“What do you mean?” I asked, unsure what he was talking about.
“Dr. Possess Your Brain?” he hinted, and I immediately knew what he meant. Smiling, I nodded. “Okay, we all need chocolate. Kyle, Kaylee, either stop looking at him like you’ve seen the second coming or go away. Kaden needs to feel normal for a minute, not be stared at like an animal in the zoo.”
Both siblings sighed, looked at each other, and shrugged.
“If you try to turn us to mush, just know we’re gonna dump a building on you.”
“Noted, and if you dump a building on me, I’ll turn you both into frogs.”
All three of them laughed. “You’re an Elemental Quadripartite, and you have to be a Terrestrial to turn people into things.”
“Well, I’ll do something as soon as I can figure out what that is.”
After being chastised by Lysander, the twins chilled out, and the tension eased enough for us to sit and enjoy each other’s company. I even figured they were enjoying the looks everyone was sending us. I could’ve done without them, but if people were going to treat me like the ultimate outsider, at least I could have friends to see me through the process.
After supper, we all huddled in Lysander’s room. The twins had asked me every question they could think of about my powers, but I was mostly clueless. “I know I can control things, bend them to my will. Before she tried to kill Lysander, Dr. Grace, you know… Bisbee, had me using my powers to cause the weather to change. I could also manipulate stone. She’d tried to have me negotiate Water, but I could only make it blip a bit or ripple, nothing significant.”
“What about Fire?” Lysander asked.
I smiled. “I’m particularly good with Fire, and even more accurately, energy. I can cause things to change.” He looked at me, and I knew he understood that was how I’d incapacitated the former dean of students. I had felt the injuries inside Lysander. I should’ve been able to feel his life pulse too, but I’d been too upset to notice at the time of the incident.
However, as I sat in the waiting room while the doctor and his interns worked on Lysander, I could feel where he’d been hurt. It’d been easy, maybe too easy, to return the same injuries to Bisbee when she intentionally attacked Lysander again.
“So, you can control all four elements?” Kyle asked.
I shrugged. “I mean, I guess. But it doesn’t feel all that special to me. It’s not like I’m moving huge snowbanks and dumping them on the soccer team or anything.”
Both Kyle and Kaylee laughed before Kaylee said, “You know, they so had that coming.”
We spent the rest of the night teasing each other, the initial shock of my skills having relaxed a bit. I was happy Lysander and the twins weren’t treating me like most others I’d met here or at the group home. I didn’t like feeling like an outsider, although I’d always been that. Sometimes, I just wanted to fit in.
I spent the night in Lysander’s room again. I felt safe there—safer than I thought I’d felt in a long time.
He didn’t complain when I stripped my shirt off and crawled into the bed across from him. I probably should’ve asked, but I just couldn’t. I didn’t want him to say no. I’d learned enough about Lysander in the last couple of days to know he was probably too nice to kick me out.
That night I lay awake staring at the dark-covered figure across from me. “You asleep?” he asked.
“No, not yet.”
“I’m sorry about yesterday and today. It seems your first few weeks at school have been as bad as mine.”
I sighed. “Yeah, but at least no one’s tried to kill me yet.”
He chuckled. “There’s time,” he said like it was inevitable.
“Um, Lysander?” I asked and could feel my cheeks burn.
“Yeah?” he asked.
“Can we sleep together?”
There was silence before Lysander got up and turned the lamp on next to his bed.
“Are you sure?” he asked.
I shook my head. “No, it freaks me out that I want to, but last night when your head was in my lap, that’s the most peace I’ve felt in a long time, and I know that makes me weird.”
“Shut up. It makes you normal. I’d love to sleep with you, Kaden. But you need to know I want to do a lot more than just cuddle. Are you ready for that?”
