For the second time, I was awoken by an electric shock. I woke up, fists swinging, to only fall off of the\ bed. I muttered some rude things before picking myself up. Now I was positive that was Alexie's doing. How, I didn't know, but he was doing it. 

   After that happy conversation yesterday, Alexie had disappeared into a different room for the rest of the day. I had raided his kitchen after realizing that I'd been stuck in that room for five whole hours. No wonder I'd been starving. After that, I collapsed on the bed in the guest bedroom only to be awoken by that stupid electric shock.

   My head still ached. It wasn't as bad, but it was bad enough that I wanted to go back to sleep. Instead, I grabbed some fresh clothes and threw them on. After braiding my hair back, I found the bathroom. It -- oddly -- lacked a mirror. I could still tell that I'd have bags under my dark brown eyes. My chestnut hair would be brown in the interior lighting, though it turned dark red once I was outside. It had always driven my best friend from high school nuts. We'd get dressed to go out, but she never knew what to give me to wear because of my hair. It just figured that I could bring red stuff to my hands at will.

   I left the bathroom and found Alexie sitting at the table. He was idly eating some breakfast. I arched an eyebrow. "Let me guess. I'm to make my food and sit down?" My tone was sardonic.

   He said nothing. Grumbling, I snagged an apple from the basket of fruit and sat down. He pretended I wasn't there while I ate. I felt awkward. After trying to leave, being convinced to stay, and now this. Did this guy ever try small talk? 

   Finally, he finished his food -- oatmeal? -- and leaned back to look at me. I stared right back, not about to be deterred. "Today," he said, "you will learn the proper way to harness magic. It's faster, stronger, and more efficient."

   I raised my eyebrows. "Is this that training thing you were talking about?"

   "You will find the answer in the books in the guest room." Alexie stood up and headed for the attic stairs. I eyed him warily. If he tries to lock me in again, I'm poisoning all of the food in here. Still, I followed after him cautiously. The stairs creaked under my feet and I shut the door.

   Alexie had taken a seat on the floor. Unsure of what to do, I did the same. "Conjure the magic as you did yesterday."

   I squinted at him, tempted to snap a snarky response, but decided against angering the same guy who had dodged knives easily. Instead I concentrated on the method I'd created yesterday. My thoughts cleared until I located the humming. As before, I attempted to reign in in. My head started to ache.

   Instead of feeling the tingling in my hands, something shoved at me. I yelped aloud and cradled my head. "What the heck just happened?"

   Alexie didn't look surprised. "Try again."

   I glowered, "It's not working. I had it yesterday, but something changed."

   "It's resisting you," he remarked in that quiet tone of his. 

   "Exactly." I gave him a weird look.

   "It's to be expected. The first time was easy. Because you had never used magic before, you had stored energy that allowed the first try to be smooth. However, now that energy has been spent. The second time is always much harder."

   "Oh." It made no sense, but I pretended that I understood.

   "Try again. This time, don't attempt to pull the magic. Don't try to control it. Tap in to it. Allow yourself to become a gateway. A door for it to flow through, per say. As if you were to connect a new wire to a circuit."

   That makes absolutely no sense-- I exhaled when I realized he more than likely didn't care. So far, he'd been accurate. And I really didn't want to piss him off, either. I shut my eyes and tried to focus. Instead of my method of grabbing and pulling, I did as he suggested. Within seconds the mental wall broke and electrifying energy surged into my muscles. I somehow doubted I'd ever get used to that feeling.

   My eyes opened to look down at the crimson as it seeped off of my hands like an overly-full sponge. It was mesmerizing, the way it swirled and twisted around my fingers. I gawked again. Alexie sounded amused. "Good."

   "What is that?" I muttered, shaking my head slightly. I could hear the humming again. It wasn't annoying, but rather consistent. 

   "That is the barrier," he said softly, "instead of forcing the power that comes from it to your will, you allowed yourself to be a door. A circuit. Magic hates being restrained or forced. Those who are very close to their magic tend to be the same way, which you will discover later."

   My eyes were wide as I stared at my hands. "This is some crazy stuff, dude."

   "Magic is versatile," he mused on as if I hadn't said anything. "It can be your best weapon and ally, or a dangerous enemy. You must learn to coexist with it. Tap into it this way. Never try to force magic. It will turn dark and fight against you."

   I only half-heard him. My hands were toying with the ribbons of color around them. I nodded slightly. He said something else and I didn't notice until white sparks flashed. I yelped and jerked my hands up to cover my eyes. When I looked again, Alexie's face was cold.

   "Do you understand, Roxie?"

   "What do you mean, do I understand?"

   "You must never force the magic," he said sharply. "You must understand this. To force it is to take power that doesn't belong to you. It will fight you and turn dark. You can never force it against its will."

   "I get it, I get it!" I leaned back, my eyes wide. He looked positively angry. I didn't get why.

   "This isn't a light matter. Too many stare at magic with that same look and don't understand the stakes of using such power." Alexie's eyes bored into my head.

   I glared back. Did he really think I was going to become some power-hungry magic-y person? "You don't have to worry about that with me. I don't even want to be involved in this. As soon as this training thing is done, I'm outta here. I definitely won't be pulling something like that."

   "Some say the same," he said darkly. "And then they wonder what its like. To have all the magic in the world at their fingertips. And then they force the magic to their will. Either it kills the user or the user becomes too powerful to stop and others die instead. That is dark magic. And it's the same magic that marks your own arm."

   Dark magic? I had looked down at my arm before I knew what was happening. "Wait. That's what that lady -- Dani? -- did? She forced it?" The ink seemed to glare at me.

   He nodded slowly. "One cannot force magic alone. They must have someone to take the magic from, lest they risk imploding from the intake. So the dark magic user takes a source and directs the magic they are using to flow through the source, diluting the power enough for use, and then rip it away. Dani Darhk sensed your blood as mage and created the link. Any time she used dark magic, she pulled it through you first and you took the force of the pain."

   The pain. I remembered the agony with pain-staking clarity. My hand clenched over the marking automatically and my jaw clenched. "So, basically, she used me as a shield. One that was stuck full of bullets."

   "In essence, yes."

   I sucked against my teeth and my nails dug into my own skin. "Well, I'm not sorry for hitting her over the head and getting her with the bottle of mace." Sick satisfaction coated my tongue. Served her right. I may not have known what she was doing, but she deserved what she got anyway.

   "But now you understand the danger," Alexie pushed. "While she was incredibly strong -- the strongest dark mage the world has seen in decades -- it cost her. She was destroying your ability to use magic. It would have killed you, given enough time."

   'How much did she take?' My dad had demanded. 'How much?' The gears in my head churned. Was this what he meant? "What do you mean, my ability?"

   His head tilted. "Picture a water channel. Used and maintained properly, it will last forever. However, if the water becomes too much, too much pressure and activity, it will erode the channel. The channel will become too unstable and weak for use and will eventually collapse."

   My eyes narrowed on him. "So, basically, from the abuse, the ability can be destroyed?"

   "And the chances are that you'd die," he agreed. "I've never heard of anyone surviving complete draining of their potential."

   His point about not letting me leave made a little more sense. I didn't like it, but he had a point. Don't touch dark magic. And stay away from it. Still, one thing didn't connect. I looked at him suspiciously. "Why are you even helping me? And you knew my dad already. What about that?"

   Alexie exhaled and stood up. I did the same but he brushed past me to the door. "That is a lesson for another day. Today's is over." He disappeared down the stairs. I went after him, preparing to demand an answer, but a door closed in my face. 

   Okay, not risking trying to open this door. Grumbling, I sat down in the kitchen and rubbed my forehead. If someone had told me I'd be having a conversation about magic like it were an everyday thing, I'd have laughed and told them to get back to the asylum. Yet there I sat, having done just that.

   Alexie's refusal to tell me how he knew my family was irking. Some random guy I ran into on the street knew my dad? This house was obviously not close to Memphis. The flora was way too northern to be anywhere near. He clearly wasn't planning on telling me any time soon, either.

  Huffing, I got up, snagged an apple from the basket, and headed to the guest bedroom. I shut the door and opened the curtain, allowing the light in. I tossed the apple up and down and mused. Suddenly I got an idea and looked at the apple curiously. 

   Jumping onto the bed, I sat down and set the apple in front of me. A few minutes later and I'd concentrated enough to bring the scarlet back to my hands. Curious, I reached over to pick up the apple.

   As soon as the swirling red connected, the apple was fired backwards. It hit the door and exploded into pieces of apple. I yelped and fell backwards with a startled laugh. Staring at where the apple at been, I snickered. "Okay, so that's something."

   Though now I had a whole apple to clean up the remains of, it said something. The stuff around my hands could affect other things, and strongly. Even if I wanted nothing to do with this world, maybe it wasn't a bad idea to learn how to control and deal with it.