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Clay rolled his eyes, but some of the stiffness seemed to leave his shoulders.
Grey tightened his fingers with Cort’s drawing his attention. “Are you okay?”
“Everything’s good. Thanks for listening.”
“Always.”
There was no denying that Cort’s heart fluttered a little at that word leaving Grey’s lips. It felt like he was saying so much more, but now wasn’t the time for such things. At least, not with an audience.
Calder’s lips twisted in a small smile as he leaned on his hands and crossed his legs at the ankles. He seemed pretty laid-back, handling his new reality so much better than Cort had. But then, Cort didn’t have powers, didn’t know what it was like to feel them. He stared at all the men in the clearing, marveling over being there among people with superpowers, and for a moment felt quite ordinary. He looked at Grey and felt grounded again. The man needed him, needed what Cort could teach him.
Lifting his hand into the air, Calder concentrated and as they watched, a small ball of water began to form.
“You’re doing it,” Clay said, his grin wide.
“I think I’m pulling it from the surrounding plant life, though. I wonder if I could tap into clouds—make it rain.”
“That would be a hell of a thing.” Baer laughed. “Maybe you and the Air Weaver could whip up storms, because that would be so cool.”
“We could use some rain.” Clay ran his hand over the grass. “Everything around us is thirsty.”
Cort laughed. “You’d be a hell of a gardener.”
“We’ve talked about doing a garden. Maybe when things calm down a bit.” Clay rubbed his hands on the grass.
They were all quiet then, and Cort knew they were all thinking about the pestilents and wondering if things would calm down. He was so new to this world and couldn’t imagine having to live his entire life being wary.
“Did you guys notice the man on the beach watching everything when we got Calder?” Clay inquired.
Calder nodded. “He stood apart from the others—gave me the creeps.”
“I have a feeling he’s our next challenge. Much like Ardette was.”
“Ardette?” Cort asked as he waved a fly out of his face.
“The witch we were fighting when I was in the explosion,” Grey answered. “The one I told you about who could compel animals. She was pretty damn insane.”
Cort plucked a blade of grass and ran it between his fingers. “The explosion where you lost your vision. Dane was able to partially heal you.”
Grey nodded. “He was able to take care of the burns and the knot on my head—just not my sight.”
“Have you guys thought about maybe trying that spell again now that you have a new Weaver? Maybe more power would help.” Cort dropped the blade of grass.
“That’s an idea,” Clay said.
“Whoa.” Calder held up his hands. “I’m still getting a handle on all this magic, and you want me to perform a spell?”
“Our magic is about more than what we can do individually. Together, we’re more powerful, and we’ll be even more so once the Air Weaver arrives.” Clay rubbed his hands together. “We can try the spell again, but I know Wiley is waiting on some ingredients to arrive, so we’ll wait. Until then, we keep practicing and nobody goes out alone.”
“Got your bossy cap on today, huh?” Baer winked at Clay.
“Somebody’s got to wrangle this crazy group, but you can take the job if you’d like.”
“Nah, I’m good with you leading things.” Baer held out his hand and a bird landed on his finger. He stroked the finger of his other hand down its feathers. It chirped once at him and flew away.
“Did you call that bird?” Cort asked.
Baer nodded. “I can get animals to do what I want. It’s nice that they aren’t afraid of me.”
Cort shook his head. “This is all so wild.” He tried to think about what powers he could have if he had the pick and couldn’t come up with one. Maybe the ability to read thoughts like Grey. It would help so much in his work. But then, it could be cool to fly.…He looked at Clay. “What else can you do?”
“Cause earthquakes, split the ground, shoot spikes out of trees, things like that.”
“I’m the only one with powers that don’t exactly lend themselves to battles,” Grey muttered as he sat forward and dropped his hands into his lap. He looked down at them as if he could see them. “I am—I mean I was—handy with a gun before, though. Now, I’d probably shoot one of us.”
“We’ll get your sight back.” Confidence laced Clay’s tone. “Cort is right, there are more of us now, so more power.”
“If we don’t, I’ll just have to get used to this. A lot of people live without their sight. But I hope we do, mainly because we need my powers.”
