Chapter 19
Rafe
Dinner went as expected.
Zephyr had cooked, which wasn’t surprising. I’d never seen Skye cook anything, and since Zephyr had made himself the head of household in their parents’ absence, it made sense he’d know how to cook something.
Simple pasta was fine with me. I could never turn down carbs.
Same for Skye. At the academy, she’d eaten some form of pasta or pizza or rice at almost every meal except for breakfast. But that was because she wasn’t a breakfast person. She was a coffee person.
It was nearly eight o’clock at night and she and Zephyr both had mugs in front of them. Aiden was drinking some fancy soda that I knew had to belong to Zephyr, and I longed for a glass of wine but thought it would be rude to ask. Double rude, if I considered Aiden’s sort of sobriety.
Skye and Aiden had clearly had a fun afternoon after I’d left them. They were like a couple of schoolchildren, giggling and whispering to each other while Zephyr stared me down over the garlic bread.
He rested his elbows on the table with his hands clasped in front of his mouth. He was silent, his piercing eyes assessing me. I got the distinct feeling that he was finding me lacking.
“How was your day, Zephyr?” I asked.
He hummed, but didn’t reply.
Skye shot him a look, then widened her eyes at him.
“Fine,” he muttered.
I nodded along.
There was an awkward pause…but I wasn’t about to break it. I loved awkward pauses. Aiden squirmed as he looked between us, probably thinking there was about to be a fight.
Was there about to be a fight?
I hoped not. I was strong, but…
Zephyr was also strong.
Without affinities, he’d probably easily snap one of my bones. With affinities? Well…I didn’t actually know what his affinities were, still.
“What?” Zephyr asked, looking a little horrified.
I blinked.
“Why are you staring at me like that?” Zephyr asked sharply.
I almost chuckled. I hadn’t realized I’d zoned out while staring at him.
“I was just wondering what your affinities are.”
The table went silent just as a hollow thump sounded from somewhere in the apartment. No one reacted to the sound, though, except maybe Aiden, who was staring into his pasta like it had all the answers to his problems.
I blinked again. Had I imagined that?
Zephyr stared at me with a furrowed brow, then looked to his sister, who only stared in surprise.
“Did I say something wrong?” I asked.
“Why are you asking?” Zephyr hedged.
“I was wondering if I could beat you in a fight,” I replied honestly.
Aiden choked on his soda, leaning over and hiding his face while Skye made a sound of outrage.
“Why the hell were you thinking about that?” Skye demanded.
I smiled at her a little indulgently. “I’m a man. We think about these things.” She scoffed in disbelief. “You don’t believe me? Ask them, they’ve definitely thought about fighting each other.” I nodded toward Aiden and Zephyr.
Skye looked to Aiden, who was trying very hard not to laugh. “You’ve thought about fighting Zephyr?!”
“Not like that,” Aiden said, choking on another laugh. “I was actually worried he’d kick my ass.”
“What?! Why?!” Skye cried.
“Because he fucked my sister,” Zephyr deadpanned. “It’s a man thing.”
Aiden chuckled. “I don’t fuck your sister, dude. She fucks me.”
Zephyr gagged dramatically, and Skye’s cheeks and chest flushed a pretty pink. She looked like she wanted to disappear, and I couldn’t help but laugh.
Things were strained, but getting better. I could work with this.
“You know Zephyr teleports, but he’s also a Healer. I think he has some air, too. Fuck, this is stupid,” Aiden muttered from beside me. I only chuckled in response, deciding now was not the time to argue about Zephyr’s affinities. Aiden was only telling me what he knew.
Aiden and I were down at the nearest empty beach. Thunder had been rolling steadily as the sun set before dinner, but now, there was definitely a storm coming in. The wind had picked up, palm trees and mangroves waving in the breeze while Aiden’s red hair flew into the air.
As soon as the heavy thunder had started, I’d only wiggled my eyebrows at Skye, and she sent Aiden and I out for practice. Aiden was not happy about it. He’d pouted the whole way down here, and now stood with his arms crossed, looking like an overgrown toddler.
It was moments like these that made me wonder exactly what Skye saw in him. Was my Key a brat tamer?
“It’s not stupid. I told Skye I’d help you, so here we are.” I looked up into the sky, in awe of the flashing of light from lightning within the clouds.
Mother nature was intense.
Waves crashed up against the pier, and Aiden winced before rubbing his glowing arms.
“I thought the islands weren’t supposed to get cold,” he said petulantly.
I snorted. “Warm yourself up, kiddo. It’s almost time to catch some lightning.”
Surprisingly, Aiden groaned in frustration, and not at my nickname.
“We don’t even know if its lightning related or electricity related,” he practically whined. “And I burnt the shit out of my hands last time.”
“It’s normal to have to train affinities, Aiden,” I said, a little exasperated.
I considered sharing the story of how my shadows had awakened, but something told me it’d traumatize him, so I kept it to myself.
I needed him to keep an open mind, even though…
yeah, one or both of us could totally get hurt.
“Yeah, and then there’s Wyatt,” Aiden snarked.
“Yes, inducing a migraine during memory manipulation is hardly enjoyable.” I said dismissively, looking up into the clouds as I counted the next roll of lightning and thunder.
“Inducing a migraine?” Aiden said slowly. “Rafe, doesn’t he–”
“Ah!” I said sharply, wagging my finger at him to cut him off. I already felt guilty about shit-talking Wyatt even though he deserved it. We definitely didn’t need to be discussing rumors about what was wrong with his memory scrambling.
“This is stupid,” Aiden whined again. “I’m kind of embarrassed that you’re the one here with me. Skye should have been here.”
“If we’re to be in a family Chain together, you’re going to have to get used to me.” I drawled. “Skye won’t always be here to glue us together.”
“Right,” Aiden said slowly. He had a strange look in his eye as he looked me over. “About that–”
Suddenly, a piercing alarm rang out, making both Aiden and I cringe. Aiden slapped his hands over his ears, ducking his head down. The shadows emerged from the ground beneath me, searching out the sound.
They found the source just as Aiden pointed. There were several large power poles along the pier, all with speakers attached to the top.
“That’s a fucking tsunami alarm,” Aiden yelled. “We gotta go.”
The tide did seem abnormally low, now that I really looked at it.
The waves had stopped crashing a while ago, I just hadn’t noticed.
I tried to remember everything I knew about the islands and their flood warning systems. Something I’d read explained that the alarms didn’t always mean a tsunami.
Sometimes they signaled a large storm that’d pulled enough water from the shore to trigger the alarm.
Thunder clapped overhead, and Aiden paused, his fists clenching as he looked up into the storm clouds. I’d been keeping a careful eye on him for this exact reason. He didn’t appear to have any lingering trauma from his new affinity awakening, but I was still watching closely.
Aiden shook off whatever memory he’d just been sucked into, and the two of us made eye contact before turning back toward the main street. We jogged along the pier toward Skye’s café, not stopping even as the sky opened up and rain began to pour.
I heard Aiden curse next to me as the freezing rain soaked us down to our fucking underwear. Aiden could at least warm himself up. I, however, was fucking freezing.
I looked everywhere, but the constant lightning and bright fucking street lamps didn’t provide a good place to shadow-walk.
The shadows flared away from me, running along the wet concrete as they searched out a good spot for us to leave. Just as the shadows gravitated toward a darkened alley between two buildings, another streetlight turned on, and I cursed.
I sent shadows at the streetlights, just enough to make them flicker, but the constant lightning didn’t give me an opening to leave.
I was fast, but not faster than the speed of light.
I was about to suggest we run again when Aiden grabbed my arm, making me pause.
He looked up into the sky, then to the streetlights.
He had exactly thirty seconds to do whatever the fuck he was about to do before my dick froze off from hypothermia.
Skye hadn’t even seen it yet. It couldn’t freeze off before she got to admire it. That would be tragic.
Aiden chewed his lip, then lifted one of his hands, and suddenly, the area around us went dark, lit only by the flashing lightning and a glowing ball of fucking electricity in Aiden’s hand.
We both stared, dumbfounded, as the ball sizzled and hissed, sparks jumping off of it even in the rain. Aiden thrust his hand upward with a hiss, sending the ball of light careening into the clouds. Thunder clapped while the clouds lit up as if lightning had snapped inside them.
“Holy shit,” Aiden said, and then I grabbed him.
Aiden had never shadow-walked with me before. Well, technically he had, he was just overdosing on drugs at the time.
I cringed at the memory. I’d been so worried about Aiden’s mental health after that whole situation, I’d barely paid attention to my own.
I pushed that thought aside as another roll of thunder nearly deafened us. But for a moment, the lightning waned, and the shadows moved us.
The apartment was a ghost town.
Aiden ran out toward the café, but the apartment seemed empty. Zephyr had just been here with Skye. Where the hell were they?
I could hear Skye’s raised voice, sending the hair on the back of my neck into the air as my body reacted to her distress.