Aveline could sense it before she fully understood it.
It was not the same sensation she had grown used to when she bent shadows, that quiet, inward pull of something cool and elusive responding to her will.
This was different. Hotter. Wider. It surged through her in a rush so sudden it almost felt like recognition, as though something hidden deep inside her had awakened the moment the fire came for her and decided, without hesitation, that it would not let her be harmed.
She blinked, staring down at her own hand, then at the stance Lucien had taught her only because she had insisted on learning everything he would let her touch.
Her fingers were still arranged exactly as he had shown her, her body balanced without her needing to think about it, as if some instinct she had never trusted before had reached up and taken control for her.
