I knelt over the tent and finished the last brush stroke. There done! I had deconstructed and reconstructed an array in record time. Took three hours, but we wanted to get going as soon as possible. No way to know how the Kin Beast was faring in imprisonment. I had a feeling we would be finding far more than just a Kin Beast where we were going. Why else would the Universal scrolls warn and prepare us if we were only going in for a beast?

  Myra stood anxiously to the side, sketching an array for the runes she was given. It was a marvelous, if simple, array. I’d help her, but I had been stuck doing this.

  “Myra, it's finished.”

  She shut her black notebook and stuffed it in her rune scarf. “Good. Can we use it yet?”

  I nodded. “The ink I used is quick drying and is infused with my Ether ability. It should take us right back to that jungle. Do you have a direction after that?”

  She nodded. “That woman’s magic left a visible trail to follow, or so showed the visions with the fruity drink.”

  “It didn’t taste like feet or socks warmed over?” I asked, smirking.

  She shoved me. “Quit playing around and let's go.”

  “Someone’s impatient,” I muttered as we got inside the tent. I zipped it closed and then let a spark of Ether feed into the runes carved into the middle pole.

  “Hold on to something!” I yelled as we entered the bright lights surrounding us.

  I felt her arms coil around me and blushed. The tent was taken into a warp. I glanced at Myra. Her hair was floating around her, like a halo of brown, and she had her eyes closed. I could understand. The motion was often sickening to watch. Even I was feeling the effects of a warp jump. A flash of light and the sounds of calling monkeys and roaring beasts overtook our senses again. I glanced at Myra, who had practically wrapped herself in my arms. She was straddling my lap!

  “Um,” I muttered, blushing deeply. How could I not, when the girl I was starting to fantasize about was wrapped around me like a freaking safety blanket! She opened her eyes slowly, peeking through one then the other.

  “Are we there yet?” she asked, finally noticing what she was doing and retreating quickly, almost tumbling off. I caught her and pressed her flush against me. Hell, why did I do that!

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  She gazed at me with a soft look I was still too chicken shit to decipher.

  “Be more careful,” I whispered, having a hard time letting her leave. I bent over and kissed her forehead, then her eyelids, each cheek, the tip of her nose. Our noses bumped, and this time I rubbed them against one another. Stop! A fearful part of me cried, but both of my brains were on vacation. My heart was galloping a rhythm that was solely for Myra. My hands curled around her head, and I leaned in, but before anything could happen, her back bowed, and she screamed.

  I grabbed her arms as she writhed in pain. “Mille is-is b-being t-tortured!” she whimpered, trying to take a deep breath. I held her to me and rubbed her back, as tears fell from her eyes.

  “We’ve lingered enough here,” I said, standing with her in my arms. I carried her out of the tent and sat her down on a blue tree stump. The rings were glowing a cyan blue. She took out her notebook and showed me the rune array she made. Brilliant as always. She had tied it to her other ability, healing. It was a well-constructed array, worthy of master status already. I’d never taught her how to link runes and construct an array. She’d known how, instinctively!

  “You really are good with languages. It took me years to get to where you are in six months? Give or take the weeks we’ve been here.”

  She smiled and pointed. “I learned that from the cherry rune matrix, and this from the deconstructed array you made, and this part?” She pointed to a familiar set of matrices. I studied them and grinned.

  “They’re from your first ever runes array, am I right?”

  She smiled. “If you mean the one that knocked you out like a baby the first time we came here, yes. Each matrix I learned from you, sensei. You’ve been a great teacher!”

  I blushed and leaned in toward her, pointing to a blank space. “And this?”

  She sighed and tapped her pencil. “I’m working on it. The power array needs a control modulator to control its use. I’ve tried several but–” she shrugged.

  I hmmed, glancing at the power rune and its matrix, and smiled. She may be good at languages, but she was still learning the nuances of pronunciation. I knew the language like the back of my hand.

  I gestured for her pencil. “May I?”

  She gave me her pencil and I started linking runes and drawing a matrix. It was simple, like her dream matrix. A simple control matrix linking control runes and a new rune. Stop. It was a circle with a horizontal line through it. I linked that to a protection array and bam, a control module matrix. I smirked and showed it to her.

  She blinked. “And that’s why you’re the teacher,” she muttered, taking in the full array. It was as long as her arm. She’d need help inking it on.

  “Could you do the honors?” she asked, pointing to the runes and her arm. I nodded and took my water-resistant permanent ink out, and a brush.

  “Hold still,” I muttered, starting to trace the runes.

  She giggled and started wiggling. “It tickles! How did you stand a brush on your chest?”

  Same way, I took a fist there.

  “Ignore it. It’s only for a few minutes more,” I muttered, inking in the first rune matrix. We finished soon enough. Myra stretched her arm and glanced at the rune array.

  “I don’t feel any different,” she said. I took her arm and blew on it gently. She blushed, and I pulled back, chuckling.

  “I’d let that dry, and while I used permanent ink, I would not get that wet if I were you.”

  “Won’t sweat affect it?” she said, eyeing the array.

  “It shouldn’t,” I muttered, packing away my brush and ink. “Let’s go!”

  She stood from the stump and started to walk to a plant. “How am I supposed to see the magic?”

  I placed a glowing hand on her runes and watched them light up. It had been a hunch. A good one. I watched as she touched the plant. A spark of green energy left her fingers, and a trail of green energy was now apparent to me. It laced every tree within a certain point.

  “She went this way,” said Myra, pointing west of the sun.

  I followed. “Lead on.”

  She smiled, and we were soon on our way to the Kin Beast.