POV: KAELIS
Timeline: Same night
Location: Tidelands
I'm practicing in the training chamber when it happens.
The water sphere I'm controlling suddenly expands. Fast. Too fast.
"Kaelis!" Nyx shouts. "Control it!"
I try. I really try.
But the sphere keeps growing. Filling the chamber. Rising toward the ceiling.
"I can't!" Panic rises. "It's not listening!"
"Focus! Just—"
The sphere explodes.
Not just water. Pure force. Magic unleashed.
The blast throws me backward. I hit the wall hard enough to see stars.
When I open my eyes, Nyx is beside me, checking for injuries.
"Are you hurt?"
"I'm fine. What happened?"
"Your magic spiked." He helps me sit up. "Lost control for a moment."
"That's never happened before."
"You're getting stronger. Growing into your power. It's normal to have fluctuations."
But I can see the concern in his eyes.
"What if I hurt someone?" I ask quietly.
"You won't."
"You don't know that."
"Kaelis—"
"I just lost control! Completely! What if that happens during a fight? Or around Kieran? Or—" My throat tightens. "What if I hurt you?"
"You won't," Nyx says firmly. "I'm a god. You couldn't hurt me if you tried."
"But other people. Normal people. What if—"
"We'll train harder. Practice more control. You'll learn to manage this."
"And if I don't?"
He doesn't answer immediately.
And that terrifies me more than anything.
That night, I dream.
I'm standing in the training chamber. Water surrounds me—rising, swirling, out of control.
And there's Kieran.
"Kaelis!" he shouts. "Stop! You're going to hurt someone!"
"I can't stop it!"
"You have to!"
But the water keeps rising. Forming into spears. Aimed at—
At everyone I love.
"No!" I scream. "I don't want this!"
"Then leave," a voice says. Female.
Familiar.
Mother....
She appears in the water, made of shadows and light.
"Leave before you hurt them," she says. "You know it's the right thing. The safe thing."
"But I—"
"You love them. So you'll protect them. Even from yourself."
The water spears launch.
I wake up screaming.
Nyx is there, holding me. "Kaelis! It's okay! Just a dream!"
"I hurt you!" I'm sobbing. "In the dream, I hurt you!"
"It wasn't real—"
"But it could be! My magic is unstable! What if I lose control again? What if next time it's worse? What if I actually hurt someone?!"
"That won't happen."
"You don't know that!"
"I do." He cups my face, forces me to look at him. "You're one of the most controlled people I know when it matters. Yes, you're chaotic. Yes, you explode things. But you've never hurt anyone. Not once."
"Yet."
"Not ever." His voice is firm. "I trust you, Kaelis. Completely."
I want to believe him.
But the dream felt so real.
And the doubt is already taking root.