Simmer (8 page)

"What?" Kira laughed into the receiver. How
could that meeting possibly be described as a good one?

"Look at it this way, the two of you fought,
right?" Kira nodded. Somehow, Tristan sensed it and kept talking.
"Well, you only really fight with the people you love. If he didn't
care at all, he wouldn't have been emotional. The fight shows he
was a little nervous about seeing you and that he lost
control."

"I guess," Kira said dubiously.

"Come on, think of all the people you've
fought with."

Kira took a moment — her mom, her dad,
Tristan at times and definitely Luke. "I see your point. I just...I
want them to like me. I don't want to be the thing that got their
daughter killed."

"Kira," Tristan sighed and spoke in a soft
voice. "I promise you that they don't think that."

"You didn't see the look in his eyes or the
way he said he didn't want to regret the decision." It was like he
had the weight of the entire world on his shoulders, Kira thought
and remembered the dark clouds she had seen in the old man's
eyes.

"I didn't have to. You can weasel your way
into anyone's heart, trust me. Besides, it sounds like your grandma
is rooting for you."

Kira thought back to the tiny smile that had
played on her grandmother's lips. "Yeah, you're right," she said in
a slightly stronger voice.

"I know," Tristan said with a playfully smug
voice. "Haven't you realized by now that I'm always right?"

"How could I forget?" Kira mocked.

"Don't feel too badly," he continued joking,
"you're still young and naive. In twenty years, you might be able
to start proving me wrong."

"That long, huh?" Kira rolled her eyes,
wishing he were lying beside her so she could punch his arm
lightly.

"Eh, fifteen if you're lucky." He chuckled.
She loved hearing the deep rumble of his laughter.

"Let's play a game," Kira said and rolled
over in the bed, using her foot to push the duffle bag out of her
way.

"Which one?" Tristan asked. They were used to
this routine by now. When Kira had been in the hospital, there were
very few activities she could actually do. They had become experts
at turning daytime soap operas into mad-libbing games. They had
spent hours playing board games. Tristan always beat her at
Pictionary, but Kira thought she had the one-up in Charades. Of
course, no one knew they were this cheesy and lame, Kira laughed
silently to herself.

When she finally left the hospital and
started going to school again, they eased back into normal life.
They went to the beach or did a little hiking or went to parties
with her friends. But, sometimes Kira liked slipping back into
their secret double-life, especially with one particular game they
invented.

"Hum-azing?" Kira asked. Yes...they made up
the name together.

"Sure, you first." Tristan sighed happily and
Kira envisioned him lying down and settling in for the competition.
She thought of a song, something current that he would never guess.
Kira started humming Ke$ha.

"Oh, come on. That's not fair. I'm singing a
song from the fifties when it's my turn," Tristan mumbled. Kira
kept humming the beat. "Okay, that crazy girl. I heard this when
you forced me to watch MTV." Kira smiled but kept going. "Um...Lady
Gaga?"

"Nope," Kira said and waited for him to guess
again.

They continued for a while, going back and
forth with Kira using current songs and Tristan drudging up older
ones she could almost never guess.

Eventually, Luke called her down for dinner
and she regretfully said goodbye to Tristan, hoping they would be
able to talk again soon. Now that she was here, she liked
Sonnyville and wanted to stay as long as she could. She wanted to
make conduit friends and learn about these people. She needed to
stay to learn more about herself and her powers — how to control
them and keep herself from going over the edge. Mostly, she needed
to find out what had been in those missing pages. She wanted to
know the secrets the old scholars had thought were too dangerous to
share.

But as soon as Tristan found Diana, she would
find a way to sneak out. Getting her mother back was Kira's top
priority and nobody, not even the Council, was going to stop
her.

Chapter
Five

"Really, Luke? Do we have to practice here?"
Kira asked, surveying the town square and taking note of the
Council's platform. She had only just escaped being the center of
attention yesterday afternoon. A repeat performance was not high on
her to-do list. "Can't we just use your backyard?"

"I don't want it to seem like you're hiding.
Besides," he continued, "conduits are going to stare at you no
matter what. You might as well give them something to gawk at."

"And, me practicing is something to gawk at?"
Kira asked.

"Oh yes," Luke said and stretched his arms
over his head.

Kira plopped down beside him on the grass to
stretch out her hamstrings and continue stalling. She rolled up the
sleeves of her t-shirt, slightly annoyed with Tristan. The one
downside to having him pack for her was the noticeable lack of her
semi-revealing clothing, something she was sure he did on purpose.
All of her practice tank tops had been left at home. Sure, they
were skin tight, but now all she had were bulky unisex tees that
she could hardly move around in.

And they were hot, especially in the
scorching heat resting over Sonnyville. The sun usually felt
comforting, but in this town the heat seemed stronger than normal.
She would have to ask Luke about that at some point.

"Let's go," he said and eased into a standing
position. Kira reached her arm out for help, feeling too lazy to do
it on her own. He grasped her palm and pulled her up, promptly
ending the contact at that.

"What are we starting with?" Kira stepped
back, putting enough space between them to make the practice
difficult, but not above her level.

"Target practice," Luke voiced. He reached
his hand out to the side and Kira shot a small ball of light at his
palm, more so a sudden burst of energy than her really strong
powers.

When it touched Luke's hand, he moved to a
new location. Kira fired again, trying to control herself and
release the fire in small increments. They had done this drill many
times before, but Kira still found it annoyingly difficult to focus
her energy on the little target Luke's palm created. Even more
difficult was reigning in the river of fire that roared inside of
her, the one that surged forward and tried to force its way
out.

After a while, Luke motioned to stop and Kira
noticed the fine layer of sweat on his brow. She reached her hand
to her own face and felt liquid drops. Odd, Kira thought. She
usually never sweats during their practices.

"Let's practice your off-switch." Luke yelled
across the field. As they practiced, he continued to step back to
make the target increasingly smaller and harder for her to focus
on. But, this next drill wasn't about control, not quite.

"Go!" Luke shouted over and Kira let herself
release. With her hands out, the flames burst forth and even
slightly stung her palms with their intensity. Letting it drain
always felt like a delicious release. But, before Kira let herself
have the satisfaction of letting everything go and giving into the
power, she thought 'off.' Sometimes that was all it took and her
fire would instantly cut off. This time, Kira felt the internal
struggle and she willed her finger closed, shutting the light
inside her hand and giving it nowhere to go.

The moment when Kira found herself on the
verge of losing herself in her own flames was the moment she knew
to cut it off. Luke and her once tried to see how long she would
last. Kira drained herself and tried to release it all, but she had
gone into a semi-conscious state where she lost not only her
control, but also her mind. Luke had needed to forcibly hit her
over the head and knock her unconscious to get her to stop. They
stopped trying to test her power after that.

Most conduits reached a point when they felt
hollow inside, as if there was almost no fire left to fly, and that
was their stopping point. For Kira, it was more of a breaking
point, a moment when letting it all go could mean losing herself in
the process.

Kira lowered her arms and looked at her
teacher, wondering if he wanted to try it again. She could usually
stop herself quicker than she just had. Instead, he waved her over
towards him and tossed a water bottle in her direction when she got
closer.

"What did I tell you?" Luke shrugged, a happy
smile on his face. Kira followed his eyes and looked around to see
a ring of conduits encasing the park. None of them ventured closer,
but people stopped where they were and stared over at her and Luke.
A woman with a stroller and a man walking his dog had forgotten
their errands to focus on Kira. A few children who had gathered to
play also stood at a slight distance.

"Why won't they come any closer?" She
questioned and then gulped down her ice-cold water.

"I don't think they're afraid, per se. I
think they're all just waiting for someone else to make the first
move. And, you are sort of scary when you go all zombie-conduit
like that."

Kira shoved him with her free hand.

"So, what's next teacher?"

"Let's do some mental exercises for a while,"
Luke replied and tossed his water back on the ground. "Come on,
let's practice on the platform so we have even ground."

Kira groaned inwardly. Mental exercises were
her least favorite. Sure, calling her fire was tiring and exerted a
lot of energy, but those drills were easy for the most part. She
had almost no mental control, which was of course why Luke always
made her practice this. And, she had no desire to be even more
visible to the town by doing this on a raised wooden structure.

Lining up next to each other, Luke and Kira
stood with their feet together and arms by their sides. Then, on
Luke's count, they moved into yoga-like poses, concentrating on
their breathing and trying to find a Zen-like place of peace. Luke
always seemed revived by these exercises, while Kira tried her best
to keep her eyes closed in faux-concentration. It reminded her of
when she used to pretend to be sick so she could stay home from
school, a sort of fake-it till you make-it mentality.

"Mind if I step in?"

Kira eyes jutted open to look for the source
of the deep voice: her grandfather. Stumbling out of her contorted
pose, Kira moved to shake his hand or say hello, but Luke beat her
to the punch.

"Of course, Councilman Peters," he said while
stepping smoothly aside.

Now that the Councilman had come forward,
Kira couldn't help but notice the other conduits had also moved in
closer, slowly creating a very defined circle around the podium.
This is not good, she thought as she gazed at the crowd, I have no
idea what I'm getting myself into. In a moment of clarity, Kira
realized this had probably been Luke's plan all along...the jerk.
She had absolutely no desire to be the center of attention.

"Miss Dawson," her grandfather spoke, pulling
her out of her reverie. "Shall we?"

"Uh, of course," Kira fumbled for words.
Turning to walk a few paces away from the older man, she saw Luke
position himself on the corner of the wooden platform, giving her
plenty of space to get in the zone. She turned in time to see her
grandfather drop his cane and slide it a few feet away from him. Is
this even a fair fight? She questioned and studied the old man who
was now slightly hunched over.

"On my go," he said in his deep, rumbling
voice. "One... Two... Three..."

Kira waited for the 'go,' knowing she would
let him take the first punch, if you will. He was such a man of
honor in this town; she didn't want to beat him. She would rather
look mal-trained than embarrass the grandfather she was hoping
could love her.

"Go!" He finally said and Kira waited for the
hit. In an instant, a ball of power slammed into her stomach. She
had no time to dodge it, try to absorb it into her body or hit it
with her own shot. Instead, Kira was thrown back on her butt. She
landed hard against the wooden floor of the platform with the wind
completely knocked out of her.

"Whoa," she said in a daze while sitting up
slowly. Her grandfather's power felt like steel and it oozed with
authority. With a smile Kira thought, I guess the old man still has
it in him.

She caught the smirk on his face before he
replaced it with a focused frown. "Is that all you've got?" He
challenged and an excited gleam rose in his eyes. He seemed younger
with every passing second, Kira thought.

Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, Kira
jumped up at the ready. "Let's try that again."

This time, when he uttered the word 'go,'
Kira was ready. She shot fire out of her left hand, hitting the
ball of flames he flung at her. The two fiery globes slammed into
each other and winked out of existence in midair. An instant later,
another burst of her grandfather's power was flying towards her and
she barely had time to meet it with her own flame. And another
after that, and another, until Kira was sweating with exertion and
panting from exhaustion.

Her grandfather was fast and she was barely
keeping up with him. Twice already she had had to skip throwing her
power and instead absorbed his into her body. It was easier than
meeting his power in midair, but it took more time. Soon enough,
her grandfather was bulldozing her with his flames.

At the exact moment Kira knew that her
strength had started to wane and had lost track of her
grandfather's movements, Luke shouted to her.

"Left!" He screamed and Kira shot left,
deflecting a ball of flames she had not even noticed.