River’s voice was low as she told him of the day her magic came in when she was eleven, of the endless power that had swept through her veins. Magic had battered at her willpower every day since then, she told him, wanting to get out. For years, she’d kept it locked away until she went out with friends when she was fifteen.
Her voice cracked, and the pain on her face…
Nikhail’s fingers twitched, and the urge to hold her close and never, ever let her go was nearly overwhelming. The only thing holding him back was the look in River’s eyes. He’d seen it once before, and that memory was ingrained in the very core of his being.
“Nikky, you’re holding my hand too tight,” Laurie complained as he tugged her out of the elevator.
He was annoyed because Laurie had tried to jump into the massive puddle outside their apartment building when they got off the bus. Nikhail had taken her hand and pulled her aside just in time. Dad didn’t like it when they brought water into the apartment, and besides, it wouldn’t be good for Laney’s lungs.
“Sorry, Laur,” he said, releasing her hand as he opened the apartment door.
Something felt strange as he walked inside. Off. But… what was it?
A baby’s cry came from the playpen in the corner of the livingroom, where Laney was holding on to the side as tears streaked down her cheeks.
Where was…
Mama stood in the middle of the living room, clutching the back of the shabby blue armchair. She was as pale as snow, staring at the paper crumpled in her fist.
“Go to your room, Laurie.” Nikhail gently pushed his sister inside. “I’ll come play with you in a bit.”
Laurie must’ve felt the shift in the air because she didn’t fight back. She kicked off her boots before padding down the hall to the room she shared with Laney.
Nikhail turned back to the living room, where Mama hadn’t moved at all. Slowly, he walked up and put his hand on her arm. “What’s wrong?”
She lifted her head, and her wide eyes met his. He was too young to realize it then, but they were filled with grief and fear.
“He’s gone,” she whispered hoarsely, shaking her head back and forth. “Just… gone. He left me. Us.”
“Who?”
“He… he won’t be back.” Mama collapsed in the armchair, breaking down into heaving sobs. “He left.”
The reality of his mother’s words hadn’t hit Nikhail right away. It wasn’t until the next morning, when he woke up and realized that his father hadn’t come home, that the enormity of the situation slammed into him.
Later, when he was twelve, he found the note on top of his mother’s desk. She’d kept it all those years. Three lines. That’s all his piece-of-shit father had written before leaving. He’d said it was too much, and he couldn’t do it anymore.
The look in River’s eyes echoed the one Nikhail had seen on his mother’s face all those years ago, and it pinned him in place.
“It was an accident,” she whispered, tears streaming down her face as she told him about something she called the Incident. “I didn’t… I didn’t mean to do it.”
“Of course, you didn’t,” he said immediately. “You would never purposefully harm a fly.”
He knew that, like he knew that his heart belonged to his water fae.
“It’s sweet of you to believe in me.” The corner of her mouth creaked up, the smile watery and barely there, but it dropped, along with her gaze, to her hands. She flexed them in her lap, staring at her fingertips as if they held the secrets of the universe.
“Once the magic started flowing, the water, the rain… I couldn’t stop it. It just kept coming. More, more, more.” She flattened her hands on her lap, drawing in a deep breath.
He itched to gather her in her arms and never let go, but he had a horrible feeling that if he touched her right now, she’d run away and never come back.
And so, even though it broke his heart, Nikhail held himself back. He allowed her to keep a few inches between them, even though they felt like canyons.
When she spoke again, pain laced every word.
“Death poured from my fingertips, Nikhail. I called down a tempest, and I killed hundreds of innocent people. I couldn’t make it stop.” Her pinky twitched. “Ryker had to come, and he… he calmed the storm.”
Nikhail had been aware that something had happened when River was fifteen, but he’d never known the magnitude of the event, the depth of her pain.