this how it’s going to be with us, Sloane?”
I turned to him slowly and rinsed out my mouth. “Viktor, either you come clean or you can walk out that door. As you have pointed out so clearly, I am so used to it.” I walked past him, but he grabbed my arm and pulled me to him. I was suspended in his arms and couldn’t move as I was forced to look into those grey eyes. They were beautiful and hypnotic; they had a way of captivating me.
“What do you want from me, Sloane? What’s it going to take?”
He was pleading wholeheartedly, but I wasn’t bugging. I needed answers and one way or another I was going to get them.
“The truth.”
I stepped out of his embrace and walked downstairs where I found Declan cooking in my kitchen. Suddenly, the memories flooded my head. There’d been many days where he stood here making me breakfast before school. Of course he had already been awake for hours. He turned to look at me over his shoulder and smiled just as he did in the past. It was too much, and in that instant I felt as if I was in a closed box and all the air was being sucked out. I ran straight out the house. I was halfway around the lake’s bank when Declan stood there waiting for me. He didn’t move, but I couldn’t help but feel cornered. I was looking to see where my best getaway was, but considering how fast he got across the lake without me noticing, my chances of getting far were slim.
“Why are you running?”
“I can’t do this. You, him and me… Yeah, I’m a little freaked out.”
“Come back to the house. I made your favorite.”
“No!” I started pacing and glared at him. “You don’t get to abandon me and then show up years later to cook me breakfast. It doesn’t work like that, Declan.” I could feel static in the air; something was about to happen. Anger now rose from within. “Leave before you get hurt, Declan. I won’t warn you again.”
“No.” One single answer and it sent me so far over the edge.
Just when I thought a hangover was the worst of my problems, things got a little more catastrophic. The wind picked up and whipped my hair around. I rolled my shoulders back and my feet were shoulder length apart.
“Wrong answer.”
I looked him deep into his crystal blue eyes—eyes that I loved to look at with every possible chance I got—and all the anger, sorrow, loneliness, and bitterness that I held onto for so long was released just as one single tear fell down the side of my cheek.
He started to run toward me, but a gush of wind shot him backwards. It didn’t stop him. Delcan still charged forward only to be knocked back over. The force of the winds picked up. Reluctantly, I thought, I’ve always wanted to make it rain. I laughed like a crazy person now. It began to rain and the thunder and lightning came next. Considering what Declan was, I figured if he did get hit by lightning, it might only stun him for a moment. So I watched as the lightning danced all around us and Declan just stood there waiting. He was screaming for me to stop, but this was too much fun and the feeling I got from having these powers was a rush like no other. I now got a taste of it and I wasn’t letting it go.
He charged at me again, screaming something, but I wasn’t having any of it. A lightning bolt struck at his feet just before he reached me and sent us both flying through the air.
“What the hell are you trying to do? Kill us both out here? Just in case you were wondering, I can’t die.”
“Well, you can’t say I didn’t try.” I rolled over and tried to stand, although I was so weak I fell back down to the earth.
“You depleted yourself. You can’t use that much power and expect to walk away from it. Hell, Sloane, you almost leveled the place.”
I rolled to my side to glance around me. It looked just like one of my dreams. Trees were broken and the stone picnic tables were turned over. In the distance I could see Viktor walking towards us and everything suddenly became overwhelming. I was never much of a crybaby, but considering today and last night, all I wanted to do was