Peanut Goes to School (Elder Races #6.7)(15)

So actually life could hardly have been better, except for one thing that weighed and weighed on his mind, until finally, on Friday evening, he couldn’t take it any longer.

After supper, he and Mom made vegan rice crispy treats and together they ate the whole batch. Then, when Mom went upstairs to take a bath, he went in search of Dad and found him reading one of his history books in the library.

Liam wandered over to hang on the arm of his chair. Dad looked at him over the edge of his book. “Something on your mind?”

“Yeah. Maybe.” Liam couldn’t look into his dad’s keen gaze, and he bent his head as he asked, “Can I talk to you in private?”

Dad glanced around the library, but instead of pointing out that the room was already empty except for them, after a moment he said, “Let’s go for a walk.”

Liam swallowed and nodded.

They went outside.

The sun had just set behind the nearby mountains, but it was still hot and plenty light enough. Overhead, the sky was streaked with rainbow colors. It would be a good evening to go flying, except Liam didn’t feel like it.

Dad led him to the path that went to the lake, and soon they walked along the beach toward the half-completed office complex. It was the one place where Mom never came anymore.

Liam darted a thoughtful, uncertain glance up at Dad’s face. While it was impossible to read Dad’s expression, he felt pretty sure Dad hadn’t picked the location by accident.

He said, experimentally, “I like the lake.”

“I do too,” said Dad. Stopping at a stack of concrete blocks, he sat on the edge of the pile and stretched his long legs out. He gave Liam a sidelong smile. “Don’t worry, Mom will get over it. I think she’ll come down here a lot once the building is completed and people move in. She doesn’t let much hold her down, you know.”

Liam nodded and turned to look out over the water, which reflected the rainbow colors in the sky. The lake blurred as his eyes filled, and his mouth wobbled as he asked, “Am I bad?”

In a very quiet voice, Dad asked, “Now, why would you think to ask such a thing?”

Squatting, he picked up a stick to poke at the ground, mostly to hide the fact that his tears had spilled over. “Last Sunday, when I was playing Spy Wyr, I heard you and Mom talking about how I needed school, so I could learn how to control myself.”

Dad stayed silent a moment. He said, “We were on the balcony. Where were you?”

“I climbed up to the beams u-underneath.”

From the corner of his eye, he watched as Dad closed his eyes briefly and said to himself, “I didn’t sense a damned thing.”

He guessed that meant he’d gotten pretty good at his cloaking spell. Ducking his head, he said, “There were some bad boys at school. I made one of them cry, and I scared the other one pretty good. And I meant to. I . . . liked it. Oh—also, I can breathe fire. Watch.”

Holding the stick to his lips, he concentrated on pulling on his Power as he hissed. Heat boiled out of his mouth, along with a lick of flame, and the stick caught fire.

“That’s something, that is,” said Dad in a soft voice. “Can you put it out?”

“Sure.” He started to bury it in the dirt between his feet.

Dad took him gently by the wrist to stop him. “No, not that way. Try to put it out with your mind.”

Liam looked at him uncertainly then focused on the stick. After a few moments, he said, “I don’t think I can do that.”

“That’s okay, maybe you can’t do it yet, but I’m sure you will be able to. We’ll practice at it.” Dad passed his hand over the stick and the tiny flame died down. “Okay, first things first. Come here.”

As Liam stood up, Dad did something he didn’t often do anymore. He picked Liam up like he was a little kid. Turning into the embrace, Liam wrapped his legs around Dad’s waist and put his head on his shoulder.

Dad sat down again, holding him in a whole body hug. It felt good, like being surrounded by a hot, comforting fire. He rested his chin on Liam’s shoulder. “Your mom and I already know about what happened with those other boys.”

He mumbled, “You do?”

“Mm-hm. Hugh told us. After talking about it, we decided not to say anything unless you brought it up.”

“Oh.” After thinking about it, he whispered, “I’m not sorry.”

Sorry, not sorry.

Dad rubbed his back. “You know what I think?”

He shook his head.

“I think you did an outstanding job.”

Outstanding. He lifted his head. “Really?”

“Really. You spoke to them in their language. You backed them off, and you made them stop hurting other kids. And you controlled yourself, and you didn’t hurt them in return.”

He had to point out, “I scared them pretty bad.”

“Yes, you did.” Dad’s face was calm. “If you were to talk to humans about this, they would probably say that things should be handled in a different way, and I respect that—but Liam, it’s important to remember, we’re not humans, and neither are those boys. They’re stronger than humans, more dangerous. They’re predators, and they crossed a line. You know what happens when Wyr go bad, don’t you? They can hurt a lot of people before they’re brought down.”