CHAPTER 186: CHAPTER 186: OPTIMISTIC TRAINING

The lab’s inner doors sealed with a soft hiss. Ruo keyed a sequence into the console, and one of the glass cells at the far end flickered alive, blue-white grids pulsing faintly along the walls like a heartbeat. The air in the room changed, sharp with ozone and something that prickled at the back of Elias’s tongue.

Victor moved ahead of them, his boots soundless on the polished floor. He stepped into the cell as easily as stepping onto a stage. "Watch," he said over his shoulder.

He didn’t raise his hands dramatically; he only lifted one palm, fingers loose. The grids nearest his palm shimmered, bent, and then strands of pure ether, visible as faint silvery threads, lifted off the floor and coiled in the air. With a slow twist of his wrist, the threads spiraled into a lattice, a shape that hovered and pulsed like a living diagram. It looked effortless, like breathing.

"That," Victor said quietly, "is a basic containment weave. It’s the first thing you learn before you build anything else."

Elias stared at the shimmering lattice, his throat dry. "Basic?" he echoed. "That’s your idea of basic?"

Connor smirked from where he leaned against the glass. "For him, yes. For the rest of us, no."

Ruo’s eyes were bright behind her glasses. "You can do it," she said to Elias, already sounding like a proud coach. "Your readings spiked higher than mine last month."

Elias took a step back from the threshold. "I’m not him. And if you haven’t noticed, my ’readings’ were mostly me trying not to melt into the floor because of heat."

Ashwin, arms folded, gave a mild shrug. "Try anyway. It’s not like it’ll hurt you. He’s right there."

Victor extended a hand toward him, palm up. "Come."

Elias hesitated, then stepped into the cell. The ether threads brushed against his skin like static; the smell of ozone deepened. He held his hands out the way Victor had, fingers loose, trying to copy the gesture. "Like this?"

"Breathe first," Victor said, voice low and steady beside him. "Think of it as water moving to your palm, not something you’re forcing. Guide, don’t grab."

Elias tried. He drew a breath, pictured the lattice, pictured water, pictured anything but the circle of eyes on the other side of the glass.

For a heartbeat nothing happened. Then a thin, flickering wisp of ether lifted off the floor, jittered uncertainly in the air... and promptly snapped like a cut wire, discharging in a harmless shower of sparks that made him yelp and stumble back.

Connor choked on a laugh. Ruo’s grin turned positively feral. "See? You pulled it," she said, clapping once. "That’s power. You just didn’t shape it."

"I just detonated a soap bubble," Elias muttered, rubbing his palm. "Spectacularly."

Victor’s hand came down on Elias’s shoulder before he could retreat any farther, warm and steady. The alpha’s mouth was perfectly straight, but his crimson eyes betrayed him; the glint there was unmistakably amusement.

"You’re laughing," Elias accused flatly, still rubbing his palm.

"I’m not," Victor said, voice a shade too smooth. "This is serious training."

Elias narrowed his eyes. "You’re absolutely laughing."

Victor’s mouth curved just a fraction, caught. "Maybe a little," he admitted, thumb brushing the back of Elias’s shoulder as if to smooth the words away. "But only because you’re adorable when you’re angry at physics."

"I’m angry at you," Elias muttered, turning slightly as if to step out of the cell. "And I’m not doing it again. I’m done detonating soap bubbles for an audience."

From the other side of the glass, Connor leaned a shoulder against the frame, smirking. "He’s already halfway to dramatic villain. Just needs a cape."

Ruo’s grin didn’t dim. "It wasn’t a failure, Elias. Most people can’t even pull it on their first try."

Ashwin tilted his head mildly. "You pulled it. That’s the hard part."

Victor squeezed his shoulder once, the gesture light but unyielding. "They’re right," he said quietly, bending closer so the others couldn’t hear. "You reached it. That’s what I needed to see."

Elias gave him a flat look. "You also saw me almost fry my fingers."

"You’re fine." Victor’s thumb drew another slow circle at the nape of his neck, the grounding touch that always managed to sneak past Elias’s irritation. "One more time. Breathe. No sparks this time."

Elias groaned under his breath. "You’re relentless."

Victor’s smile flickered again, softer this time. "I’m your alpha," he murmured. "Relentless comes with the contract."

For a heartbeat Elias stayed still, stylus forgotten in his other hand. He knew there wasn’t much he could do: Victor wouldn’t force him, but he wouldn’t let him hide either. With a sigh, he rolled his shoulders and raised his palms again.

"Fine," he muttered. "But if I explode, you’re cleaning it up."

For a heartbeat the room went very still. Even Connor quit smirking, Ruo’s tablet lowering a fraction as she leaned forward, and Ashwin’s hand hovered near the comm panel like he was already planning the emergency response.

Elias exhaled slowly through his nose, palms open. He could feel Victor at his back without looking, heat and smoke, a quiet pressure filling the space between his shoulder blades.

"Breathe," Victor said, voice low but steady. "Don’t force it. Just... reach."

"I’m reaching," Elias muttered.

This time, when the ether answered, it rose like mist from the floor, thin streams curling between his fingers. Pale light shimmered against his skin, climbing in tiny spirals toward his wrists. He felt it before he saw it: a soft hum under his palms, a thread of warmth that matched the pulse at his throat.

"There you go," Victor murmured, his tone so quiet. Elias barely heard it. "Shape it. Don’t just grab... guide."

Elias’s brow furrowed. He moved his hands the way Victor had shown him, drawing the strands together. They resisted at first, then swirled obediently, coalescing into a faint sphere of light between his palms. For a heartbeat it hovered there, perfectly still.

"See?" Ruo breathed, eyes bright. "You’re holding it..."

Then the light shifted.

What had been a soft glow sharpened, flickering from silver to a darker hue threaded with crimson. The sphere pulsed once, twice, a soundless thump that made the air pressure in the room dip like a sudden storm front.

Victor’s head came up instantly, crimson eyes flashing. "Elias..."

The sphere split, light spider-webbing outward like cracks in glass, humming with a low, alien vibration that set the hair on everyone’s arms on end.

Elias’s fingers trembled. "That’s... not supposed to happen, is it?" he whispered.

The hum deepened, the strands tightening like a net around his wrists.

"Drop it," Victor ordered, moving in.

But the light didn’t drop. It clung, brighter now, rising in pitch until it was no longer a hum but a thin, high note vibrating against their skulls. The temperature in the lab plummeted.

Ashwin swore under his breath. Connor’s smirk had vanished. Ruo’s grin was gone, replaced by wide-eyed alarm.

Elias looked up at Victor just as the dark vein of crimson running through the sphere flared like a heartbeat.

And then the light exploded outward, swallowing the room in a blinding pulse.