Going Down in Flames (Going Down in Flames #1)(71)

“Keep him as long as you like.”

“If you need anything, call my office.” Merrick placed a business card on the coffee table and followed Coach Anderson out the door.

When they were alone, Zavien led her to the couch. “Later, I will yell at you for not telling me about all the other threats, but right now, you need a nap.”

She sat next to him, lifted his arm, and snuggled against his chest. He didn’t seem to mind. “I hate this. I don’t want to be this angry. It doesn’t feel right.”

He stroked her arm. As she listened to his heartbeat, some of the tension left her body.

“I’m impressed you aren’t burning the building down.”

She hadn’t thought of that. “Me, too.”

“It shows you’ve achieved a level of control.”

Right. “I don’t feel like I’m in control. It’s hard to explain. Being close to you helps. Otherwise, it feels like my skin is crawling with electricity.”

He stopped stroking her arm. “That’s an interesting choice of words. Hold out your hand, and we’ll do an experiment.”

She had no idea what he wanted, but did as he asked.

“I’m going to create an emissary and pass it to you. See if you can sustain it.”

A small ball of white light appeared in his hand. He set it on her palm. It grew larger.

Whoa. “Am I doing this?”

Within seconds, the ball of light grew from the size of a golf ball to a tennis ball.

“Cool.” She could feel her anger pouring into the ball of electricity. It doubled in size.

“Don’t make it any bigger,” Zavien said.

It grew to the size of a basketball.

“Bryn, you need to stop.”

“I’m not doing it on purpose.” The ball of light grew brighter. She focused on it, trying to pull the power back, to make it smaller. Instead, it sizzled and popped, shooting out sparks.

“Stop funneling your energy into it.”

Come on. This shouldn’t be so hard. Shrink. Go out. Fade. Nothing worked. She shoved it at him. “Take it back.”

He placed his palm under the bundle of electricity. It wouldn’t budge. “Bryn, you have to make it stop, or it’s going to explode.”

She concentrated on the electrical power hovering above her hand. Fingers of electricity crackled as they snaked out with forked tongues. The mass of electrical current grew to the size of a beach ball. She felt the hair on her head rise and stand on end.

“Do what you do to put out fire,” Zavien yelled.

Snow… Cold… Ice… The ball of electricity flickered and then morphed into a giant snowball which dropped to her lap. Cold, wet mess seeped into her clothes, soaking her, Zavien, and the couch.

He stared, openmouthed. “You can make ice?”

Teeth chattering, she shoved the heavy, wet snow off her lap. “Didn’t I ever tell you?”

“No.” He sounded offended. “You can make fire, ice, and electricity.”

She stood and shook the snow out of her hair. “I fed the electricity. I didn’t make it.”

“You almost blew up the dorm, so that counts in my book.”

“If that’s true, then I have four elements. Mr. Stanton thinks I change my coloring using Quintessence.”

He blinked but said nothing.

She giggled. “Maybe I should have Garret pass me an emissary of wind and see what happens.”

“Not when I’m around, thank you very much. You’ll turn it into a tornado.”

“Hah, hah.”

“This is…big,” Zavien said. “We should talk to Mr. Stanton and ask his opinion on what it means. Go change into dry clothes, and I’ll call him.”

Did he want to say something he didn’t want her to know about? At this point, the lure of warm water outweighed her paranoia. Halfway to the bedroom door, her stomach growled loud enough for Zavien to hear. Food. She needed food. She turned back to him with a hopeful look on her face.

He waved her toward the bedroom. “We’ll pick up lunch on the way.”

A fast, hot shower and dry clothes later, she followed Zavien to his dorm room. It was the mirror image of her room, except messier. Boxes of camping equipment filled his living room. While he was in his bedroom changing clothes, she spotted a bag of marshmallows and helped herself.

When he came back out, she showed him her new trick. “Look what I can do.”

She held the marshmallow between her thumb and index finger. One quick blast of flames from her fingers resulted in a toasted marshmallow.

“If you’re going to do that, we should make s’mores.” He rummaged through the camping supplies until he found graham crackers and chocolate bars, which he lined up on the coffee table. Bryn flamed several marshmallows, creating half a dozen s’mores.

Chocolate oozed out the sides of the graham cracker when she took a bite. Melted marshmallow stringed from her lips, and cracker crumbs fell on her lap.

Zavien laughed.

“You try it.” She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. Not that it did much good.

He bit into his s’more, and marshmallow stringed out onto his chin. She laughed at his stunned expression.

“The marshmallows are too melted,” he claimed.