“Uh.” I winced. “No.”
“Because you've spent the last five months with them. Samara was just born. Although you were technically with her, you weren't holding her in your arms for all those months.”
“You're right. I miss her because I barely had any time with her before I came back here.”
“And you came back here as soon as you could because you missed us, right?”
“Yes.” I grinned and took his hand. “Five months is too long to be away from you.”
“That's why we decided to share last night.” Trevor leaned in and kissed my cheek. “We figured you'd been missing all of us.”
“I love you guys.” I leaned over to kiss his cheek. “Thank you for putting up with me.”
“We love you too,” Odin said as Viper shot to his feet and went running toward the pool.
“I love you too, Viper!” I called after him. Then I saw why he was running. “What the frankfurter?”
Streams of water were spinning up from the pool, twisting into dazzling designs. The children stood to one side of the spectacle with Samantha, Salem, and Austin. At first, they only gawked at the water but then, as the rest of us ran over, they started to cheer.
“What is this, Vegas?” Re asked as we joined them.
“I don't know how to stop it,” Austin said, his wide eyes on the water.
“You're doing this?” Trevor asked.
“Of course, he's doing this,” Azrael said as he hurried to Austin. “You need to focus. Just like you did with Air and Fire. Focus on the result you want.”
“Not just that,” I said. “Feel the element, Austin. Feel the rush of Water inside you. Connect with it. Acknowledge its aspects; the coolness of it, how it gives life, its power. Then let it know what you want.”
“Leave him alone, Mom!” Lesya cried. “This is a-maz-ing!”
I looked at her joyous face, then at Austin's worried one. “You know what? Lesya's right. You're not hurting anything or putting anyone in peril. Why not let this run its course?”
Austin blinked and looked at me. “Let it go?”
Salem started singing theFrozensong and the kids soon joined in.
I chuckled, then nodded. “Yeah, let it go. Or maybe work with it. Why don't you try to make a different pattern?”
“Huh.” Austin's shoulders relaxed. “Yeah, I s'pose it ain't hurtin' anythang.”
The water condensed into a single line, the line formed a loop at the top, then the loop started to twirl.
“Is that a lasso?” Viper asked.
“Yup,” Austin said proudly.
“Really, dude? You can do whatever you want and you make a lasso? Damn cowboys.”
“Fine. How about this?”
The lasso snapped at Viper like a whip, drenching him.
The children and Salem burst into laughter.
Sputtering and wiping at his face, Viper said, “Not cool, dude!”
“Now,thatis control,” Azrael said with a look at me. “You may have stumbled onto the best way to teach him, Carus. Instead of being afraid of the elements, he needs to embrace them and allow them to show him what they can do.”
