Chapter 151 Impromptu Training

Chapter 151 Impromptu Training
ERINA -

They'd spent the last several days celebrating with the Cheshire's. More and more showed up until the entire castle and courtyard were filled.
Kai was still getting used to them accepting him. He didn't say it, but she knew that he felt like he didn't belong.
They'd had another night of lovemaking and laughter.
Erina awoke first, the warmth of sunlight spilling across the sheets and the soft weight of Kai’s arm draped over her chest.
The room was quiet except for the faint crackle of the dying fire and the distant laughter drifting up from the courtyard below.
She stretched lazily, feeling the new tail behind her twitch against the mattress, and closed her eyes again, content to drift in the afterglow of everything that had happened.
Then the world tilted.
One moment she was nestled against Kai’s chest; the next the bed was empty beneath her and she was standing on the far side of the room, blinking in confusion.
Her tail lashed once in surprise, knocking a small vase off the bedside table. It hit the floor with a sharp crack and shattered into pieces.
She stared at the broken porcelain, then at the bed where Kai was now sitting up, sheets pooled around his waist, eyes wide and amused.
“Did I just…?” she started, voice trailing off.
Kai laughed, the sleep in his voice low and warm, as he rubbed a hand over his face. “You vanished. Right out of my arms, and reappeared over there like you’d been summoned.”
Erina looked down at her hands to see faint lavender smoke still curling from her fingertips.
Her stripes glowed softly along her arms, violet light flickering in time with her quickening pulse.
“I didn’t mean to,” she said, half-laughing and half-panicked. “I was just stretching.”
Kai swung his legs over the side of the bed and stood before he crossed the room and caught her wrists gently. His thumbs brushed the glowing stripes, soothing the jittery energy still humming under her skin.
“You’re powerful now,” he said quietly. “More than you realize. The transformation gave you the gifts, but control… that takes practice.”
"Practice?" She repeated. "How much?"
She didn't have time to practice if it took weeks. She needed not to vanish at random moments.
She swallowed. “What if I do it in front of people? What if I vanish during a council meeting or… or in the middle of something important?”
His grin softened. “Then we make sure you don’t. Not until you can choose when and where.”
He leaned in and kissed her forehead, lingering there for a moment. “We need to train. Today. Before the power decides for you again.”
Erina nodded, the flutter in her belly making her feel uneasy. She could hear Scrappy on the bedside table trilling softly, as though agreeing.
Kai stepped back and reached for his shirt. “Get dressed. Pants and a shirt, like normal. Something easy to move in." He pulled it over his head as he finished with, "We’ll go to the private garden, where no one will see.”
She dressed quickly, pulling on loose trousers and a soft shirt, rolling the sleeves up to her elbows. Her tail kept getting in the way, curling around her leg or flicking against the bedpost, and she had to laugh at how uncooperative it was.
Kai watched her struggle with quiet amusement, then helped tuck the tail through a small slit she’d hastily torn in the back of the pants.
“Better,” he said, giving the tail a gentle stroke that made it curl around his wrist instead.
She nodded in thanks.
They slipped out through a side door, Kai leading her down a narrow corridor and into the walled garden behind the castle. The air smelled of roses and fresh earth, and the sunlight felt good against her skin.
The space was empty, trellises heavy with blooms, and the grass was soft under her feet. There were no guards, and no prying eyes that would make her even more uneasy.
Kai stopped in the center and turned to face her. “Start small,” he said. “Vanish and reappear behind me. Focus on the smoke. Let it carry you. Push your will into what it is that you want. The need to be standing behind me.”
Erina closed her eyes and breathed in. The lavender smoke rose inside her again, cool and familiar now, wrapping around her legs, her waist, her arms. She pictured the spot behind him where she would be close enough to touch before she pushed her will into the desire to stand there.
The world folded just like it had this morning.
She reappeared right behind him, so close her breath stirred the hair at the back of his neck. Her tail flicked in triumph, brushing his calf.
Kai turned slowly, grin wide. “Better. But you’re still making noise. Listen.”
He vanished in a swirl of blue smoke, silent and seamless, and reappeared behind her. She felt the air shift before she saw him, then his arms were around her waist, lips brushing her ear.
“Your turn,” he whispered. “Quiet this time.”
She tried again. Smoke rose thicker this time. She focused on silence, on the way the world felt when it folded without sound. When she reappeared behind him, the grass barely rustled.
"I could get used to this." She whispered.
Kai turned, eyes bright with pride. “There. That’s it.”
She asked him why her core didn't feel like it weakened any, and he told her that while they were in Shireland, they could use their gifts without issue.
They practiced for what felt like hours. She learned to vanish mid-step, to reappear perched on the low wall, to summon smoke tendrils that curled around his wrists like cuffs.
Each success made the power feel less like something foreign and more like an extension of herself.
Kai caught her every time she stumbled, steadying her with hands on her hips or waist and a kiss somewhere soft.
When she finally managed to wrap smoke around him completely, she smelled his arousal perfume the air.
Lavender tendrils slid over his shoulders and down his back with a possessive touch, and he groaned low in his throat before pulling her roughly against him.
“You’re dangerous,” he murmured, kissing her hard before pulling back and saying. “My dangerous queen.”
She laughed into his mouth, tail curling around his leg, stripes glowing violet against his skin. The power hummed between them, matching the beat of their hearts.
They collapsed onto the grass together, breathless and laughing, her head on his chest, his hand resting over her belly.
Erina closed her eyes and listened to Kai’s heartbeat. “I think I’m starting to like this,” she whispered.
Kai kissed the top of her head. “Good. Because you’re stuck with it. And with me.”
She smiled against his shirt. “Forever.”
A sudden rush of footsteps broke the quiet again.
Erina sat up quickly, tail flicking in surprise. Kai rose to his feet in one fluid motion, smoke curling faintly around his fingertips.
Bella hurried through the garden gate. “Erina!” she called, voice cracking on the name. “I’ve found something!”