get me.”
“Or me!” Ro added. “But I’ll totally be eavesdropping because I’m not scared of your elf-y abilities!”
Dex cleared his throat when the door slammed shut. “Your bodyguard is… interesting.”
“That’s one way of putting it,” Keefe muttered—then froze.
“I’m fine,” Dex told him. “Seriously, talk as much as you want. It’s not going to affect me.”
Keefe swallowed, trying to get some moisture back into his mouth again. But his voice still crackled when he said, “I swear, I’m starting to forget how to do this.”
“I bet.” Dex reached into his pocket, pulling out some piece of circuitry to fidget with. “You’ve had a rough few days. Well… I guess it’s been a rough few years, huh?”
“Pretty much my entire life,” Keefe corrected. He hated how whiny that sounded, so he added, “But… it is what it is.”
“You don’t have to do that,” Dex told him. “It’s okay to talk about it. I’m happy to—”
He whipped his head around again.
“Looks like there’s something else you should be dealing with right now,” Keefe noted.
“Nah, I’m enjoying a break from the madness. You can’t hear all the squealing and crashes because I added noise canceling to my Imparter. But it’s full-fledged mayhem downstairs. Bex and Lex manifested a couple of hours ago.”
“Wow, both of them at the same time?”
“Yep. It was super unexpected—and awesome, of course. Especially since so many people…”
He didn’t finish the sentence. But Keefe was well aware of how judgy everyone was about the Dizznee triplets, since their parents were a bad match.
“Rex didn’t manifest?” he asked.
“Not yet—which is normal,” Dex added quickly. Maybe even a little defensively. “Just because they’re triplets doesn’t mean they do everything the same, you know? Bex started walking days before the others. And Rex is still the only one who can do cartwheels.”
“Makes sense,” Keefe agreed.
“But… that’s why Rex has been pouting,” Dex admitted. “And I can’t really blame him. Especially since Lex keeps pelting him with snowballs.”
“So Lex is a Froster?” Keefe asked.
“Yep. Just like my mom. The whole downstairs looks like a blizzard tore through the house. He’s actually showing pretty solid control—which may not be a good thing, since I’m pretty sure it means I’m going to wake up trapped in a giant ice cube.”
Keefe laughed. “Sounds about right.”
Dex sighed. “Yep. My life is about to get even more chaotic. I don’t even want to think about the pranks Bex is going to pull once she figures out how to walk through walls without getting stuck.”
“She’s a Phaser?”
“Yeah, and she’s definitely still getting the hang of it. My dad’s down there trying to help her pull her feet out of the floor. So weird, right?”
It was.
But Keefe didn’t understand why he felt so twitchy all of a sudden.
If felt like…
Like he was missing something.
He sat up straighter. “Wait—that’s why their hands felt so weird!”
“What do you mean?”
“Remember how I said Lex’s hand felt freezing? Bex’s hand also felt sorta squishy. I didn’t mention it because there was so much else going on. But they must’ve already been manifesting.”
Dex frowned.
“What?” Keefe asked, lowering his voice. “Have I been talking too much?”
He’d gotten so distracted that he’d forgotten to watch his tone.
“No… it’s fine. I told you—using the Imparter protects me. I just… I was always taught that manifesting was like flipping a switch. One second you don’t have any power. And the next second—boom.”
“Well, but it might be different for some people,” Keefe reminded him.
“Truuuuuuuue.” Dex fidgeted with the piece of circuitry, twisting one of the wires so tight it looked ready to snap. “But… I held their hands when we leaped home, and I didn’t notice anything squishy or freezing about them. And Rex didn’t think Lex felt cold either, remember?”
It was Keefe’s turn to frown. “What are you saying?”
“I don’t know.” Dex leaned closer and lowered his voice before he added, “It just… It kinda sounds like you sensed that they were going to manifest. And you even knew their exact abilities.”
Keefe sucked in a breath. “But that’s not a thing. No one can do that—not even the ability detecting Mentors!”
“Right—but new powers happen sometimes,” Dex reminded him. “Maybe all the changes to your empathy allow for it or something. I don’t know—it definitely sounds weird, but so is what happened to you, you know? And it sorta makes sense, doesn’t it?”
No.
Nothing about this made sense.
“You don’t think I triggered their abilities, do you?” Keefe asked quietly.
“I was just wondering that—but I don’t think so, because Rex still hasn’t manifested, remember?