Page 36 of Coerced

“I never tried?” He tilted his head. “Why not? No, never mind. I’ve noticed that about the Sanctuary. There isn’t much creative thinking about using powers. Me and Gemma have been talking about that. We’re gonna come up with ways for her to use her power differently. Offensively. You should think about using your power differently, too, John.”

“Me? What else can I do with my power?”

“You can teleport wherever and whenever you want. You can smell a lie as easy as I smell the Diabolical. You have a better reaction time than most other classes. I bet you could even learn to make weapons. What else can you do with your power?Anything.”

“You’re good for us, Kerry.” Tara grinned. “You’re helping us think outside the box about ourselves. It’s liberating, in a way.”

“My warden is a guide, but he’s learned other class-specific skills.” Kerry shrugged. “Like, he can heal a little and manifest small weapons. He says it’s because he has an open mind, but Mr. Snyder told me that, as a neph ages, it gets easier for him to pick up other skills.”

“Someone like Clem must know just about as much as you can, then,” I said. “You ever hear the saying, ‘Beware the old man in a field where others die young’?”

“No, but that’s a good one.” He smiled down at me in a way that made my heart flutter.

We worked in the clearing for about an hour. Tara was able to turn the snow into water and back again. While it was in its liquid state, she learned she could form it, almost like play dough, into a shape. She tried picking it up in a sphere. It dripped a little, but she did it, levitating it several feet with ease before turning it back into snow.

Kerry’s earth-wave idea worked, too. It looked like a giant snake sliding under a rug. Tara worked on making the wave larger and larger until she could control one about eight feet wide and just as high. By then, she was tired, and we decided to head back to the campsite.

Tara and John went ahead of us, and Kerry held my hand as we ambled along.

“Thanks, Kerry,” I said.

“For what?”

“Showing us a door when all we could see was a window.”

“I’ll have to think about that one for a while before I understand it.”

“Oh, I think you understand me.” I bumped his hip with mine. “You’re just too embarrassed to accept it as praise and say thank you, Lab Rat.”

“Will you stop calling me that?”

“Sure, Goo—” I started to say, but he cut me off.

“Notthat, either!”

He stopped walking and looked down at me. I could feel his tall frame radiating tension.

Uh-oh. Is he angry? He doesn’t get mad at me very often, but—My thoughts derailed as his eyes dipped to my lips.Is he thinking of— No, of course not.

Then his hands came up to cup my face in his palms. I grabbed the front of his jacket and held on. He slowly bent his head and kissed my temple.

Nope. Definitely not angry.

“Kerry?” My voice came out as a squeak.

He chuckled and his lips glided down my cheek. I shivered as goosebumps erupted all over my skin.

“Am I scaring you, Short and Sweet?” His deep voice only encouraged the goosebumps.

“A little,” I admitted.

But I’ve been dreaming of this for weeks.

We’d held hands and hugged and cuddled up together, but he hadn’t kissed me other than on my knuckles. Now I realized how intimate this was - and he hadn’t even gotten to my lips yet! - and understood why it had taken him so long to work up to this.

“Scaring you like that day in the pool?” His mouth hovered above my jaw, and his lips grazed my skin with each word. “Or scaring you like the day we met?”

“Uh,” was the best I could do. My thoughts had scattered like dandelion seeds and my heart tried to jump out of my throat.

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