Neither do I.
Three Eds drift across the water toward Darian.
Then four.
They cluster near his shoulder, bobbing gently, their attention fixed on him with what I can only describe as fascination.
“Um,” Darian says.
“They really like you,” Finn observes, delighted.
“I don’t want them to like me.”
“Too late. You’ve been chosen.”
Kaia is watching with obvious amusement. “They’re harmless. Mostly.”
“Mostly?”
“Well, Carl once got stuck in someone’s hair for three hours. But that was an isolated incident.”
Darian looks like he wants to cry.
I shift again.
This time, I extend my other leg.
It finds Finn.
He startles — a barely perceptible jerk beneath the surface. His chaos magic flickers once, a spark of surprised energy that dissipates quickly.
He doesn’t look at me. Doesn’t acknowledge it.
But he doesn’t move away either.
I hold the contact. Light but deliberate. My calf against his, my other leg still pressed to Kaia’s ankle.
Both of them. At once. Intentional.
I see you, I think.Both of you. I want you both here.
Kaia’s ankle presses more firmly against mine. Her breath doesn’t change, but I feel the shift in her — awareness sharpening, attention focusing.
Finn’s chaos magic settles into something almost calm. The nervous hum beneath his skin goes quiet.
Under the water, we’re tangled together. Above it, no one can tell.
Almost no one.
Aspen’s gaze sharpens.
He’s not looking at Darian and his Ed problem. He’s looking atus. At the space between the three of us that’s somehow gotten smaller. At the way Kaia’s shoulders have angled toward me. At the way Finn has gone unusually still.
He doesn’t speak. Just files it away.
But I see the flicker of understanding in his ice-blue eyes.
Six Eds now. Maybe seven.
