Juna knelt over the practice stone, palms flat against the boards, while heat crawled up her forearms toward her elbows. The trapped current fought every narrow channel she opened through her fingers, and the stone between her knees began rattling.
'One clean crack, that's all, without setting the whole damn shelter on fire.'
A Wing snapped open behind her shoulder, and flame poured through its edge faster than she could gather the current. She clenched her teeth and squeezed the heat into a needle before the edges could spit fire across the room.
The stone cracked clean, and neither half rolled anywhere near Ash, asleep in the crook of Hajin's left elbow.
"Better," he called from the doorway, hitching Ash higher against his elbow, "but you're strangling it, and fire hates being strangled, so give the damn thing somewhere to go."
She flexed her aching fingers while the Wing strained against her back, "Easy for you to say, it wants everything burned."
