Luckily, Jayce had been there, waiting for that moment, his iron will pulling her slowly, inexorably back to the task at hand. He had spoken of the flame inside her. Of her feeling the fire, knowing it as a conscious, living thing and her thoughts had blindly followed. But she had been so wrapped up in Nika that she hadn’t even realized what she had done at first, or that she had achieved anything at all.
Simply following the now familiar rhythm of diving inside herself, finding that vast wealth of power buried so deep inside her. The hardest part for her was not fighting it, trying to contain the urge to reach out and grab it all, only to have it slip through her fingers like grains of sand, or even worse, grab nothing at all.
Instead, she had to let it fill her, a trickle at first and then a torrent that she could only seem to achieve when she was wrapped around one of them. Not that either of them seemed to mind all that much.
So there she had been, full to the brim with a power so intense it would have burned most witches where they stood, and she had let herself get distracted. Not all that hard when Nika’s hot hands had trailed over her body, making her writhe against him in pleasure, his lips moving sweetly over her own. The taste and feel of him had invade her mind, her body, her soul until he’d consumed her.
And then she’d conjured. Lost in him, she had let go of the power she had called to her, but instead of the pretty violet flame floating in her palm that she was supposed to create a dragon made completely of flame had erupted into thin air. It had floated there hissing and crackling and utterly mindless.
An alarmed sound from Jayce finally had her pulling away from Nika and she caught her first glimpse of the the trouble she had conjured. Its serpentine form slithered in the air, making figure eights with its long, ember trailing body. It had stopped as they had, all staring at each other in shocked silence.
“Don’t just stand there, Hazel, get rid of it!” Jayce had shouted at her, still not taking his eye off of the beast.
But it was too late, the concentration she needed was gone and now this fiery creature had a life all of its own. It had shot across the room at Jayce’s hastily whispered words, as if it had somehow understood them, or at least the intent on them.
The drapes caught fire first, and then the olive green, floral print upholstered love seat that had been collecting dust for several years. Smoke began to fill the room at an alarming rate, but even worse, as if it could get any worse, there was a murderous look suddenly filling its flame colored eyes.
Hazel had completely panicked and even Nika, always calm, logical Nika, had stood there utterly silent, mouth agape in surprise as the creature had charged, releasing a screech in a puff of steam. Only Jayce’s quick thinking had saved them from the beast.
One moment, Hazel was standing there, convinced she was about to be demolished by the very thing she had conjured, and the next she was in Jayce’s strong arms. His mouth came down hard and fast on top of her own. She had been shocked for all of a second before melting into his embrace. A second later, and she had been once again brimming with power, more than enough to banish the fiery dragon out of existence before it could do any more damage than it already had.
Embarrassment still shot through her, hot and uncomfortable, at the memory, quickly followed by a moment of sheer panic. What was she supposed to do when they finally did confront Eidolon?
Oh, dark spirit, excuse me while I kiss the hunky dragon warriors that I inadvertently freed from their prison, you know, the same one you were locked in for hundreds of years. Hah! Yeah right, more likely they would all be burnt to a crisp by a fiery chicken the next time she tried to practice conjuring anything.
A snorted laugh coming from Jayce had her glaring up hastily and her cheek tinged a bright pink at the humor in his eyes.
“A chicken…made of fire?” He finally chocked out, obviously trying to hold back another chuckle.
“A giant chicken made of fire, that also breathes fire, and is giant, if I didn’t mention that already thank you very much!” Both Jayce and Nika broke into wide, silly grins.
“Sounds terrifying.”
“Oh yeah. I wouldn’t mess with it, certainly. I’ve heard that giant fire breathing chickens are the worst.”