[Rhett]I got up from where I was watching over my favorite people and stretched. It was nearly time to go to Harmony’s home and train her some more. Having a schedule to stick to was very different for me. I hadn’t had any structure in my days for many years. Harmony’s training was coming along nicely. The things Queen Maeve had been able to teach her made everything a lot easier. She already had the basics of magic down and had perfected a cloak of darkness that would stop any physical or magical attack from reaching her. This was a good base for what I was teaching her. Most of what we had been working on was calling her darkness to the palm of her hand. Like fire, darkness was a wild element that only wanted to do what it wanted. It was like a child, a deadly child. I prepared my tools for the lesson today. This was a lesson in control. Harmony thought she could control her darkness just because she could get it to form that cloak. She didn’t realize how unruly it could get if it had more freedom. She ordered it into a form and gave it a purpose when she had it cloak her. It restricted the magic more than what I needed her to do. When I saw it was time, I traveled in shadows to land on her doorstep as soon as the clock turned to six o’clock. I was nothing if not punctual. Getting her trained was important to everyone involved. We had to destroy the growing darkness. Everyone had some sort of spy in the community of supernaturals. I couldn’t keep an eye on those people and most of them were cut off from their own communities. Some of them met up with other people to give their reports under the guise of trying to entice them away from their old communities. The only concern was that the vampire spy hadn’t checked in. None of the spies knew who the other spies were. They couldn’t confer with each other. It was better for making sure no one suspected them, anyway. I knocked on the door and it opened a few moments later. Harmony was pregnant and she was only couple months away from delivering her child. She was sporting a belly that looked a lot bigger than I thought it should. “Are you ready for your lessons?” I purred. “How do you always make the most mild statement or question into flirting? Quit that or you can’t come in, Rhett,” she snarled. She was in a mood today. I could never tell when she was going to be alright and when she was going to be upset. It would be nice to have the stabilization after her child was born. Of course, I was aware she might stabilize in the angry zone, but all that really mattered was that she wasn’t fluctuating so much. Honestly, the hormonal fluctuations made her magic harder to control. I didn’t know how long it would take to get all of the information we needed, but I almost hoped it would take long enough for her to birth the little beast. The last thing we needed was to fail because she couldn’t control herself. Harmony let me in and led me to the living room where we had been training. It was a cozy room, with a fireplace and soft furniture. She sat down on the sofa, crossing her arms over her chest. I could tell she was already on edge.“Today, we’ll be working on control,” I said as I entered the room and stood on the other side of the coffee table. As much as she wasn’t in the mood for my flirting, I wasn’t in the mood for her controlling behavior. Harmony was all about control. She never really knew what fun was because she hated giving up that control. It was a pity. “Cam will be out here in a minute. We can wait for him,” Harmony replied. I sighed at her need for her mate to be involved in every step of this training. I could understand her not trusting me, but to bring in a babysitter, an ineffective one at that, was insulting. In all the time she had known me, I had never done anything but flirt. If I wanted her, I could have her, with her consent no less. While we waited for her mate to join us, I waved my hand over the coffee table. A plump watermelon appeared. Harmony furrowed her brow. “Where did you get a watermelon? They’re out of season.” “It’s called magic for a reason, sweet Harmony. I merely wanted a watermelon and one appeared,” I told her. She rolled her eyes at me. Harmony was never really impressed by me. I was certain it was the influence of her darkness. It assessed me as a minor annoyance therefore, she assessed me as the same. Just then, Cam walked into the room. He greeted me with a nod before sitting down beside Harmony. She leaned into him, a small smile forming on her lips. I could tell her mood had already improved with his presence.“Does this mean we’re ready to start or do the two of you need a cuddle?” I asked. Harmony narrowed her eyes at me and sat up straight. Even though our relationship was antagonistic, for the most part, I knew she respected my ability. She was an attentive student and very focused on controlling her magic. “I’m ready. What do you want me to do?” Harmony asked. “I want you to have your darkness consume the inside of the watermelon without consuming the rind.” Harmony took a deep breath, closing her eyes as she focused on the task at hand. I could see her magic starting to take control as her body trembled slightly. The darkness inside her was like a wild animal that had been caged for too long and was finally being released.The darkness gathered to her hand, then jumped to the watermelon. It surrounded the fruit and I could see it swirling around it, trying to figure out how to get inside. Harmony had given it very specific instructions, mentally, she was still attempting silent casting. Witches could silent cast. It was easy for many of them, but only as they got older. Harmony only knew adult or teen witches and fae. She didn’t realize that she needed to cast like a child. Plus, darkness reacted better to verbal commands. It wasn’t that I didn’t tell her that, more that she never listened. Harmony always thought she knew what was best for herself and everyone around her. The problem with this triad was that they didn’t learn at appropriate ages and it was causing issues with them learning now. Her darkness dispersed and the watermelon was gone. She frowned. I adjusted the glasses that were perched on my nose and made another watermelon appear. She looked up at me. “I can do this all night. If you’ll actually listen to what I have to say, then we can get this done right,” I told her. Harmony sighed. She was still not in the mood to listen to me, despite knowing that I could help her with this. This was a difficult task and her mate wasn’t making it any easier with his hovering. He patted her back and told her she was fine. She most definitely was not ‘fine’. “Listen, Harmony, I have tried being nice about this, but you’re starting to piss me off. There is a very real threat to everyone and everything you know and love. You are literally the only person strong enough to defeat it. What is your problem?” “Don’t talk to her like that,” Cam snarled. “Shut up, mutt. I’m sick and tired of trying to play the bad guy teacher to the spoiled brat. She didn’t push back like this when it was Maeve teaching her. Is it because I am a man? This isn’t the time to assert your feminism.” “Maybe if you didn’t come in here flirting every damned night, I could take you seriously!” Harmony shouted. I felt a surge of anger. How dare she question my intentions? Just because I enjoyed flirting with her did not mean I was incapable of being serious. “You need to get your head out of your ass, Harmony. I flirt with you because it’s fun, not because I don’t take my job seriously. I have been trying to help you this entire time, but you refuse to listen to me. If you can’t handle the fact that I am your teacher, then maybe you’re not ready for this.” Harmony glared at me, her chest heaving with anger. I could feel the heat of her anger directed at me. It was at a time like this that I was glad she wasn’t also a fire witch. “Fine,” she spat. “Let’s do this your way.”“Good,” I replied, straightening my coat. “Now, direct your darkness. Tell it what you want it to do.” She held out her hand and took a deep breath. “Darkness, consume the inside of this watermelon without consuming the rind.”Shadows swarmed the fruit and I watched as it sank inside and disappeared. After a few moments, the watermelon started shaking, then it burst open and the darkness flew back to Harmony. I covered my eyes and rubbed over my face in frustration. “It didn’t consume the rind,” Harmony said nonchalantly. I couldn’t believe my ears. Was she oblivious to the fact that her task was incomplete? I pinched the bridge of my nose, trying to contain my frustration. “Harmony, the entire point of this exercise was to consume the inside of the watermelon without damaging the rind,” I said, my voice strained. “I did consume the inside. The rind just got in the way,” she replied defensively. I shook my head, feeling a headache coming on. “That’s not how it works. You have to be precise with your magic, especially when dealing with darkness. You can’t just let it run wild and hope for the best. What if that rind had been a person? You just exploded someone’s head!”“Well, my darkness ate their brain first, so it’s not like they were going to have much of a life,” Harmony scoffed. She was acting callous to cover her embarrassment. I could tell that it distressed her to think that she could have killed someone. Harmony wasn’t bad. If anything, she was morally gray. That didn’t mean she wanted to go around hurting people. Waving my hand over the table, the watermelon was replaced by another one. Harmony frowned. “How many times am I going to have to do this?” she sighed. “Until you get it right. The fruit in the melon is the magical darkness inside of another person. The rind is their skull. You need to go in and remove the fruit without harming the seeds or the rind. Once you get this, we will change it to removing the seeds and leaving the fruit.” “You think the magic is going to be inhabiting people?” Harmony asked. “I do. I think it has sunk its tendrils into the followers of this community and it is manipulating them. Once they accepted it, it had free reign over their hearts and minds. It’s my assumption that you would like to save as many people as possible. Is that correct?” I asked. “Yes.... Will I get the hang of this in time?” “That is entirely up to you. My dark spirit likes having fun. A big part of that is flirting with pretty girls. It doesn’t mean that I don’t take this seriously. I will be here every day and I won’t stop until you’re ready and we win this fight.” Harmony looked up at me, and for a moment, I could see the uncertainty in her eyes. She was afraid to fail again but I wasn’t going to let that happen. I had invested too much time and energy into her, and I needed her to succeed.“Okay,” she said, determination lacing her voice. “Let’s do this again.”She held out her hand and focused on the watermelon. Harmony took a deep breath. “Devour the fruit, but leave the rind and seeds,” Harmony commanded. Shadows formed into darkness and swarmed the fruit. I watched her strain as she kept her arm outstretched. It sank into the rind faster than it did the first time. She gritted her teeth, her eyes fixed on the watermelon.The darkness seeped out of the watermelon and retreated to Harmony’s hand. I pulled out a knife and cut the rind. It was perfectly cleaned and there were seeds in the bottom. “Perfect. We’ll keep practicing like this for this week. Once you can do it without straining, we’ll switch to removing seeds,” I told her. Harmony nodded at me as I replaced the melon with a new one. It might be slow, but I had to believe that we hindered the growth of the enemy darkness enough that we had time, but that didn’t mean I would let Harmony slack.