Page 99 of My Wild Horse King

“But you’re our family now,” Amanda says. “And we protect our family here in Birch Creek.”

I start to laugh, assuming it’s a joke, but then I realize they’re not laughing. In fact, they’re not even smiling.

“If there’s some Russian dictator coming out here to attack you,” Steve says, “it might be nice to have some people you know to back you up.”

I can’t believe these people are even saying this. “We could never ask?—”

“Of course not.” Amanda takes two steps over and sets a mug with tea in it at my shoulder. “But with family, you don’t have to ask.”

For some inexplicable reason, I burst into tears.

Abigail, Amanda, Amanda’s old-man husband whose name I keep forgetting, and Whitney all stare at me, kindly. Gabe skips over and wraps his arms around my body, crumpling me against him. “It’s fine, though. You can cry here, I promise.”

Which only makes me cry harder.

A moment later, Whitney has also wrapped her arms around me from behind. The third person to join the group hug shocks me.

It’s Gustav.

His big, warm arms wrap around both kids and me. When he finally lets go, I actually feel much better.

“I appreciate your offer more than you know,” Gustav says. “I’m sure we all do. But we couldn’t possibly endanger your family for the very same reason that you’re willing to help. Once we have found a place to spend the night, we’ll gather our things and go, and we’ll head out for good in the morning. Our best way to keep safe will be to continuously move.”

“Or you could stay in a town that no one cares about with people who are watching your back.” Steve crosses his arms. “Think about it overnight. You might decide to stick around for a few more days at least.” He stands up. “But for now, you have to stay with us tonight. We insist.”

There’s a rather large scafuffle when they start assigning rooms and making sleeping arrangements, but in the end, Gabe and Whitney take sleeping bags in to join Nate in their parents’ room, and the three couples disperse into the bedrooms, leaving me and Gustav on the sofas in the family room.

I’m surprised no one presses for Gustav to try and do anything that night, but we’re all pretty tired, and if we want to be ready to leave in the morning, we should all catch up on some lost sleep. I won’t lie and say it doesn’t feel nice to sleep in a place that’s mostly safe, but I almost miss the room with just the one bed. I’m about to drift off to sleep when I hear him.

“Do you think I can do it?” Gustav sounds more like Gabe than he does like himself.

“Do what?”

“You know—forcibly take someone’s power?”

I’m not sure he wants to believe he can do it. It sounds like he might not want to be able to do any magic at all, with the way he phrased that question. I flip onto my back. “I’m not sure. I never had to take my power. After I earned it, so to speak, it just sort of showed up, whether I wanted it or not.”

“How?”

I shrug, but then I realize he can’t see me. “I zapped things, at first. Without meaning to, I’d just shock stuff. People and animals, mostly.”

“That sounds really annoying.”

I chuckle. “I mean, for me it wasn’t.”

“Still, if you didn’t think you could control it.”

“I guess, but I had Boris and Dad, who weren’t generally super helpful or kind. But about that, they were at least telling me what to do and what was a bad idea.”

“Like what?” Gustav asks. “Like, don’t go outside in the rain, or you’ll short circuit your brain?”

I can’t help laughing at that notion. “Not so much, no. One nice side-effect of our ability is that electricity, specifically lightning or any other electric current, won’t harm me. It would be like. . .if you had a catcher’s mitt on and someone lobbed you a baseball. You’d catch it and be able to do what you wanted with it without hurting your hand.”

“Even with a mitt, sometimes catching a ball hurts,” Gustav says.

“That’s not a very manly thing to say.” I’m smiling in the dark, but again, he can’t see it. “But it’s honest, I suppose.” I snort. “And sure, I mean, I suppose if I really was struck by lightning, it might be uncomfortable, but I could absorb and redirect it, so I’d be fine.”

“I wonder what it’s supposed to feel like for me. I mean, I have no idea where to even start in trying to force a power.”

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