She jerked her head at my palms. “By that silverstone in your hands. You know as well as I do that silverstone is a magical metal, that it can hold and absorb elemental magic.”

“So what?”

“So silverstone can also block magic. In your case, the metal in your hands kept you from fully realizing your Ice potential.”

“I don’t understand.”

Jo-Jo propped her heels up on the coffee table. Her feet were bare, her toes painted pink, just like always. “You know there’s a lot of duality in elemental magic. A lot of likes and dislikes between all four of the elements. Now, Stone is more of an internal magic. You don’t have to do anything to hear the vibrations of the rocks around you. Air is the same way. But Fire and Ice are different. Most elementals release those two types of magic through their hands. It’s just easier and quicker to form a fireball in your hand than it is to shoot it out of your eyes or your ass.”

I smiled at her interesting imagery.

“But you had silverstone melted into your hands. So, in a sense, the metal choked your Ice magic every time you tried to release it through your hands. Like a bottleneck. Make sense?”

I thought about all those times I’d formed a cube or a pair of Ice picks. Jo-Jo was right. I almost always used my hands to do those things, but most of the time when I drew on my Stone magic to harden my skin, the power almost always came from within. “I think I get it now. But how was I able to draw on so much Ice magic in the cavern if the silverstone was blocking it?”

Jo-Jo stared at me. “Because you finally brought enough of your Ice magic to bear to overpower the silverstone. You blasted right through that metal, broke down that barrier. Your Ice magic’s always been as strong as your Stone magic, Gin. Now, it’s finally risen to the surface where you can use it. That’s why your spider rune scars look brighter, more of a silver color now. Because your Ice magic is right there waiting for you to tap into it. Because your power is in the silverstone now, instead of being blocked by it.”

“You knew, didn’t you?” I asked. “You knew the whole time why my Ice magic was weaker. Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because you had to break through the silverstone by yourself,” Jo-Jo said. “I couldn’t do it for you.”

I sat there and stared at the matching scars that decorated my palms. A small circle surrounded by eight thin rays. One on either hand. A spider rune. The symbol for patience.