I flattened my hand on the wood, feeling a splinter stab into my thumb, then reached for my Ice magic. Once again, a cold silver light flickered, centered on the spider rune scar in my palm. It only took a moment for me to bring my magic to bear. Elemental Ice crystals quickly spread out from my palm, across the wood, and onto the adjoining board with the rune on it. I concentrated, forcing the crystals to flow all around the sunburst rune without actually touching it. Then, when the entire board was coated with an inch of my Ice, I let the crystals creep inward toward the rune.

The sunburst hissed and flashed with the elemental Fire it contained, threatening to erupt, engulf me in its deadly heat, and trigger the bomb below. But I slowly, carefully forced my Ice on top of the symbol, choking the Fire with the cold crystals of its opposing element.

Sweat beaded on my temples and gathered in the hollow of my throat, my head ached from concentrating so hard, and my flattened hand trembled and threatened to cramp with every passing second. Releasing a sudden burst of raw, unfocused magic was one thing. Even the weakest elemental could do that with relative ease, and it was the most popular form of attack during the desperate moments of an elemental duel. But small, controlled, precise bits of magic like this were difficult, tricky, and draining.

Still, it was something I’d been working on lately with Jo-Jo. I was strong in my magic, but I wanted to be smart with it too. Part of that meant going beyond raw, brutal force and learning how to better focus my power and use it to control, manipulate, and manage my elements and their impact on the environment around me. Simply put, I wanted to develop more of the finesse that Clementine had mentioned to Owen earlier.

And now here I was, doing the same thing to the sunburst rune that Owen was doing to the silverstone vault door. I wondered if he was having as difficult a time with it as I was. Probably not, since he used his magic like this all the time in his forge, crafting some new sculpture or weapon. He didn’t have the sheer power that I did, but he definitely had the finesse aspect of his magic down pat.

Thinking about Owen motivated me to focus even more. I forced another layer of Ice over the sunburst rune, and the last bit of elemental Fire was finally snuffed out, choked to death by the cold power of my magic. I let out a breath that frosted in the air, despite the sticky summer humidity.