“Yeah. I’m just thinking.” I said.
“About Dev?” he asked, his voice careful. I glanced at him quickly.
He bounced his legs on the spot, unable to stay still for too long.
“It’s OK if you like him you know.” Ash said finally. “I like him.”
“I like you.” I said quickly.
He bounced even faster, his grin broadening. “I know.” He winked at me. The air whispered playfully around my ears, drawn to Ash’s mood.
“What else can you do with the wind?” I asked. “How much control do you have over it?”
Ash darted his fingers around, twirling his fingers. Before my eyes a small tornado began to twist on his hand.
“The wind is a friend. I don’t control it, it … helps me.” Ash bit his lip. For a moment his eyes went far away. “When I was a kid, it was my only friend.”
“I’m glad you had something,” I said quietly.
“Didn’t you have Kieran?”
I laughed out loud. “I thought I did. Turns out I was wrong. He told me it was always a plan to befriend me. How about that?”
Ash’s face clouded over. “I should kill him.”
He glared at Kieran, who just looked confused.
“No! No Ash, really.” I said, lifting my hand. “I don’t want you to. It’s ok.”
“It’s not okay to use people.”
“It’s not okay,” I said quietly. “But I don’t want to carry it. Hating him won’t fix what he broke.”
Ash’s face brightened with wonder. “Why do you do that? Why do you forgive like that? Don’t you ever get mad?”
I hesitated.
“I’ve been mad. I’ve been hurt. I’ve been scared. Before you came for me, in Marr’s hellscape, I…I killed a woman.”
“Seph,” Ash said, “what happened to you in there wasn’t your fault.”
“It doesn’t make it better.”
“So, what do you think that means?”
“I’ll do what I have to,” I said after a moment. “I’ll help where I can. I don’t want to be that girl again. I want to be able to fight back.”
“For Elliot?”
I was thoughtful. “I don’t know yet. This place, the Equinox, even Kieran. I think they have good intentions, but.”
“So paves the road to hell.”
At Ash’s words I smiled. “Yeah.”
Ash leaped up and held out his hands. “Well, if you want to be strong, it starts here. With me. With us.”
“Us?”
