Page 46 of Shaped By Discovery

“Show us how,” Lyle finally says, turning away from Sol and back to Garrett, and just like that, it’s decided.

I don’t know why I expected more. Even after Garrett explained it, I figured he was just giving us the basics. No way could it be that simple, right?

Wrong.

Garrett stands with his shirt off just in front of the gate as we gather behind him. Each of us rests a hand on his back, arm, shoulder, wherever we can reach.

“Now, just call your element to you. The same way you would when you fight, but instead of manifesting it into its physical form, push that power into your hand and imagine giving it to me,” Garrett says like it’s the simplest thing. And while it sounds simple enough, I’ve never called my element without the intent to wield it.

It takes a while. The first time Pike tries, he accidentally sends Garrett flying through the gate with a gust of air. Lyle dropped the Earth from under him, sending him into a six-foot hole. If we didn’t need this to work to get to Rena, I would have been laughing my ass off, but I don’t even get the chance to enjoy it. Instead, I feel my beast pressing closer to the surface with every failure. Sweat beads down my head, my teeth clenched so hard that my jaw hurts from the effort it’s taking to keep myself from shifting.

“This isn’t working!” Pike snaps as Lyle brings Garrett back up to stand before us… again.

“Well, try harder,” Garrett bites back, turning to look at Pike, and his eyes glow the same way they did earlier. He’s been calm through most of this, explaining everything and dealing with all our shit, but right now, he’s slipping.

I’m not sure why, but I don’t like that. It’s unsettling.

Nobody says anything to him before he turns around, raising his arms toward the moon gate, clearly ready to try again. I steal a glance at the guys, but I can’t get a good read on them right now. Too much is going on to know if they stay quiet because they sense what I do or because they want to get this over with. Maybe both.

“Think of Serena.”

Garrett’s voice is quiet, but I hear him loud and clear.

“Pick a memory and focus on it,” he says with a sigh, letting his head drop forward. “Make it a good one, something you would never want to forget…”

His words wobble, and I don’t need to see his face to know this is hard for him. The raw emotion is apparent in his voice.

He takes a deep breath and squares his shoulders, looking back toward the moon gate. “Pull everything you feel into your chest and let it mix with your element. We can power share because of our connection to her, so maybe using her as an anchor will help.”

I don’t know what that means, but I don’t care to question it, already running through my memories for something worth being the one to settle on. Rena is such a huge part of our lives that deciding on one thing almost seems like an impossible task. I’m about ready to give up when a memory hits me hard, almost stealing the air from my lungs.

We’d been friends with Rena for a few years, and while she was less closed off, she wasn’t like she is now. She still didn’t do physical touch very well, something we had in common. I didn’t enjoy being touched, never really had. I’d grown used to it with Pike and the guys because they had been around forever. It didn’t seem so foreign with them. But everyone else knew better than to touch me. Even my parents did it sparingly.

Lyle had insisted we go to a bonfire after one of our winning games. He said it was good for us to socialize and support our team. I hadn’t even wanted to go, and I’m pretty sure Lyle regretted us going later as well.

I’d broken a boy’s arm when he put his hands on me. The dumbass thought I was trying to hit on his girlfriend.

The pain had caused him to lose control and of course, his element had to be fire. He went off like a flame doused in gas. It wasn’t a big deal, considering my control of water was leagues above my peers. No, the problem was that I was standing about two feet from Serena. She’d stayed with me near the fire while the others went to mingle since she was cold and didn’t want to be there any more than I did.

I saw the fear in her eyes as she went back to that night, trapped in the memory. I didn’t have time to go and find the guys, even though they were much more equipped to help her through a panic attack. At that moment, it didn’t matter what I liked. Serena needed me, and it wasn’t as if we’d never touched. She touched me more often than most people, including the guys, but it was almost always her who initiated it, and it was never like it was about to be.

I let the broken ball of fire fall to the ground to cry like the bitch he was before slowly approaching Serena. I had seen the guys talk to her and knew what to say and how to say it, but she couldn’t seem to get a good breath no matter how she tried. I scooped her into my arms, pressing her head to my chest.

Hearing someone’s heartbeat always soothed her, and I remembered Blair once saying she could better match someone’s breathing when she could feel it. It didn’t take long for her to calm down, but I didn’t let her go even after.

I couldn’t.

Instead, I picked her up and made my way through the party to collect the others. They came without hesitation, the shock of seeing Serena in my arms enough to get them to listen and know I wasn’t just trying to get out of being there.

I held her the whole way home. At some point, she fell asleep and when we reached the house, I carried her up to her room. It wasn’t until I went to lay her in her bed that I realized I didn’t want to let her go. The thought took me by surprise. I might have gotten used to the guys, but that only meant I didn’t physically react when they touched me. I was never the one to reach out for it like Pike, and I would never have dreamed of a day. I would dislike the idea of it ending.

“When we enter the realm, your powers might go a little crazy.”

Garrett’s voice snaps me out of the memory, and I blink hard, looking around and trying to remember what’s happening. The memory of Rena in my arms felt so real that my chest aches, knowing she wasn’t really here.

“Be ready, so much power might force you to shift,” he says, but his words don’t really sink in as I look up to find the moon gate glowing in front of us.

It’s working… Holy fucking shit, maybe he wasn’t crazy after all.

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