Torches lined the walls, flickering lazily as if they couldn't decide whether to burn brighter or fade. Robespierre led the way, hands brushing the walls as glyphs flared beneath his touch. The floor beneath us shifted from cold stone to something smoother, unnervingly clean for a hidden bunker.
Yes. A hidden, underground bunker. My throat burned.
Jordan's hand brushed mine once — quick, possessive, impossible to ignore. I noticed the wolfish tightening of his jaws. The claws sprouting and vanishing. The tightness of his lips. He was much more tensed than I was.
"Seems like the big bad wolf is scared shit" I taunt him .
His eyes flicker to me and the tension stay buried in a smirk "The big bad wolf ain't never scared "
I muttered flatly "Maybe it's the jealousy making you uglier than usual. " I hiss in a taunting dare "Well, Robbespierre sure looks cute in a lighted room".
Claws pin down my shoulder and Jordan's eyes wash over mine in a fierce flash "Don't push me". The claws dive deeper into my flesh. I wince in pain.
"Geez. Look at who can't take a joke" I blurt out, flinging his hand away and rubbing my shoulder.
"Not that kind of joke" His voice is cold as steel.
Robespierre hisses loudly , his raspy voice extracting the tension simmering "Well, outside here, you guys can decide if you want to love each other or jump down each other's throats but inside here " We had stopped at a circular stone door etched with twisting sigils that shimmered like liquid metal. He continued in precise tones. "Your restraint is forged here, Night Carter. Not by fear. Not by brute force. By discipline."
Jordan snorts.
Robbespierre's eyes dart at him in a swift glare "That includes you, Little wolf. You can either sulk outside the walls of this chamber. Or sit your pious ass down somewhere ".
"Somewhere..where " Jordan gestures to the beautifully neat but chair-less space.
Robbespierre snaps a finger and a sofa appears... Straight out of thin air. He takes a long searching look at me and then begins to fidget around the room, searching for something.
"I don't like the way he looks at you" Jordan muttered. Too low to be loud, just enough to heat the air.
I snorted. "Oh, please. You're the one who's sweating."
He bristled. "I am not—"
"—sweating?" I finished for him, smirking. "Exactly."
Robespierre ignored us and gestured to the center of the chamber. "Stand. Let the gloves fall. Let the energy out. Do not fear the burn."
I hesitated. Sparks tickled my fingertips just thinking about letting go. "Uh… nope. Not without supervision."
Jordan's voice cut low, rough. "Night… you really want to?"
"I have to," I said, clenching my teeth.
"The sofa will not seat itself, wolf man" Robespierre's voice flickers with irritation at Jordan . "She needs to concentrate. You will keep draining her energy if you keep making her unsure of her choices."
"Oh I see" Jordan coos in a sing song voice before piloting his cocky ass to seat down. Finally.
Dropping the gloves, blue arcs shot from my fingers, coiling in the air like playful snakes. The quartz pillars trembled, humming along with my pulse. Robespierre's eyes glimmered, sharp and approving.
"Good. But your mind fights itself," he said, lifting a shard of quartz that hovered in midair. "Control is not a leash. Emotion feeds power — yes. But mastery? Mastery requires the mind to command, not beg."
I focused, coaxing the shard to spin, to obey. Sparks shrank to thin threads of blue that obeyed my will. Jordan exhaled sharply, wolfish and tense. "Not bad," he muttered. His jaw clenched like he wanted to snarl. "Not bad at all."
"Shut it" I snapped at him, turning to face him and in that instant he's hovering in the air , unfazed but somehow a tiny bit surprised.
"Point taken" He sneered "You can put me down now".
Resisting the energy to laugh, I focus my mind intently on Jordan, hung mid air. I thought about Robespierre's words.
Mastery requires the mind to command... Not beg.
I am doing it. Jordan is dropping slowly down. Slowly. I tell myself he doesn't have to land with a thud. I want to seat him quietly on the sofa he had sprinted out from. And I am nearly succeeding... Well until.. He laughs and I somehow loose my concentration.
He hits the floor with a loud thud. Suits him anyways.
"Not funny" He snorts, dusting his butt while he limps to the sofa.
Robespierre gestured again. "Now. I will show you how to become the energy, not just bend it." I watched him hold a bolt steadily on his fingers. "Tune in to your energy, Night Carter".
Sparks danced across my fingers, rising into the air like ribbons of light. Each pulse of electricity, each quiver of force, obeyed my thoughts — more obedient, more alive.
Hours passed in a blur of sparks, shouts, low growls, and laughter. I screamed in triumph when I held a bolt steady between my palms, bending it in a perfect arc without frying anything — except maybe Jordan's nerves.
The chamber hummed with residual energy from my last success, the blue arcs still teasing the quartz pillars.
Robespierre circled me like a predator admiring its prey. "Enough bending," he said, voice low and sharp. "Now, you will merge."
I frowned. "Merge what exactly?"
Jordan laughed from where he sat " Maybe your mood swings. You'd fry the whole room if you tried that."
"Focus," Robespierre snapped. "Merge your intent with your energy. Make it obey without hesitation."
He raised a hand, and suddenly three shards of quartz lifted from the floor, spinning around us in chaotic arcs. Sparks leapt between them like miniature lightning storms. "Control all three. Do not let one slip. You will bend them, command them, or you will burn your hands and your pride."
Sparks flickered along my fingertips as I forced the shards to spin faster, their chaotic dance starting to bend into obedient orbits. My gloves hummed, veins tingling as the shards resisted, then yielded. Robespierre clapped once, sharp and dry.
"Not bad," he rasped. "Now — all together. Feel the energy. Become it, do not fight it."
I exhaled, letting my pulse guide the arcs. Electricity wrapped around my arms like a ribbon, coiling and twisting. The shards responded in unison. The chamber glowed faintly, humming with the rhythm of my heartbeat.
"Excellent. Looks like training's over… for now," Robespierre said, his voice dropping to a croak, his eyes darted to Jordan and then back at me "Why don't you give her up, Little wolf "
Jordan tensed beside me, claws flexing even as he tried to mask the unease creeping across his features "I will never do that."
I swallowed hard.
Robbespierre laid a hand on Jordan's shoulder "Then be ready to fight to save what you hold most precious. Our world is a cruel place for a love such as this. "
Jordan threaded his fingers through mine tightly, deaf to the electricity jolting through them.
But I could control this. My chest was heaving but I was not burning anything. Mercifully.
Mastery tells the mind to command... Not beg.
Robbespierre cackled and then whispered to me "Keep him. " Then he was gone in a cloud of smoke.
I looked at Jordan. His wolfish eyes were dark, unreadable, but I could feel the tension in his chest echoing my own. The chamber hummed, the glow from the quartz reflecting the truth neither of us wanted to admit — we had just begun, and the stakes were already higher than ever.