My eyes were drawn to the sunrise, which made me yawn as it reminded me of the time.
“Whose dumb idea was it to get up at the crack of dawn?” I muttered as I trudged across the lawn with the guys.
Frosty stifled his own yawn. “I believe it was yours, my darling.”
Ti seemed wide awake, and he pulled a wagon stocked with snacks and a cooler of drinks. Apparently, no one had informed him that Frosty could cool our drinks for us. “It was a good idea, though. Mrs. Ryan would ask more questions than a toddler if she found out we requested enough drinks and snacks to feed a small army.”
Galen sighed. “And I’d rather no one else learn about what we’re doing. It could put people in danger.”
Finally, we made it to the back of our property. A low cliff overlooked part of the city, and if we stayed far enough away from the edge, no one would see us.
That was my hope, anyway.
Ti parked the wagon, laid out a blanket, and sat. “Are any of you not having issues with control?”
Galen shrugged. “I haven’t, so far, but I haven’t really used my ability, either.”
Neo dropped to the blanket and grabbed some crackers. “I have to concentrate harder than usual to keep any one form, aside from my norm.” He gestured to himself.
Aidan and Frosty glanced at each other.
“Let’s get started,” Aidan said as he stepped away from Frosty.
Ti watched them for a moment, absently opening a can of soda. “Are you two like… a couple?”
Aidan just blinked, like he wasn’t sure how to react to the question while Frosty shook his head. “Absolutely not. I don’t swing that way. I mean, I’m as good as married to your sister, and I don’t… no.” Frosty glared at my brother. “Why would you even ask that?”
With a shrug, Ti admitted, “You’re always holding hands and sitting together and shit. I just thought…”
As he trailed off, Frosty shook his head adamantly again, his white hair flopping over his right eye. He brushed it out of his way. “No. It’s to keep us from burning the house down. Or freezing the house down? Is that possible? I don’t even know, but it’s not because we’re a couple.”
Ti’s brows rose with interest. “Show me.”
Frosty frowned even as he brought his hand up and brushed a finger against Ti’s soda can. Even from here, the sound of ice scraping the aluminum of the can was loud.
Ti’s eyes widened as he nearly dropped the can. “That’s freaking awesome!”
Frosty tilted his head, watching my brother. Without any of the guys touching me, it was easy to read the confusion from his mind. He hadn’t intended to show off his ability, so why had he?
Galen clapped his hands, drawing everyone’s attention to him. “Let’s get started. We’ll go one at a time so if anyone runs into issues, the rest of us can hopefully help.”
Donovan lay on the blanket, pulling me down next to him. “I haven’t had much trouble controlling my abilities, so I’ll just watch for now.”
Galen nodded in acknowledgment. “Winter, you’ve already started your demonstration. Might as well continue.”
With a sigh, Frosty backed away from the blanket. “You got it, boss.”
Galen wrote something in a notebook he’d brought along. “What was your power before you were taken?”
“I could cool a room down.” His fingers drummed against his thigh. “Um…” He winced and shifted his weight.
“Frosty?” My voice was soft, and his lips twitched up in a small smile.
He spoke barely louder than a whisper, “I stabbed someone with an icicle.”
Galen didn’t bat an eye as he scribbled a note on the paper in front of him. “Let’s see what you’re capable of now.”
Frosty nodded and took a deep breath, the temperature in the air around us dropping significantly. Under his feet, the grass slowly turned white, and his ice-blue eyes lost color completely. My breath fogged the air.
Galen rose to his feet. “Win, I think you can stop…” he trailed off as his eyes unfocused. “It’s snowing.”
Ti’s mouth hung open as he held out a hand to collect snowflakes. “Damn, I think you need to cool it before the rest of the city freaks out about snow in October.”
Aidan stood, fidgeting restlessly as he waited to see if Frosty needed his help pulling it back in. After a bit of a struggle, it turned out Aidan’s help wasn’t needed.
Galen jerked his head toward the testing area. “Aidan, your turn.” He made a note, then glanced up. “What could you do before?”
Aidan sighed. “I was essentially the opposite of Winter. I mean, as long as I have some sort of friction or fire starter, I can create fire. Without it, I just heat things up.”
Galen sighed. “I really wish we had something similar to a containment room.”
Frosty sat next to me, his cool hand resting on my knee. “If it gets out of hand, I told Ti to bring a fire extinguisher.”
Ti scowled as he threw a look in our direction. “Wait, you were serious?”
A twitch at Frosty’s lips told me he’d been messing with my brother. “I’m always serious, dude.” He moved his fingers farther up my leg so they rested on my thigh, over my shorts. “But since Ti didn’t grab one, I’m ready if Aidan gets out of control.”
Galen nodded once and muttered something about not feeling comforted by Frosty’s words.
All eyes turned back to Aidan, and he pulled his shirt over his head, tossing it aside. “Don’t want to accidentally catch it on fire,” he said in way of explanation before he moved away from the rest of us.
With a deep breath, he snapped his fingers, lighting a small log on fire. Frosty quickly put it out so we wouldn’t start an uncontrollable fire out here. The air heated up around us, and even though it had been a cool morning, sweat now dripped down my back.
The heat was stifling, and a part of me wondered if he would be able to start a fire with something that wouldn’t normally light up.
Moving off the blanket, I found a group of large stones and arranged them in a pyramid. “Aidan, can you light these?”
He frowned as he studied the stones. “Those aren’t exactly flammable.”
“But everyone’s abilities have grown.” I shrugged, not sure why I thought he might be able to light the stones. Maybe it was because he said he could start fires with wood and things.
With a sigh, he grumbled, “Move back, just in case this actually works.”
Nodding, I took a couple of giant steps away from the pyramid. A look of concentration fell over his face as he stared at the rocks. At first, the smell of something burning caught my nose, making me wrinkle it, then the rocks began to glow red.
He put his palm against the side of his head, groaning softly.
“Aidan, if it hurts, you should stop,” I murmured.
Galen nodded. “Yeah, I’m going to have to agree here.”
Instead of listening to us, his brows furrowed, and the heat rose even more around us.
Frosty got to his feet. “Dude, cool it.”
Aidan shook his head, tendons standing out on his neck. “I’ve got this.”
My heart pounded, not sure if I should be encouraging him or stopping him, but then all hell broke loose. The stones exploded, and one of them skimmed along my arms, leaving a burning trail of heat racing over my skin as agony filled me.
Frosty leaped over the molten stones, knocking his best friend to the ground as his hands flattened over Aidan’s bare torso.
Galen doubled over, holding his arm close to his body. Had he gotten hit with flying debris? His wild eyes glanced around the clearing.
Arms came around me, wrapping me tightly to a solid chest. The pain in my arm slowly dissipated, and for a moment, I assumed Galen held me in his arms. The warmth radiating up my injured arm felt exactly like Galen’s healing did. But then I inhaled deeply and realized the chest was too broad, and the person holding me was taller than Galen.
A heart beat furiously against my ear, and gradually, I made out Donovan’s shouts, “Get rid of the fucking heat!”
An answering shout made me jump, and I stared up at Donovan. “I’m okay, Donovan. Not even really hurt.”
He frowned down at me. “How are you not hurt? One of those rocks hit you!”
I wiggled out of his arms, turning the inside of my forearm to show him. “See?”
Donovan grabbed my wrist, spinning it in all directions, then grabbed my other one to do the same thing. His head flew up. “Galen?”
Neo stood by Galen, frowning as he stared at Galen’s arms. “What the hell just happened?”
Over everyone speaking, Ti demanded everyone sit and calm the fuck down, and suddenly, no one in the clearing made a peep as we all sat.
It was the third time I could remember hearing Ti give a command, and the third time people had rushed to obey. I didn’t feel the power in it, not like I did when Galen healed, or Aidan or Frosty used their powers intentionally, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t there, right?
Could Ti have abilities, and we never realized it?
Ti pointed at Aidan. “What happened?”
Aidan glanced at me guiltily. “I could feel the rocks heating. I knew they wouldn’t catch on fire, but I figured if I kept going I might be able to start an actual fire on top of them. I didn’t mean to burn anyone.” He picked up a large, flat rock that no longer glowed red. “I’ve never been able to make anything this hot before.”
Ti pointed at me. “And what happened with you?”
I shrugged, still unable to wrap my mind around what happened. “One of the rocks hit my arm, and it was hot enough to feel like it gave me a pretty decent burn. But almost as fast as the pain started, it vanished. At first, I thought it was Donovan’s doing.”
Donovan shook his head. “Not me. I simply shielded your body from more flying debris.”
Neo spoke up then. “It was Galen. His arm was burned as well, but he was nowhere near the flying rocks.”
I blinked once. “He was also nowhere near me.”
Galen shook his head with a look of disbelief. “I felt your pain, and I pulled it into myself. I have no idea what happened.”
Frosty, his hands still on Aidan, rested his forehead against his friend’s stomach. “Are we going to have to injure ourselves to figure out how Galen did it?”
Galen shook his head. “No, I won’t ask you to do that.”
Frosty snorted, but it was Aidan who said, “You aren’t asking. We’re offering.”
I cringed as I imagined giving myself paper cuts or something. Ouch. But I agreed, we needed to figure out how he healed me.
I grabbed a drink from the cooler, scowling when I realized Aidan must have heated things up enough that the soda was now warm. “Frosty?”
“Hm?” He rolled so the back of his head rested against Aidan’s bare stomach.
I held up my soda.
For a moment, his brow furrowed, then his expression lightened as he got what I was asking. He pointed a finger in my direction and squinted one eye. I guessed he was aiming, so I held the can away from my body. I trusted him, but I also didn’t want to be hit with a bolt of ice to the chest if he missed.
He smirked at me. It took a few moments, but the soda began to cool off. Condensation beaded up on the outside.
“Thank you.” I opened the can and took a sip. That was all I got before Donovan grabbed the can from me and took a healthy drink for himself. “Now what?”
Galen’s gaze met mine, then he scanned over the group. “We already know that Embry’s abilities are out of control. I guess now we spend a bit of time trying to take back the control we lost.”
Over the next few hours, we worked at using our abilities on each other, and even Ti volunteered to let us try on him.
By the time we returned to the house, the snacks and drinks had been devoured. We were all covered in sweat and exhausted, but everyone felt like they’d gained a little more control over their powers.