Inherit is LIVE! IT'S ALIVE!! AHHHH!!

I will be offline for a few days coming up, but before I unplug myself from my computer completely...

INHERIT WENT LIVE!!

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I will leave you with a little excerpt here, just in case you want a feel for what it's all about! I'll also tell you Happy Fourth of July, encourage you to wear sunscreen and play safe, and send you my lovingest author vibes until I can plug back in ;)!!

“No one can do that shield, Wren,” he interrupts, taking a break from his head-banging to look at me like I just crawled out from under a microscope. “You’re not a failure because you can’t master it. You’re amazing because you can even grasp it.”

“How do you know?” I demand.

“I live with some of the most powerful shieldmaidens in the world. They talk shop. Incessantly,” he sighs. “Magda thought you two would still be perfecting boble this week.”

My laugh borders on giddy. I have officially entered the Twilight Zone, where I’m some kind of super sheildmaiden with all kinds of power, instead of the lowly disappointment my mother kept insisting I was all during training. “Jonas, that shield took me less than a day. It’s ridiculously easy.”

“Show me?” His request is half dare, half order.

My back goes up and I turn to him, one eyebrow cocked in acceptance of his throw-down. “You don’t think I can do it?”

“I’m actually really scared that you can.” He mutters something I don’t quite catch, but it sounds like, “I knew you were trouble.”

The thing about boble is that you’re not really using the shield as a weapon or an offensive tool unless you want to hurl it, and there’s not enough distance for that in the car. Plus, it would be like getting shot with a frozen paintball close range. Not fun. Primarily, it’s supposed to insulate, so you can do other things; argue, confide, warn, kiss. Focus, I tell myself. You have to create a thick, impenetrable, undetectable wall and hold it without thinking.

I start by focusing the energy that’s cradled in my center, my diaphragm. I visualize the ball of tightly locked white and blue light and let it bob there for a minute. When I have a good hold on it, I put my hands out, palms up, draw the light down my arms, and wait for my palms to get warm. Once there’s enough heat, I flick my wrists and pop the light in a shield that, at first, fills the entire cab. But holding a larger boble is hard, so I constrict it until it falls around Jonas and me without any extra room.

The outside world swishes away, all the noise of the highway at night disappears, and the space I’ve created nestles us, warm and secure as an underground den. Just like it did that day with Sakura, but without the creepy cousin factor.

Jonas tilts his head back and reaches his fingertips out. He presses against the sides and the boble ripples softly before it returns to its semi-solid Jell-o form.

“This is amazing.” He looks at me like he’s never seen me before in his life.

I want his eyes locked on me like this all the time. Being the target of his focus is like sucking helium from a birthday balloon or shooting down a treacherously icy hill on a waxed sled. “Sakura could do it and she’s not even a shieldmaiden.”

He shakes his head, dismissing my cousin quickly. “But she’s a witch. She probably used a draw.”

“A draw?” I remember her saying something about that, but my fury was at too high a pitch to really pay any attention. I’m irritated that there’s yet another thing I know nothing at all about. But, as frustrating as it is that everyone in my life has more information than me, at least Jonas shares what he knows.

His fingertips strum the side of my boble and it ripples in waves of iridescent rainbow colors. My skin longs for the same treatment from his fingertips. Something about arguing with my mother and sneaking out makes me feel like doing all kinds of other bad things, and Jonas is number one on my list. He breaks my deviant daydreams with his next words. “A spell where she draws some of your latent power and uses it for her own.”

By far the creepiest thing about finding out I have these powers has been Sakura’s sneaking around in my life; my head, my friends, my house, my powers, my fox; she’s trampled on it all and I feel like the victim of the most massive kind of identity theft. “So everything I learn is just going to make her stronger when she steals it?”

“No. Now that you know how to control it, you’ll own everything you do.” He grabs my hands and squeezes them tight, and a tingle runs from my fingers through my entire body. “Don’t worry. You’re much stronger than she is. You have so much talent. She’s going to wish she never messed with you.”

I contract the boble slightly, and slide my cheek past his, wrap my arms around his chest and hold him tight, my arms tucked under the sides of his jacket. I hug him tighter than I’ve been able to hug Bestemor, tighter than I’ve wanted to hold my mother, tighter than I’ve been willing to hug Vee since I started to loosen my hold on her to make room for Zivalus. I fist my hands into his shirt like I’m lost at sea and he’s the driftwood that’s keeping me afloat.

Just when I’m about to sink right into him, Jonas raises one hand and presses firmly on the walls of the boble, gently bursting the aura of romance I worked so hard to blanket us in. The rush of noise and cool air shocks me enough that I break my hold. I make a valiant attempt not to actually glow with the red-hot embarrassment that rages through me.

“Sushi?” He vice-grips the steering wheel and stares straight ahead.

I brush my hair back with my fingers and paste on a big, phony smile. “Let’s do it.” I muster as much courage I can. I’m in the mood for comfort and maybe romance, and I can’t imagine getting either one of those things with raw fish.