Maya sucked on her lower lip for a minute. “Aedan?”
“Yeah?”
“That doesn’t make sense.” Aedan looked up sharply, mouth open.
“I’m sorry, that came out wrong,” she said. “I mean I get that it happened. But you don’t have to be afraid to be with me. Or anyone else. But especially me, because if some guy tried to kidnap me? I’d kick his ass.”
A faint smile curled his mouth. “I know you’re tough,” he said. “But sometimes, that’s not enough.”
He had no idea just how tough she was. No regular human could take her out, even armed. She’d proven that many times. “What was she like?” Maya asked.
“Megan? She was sweet, funny, and really smart. And she was beautiful. She had these huge dark eyes and long black hair and the most gorgeous smile.” He got a faraway look in his eyes as he spoke about her, and Maya couldn’t help but smile too. “Different than yours, but just as pretty.”
Maya’s heart caught in her throat. Her fingers stopped rubbing, and the hair fell from her hand. It had been stuck in Aedan’s car a long time.
The next thing she knew, Aedan had scooted closer to her. She closed her eyes as he ran a hand through her hair, it felt really nice.
“You owe me a secret,” he said. His voice had a low musical rumble to it that sent shivers down to her toes.
She opened her eyes to find his face an inch from hers. He was giving off a kind of heat that had nothing to do with the desert sun. She felt almost dizzy, relaxed, and… completely safe. “I had another brother,” she whispered. She’d never talked about it to anyone. But she wanted to tell Aedan more than anything. Of course, she’d still have to be careful about revealing certain details.
Aedan’s warm hand moved to cover hers.
“He was killed,” she said, lip trembling. She wouldn’t cry, but it was still hard to say it out loud.
“An accident?” Aedan asked. He was so completely focused on her.
“No. Murdered. He left home. He didn’t want to play by the rules, he decided to be something of a vigilante I guess. He thought he knew where this person was.” She was trying to be so cautious with her words.
“A person?”
“A murderer.” It was the closest approximation. She couldn’t say Elemental. “And he should have called the police.” The Circle. “But he went on his own.” She stopped, unable to say the rest.
Fifteen-year-old Corey had gone after an Elemental when it was a child. Something expressly forbidden by Arthur’s own rules, but something he’d thought was archaic and silly. She could still hear him arguing with her parents even though she hadn’t understood at the time.
“We know what it’s going to become. We should take it out while it isn’t a threat,” he’d said.
Only it had been well guarded. That much they had surmised. No one really knew what happened other than the fact that Corey hadn’t ever come back. But he’d promised. He’d promised her he would.
Aedan’s thumb brushed against her cheek, and she felt the tear smear between their skin. She didn’t cry in front of anyone.
“I’m going to go get a bottle of water,” she said. And she slipped out of the sweltering car, heading for the convenience store at a jog.
Chapter Seventeen
Aedan
Aedan’s world was spinning out of control on this, the summer from hell. On the one side, there was Kari, who’d crashed into his life like a comet with news of doom and destruction, and the end of the world. He hadn’t wanted to believe a word, except that it somehow all made perfect sense.
On the other side – the side where he pretended that he was normal – was Maya. And the real Maya (as in not the wet dream Maya) turned out to be nothing like he’d expected. If he really thought about, which he did far too much, he’d had this picture in his head of Maya being Megan but with a different face. Now he knew the real Maya, and she was nothing like Megan. Well, except maybe the persistence part.
Shame overwhelmed him whenever he realized that Maya had some serious issues in her past as well. It was like he’d been so obsessed with his own problems that he hadn’t considered the possibility that other people felt just as screwed up. Of course, he was also pretty sure Maya’s past didn’t include murdering anyone. But still.
And now that Kari was teaching him how to use his powers, he felt something he hadn’t in over a year. Confidence. The glimmer of potential. The possibility that he might be able to hook up with a girl without incinerating her.
The summer from hell part came in when he remembered the whole point of learning to use his powers had to do with preventing some faceless, nameless Circle Operative from killing him. By killing the Operative first.
Not just that, because it wasn’t like Aedan had never killed anyone before, not that he enjoyed it. But even if he managed to do it, and survived to see his rapidly approaching birthday – he’d end up being responsible for either destroying the world or becoming a weapon of mass destruction for an insane witch-zombie. Or something like that.
Aedan paused his attack on the punching bag and pressed it between his wrists to steady both it and himself. His lungs hurt from exertion, and his face was burning because he never sweat. He knew he probably looked like a blistered crab. But that was what was so great about the gym Sam had built him in the garage. Working out had always been helpful in learning control. And no one else was around to see it and ask questions. Well, almost no one.
“Have some water.” Kari shoved a plastic bottle at him, and he collapsed back onto the mat, pouring it down his throat. The bit that slipped out over his chin sizzled and dispersed into the air as steam.
“Thanks.”
“You’re doing great, fire boy. You really get focused when you’re beating the shit out of that thing don’t you? How many of those have you gone through?”
“Twelve before I lost count.” Aedan stood and stretched out his sore muscles while Kari watched. “Same with the metal weights. I melt through them when I get into it.”
Kari wiped at her glistening face and guzzled some water of her own. She couldn’t stay in the “oven” as she called it for long without risking heat stroke, but she popped in from time to time to check on him while he warmed up. “Let’s go to your room for today’s lesson,” she said.
“Yeah, okay. I’m pretty much done here anyway.”
Aedan knew by the time he reached his room, she’d already be there waiting. Even though Edy was at the store, it was old habit by now. He hadn’t introduced her to either Edy or Sam and saw no point in scaring the crap out of them. They were thrilled that he was spending so much time with Maya these last couple of weeks, and he preferred to leave it like that.
“Damn it is hot in there,” Kari said the moment he opened his door. She lay across the bed with her head hanging upside down, and her feet crossed and propped against the wall. Her legs were very long and very smooth.
“Yup gets that way,” Aedan agreed, pulling out a t-shirt from his drawer.
“Oh don’t spoil the view,” Kari said, and he paused in surprise. “Plus you haven’t showered yet. And we’re not done with the workout.”
Aedan let the shirt slip back on top of the open drawer and spun toward her. She was already standing up. He tried to keep his face neutral, eyes on her face. “You mean you don’t want me burning up a perfectly good shirt, right?”
“Sure. That’s what I mean.” She smirked and her wild hair fell over her shoulders, dusting the top of her breasts that peeked out above the yellow tank she was wearing.
So much for keeping his eyes on her face.
“What’s today’s lesson?” he asked, folding his arms across his chest, and trying to concentrate.
“Seems to me you’ve been canceling some of our training sessions lately so you can meet with the redhead.”
Aedan’s mouth dropped open. How did she know he’d been meeting Maya instead? “If I’m only going to be around for another couple of months at
most, I need to enjoy myself, right?” he asked.
Kari burst into laughter. “Spoken like a true Elemental. I’m not angry, don’t worry. I just thought you might have run into some trouble in that area previously.”
Aedan looked away. Why did she have to embarrass him like that? He felt her hand on his arm.
“What I mean is, we all do. It’s the absolute hardest thing to control. Sometimes even the best of us can’t manage it. But you’ll never learn if you don’t practice.”
Aedan swallowed. He did want that more than anything. To be able to be with Maya like that. She hadn’t made another move since that first day, but he got the feeling she’d been waiting for him to initiate it.
“So what we’ve been doing so far-” he started.
“So far, we’ve been working on building and releasing your energy in a focused way. Today I’m in the mood for something different. I’m thinking we should work on taking control when you’re out of control.”
Aedan turned to face her. When he found her right in his face the words dried up on his tongue. Her hands were climbing up both his arms in a way that sent a shiver down below his waist.
“I can’t just-”
“Why not?” she asked, pressing her nose to his. “You married to this redheaded girl?”
“Well, no, it isn’t-”
“Are you worried about me?” She laughed softly, and her chest jiggled against his. That wasn’t helping. And he was tired of girls cutting him off mid-sentence.
“You’re Wind, right?” he asked. He was pretty sure, but he didn’t want to risk anything if she was water…
She smiled and leaned in for a kiss. When she pulled back, Aedan could already feel the fire starting in his belly. He was breathing fast. “Yeah, and you have nothing to worry about. I can blow you out like a candle.”
Aedan pulled her close and pressed his mouth to hers with abandon. Her hands were all over him. His chest, his shoulders, his back, and then inside his shorts. He pulled away, pushing her back to get some distance.
It wasn’t right. Not when all he could think of was Maya.
“What’s wrong? Didn’t you like it?” she asked.
“I just… I just-” He pressed his hands to his knees, and focused on his breathing. “Shouldn’t you, you know, teach me how to control it first? A hint or anything? Because at this rate, I have to be honest, I’m going to ‘flame on’ in about sixty seconds.”
“That’s good, fire boy. There are three steps, and the first is recognizing it’s coming. The next is to keep going, but push it down inside at the same time. And the last is to throw it at a desirable target when you just can’t hold it anymore.”
So she really did know something about this. She wasn’t just toying with him. “But what’s safe?” he asked straightening up and backing up for some distance.
“I said ‘desirable’. I never said ‘safe’.”
Maybe not safe, but if he could manage to direct it – control it…
“I’ll try,” he said. He’d been practicing throwing the fire at specific targets the past weeks. Maybe he could do this.
But the moment Kari reached for him, Aedan realized her intention never changed. This was awkward.
He cleared his throat. “I don’t feel comfortable with this.” A breeze picked up from around his ankles, shuffling random papers around as it twisted up and around his body. Okay. He was pissing her off.
“I can’t until I at least know what I’m doing. I can’t risk hurting anyone else. I know you think you can control it for both of us, but…” He let his voice trail off.
The wind died and the papers floated back to the tile floor.
Kari pinched the bridge of her nose. “Fine. We’ll do this the textbook way then. But don’t say I didn’t offer a more pleasant alternative.” She gestured for him to come toward her, a grin spreading over her face.
Slowly, Aedan approached her again. This time Kari pulled a tiny vial from her pocket full of a substance that looked something like mud and thrust it toward him.
“Drink it.”
“What is it?” Aedan asked, taking it to examine closer, though finding nothing hiding in the sludge inside. It definitely didn’t look appetizing.
“It’s a potion. It’ll make you see some of your worst fears and you’ll have to deal with them.” Kari sat back on the bed, letting her head hang upside down again as though she was bored.
“So I’m supposed to take a potion from people named after an ancient weapon that will make me hallucinate and try to not burn the house down? No thanks.”
“Your choice, lover boy.” Kari managed to make a flirtatious gesture upside down and Aedan wondered if he should rethink the whole appropriate versus inappropriate thing.
“I’ll put you out if you get too heated up. Don’t sweat it.” Kari snickered at her own joke.
Aedan grimaced and before he could think too much more about it, downed the contents.
The room fell away.
Aedan stood on an island of pure black in the midst of a raging sea and twenty feet away he saw Maya materialize like a ghost. But she wasn’t alone. She was with someone else.
Aedan squinted to try and see a face. It was him. But something wasn’t right. This Aedan was laughing as flames shot from his fingertips. Maya jumped back in horror, dancing away from the fire while trying not to fall into the abyss as the mass of darkness beneath her grew smaller and smaller.
“Stop it!” Aedan screamed across the water as the other Aedan laughed and flash disintegrated Maya’s shirt.
Flames reached out like fingers from within the ball in Aedan’s mind, traveling through his body, heating his blood to boiling, his skin to ash.
This wasn’t real. His breathing was rapid and hard as he focused everything he had on pressing the fingers of flame down into strands of heat. But, the evil version of himself was lighting Maya’s hair on fire, making her scream and wave wildly. The fire inside of him grew and he danced on the edge of the water. It was becoming harder and harder to concentrate while the other him continued to hurt Maya, and the core of the fire swelled to fill nearly every inch of him, wanting to strike at himself. But what if he hurt her? What if what happened when he was seven happened all over again?
Wind swirled around his body, raising goosebumps along his skin. Aedan felt like a volcano tipped with snow, but ready to blow from underneath. Papers blew around the room as it blinked back and forth in and out of existence. The blinds clattered against the window.
Maya screamed as the other him lifted a fireball above her head.
The power was just below the surface. The wind began to howl and Aedan’s skin started to spark.
Before the other him could strike, Aedan let it go, willing it toward the assailant.
“Ouch!” Kari yelled, and his eyes snapped open with the paralyzing fear that he’d find Maya’s face on fire.
But all he saw was smoke curling from the ends of Kari’s hair, which was messier than he’d ever seen it. The wind died as she faced him.
“You singed my eyelashes,” she said blinking rapidly.
Aedan looked around. His room had suffered its very own cyclone. Everything was overturned or torn from the walls. But nothing was burning.
“Where did it go?” he asked, searching for some hidden disaster.
“You struck at the bed. That’s how you got my eyelashes.” Kari shrugged. “But the flame retardant sheets did the job. If the Circle Agent was sitting there, you’d have incinerated her and only her.”
“I did it?” he asked, bending to examine the sheets. He started laughing slowly at first, then it grew louder, and more hysterical until tears filled his eyes.
Kari’s hand slid over his shoulder. Her hair tickled his back. “Not entirely. I still had to put out a fire. But you’re getting there, fire boy.” She turned his face gently toward hers and bent so their foreheads touched.
“All you need is a little more practice.”
Ch
apter Eighteen
Aedan
“Edy’s wondering why you never came back to the house.” Aedan zipped up his backpack and stood at their usual table at the library.
Maya’s eyebrows rose as she looked up at him. “And whose fault is that? Rule number one, wasn’t it?”
“Yeah, but I thought you of all people would understand that rules are meant to be broken.” He turned to leave but smiled when he felt her fall into step beside him.
“So when’s dinner?”
“Dinner’s not ‘till six. But lunch starts in half an hour. And it’s my turn to do the dishes, so I thought-”
“That you needed some help. Well, I understand. I mean your dishwashing skills suck, Sparks. You do need some serious guidance.” Maya bumped his hip with hers, and he stumbled a little.
“So you’ll come over?” he asked, pulling her over to the side of her jeep. He leaned down over her, wishing he could kiss her like she’d done that first day of tutoring. But something was still holding him back.
He’d been making great strides in learning control. At the same time, his power seemed to be expanding. It was a little scary how easily he could set fire to anything within a sixty-foot radius at will, or intensify or diffuse the heat of an existing blaze. But the more he learned, the more real it all became, and the more real the story Kari had told him became as well. Which meant it wouldn’t exactly be fair to drag Maya into his life right now.
Still, he seemed to be doing exactly that. He couldn’t let her go. And he’d only grown more interested over the time they spent together. He knew the real Maya now, not the wet-dream Maya, and she was even more enticing.
“I’ll come over on one condition,” Maya said.
“What’s that?”
“I want to see your room.”
Aedan’s jaw worked overtime. Maya had a way of keeping him off balance. He couldn’t let her in. There was still far too much evidence of recent fire.
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