Read Online Forfeit Souls (The Ennead Book 1) by Lila Huff - Free Book Online

was perhaps the reason that he was the one that most often sparred with me. Mike had quickly found that he was no match for me and hence forth denied me sparring matches, claiming that it was beneath him. His refusals had caused a vast amount of snickering amongst the other Asakku, and while it was fun knocking Mike down a few pegs, there was also the aggravation of being that close to him, so I didn’t mind the lack of interaction between us.
    Carlo and Jack fought me only when they felt that I needed a good beat down, when they thought I was getting to cocky. In truth, I was fully aware of what I was and was not able to do. I could out strategize Carlo, but I couldn’t beat him in strength. If there were steroids in the afterlife, he was on every one of them. And Jack… well, Jack I couldn’t get past in strategy to begin with, so it didn’t matter that he was ridiculously stronger than me.
    There was only one other member of the Asakku, and I had only seen him once: Ryan.  He was a solitary member of the group. He kept to himself as much as humanly, well… demonically possible, so I had no idea which of us would win in a fair fight. Not that fair fights are the standard in the demonic world, but we tried to be as fair as possible here in the training room.
    I had been warned about the other demons in the world and their lack of fighting fair, but I’d never experienced it before. My skin had stopped glowing three months ago – not that that kept Mike from calling me glow worm still, but I hadn’t yet left the cavernous underground dwelling of the Asakku, the place they called “The Basement.”
    I had learned why the walls were so glassy when Jack took me to make my own room. It was an odd day, but I was beginning to get used to that word: odd.
    He took me to the middle of a hallway and made me face a wall…
     
    “Alright, here’s what you’re going to do.” Jack said as he held his hand out, palm up. “Just think about the heat. Don’t try to form a fire in your hand, just think about the heat.” As he spoke, a flame formed in his hands and slowly grew into a large ball that he held with two hands.
    I watched, a little wide eyed when the ball of fire grew too large for his hands, and he suddenly thrust the flaming mass at the wall. It seared through the rock eating out a tunnel that was just barely smaller than the one that we stood in now. The fire seared the walls, melting them to the glass like quality of the halls that had surrounded me since I had arrived here.
    “You control the fire. It doesn’t control you.” Jack said with a menacing chuckle.
    “No… you control the fire… I just watch.” I said dumfounded by the disappearance of the wall in front of me. This wasn’t something I was sure I was going to easily be able to wrap my head around. “Blimey,” I said under my breath. I was beginning to see the upside of death, and I was beginning to feel a little like a super hero… but without the brightly colored tights, which was definitely a plus.
    “You have the exact same ability that I do.” Jack said, roughly grasping my wrist and positioning my hand in the same position his had been in. “Heat,” he said as he let go.
    “Heat,” I repeated, staring at my upturned palm, just think about heat , and as I did a small flame burst to life on my palm, and immediately snuffed itself.
    “Concentration is necessary to keep the flame lit, and to help it grow.” Jack said in a bored manner, crossing his arms as he leaned against the wall behind me.
    I concentrated again and the flame reappeared. Then I thought one simple thought. Grow . And the flame became a ball of fire the size of a basket ball. Grow , and it was like an oversized beach ball. Grow , and it was the exact size of the hall in front of us. I pushed it forward and it ran into the wall and kept going.
    “You’re going to want to stop that.”
    “What?” I asked, and as soon as I stopped thinking about it the flames