The Heir (Men Of The North #14) - Elin Peer Page 0,2
As I walked closer and used a stick to poke at the flames, smoke rose.
“My daughter Linea has trained in energy work since she was a few years old. She is extremely gifted and will now demonstrate how she can direct the smoke from the fire in whatever direction she chooses.”
It was a task I’d mastered when I was seven and shouldn’t be a problem, but it was impossible for me to still my heart and shut out Thor’s whispering.
Holding out my hands, I tried to concentrate, but nothing happened. Embarrassed, I tried again.
“It’s okay, I know you can do it. I saw it last summer,” Freya encouraged me and the Motlanders chimed in with supportive comments, but all I could hear was Thor laughing.
Narrowing my eyes, I glared at him, feeling humiliated. “Would you mind?”
Thor stood leaning back with his arms crossed and a smirk on his face. “Maybe it’s a good thing you can’t do it. Back in the old days people would have thrown you into the flames for practicing witchcraft.”
My face warmed and I suspected it was starting to match my flaming red hair in color. “I’m not a witch!”
“I wish I was a witch,” Aubri said in support, but I hardly registered her.
“It’s fine. Allow me to demonstrate and then we’ll let you try for yourself.” My mother walked over to stand next to me, held out her hand and pulled the smoke in a straight vertical line.
“Whoa!” The French made sounds of surprise.
“Everything is energy. It’s something spiritual masters and indigenous people have understood for millennia. People have called it different things and unfortunately the practitioners were often accused of supernatural powers. Nothing could be further from the truth. We all have the ability to do energy work but as with everything else it requires practice.
“Now, I brought fifteen sticks. I want you to set them on fire and focus your energy on directing the smoke. After that we’ll teach you an easy technique to heal someone of a headache.”
My mother elbowed me, and I went to fetch the sticks and hand them out. When I reached Thor, I pushed the stick at him without looking into his eyes.
“Wait, Indiana. Don’t light it on fire just yet. First we’ll stand in a circle and hold hands while we do a short meditation.”
They all did as my mother asked but when I glanced over at Thor, his expression was mocking. The knot in my stomach grew with my need to impress him.
After my mother led us in a five-minute meditation, the fifteen delegation members stuck their sticks into the fire.
Walking around, my mother demonstrated over and over. She kept giving me gestures to do the same, but I was afraid of making a fool of myself again and kept to encouraging comments.
“I can’t get it to work,” Freya complained.
“None of us can,” Thor answered his sister. “That’s because we aren’t freaks.”
My head whipped in his direction and I narrowed my eyes, and right there in my anger and hurt, I found my focus. Looking at the smoke from his stick I silently led it into his face.
Coughing, Thor moved the stick but no matter where he moved it, the smoke kept finding him.
“This is stupid!” he exclaimed and began waving his hand to get the smoke out of his eyes.
I walked closer and took the stick from him. “What’s the problem?”
“My stick isn’t working,” he said and coughed again.
Directing the smoke in a straight vertical line, I held my hand above it. “Seems to work just fine.” As I moved my hand to the left, the line of smoke followed and just to prove my point, I moved it to the right with the same result.
Thor took back his stick and tried again but the line that had been straight before dissolved and the smoke flowed freely. “Is this what teens do in their spare time in the Motherlands? Practice magic tricks?” Thor’s laughter was condescending. “It makes me grateful that I’m a Northlander.”
“It’s not magic, it’s tapping into nature,” I shot back.
My mother came over and with a hand on my shoulder, she whispered, “Linea, may I talk to you for a minute?”
We walked to the side before my mother stopped and faced me. “What’s going on?”
I pressed the tip of my right shoe into the grass and muttered low. “Nothing is going on.”
“You were all blue sky and sunshine when we arrived. Now you’re a thundercloud attacking Thor with smoke. What happened?”