She grinned. “No thanks. While you’re playing in the water, I’ll be sparring with your warrior.”

Coming from anyone else, that statement might have stirred some jealousy in me. I fixed her with a mock scowl. “Just as long as you remember he’s my warrior.”

* * *

A wall of cold water dropped down onto my head, and my arms flailed as the weight of the water knocked me off balance. I disappeared beneath the surface of the lake and came up sputtering and shivering.

“Why can’t I do this?” I wailed, pushing my dripping hair out of my face.

“You are not concentrating,” Aine called, warm and dry, from the shore.

I crossed my arms over my chest. “No matter what I do it gets away from me. It doesn’t feel the same anymore.”

Aine smiled patiently. “It is still your power, just more potent. You will soon get accustomed to it. ”

“Tell that to the gazebo.” The two of us looked at the ruins of the pretty little structure that had stood at the edge of the small lake at the back of the estate, until two days ago when a thirty-foot waterspout had turned it to kindling. Thankfully, no one had been close enough to get hurt.

Before the lake, we’d practiced in the pool. Chris had been sitting on one end, watching us, when I’d attempted to change the temperature of the water by a few degrees. He’d managed to get his legs out of the water right before it turned to solid ice. I wasn’t so lucky and it took me ten very cold minutes to melt enough ice around me so I could escape. I was still trying to live that one down.

Then there was yesterday’s debacle. Standing outside in the rain, I’d tried to use the magic in the water to form a shield over me. It might have been a nifty trick if I hadn’t created a mini lightning storm on the back lawn. It took Aine and me working together for a full thirty minutes to make it dissipate. Aine had attempted to cheer me up by informing me that most water elementals couldn’t even create a storm until they were fully matured, which for me would be in another five years or so.

“Perhaps we should start with something easier,” Aine suggested softly. She walked to the water’s edge. “Do you remember the first time you used your magic to call to the fishes in the valley lake?”

Despite my cold, wet state, I smiled at the memory of the trout nibbling at my feet that day. That whole afternoon held nothing but happy memories for me.

“Good. Now release a small amount of your magic to call to the fish in this lake.”

I opened my power and immediately a golden cloud began to form around me in the waist-deep water. Something tickled my toes and I peered down at the small school of carp swimming around my legs. On the surface of the water, a pair of turtles moved slowly toward me. Watching my magic finally behave the way it was supposed to gave me a much needed boost of confidence. Aine was right; I’d just needed to start small and get a feel for it again.

“Wonderful!” Aine called. “Now pull the magic back to you.”

I summoned my power to pull it back inside me. But instead of moving toward me, the cloud continued to grow and spread out into the lake. “Just great,” I muttered as I struggled to rein it in.

“Don’t fight it. Call to it.”

“What do you think I’m doing?” I said through clenched teeth. “It doesn’t seem to want to listen.”

“Your magic is a part of you, Sara, and you control it as you would your arm or leg. You do not fight to raise your hand; you simply do it.”

I took a deep breath and made myself relax and stop fighting the magic. What was the worst that could happen anyway? As long as I didn’t try to use the magic, it didn’t matter if it filled the lake. Eventually, the water would absorb the magic and all would be normal again.

Right. Because that was always how things worked for me.

I don’t know who was more shocked when a long brownish green... thing erupted from the center of the lake. A garbling roar rent the air before the creature dove beneath the surface again. Seconds later, it reappeared, skimming across the lake toward me. My mouth fell open at the sight of the ten-foot creature that had a dragon’s head, legs, and wings and the long thick body of a snake.

I scrambled for the shore, struggling to run through the waist-deep water. Behind me the dragon snake thing roared again, but I didn’t stop to look back. Whatever it was, it looked and sounded pretty pissed off, and I wasn’t about to stay in the water with it.

Three feet from the shore, I slipped on a rock and landed on my back in the water. Frantically, I scuttled backward as the creature closed in on me.

“Sara!” Nikolas pulled me from the water. He threw me behind him and faced the creature with his sword raised.

The creature leapt at us and Nikolas’s blade scored its underside as it sailed over our heads. It roared in pain and tried to fly away from us. It had been agile over the water, but it didn’t fly as well over land, and it wobbled as its small wings fought to keep it airborne.

“Don’t hurt it, please,” Aine cried as Nikolas started toward the struggling creature. “It is a drakon, a water dragon, and they are almost extinct. It means no harm.”

“I know what it is.” Nikolas looked angrier than the drakon. “It could have killed Sara if I hadn’t gotten to her first.”

“It is merely distressed because it was awakened from its hibernation. Sara is undine. She never has to fear any creature that lives in the water.”