the ground.

"Now try a bit further," he encouraged.

I aimed my hands at a bush further down the garden. It went the same way as the pergola; nothing left except a charcoal shell.

"What now?" I asked Tristan, grinning broadly.

"Now, you aim up." He gestured into the sky.

"Up? Are you sure?"

"Absolutely. It's the only way we're going to strike those beasts down."

I thrust my hands upwards, letting the lightning fly high up into the air.

A fork flashed up into the sky, crackling through the air before vanishing up into the clouds above.

I looked back down at Tristan, a broad grin spreading across my face. The Sephan watched me in awe.

"You are, without doubt, the most amazing person I have ever met!" His eyes glinted with excitement.

"Why thank you," I joked back lightly, while blushing at the compliment.

"No seriously," he said, coming closer. "You're utterly fantastic!" He swept me up in a hug which lifted me straight off my feet and spun me round in a circle.

I laughed, swept up in the euphoria of the moment as a blur of white and blue flashed before my eyes.

"With you on our side, we are going to destroy them all!" Tristan cheered.

"Jasmine?" A voice asked behind us.

Tristan put me back down quickly, but as I spun around to face the speaker, he kept his hands held lightly on my hips. My skin burned from the contact.

"Roxy!" I smiled. "Did you see?"

"I did." She was smiling, but it didn't quite touch her eyes, which were focused on Tristan's hands. "Was that really you?" she asked after a pause.

"All her," Tristan replied proudly for me.

My hands sparked and Tristan jumped back quickly.

"Wow!" Roxy said, at the same time as Tristan went "Ow!"

"So what do you think, Roxy?" he asked, jubilant. "Have we got him beat?"

"I definitely know who I'm betting on."

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