“Speaking of the prophecy, what happened today? You said you were going to tell Stephens I wanted to keep it.”
“I tried. He wants someone older, someone he trusts.”
Ouch. “He doesn’t trust me?” Then why would he keep declaring me the prophecy, for crying out loud. That made absolutely zero sense.
“He doesn’t know you,” she countered.
Neither do you, not anymore. “Yeah, I guess.”
She waved off my concern. “Don’t worry about it. We’ll fulfill the prophecy together if it’s that important to you.”
I didn’t like how flippant she was over something so absolutely not flippant and swallowed down the rest of my comments about her taking the prophecy from me by changing the subject, redirecting it to her. “What are you doing?”
That seemed to be the correct approach. She beamed proudly as she nodded at the barrier. “Adding wards. We’ve got magically enhanced elementals to expose and ultimately protect the academy against. I know a few tricks to strengthen the wards. They’re already designed to sense when something’s out of balance. I’m just building on that.”
“How?” It sounded incredibly cool.
She glanced over her shoulder, a grin curling her lips. “Join me. I’ll show you.”
I jumped at the chance to learn how to create a ward, especially with my mom—our first mother/daughter activity since she’d returned—and hurried to her side, mimicking her stance by bringing up my arms, palms out toward the barrier.
“You’ve got every element inside you, which means you can both create and bring down wards. Once a ward is brought down, it must be destroyed and a new one created to take its place. Otherwise, it’ll always be susceptible to the opposing element.” She stepped behind me and held up my wrists. “Point your hands like this. Now, close your eyes and concentrate on an element.”
“Which one?”
“Your choice. Pick one.”
I didn’t want to set anything on fire—especially my mom—so that one was out. Air was too easy and, to be honest, I wanted to impress her, so I called my primary. The ground rumbled as the earth stirred beneath our feet.
“Whoa, sweetie. How about you not bury us. Switch to something a little more controlled.”
Controlled? Earth was the most controlled element I, well, controlled. Still, I didn’t want her to stop showing me how to create a ward, so I killed my call and switched to water. It was by far my weakest element. I pulled in a deep breath and let it out, settling my mind on my task. The tingling began at the tip of my fingers and moved down my hands. When the sensation hit my right palm, I tensed, expecting it to draw out the pulsing glow. It didn’t disturb the under gash—I couldn’t simply call it a gash since it was under my skin, so under gash was the best I could come up with. The tingling turned to a numbing sensation as it continued traveling up my arms. I didn’t like it and pulled in my call.
“Open your eyes.”
I did and spotted a new ward softly shimmering a foot in front of me. Rounded at the top, with a wavelike flip to the left, it was the most beautiful, magical thing I’d ever scene. I reached for it, but my mom’s hand on my arm stopped me.
“I…wouldn’t do that.”
I pulled back, not understanding the power of the wards, only that they were powerful enough to create a protective barrier around the school. “Why not?”
She cautiously extended her index finger and barely touched the ward. It sparked angrily, shooting a bolt of energy and striking the tip of her finger. She yanked her hand back while using air to push the ward up and over, attaching it to the barrier twenty feet or more into the air. It continued to spark, hissing and spitting at us, until it finally calmed enough to slowly, almost reluctantly, fade into the background with the rest of the wards.
“That’s why.” She slowly backed away from the barrier, her attention on the ward. “They really don’t like to be touched.”
“Something we have in common.”
She studied me. “Yet being touched by four men doesn’t bother you?”
“Mom,” I groaned. Not this again. “It’s not like we’re, uh, touching at the same time.”
“Then why, Katy? Why four? Why not one? Or even two? Four seems a bit excessive.”
“Can we please not talk about this?” I refused to justify my life choices to someone who’d been absent from my life for the past six years.
“Fine.” Her tone closed the subject even if her word hadn’t. “Do you know why I don’t like to be touched?”
“You used to say it was because you didn’t know where my hands had been.”
“I mean in general. How often did you ever see your dad and me hold hands?”
Now that I thought about it, pretty much never. “I guess I didn’t notice that before.”
“I don’t like to be touched because it’s too personal. A touch. A hug. A kiss.” She shuddered. “It’s all too personal.”
“Even with Dad?”
“We had you, didn’t we? There had to be some touching involved.”
“Gross,” I groaned again. “Don’t talk about sex with Dad. That’s so unsettling.”
She laughed and flipped the single braid behind her. “All I’m saying is I don’t like to be touched, and I know you picked that up from me. Clearly, you’ve made exceptions since coming here to Clearwater.”
And before. I left out the explanation of the way I’d craved the guys’ touch when I’d first discovered I was an elemental.
The tension between us had me searching for an excuse to leave. I didn’t want to upset her and risk having her leave again, so I flashed my brightest smile and drew a breath to say something snarky in the hopes of making her laugh when my phone buzzed. I checked the screen, stiffening when I recognized the number. Stace rarely called me, so to see her number flash across my screen,
