Gifted, A Donovan Circus Novel by Liz Long Page A

with
that,” Nikolas said.
    “It is not a big deal,” Delia
assured me as I opened my mouth to question it. “So before you say no because
you think there is a tradition or something, save yourself the time and do it.
They will respect you for jumping right in.”
    “Okay. But before I do, should I
keep it low or light to impress?” I asked her.
    “You really have to ask me that
question around this group? The bigger, the better,” she whispered with a
smile. She started to walk over where the other girls sat in their chairs.
    “All right, I’ll do it. Stand
back for a sec,” I announced to the guys.
    “Show us what you got, lady!”
Bianca yelled from her chair. Finley and Brooklyn both crowed their approval.
    My father and I had practiced
for weeks before I mastered this trick. I learned to control fire outside of my
own creation, as well as control flames in the air without physically touching
them. My father told me it was a rare talent; I practiced everyday since then
to beat the challenge, even after his new rules and his death. It had only been
small flames then, like from lighters or my father’s own hand. I could always
be better at it, so I pushed myself.
    “Nikolas, throw a fireball at
Delia,” I said.
    Delia stopped in mid-stride and
squeaked. “I beg your pardon?”
    Nikolas gave me a weird look.
“Uh, are you sure about that? I mean, I know you can take the hit for her, but
you’re about ten feet away. Maybe you should get closer before I do that.”
    “I’m not taking the hit. Just do
it.”
    “Are you sure about this?” Delia
whispered frantically at me. I nodded.
    “Trust me,” I whispered.
    I warmed my palms as Nikolas
flicked his lighter and formed a large fireball. He gave me one last look, took
a deep breath, and threw it as hard as he could straight at her.
    I waited a heartbeat, long
enough to have Delia feel the heat off it and hear her yelp, before I threw my
hands out towards her and upwards: a fireball of my own slammed into Nik’s,
forming a larger one. It flew up sixty feet and lit the night sky like a small
orbit of sun before I moved my hands to split it into three smaller pieces.
Then I made them dance—loops and swirls, flames flying off the edges like
firework sparks. I even pretended to juggle for a moment and heard laughter
from the group. I gritted my teeth in concentration, bringing my hands back together
and flinging the fire down directly onto the brush pile. Without hesitation,
the brush pile exploded into large flames and coated everyone in a warm yellow
light. Everyone cheered.
    Delia, meanwhile, touched her
hair and clothes as though checking for singes. She looked surprised when she
found none.
    “Holy fu—I would prefer
never to do that again, Lucy. I nearly wet myself,” Delia grumbled. She
smoothed her hair and cleared her throat.
    I walked over to where everyone
now grouped. Keegan and Nikolas waited for me to meet with them while Finley
opened a cooler and passed out beers to everyone.
    “How did you do that? Move fire
that wasn’t yours, I mean?” Keegan asked.
    “Yeah it’s one thing to do
something like juggle with Keegan; I can touch his fire and hand it back to
him, but to control it on the air like that? You weren’t even close to it!”
Nikolas added.
    “My father presented me a
challenge. It’s taken me almost ten years to perfect that move. I only truly
got the hang of it right before he died.” I neglected to mention that it’d been
even longer than that, since my dad put his foot down about fire. No need to
frighten Delia more or make them think I was bragging.
    “I’ve never seen anything like
that from a Firestarter,” Nikolas said. “You’ve practiced that for ten years?”
    “Well, he told me that it’s one
of the hardest things to learn. It’s an extremely rare talent that might prove
useful. Though he had me convinced to learn it when he said it was difficult to
master. There’s a trick to it, but I’m constantly