The next night, Drei went out to
some meeting or another. He wouldn’t look at me as he left; Valetta’s words
still rang in his head, filling him with undue guilt. Mitchell and Valetta were
going out in search of entertainment and invited me along, but I didn’t feel
much like spending time with them currently. I couldn’t figure out if it was
because I blamed them, or if I was shamed and embarrassed. Either way, I
wouldn’t have been much of an asset to their plans as I didn’t feel like
smiling.
I sat, staring into space for
the longest time. Eventually I stood and went to the window. There was still
one experiment I had never tried, and now was as good a time as any. Besides, I
hoped it would take my mind off of everything else.
Opening the window, I slid out
onto the narrow ledge, concentrating on how I wanted to do this. It was similar
to some things I had done in the past—like sending messages to people on a
breeze. I just hadn’t done anything like this with a person. I had made the air
into shapes and used those to move people, but never on a breeze. In my mind,
it would be something like flying if I could pull it off.
I started pulling a gentle
stream of air below my feet, part of my brain wondering if I should maybe start
this closer to the ground instead of five stories up. Ignoring that questioning
part of my mind, I jumped onto the breeze, pulling more air into it to
accommodate my weight. Slowly going in circles, I practiced balancing myself;
unlike before when it was more like standing on a solid object, this was akin
to standing on a collection of strings. I could see the wispy strands beneath
my feet and tried centering myself on enough of them I found some stability.
After circling for a while, I
directed my breeze upwards over the rooftops of the apartment buildings and
worked on balance while moving faster, turning, swerving, and even while changing
position on my strands of air. I tried to keep over the rooftops, not too far
off in case I fell. I did fall, quite a lot. But it seemed all too soon I heard
Valetta and Mitchell on the street heading back to the building, so I followed
suit and slipped through the window.
Taking a quick shower, I exited
the bathroom to find them sitting on the couch, Valetta’s head resting on
Mitchell’s shoulder, her eyes studying their linked hands. He was whispering
something to her, though I doubted she heard a word of what he said. She just
had that look about her suggesting her thoughts were elsewhere.
As I walked past them, she
glanced up and asked. “What have you been up to all night?”
“Nothing much,” I said, forcing
myself to come up with something more solid than that. “Thinking mostly.” I
really wasn’t good at this.
She nodded, though, turning her
dark eyes from me again. Mitchell smiled hopefully, obviously unsure what was
wrong with her. Reading her thoughts, I found she still fought with herself
over what was the best thing to do: reward Drei to my benefit or punish us
both. She also struggled to find something for Drei to do to prove he deserved
the former.
I shrugged to Mitchell. He
didn’t really need to know if he didn’t already; it was one of those things she
had to figure out for herself, despite how difficult it might be.
The next few nights followed a
similar pattern: Mitchell and Valetta went out after I declined the offer to
join them, Drei went out somewhere—I wasn’t sure where or what for, but he kept
his distance from me, much to my dismay—and I would take my breeze and improve
with what I would call flying.
My mom named every trick she
learned and discovered, and I had picked up the habit over the brief time I had
spent with her. Shortly after I was born, the government had taken her to one
of their testing facilities, and she’d been there ever since. While working under
Caroline, I had taken one for the team and been temporarily reunited with her
and Nick. Then Drei came and took me away from that dreadful place and the
crazy specialists, but she had opted to stay behind. I couldn’t begin to
understand her logic; her mind wasn’t in the best of conditions, but that
wouldn’t stop me being grateful for the time I had been given with her.
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