ICE (The Benders Series) (12 page)

The girl didn’t know how to respond and did her best to brush off the statement. “I’m not hiding anything, Jon. I swear,” she promised, taking a hold of his arm so that she could squeeze his hand.

He immediately pulled away. “But how?” he questioned again.

“You know I don’t understand what you are talking about. Please just tell me,” she begged, recoiling her hands to the safety of her lap. For some reason all the fear that Kenna had had been completely wiped out. She was for the first time that day very comfortable and very relaxed.

He stood up and pulled a rose out from behind one of the surrounding trees. The flower looked impeccable. Red and vivid against the dead landscape.

“Where’d you get that?” she asked, her voice innocent and inquisitive.

“I brought it here earlier, hoping that I would get the chance to give it to you,” he whispered, his eyes locked on the rose like he expected it to jump at him.

“Were you planning to go all ‘The Bachelor’ on me? Kenna, will you accept this rose?” she said in her best Chris Harrison voice, doing her best to calm Jon’s nerves and add some levity to the conversation.

He took his eyes off the flower and put them back on her. Whatever was bothering him remained heavy on his mind as her humor made not the slightest impact. “No,” he said. “Kenna… I don’t know if I can tell you…” he choked again.

“Jon,” she assured him, coming to a stand as well. The psychology lecture from earlier that day came abruptly into her mind. “You don’t have to tell me,” she said, hoping that a little reverse psychology would do the trick. She put a hand on his shoulder. “Or at least, don’t tell me until you are ready.” The latter statement was a better one as Kenna was aching to know what secrets he was keeping from her. Whatever they were, they had nothing to do with another girl or anything of that sort. They were much bigger than that.

He swallowed hard and gently took her hand off his shoulder. “Well, here it goes then,” he breathed and stepped backward several feet from her.

The suspense was suddenly killing her as they made eye contact one final time. In an instant, she went from relaxed and sympathetic to rigid with nervousness.

Then, Jon extended his right arm forward, holding the rose only a foot from Kenna’s face. Before Kenna could ask him what he was doing, she heard a soft crackling coming from the rose. Within a matter of a few milliseconds, ice began to climb onto the green stem from the spot where Jon held it. The clear, frozen water rose slowly.

Gracefully.

Effortlessly.

Magically.

Making slight pops and crunches as it swallowed the leaves and the thorns that grew upon the flower.

Kenna stared as she witnessed the enchanted ice enclose the red petals of the once lively rose. In a moment, the perfect little plant was bounded by the ice, frozen solid like the choke cherries had been during the winter’s ice storm.

After they both had studied the rose for a minute, Jon extended his arm further and offered the beautiful trinket to the girl. A tad hesitantly, Kenna reached her arm for it and took it into her bare hand.

The rose was as cold as she’d expected, colder than what any normal ice would feel like. Her skin began to tingle at the second she touched the frozen flower for its coldness was almost instantly numbing. As a result, she quickly slid her sleeve over her hand and regripped the rose to examine it once more. She could feel the ice even through her sweater sleeve, but it was too compelling to her sight to simply drop on the ground.

Kenna looked up at Jon, who was watching her in her awe-stricken state.

“So… what? You are a magician or something? How’d you do that?” she asked, not sure exactly what had just happened or how it just happened.

Jon sighed at the question. “I’m an elementalist,” he said softly. “An ice elementalist.”

“And what does that mean?” Kenna questioned, a perplexed expression dancing across her face like an uncoordinated ballerina.

“It means that I can move ice. I can create it, move it, shoot it. All with a little interior focus,” he explained. Her face didn’t change, only looked even more bewildered than before. “Here, I’ll show you,” he said, taking her hand and tossing her behind him.

Kenna was positioned just behind the boy, facing his back. He turned his neck and looked at her, studying her face before he continued. He faced forward again and bent his knees very slightly. His arms had been relaxed at his sides, but now he lifted his right arm so that it was parallel with the ground. Next, he opened his hand and moved it so that it was perpendicular to his extended arm.

“Are you watching?” he asked, turning his head back to the girl once more.

“Yes,” Kenna assured, growing more nervous. She rested her free hand on his shoulder to soothe herself, hoping that touching him would give her a feeling of comfort, and it did.

He turned once more away from her and bent his elbow ever so faintly. Then, he straightened his arm in a forceful jerk forward. And when he did, a blade of ice the size of a standard sword came firing from his palm and stabbing into a tree that lay ten yards ahead of them.

Kenna was quiet for a moment as she observed his focus on the blade of ice that he had just propelled out of nowhere. She didn’t know whether he was done or if she should speak at all. Had he really just created the dagger out of thin air? Could he really use his mind to move and make ice?

“Do you want to see more?” he asked, turning to see a rather stunned expression on her face. If she’d been awe-stricken before, now her jaw was hanging in disbelief.

Kenna wasn’t sure how to respond but felt herself nodding a slow ‘yes’.

Slowly, Jon turned around to face her.

“Hold out your hand,” he instructed as he took her arm and held it outward. Kenna obeyed without hesitation as Jon place his hand palm down a foot above hers.

Then, in the empty air between their hands began a weak sparkling. That sparkling grew and grew until huge dazzling snowflakes hung in the air above her fingertips. It was as if she was zoomed in on a few tiny intricate flakes that had fallen effortlessly from the sky. Certainly each one of the gigantic crystals that Jon created were just as flawless and detailed.

She cautiously let her fingers glide upwards to touch one of the enchanted snowflakes, her face expression one of complete wonder and captivation. Even in her dreams she couldn’t imagine something so beautiful, but here it was before her. She let her hands slip away reluctantly, almost unable to decipher this reality from a dream, a realization that made her a little terrified.

Jon took a deep breath as closed his palm and let his concentration die along with the magical flakes. “You’re more beautiful,” he said as he took her chin in his icy hand. He proceeded to stare deep into her eyes before landing a very passionate kiss upon her mouth.

As wonderful as the embrace was, Kenna found herself pulling away from the handsome boy. “Sorry,” he apologized. “Are you okay?”

“It’s a lot to take in, I guess,” Kenna confessed, her eyes still wide in amazement.

“Well, then as long as you are freaked out,” he said, pausing before finishing his statement, “there’s…well…there’s more.”

CHAPTER NINE

More?

How could there have possibly been more to tell her? Hadn’t he just told her that he was a supernatural being with mystical ice powers?

More?

How could there be more?
Kenna thought as she tried to contain her anxieties and confusions.

“What do you mean?” she finally asked as she took a slow sit on the log.

“You really don’t know, do you?” he seemed puzzled and surprised by her authentic bafflement. The girl shook her head slowly, completely unaware of how he was about to enlighten her. “Well,” he continued as he plopped down next to her, “you…you are a flame bender.”

If she thought she couldn’t have gotten more perplexed, she somehow did. “Okay, now you are just crazy,” she said defensively. “I think I would know if I had supernatural powers.”

“That’s just it though,” Jon began to explain. “I think that you’re only a half-blooded bender, a moiety as they are called. And some moieties don’t possess kinetic abilities. All of my brothers do, but you must not.”

Kenna remained baffled and almost unable to take him seriously. “Jon, that doesn’t make any sense. That would mean that one of my parents would be an elementalist like you,” she rationalized as she turned herself to face the boy.

“Yes, and I’m not sure that it’s entirely my place to tell you about your father,” he said with a very serious and pained tone.

Kenna shook her head quickly. “No. My dad wouldn’t keep something like that from me,” she claimed as she scooched away from him. “You don’t know him!” She pointed an accusing finger at the Colewell, feeling completely blindsided by the theory.

“Please, Kenna,” Jon started, “just let me explain. Please?”

Kenna swallowed hard and felt tears begin to sting her eyes as she let her hand drop. “Don’t tell me that I can’t trust him,” she begged as a drop trickled down her face. As a result, Jon didn’t open his mouth to respond, and when he didn’t Kenna burst out, “Fine. Just tell me.”

Jon got close to her and finally put his arm around her. “I’m sorry,” he said as she began to sob into his shoulder. “For everything. This is all my fault. I should have known from the start, but I’d never come across a flame moiety. But when I walked onto your front steps, I felt it right away. I could sense a flame bender’s presence. I could feel the exploding heat just beyond the doorway.” He rubbed her shoulder as he sighed. “Then, I panicked like a coward. I ran. I thought for sure I was walking right into a trap of some sort. Flame benders aren’t exactly known for being peaceful with ice benders.”

Kenna covered her face with her hands as he explained. In her mind, she’d now been betrayed by everyone, Jon and her father, the two people she’d considered herself closest to in the past several months. And what was just as bad, he made it seem as though there could be no mixing of flame and ice.

“So what you are trying to tell me is that my whole life has pretty much been a lie?” she managed to sputter through the sobs.

Unsure of how to answer the crying girl, he raised his shoulders into an unknowing shrug. “I don’t know,” Jon replied calmly. “I’m sure he has a good reason, or at least, I hope he does. Maybe he’s walked away from bending. Some do. It can be an unwanted stress and responsibility, trust me,” he assured as he held her tighter.

She didn’t reply. Her crying had lessened, and only sniffles managed to sneak by her attempt at emotional control. For several minutes, they sat there quietly, neither knowing how to move forward with the conversation or their relationship.

Jon hadn’t lessened his hold on her as he stared blankly ahead, waiting for her to maybe say something to indicate her acceptance of the situation. But no words came, and the longer they sat, the tighter he held her until finally he could no longer bear the silence.

“Can you forgive me?” he asked, his glowing blue eyes remaining focused ahead of him.

Kenna took her face out of her hands and pushed back the hair that became tangled in the mess. Her eyes had become red and the bags under her eyes that had already been concave from crying that weekend were now even more sunken in. The little bit of mascara that she wore had become smudged around the incurvated sockets, and she looked altogether distraught.

She sniffled once more before managing to spit out a few words. “Yes,” Kenna admitted as she began to come to terms with reality. “I understand why you couldn’t just tell me. And I understand why you panicked,” she went on to say as her composure took a stronger hold. “But I don’t understand why my father would keep something like that from me.”

Jon swallowed hard. “Maybe there’s a good reason. Maybe he was trying to protect you,” he suggested. “I can’t say for sure, but you could always ask him.”

“Ask him?!” Kenna shot back in a sudden bout of fury. “Oh yea I’ll just walk up and be like ‘Hey dad, so you’re an elementalist? Cool. Flame? Cool. Yea it’s cool with me by the way, and thanks for letting me know. And by the way I’m dating an ice dude, hear you might have a problem with that. Okie dokie?’!”

“Sorry,” Jon interrupted before she could continue on the rant. “We’ll figure something out.” There was another pause in the conversation before he spoke again. “Kenna. I’m…”

“You’re what?” she asked when he couldn’t finish the sentence.

“I’m…I don’t know…I didn’t know what would happen when I told you,” he muttered, his brain going in a hundred different directions. “I…I was scared. I didn’t know how to tell you or what to expect. This is a big deal,” he said as he released her from his hold and began to rub his hands together.

Kenna nodded as she witnessed the adrenaline change beginning to shift within the Colewell. “Well, how’d I do then?” she breathed as she rested her head on his shoulders.

At the question, Jon pulled himself away from her. Slowly, he reached for her face with two hands and pulled her in for an aggressive and passionate kiss. But despite the burst of pleasure that they felt at the contact of their lips, the Colewell was unable to maintain the embrace for more than a few seconds. He pulled away as quickly as he had pushed forward and not without an audible wincing sound.

“You have no idea how relieved I am,” he gasped as he shot his hands up to cover his mouth.

Kenna was too busy noting his reaction to the kiss to hear his response of relief. “Am I really that bad of a kisser?” she asked as she scrunched her face in irritation.

“No,” Jon rebutted swiftly. “It just kinda stings to touch you, that’s all,” he continued as he took his hands from his mouth to reveal that his lips had become slightly swollen from the kiss. “Maybe burns would be a better word,” he corrected as she got close to examine his mouth.

“Oh my goodness Jon!” she retaliated as she pushed her face near his. From what she could see, his lips had become enlarged and dark red. Several small blisters also formed around his mouth where the pair had made contact. Kenna immediately grabbed his wrist to look at his palms that had held her face. They, too, were red and swollen with a rash scrambled about them like spots on a Dalmatian.

“It’s not that bad,” he assured as he whipped his arm away from her. “But you didn’t need to hold my wrist so tightly,” he laughed as he showed the red hand mark that surrounded the limb.

Kenna’s eyes went wide with shock, and her hand covered her open mouth.

It was true.

She
was causing him physical pain every time she touched him.

“Not that bad!” she shouted with guilt and anger. “Jon, we can’t even touch!” Her hands had coiled tightly into her lap at this point as she didn’t want to accidentally let them reach out for the boy, though every bit of her wanted to kiss him again or maybe slap him. Both seemed like reasonable reactions to the girl at this point.

“It’s not that bad,” he repeated. “If I ice it, it’ll go away after a bit. Water has healing abilities, kinda a nice bonus in this situation,” he clarified as he got up and strode to where the dagger of ice had penetrated the tree. Kenna followed as she watched Jon place both hands on the ice and even bite off the end to give his mouth and lips some relief.

“So kissing me would be like a normal person kissing a pan as it came out of the oven?” she asked with a roll of her brown eyes.

“I imagine it’s similar,” Jon laughed as he continued to rub his hands on the frozen water. “It’s always worth it though,” he said with a twinkle in his eyes and a smart smile curving above his strong chin. “I wish I could kiss you all day though,” he went on to admit as took his hand off the dagger and took a stand next to her. He then held out his palms to show her how they’d healed. “See, no big deal!” he boasted as a look of relief came across Kenna’s face.

Kenna took a deep breath. “So you want to be in a relationship with someone who you can have hardly any physical contact with?” she asked, wanting to confirm the rather absurd idea.

“Yup,” he verified. “But I’m actually adapting a little to your natural heat. Maybe within a few years, I’ll be able to kiss you with less intense pain.”

Kenna gave the boy a flirtatious punch in the shoulder. “I always knew you were a freak,” she joked as she replaced her hands to the comfort of her pocket.

“Yea, a zomwolf, right?” he ridiculed as he nodded his head back towards the path that they came on.

“Oh, shut up,” she laughed as she took a walk next to Jon.

As they made their way back to the truck, a tense and quiet air seemed to surround them. For the entire length of their hike back, not one of them spoke, both trying to absorb the conversations that had just taken place.

Once they reached the privacy of the rusted truck, Jon let out a sigh and placed a comforting hand on Kenna’s knee. “Are you okay?” He could tell by the way she was crossing her arms that she’d begun to feel the reality of the truths he’d just revealed.

“I don’t know,” she admitted. She had begun a persistent stare off into the distance as so to avoid eye contact with him. Inside, she felt suddenly rattled, suddenly startled by the revelations.

Jon was an ice elementalist- or an ice bender, a terminology that she much preferred to the first. He could literally move and create and control ice as he had just done before her naked eyes. Honestly, she was a little embarrassed that she hadn’t formed the solution on her own. After all, now everything added up. It explained why he never ran the heat in his truck. It explained why he never wore a coat. It explained why he was able to so easily save her from the rigid depths of the ice river.

Kenna continued to stare as he gave her leg a reassuring squeeze.

“I understand if you need some time to think about everything,” he said as he removed his hand from her limb and place it on the immobile steering wheel.

She shook her head. “No, I want to be with you,” she rejoined with a break in her concentration. “I just…I don’t know. It’s still sinking in. I don’t know how to react to something like this.”

He nodded at her explanation. “I know. Just try to believe that it’s still just me. I’m still the Jon that you were dating before.  I just had a momentary lapse in judgment when I broke things off, and I’m sorry. I was scared.”

Kenna knew it was hard for him to admit his fear, so it meant a lot to her that he did. Consequently, she let a small smile find a home on her pale and placid face. “Well, it’s not every day that you find out that your boyfriend has super powers. Or that your dad had been lying to you your entire life,” she acknowledged as she unfolded her arms and leaned towards the boy to initiate eye contact.

“Someday you’ll get to witness some of my other super powers,” he shot back at her as he kissed her quickly on the forehead.

She laughed at the sex joke, finding herself somewhat happy with life again. For some time, the couple sat in the truck and talked, just talked about normal things, her day, his weekend, and various other everyday topics until finally Kenna’s stomach began to rumble with hunger.

“So are you going to drive me home or what? Apparently I have a father to confront and a belly to fill,” she noted, realizing that they’d been sitting in the stationary truck for probably an hour.

“If you are sure that’s a good idea. Just make sure he doesn’t want to kill me or anything. Ice and flame don’t exactly mix. In fact, if you could somehow leave me out of it, that’d be great. Wouldn’t want a flame bender knocking on my door, unless it was you of course,” he said with a new seriousness.

“My dad is a liar, but he’s no murderer or anything” she sighed. “I’ll be discrete though. Maybe I’ll find a way to make him just tell me. That would probably be best.”

“Sure,” he chuckled a little. “Whatever you want.”

“A phrase I hope I get used to hearing,” she replied with a dirty smirk as she rested her head on his shoulder while he shifted into reverse.

For the moment, Kenna hadn’t the faintest idea of how she might get her father to divulge all of his secrets. But for the moment, she wasn’t going to worry about it. She was going to rest her head on Jon’s shoulder and smile.

No thinking.

Just peace.

Just a smile.