“Really! Did you just find out?” Jade asks as she yanks off her boots.
Sylvia nods, beaming as she slips her feet into the water. They leave a space between them for me to sit, and as I go to take off my shoes, I realize they aren’t mine. I glare at the bland white hospital slippers. I must’ve lost my pumps sometime in the fight. Probably when I blasted the waitress with lightning.
I strip off my ripped stockings and sit at the edge of the pool with the others. The water sears my toes and I jerk them back with a hiss. Slowly, I lower them again. When the warmth fully surrounds my calves, I moan in relief. I hadn’t realized how much tension was in my legs until the water helped me relax.
“Good, right?” Jade asks.
“So good,” I groan as I lean back on my hands.
“Just wait until you try Jade’s coffee. She enchants it with stamina, creativity, and all kinds of great things,” Sylvia says.
“I’ve never been much of a coffee person,” I say with a grimace.
“Nai Nai makes a mean pot of tea, too, if that’s your thing,” Jade says.
“Nigh…nigh?”
Jade chuckles. “Sorry, my grandma Feng. I’ve got a little brother who lives with me too, though he’s graduating in just a few months!”
“That’s right!” Sylvia gasps. “Is he excited to go to college?”
“So excited. He got into MIT!”
Sylvia screams and leans into me to hug Jade. I get caught in their embrace and find myself laughing with them.
Jade sighs. “He can’t wait to get out of our tiny town and back to a big city. My parents almost bought a house in Cambridge but he strictly forbade them from stalking him, so they’re paying half the rent on a two-bedroom apartment for visiting rights.”
We laugh, and Jade prompts Sylvia about the baby on the way. Sylvia gushes to me about her first child with Apollo and then with Jade about the eight-week bun in the oven. A sense of hope swells in me as she talks a hundred miles a second.
I’ve known since my diagnosis that my chances of conception are low, but at least they’re not zero. And this news makes it seem like Icanhave a family with Bastian. We’re not too different to make it work.
But would he want to?
I sigh, realizing I’ve been putting off that conversation with him for a long time.
“What’s up?” Jade prods.
I shake my head. “Just things left undone.”
There’s a deep tremble below us and the water splashes against the sides of the pool. I grab onto the rocks for support.
“What the hell?”
Sylvia smiles. “Seems Apollo is making you guys your own room.”
“Can he manipulate matter too?” I ask.
“They all can,” Jade says. “Lucky bastards. I just get astral projection…”
“And literal fireballs that come out of your hands and feet,” Sylvia adds.
I gasp. “You’re afirebender?”
“Yeah…” She shrugs, then her face goes deathly still, her eyes expressionless as she leers. “There is no war in Ba Sing Se.”
I burst out laughing, and so does Jade.
“Come on, let’s go set up at the café,” Sylvia says as she rolls her eyes and gets out of the water. “I have a private wedding party coming in a few hours and my team needs time to set up.”
