Convergence - The Last Science #2.1 - In Plain Sight

Interlude V - The Sister - V

  Meg had expected Hailey to show up that night, or at least call or text, but neither of them got a single message from her. They watched the news just in case, but there wasn't anything new. Nothing new on the secret site for magic users either, which Alden still refused to let Meg see. She'd tried to get it out of his computer once while he wasn't home, but he was smart enough to lock everything before he left, every single time. He didn't want her snooping in on the people, apparently, but stuff about magic itself? He was more than willing to share.

  After their parents went to sleep, which was way earlier than either of them, they went out to the shed in the backyard. Meg pulled the chain for the single light bulb, and they pushed aside the lawn equipment to make a bit of space. She hopped up on the stack of patio chairs in the corner, excited as ever, though now it was tinted with a tingle of fear and trepidation.

  They had a bigger reason for Alden to get strong with magic now, besides just for the fun of it. People were really trying to hurt them now.

  Even though Meg couldn't do magic, she thought of herself as one of the group. She might not be awakened—to use their super-lame word for it—but she was still on the team. She covered for Alden and Hailey all the time, for one, and she also helped Alden train, helped him think of new spells on occasion. She'd come up with a few ideas he'd never thought of—and since he got a lot of his new stuff from the website, that meant no one had ever thought of it.

  Meg was pretty pleased with herself that day.

  Tonight, Alden was trying out one of her new ideas again. Having a specific topic like this, where he didn't have to think about anything that happened, seemed to snap him out of his fugue for a bit.

  "Go over it again?" he asked, staring at the candle sitting on a stack of plastic recycling crates.

  "Well, your affinity is Movement stuff, right?"

  "Yeah."

  "But you wanna be able to do elemental stuff better. Like being able to throw fire, since that's like everyone's go-to thing?"

  "It's the most well-known spell, so everyone knows how to make it without much energy. But I'm bad at manipulating it or creating a lot of it. And definitely not both."

  "Right, so just do one. Don't do both."

  "...That doesn't really help, Meg."

  She grinned. "You only make the fire with Elemental magic, but then you move it with Movement magic."

  "That's... not really how it works."

  "Why not?"

  Alden hesitated, and she could see his mind clicking through ideas. It seemed so obvious to her, but maybe she was missing something. She couldn't do magic, only he could. Still, he turned back to the candle and stared it down. She could see it flickering in his pupils.

  A bit of flame jumped off the candle and slid through mid-air to the side. Alden's eyes went wide.

  A second later, it flickered out as a tiny bit of ash fell to the concrete floor of the shed.

  "Bingo," Meg gloated. "I'm the best."

  "But it didn't last." Alden frowned.

  "Well you don't have to be mean about it."

  "It's because I moved the wick, not the fire. Maybe if I..." He tried again, and moved his hand a little at the same time. This time, there wasn't a tiny spot of black, and the candle was suddenly no longer burning. It was just an insubstantial flame, attached to nothing at all.