Aiden’s breath puffed in the cool night air. A fresh layer of snow covered the ground and dampened the smell of burning, but it was still enough to make his stomach flutter. Maybe the pit wasn’t such a good idea. This whole thing was a bad idea. “Are you sure you can get out of the way fast enough?”
Tiago laughed. “Quit worrying. Try throwing something at me. How about a snowball?”
His fear went down a few notches. “Oh, good idea.” He bent to scoop up snow and packed it tight. With his tongue poking from the corner of his mouth, he aimed and threw as hard as he could.
The snowball zipped through the air as fast as a baseball, and Aiden winced. Maybe that was too hard.
Tiago didn’t move, he blurred, and suddenly he was standing a few feet to the right as the snowball went past him.
“Holy crap,” Aiden breathed.
“Told you so.” Tiago grinned and Aiden suddenly felt warm all over.
Aiden cleared his throat, telling is body to calm down. “Well, that wasn’t magic.”
“So try throwing something magic at me.” Tiago tilted his head. “I don’t actually know what a fae can do.”
“I don’t know everything I can do, either. I just started learning in October.” Just about five months since he’d come to Shadow Valley, and now his old life was starting to feel like a dream. “But I’ve learned a few things.”
“Like what?”
He didn’t think Tiago was interested in how Aiden could speed up plant growth or make vegetables taste like pizza. “Well, I know some wind spells.”
“Wind? Is it strong enough to knock me down?”
“I don’t want to.”
“Don’t worry. I can move out of the way. Besides, even if you hit me, there’s like three feet of snow.” Tiago gestured around them. “I’ll be fine.”
Aiden took a deep breath. He pictured Dylan’s face the other day, how hurt he was that Aiden had this problem. Aiden had to get over it, and this was one small step in that direction. “Okay.” The tingle started in his chest right away, like his magic was eager. Aiden had to fight off rising panic. This was just practice. He could control it. He’d done it before.
He focused and sent the wind spell flying at Tiago. It only took two or three seconds to cross the space between them, but that was enough time for Tiago to move. This time Aiden was paying more attention and saw the way the werejaguar moved, much faster than a human could. Tiago made it several feet, but the wind spell was wider than Aiden had intended and the boy couldn’t quite get out of the way in time.
The edge of the spell clipped him and he spun halfway around, dropping to the snow.
“I’m sorry!” Aiden was already running, heart in his throat, before he realized Tiago hadn’t fallen. He’d caught himself, dropping gracefully into a crouch.
Tiago laughed. “You pack a pretty good punch. If it weren’t for the snow being kicked up, I wouldn’t have seen that coming.”
“I thought I’d hurt you.” Aiden pressed a hand to his chest, swearing he could feel his pounding heart through his jacket.
“Cats always land on their feet.” Tiago winked and stood.
For a moment Aiden couldn’t form a coherent thought. Something like “Ahhh” came out of his mouth. He blinked a few times and tried to recover. “You like showing off, don’t you?” That sounded casual enough, like a guy would tease another guy. Not flirting. Oh God. He hoped that hadn’t sounded like flirting.
“A little bit.” Tiago brushed some snow off his thigh, which was almost pointless as they were both up to their knees in it. The center of the pit was almost clear, but the burnt smell was stronger over there. “I didn’t get much of a chance to before.” The good humor faded.
“Because you had to hide what you are?” Aiden wished he had known what he was sooner. Maybe it would have been easier and he wouldn’t have panicked when his powers started manifesting. Then again, maybe it was harder to know and have to keep it hidden.
“Yeah.” Tiago looked across the pit, staring into the darkness.
“Did your parents come with you?” Aiden asked.
Tiago shot him a glare and Aiden tensed. A cloud of white puffed from Tiago’s mouth as he sighed, expression relaxing. “No.”
“Oh. Does that mean you live alone?” That wouldn’t be possible out in the real world, but so many things were different here.
Tiago shook his head. “I wish I did. I’m staying with someone. A kind of guardian.”
“Are they mean to you?” If they were, maybe Aiden could talk to Mr. Johnson the next time he came for a visit.
“No. I just don’t like being watched.” He snorted. “Though I suppose I can’t blame them.”
“What do you mean? Because you hid from the wardens, so they don’t trust you?” It was driving him nuts. He didn’t know anything about Tiago, and he wanted to know everything.
Tiago looked at him for a long moment while Aiden held his breath. Had Tiago done something terrible? Or his parents? Had Mr. Johnson spared him the way he’d spared Dylan?
Shifting and stuffing his hands in his pockets, Tiago asked, “So what else can you do?”
Right, practicing. What they were supposed to be doing out here. Aiden guessed that meant he wasn’t going to get an answer. God, Tiago was worse than Dylan had been.
* * *
The crowd subtly shifted as Dylan made his way down the hall, other kids moving out of his way. Much of the time he didn’t notice it, but he’d been more aware of it since he’d become friends with Aiden.
He found Hanna at her locker, and she gave him a surprised smile. “Hi, Dylan.”
“Hey.” Dylan still wasn’t sure about the growing list of people that weren’t afraid of him. Some days he wondered if it was ruining his reputation. Today was one of the other days, when he kind of liked it. Aiden had made him realize that he’d been lonely, and being lonely sucked.
“What’s up?”
For half a second he considered backing out, but backing out wasn’t his style. “I want you to sit with us at lunch.”
She blinked, leaning back. “What? I… can’t.”
“Because your parents blah, blah.” Dylan flapped his hand like a talking mouth. “So what. You stare over at us every day, and Aiden stares over at you when he thinks you’re not looking. I’m sick of it.”
Hanna shook her head. “If Conner sees us—”
“Fuck Conner.”
Hanna sucked in a breath, shoulders hunching like she expected that asshole to appear and hit her.
“So he tells on you, so what? What’s he going to say? That you were eating lunch with Aiden?”
“I’m not supposed to see him anymore.” Her eyes went round and dark, scared puppy eyes.
“They said you couldn’t date him. They didn’t say you couldn’t be friends with him, right?”
A little thoughtful wrinkle formed between her eyebrows. “But if I hang out with him, they’ll think I’m sneaking around with him like I was before.”
Dylan snorted. “Oh, please. You make it sound like you were screwing each other. What did you do, make out a few times?”
Hanna’s cheeks turned pink. “Actually, we never even kissed.”
Dylan rolled his eyes so hard it almost hurt. “Your parents seriously overreacted. Just come sit with us.” He’d thought things would go back to normal without Hanna, but now there was Tiago. It had been weeks, and the jaguar boy looked like he was sticking around.
Hanna chewed on her bottom lip, glancing up at him, down at the floor, then at him again. The blush grew worse even as her shoulders straightened a little. “Okay.”
“Good. See you there.” Dylan walked away, smiling to himself. He couldn’t wait to see the look on Aiden’s face.