Secret

CHAPTER 2

Quinn sat backward on Nick’s desk chair and watched him fidget. He was sitting on the end of his bed, twisting his ball cap between his hands. A sudden noise would probably send him sky high.

No one else saw this side of Nicholas Merrick. She’d always thought he had his life perfectly in order, with a college plan and a handle on everything. When they’d first started dating, she’d thought she’d finally found the perfect boy to latch on to.

Then she’d caught him kissing Adam, and there went that.

“I’m still waiting for your secret,” she whispered mockingly.

His eyes flicked up to meet hers. “I know.” He paused, running a hand through his hair. “I’ve never told anyone, and I’m not sure where to start.”

“Wait. Don’t tell me. You’re gay.”

He flung the hat at her. Quinn uncurled it and pulled it on her head backward. “Why don’t you tell me about the idiot in your driveway. His name is Tyler?”

“Tyler Morgan.” He hesitated. “His parents hated my parents. So much that Tyler grew up hating us. He used to go to school with Michael, but he’s a few years younger.” Another pause. “Tyler used to have a sister named Emily. She was in Michael’s class. She died in the old rock quarry south of Severna Park. There was a rock slide and she drowned.”

“When?”

“Five years ago. I don’t know a lot of the details, but Tyler thinks Michael had something to do with it.”

Quinn sat up straight. “Holy shit. Like . . . how? Like he built a bomb or something?”

Nick shook his head quickly. “No—nothing like that. Michael has . . . he has . . . we have this affinity for the—” He cut himself off and rolled his eyes. “Jesus, this is impossible. Everything sounds ridiculous, and I want you to believe me.”

She studied him, trying to puzzle this out for herself.

She was coming up with nothing.

Abruptly Nick stood and seized her by the hand. “Come on. We need to go outside. This will work better with show-and-tell.”

He trudged through the woods, dragging her behind him. She could feel the tension in his grip. Whatever his secret was, it had him keyed up. The sun had already begun to dip behind the horizon, letting a chill seep into the air.

“Keep walking,” he said. “I need some distance from the neighborhood.”

“Your secret is in the woods?” said Quinn, shivering. “Dude, if you turn into a werewolf, I am outta here.”

He smiled, then stopped and turned to face her. “I’m not a werewolf.”

“Vampire? Alien?” She snapped her fingers. “Harry Potter. Or wait, you’d be one of the Weasley twins . . .”

“If you could shut up a second, I’d tell you.”

“Should I hold your hands? Are we going to phase out and appear in Narnia?”

“No.” He glanced around. “If any trees fall, I don’t want them to hit a house.”

Trees falling? What? “So you’re secretly Paul Bunyan?”

“Quinn.”

She shivered again. “What? Seriously, Nick, what’s out here?”

“Air.” As he said the word, the breeze kicked up, finding a true wind that ruffled his hair and swirled between them. Leaves shifted and rustled along the ground.

Quinn frowned. “Air?”

Nick nodded. His expression said that she was missing something important.

But . . . air? Air was everywhere.

Leaves lifted from the ground and began to spiral around their feet. She started to shiver again—but then the leaves swirled off the ground, forming a moving wall to enclose them. First two feet high, then three, then eye level.

Quinn felt the first lick of fear. She moved closer to him—then wondered if that was worse than moving away. “You’re freaking me out a little, Nick. Is the mother ship landing?”

“Relax.” He spoke gently, confidently. “It’s just wind.”

She stepped away from him, but not too far. The swirling leaves remained out of her reach, and the wind caught her blond hair and tossed it across her face. “Are you doing this?”

“Yes.”

“How?”

“I’m feeding it energy.”

She looked at him again. “I don’t understand.”

“I can control air. Wind. Atmosphere. Whatever you want to call it.” He paused. “That’s how I choked Tyler.”

Quinn put a hand out. Leaves caught against her palm immediately, crumbling before getting swept into the maelstrom again. It wasn’t enough to disturb this mini-tornado. A bare path appeared on the ground where the wind continued to whip in a circle.

“You’re telling me you’re doing this all by yourself?” said Quinn. “No machine? No—”

“All me,” he said. “But the wind is willing.”

She turned to look at him again. “Okay. Make it stop.”

He didn’t move, but she felt the change. The wind in the clearing died. Leaves spun wildly and fluttered to the ground.

Quinn jammed her hands in her pockets and stood a few feet back from him. Her brain couldn’t wrap itself around this quickly enough. She wasn’t sure she wanted to believe him yet. This was a little too . . . weird. “So . . . what? Your brother blew that girl off a cliff?”

Nick’s eyes widened. “What? No. He’s not—Michael’s not an Air. He’s an Earth.”

Quinn licked her lips. “Do I need a twenty-sided die here, Nick?”

“Would you stop making jokes? I’m trying to explain this to you, and you’re—”

“Freaked out.” She took another step back from him, looking at the leaves that had fluttered to the ground. Nothing abnormal, no sign of any device that could have done . . . that.

Nick studied her. “Do you have your iPod?”

That was like asking if she’d brought her boobs along. Quinn fished it out of her pocket and held it out.

Nick shook his head. “You listen. Dance. Do that one you were doing the night I picked you up at the Y.”

When the hell had Nick Merrick gone insane? “You want me to dance right now?”

He nodded, looking perfectly serious.

“But you won’t hear the music.”

“I want to show you something.”

Quinn hesitated, figured she had nothing to lose, and plugged the buds into her ears. She had to close her eyes to shut out Nick’s searching face, but once the music caught her, he could have been an alien and she wouldn’t have cared.

She didn’t remember all the details of this routine, but Nick wouldn’t know the difference, and she was good at improvisation. Her weeks of studying with Adam had made her stronger, more balanced, and she could feel the difference even in something unpracticed. Her legs carried her through spins and leaps more effortlessly. She spun and dropped and flung her body into the rhythm, every movement punctuated perfectly.

Then she felt it. The air changed, as if the music could suddenly seep into her skin. Her movements had more energy, more control, and each time her feet left the ground, she felt vaguely like a marionette, suspended for just a fraction of a second too long—but effortlessly.

The dance changed against her will, turning from something she was doing with the music into something she was doing because of the music, as if the very song animated her body. Her next leap left her in the air for a moment too long. She almost lost the beat, and spun to find it. One foot, pivot, step, leap.

This time her height, her suspension in the air, was downright inhuman.

She stumbled on the landing, from shock more than anything. Nick caught her, his hands warm and steadying on her elbows. Quinn braced her hands on his chest, unsure whether she should shove him away or not. Her breaths came quick.

Frightened. She was frightened. She’d felt his power in the air.

Exactly how high had she gotten?

She yanked the earbuds free. “Did you do that?” she demanded.

His expression was guarded, but he nodded. “Yes.”

She didn’t say anything for the longest moment, letting her breathing settle.

She could still hear the song, tinny and distant from the headphones. Music was in the air, drawing at her limbs. Not frightening. Exhilarating.

Quinn grinned. “Can you do it again?”

An hour later, Quinn was sprawled on his bed, watching Nick rifle through a dresser drawer. She’d learned about his brothers, how they were marked for death because of their abilities. She’d learned about their deal with Tyler’s family to keep the Merricks hidden from discovery—a deal that created a rift in the Elemental community, putting the Merricks on one side, and the Morgans on the other. She’d learned about the rockslide that had killed Tyler Morgan’s sister, right in front of Michael Merrick.

She knew about the Guides who’d tried to kill him and his brothers more than once—and who would try again, when they had the chance.

The front door slammed downstairs, and Quinn sat up on the bed. One or more of his brothers were home. She slid her phone out of her pocket and wanted to tell Nick to get the lead out.

But he was so adorably anxious about seeing Adam that she didn’t want to rush him. “I think I always knew there was something about you,” she said.

He didn’t glance up. “Yeah?”

“That suffocation thing—you did that to Gabriel once, didn’t you? That day I made you dinner and he came home acting like a real shit?”

Nick’s hands went still. “Yeah.”

He sounded ashamed. Quinn snorted. “Too bad you didn’t follow through.”

He turned to look at her. “It’s not a game, Quinn. I could have lost control.”

“Well, you sure didn’t seem to mind using it on Tyler.”

Nick turned away and shoved the drawer closed with a bang, moving on to the next one.

Quinn came and crouched next to him. His hair was still slightly damp from a shower—which he’d taken alone, despite her offer to keep up appearances—and he smelled slightly sweet and musky at the same time, like one of those guy-brand body washes.

“What’s up?” she said. “You okay?”

He turned his head to look at her. “I hate that guy.”

“Really? I didn’t get that from the warm welcome you gave him in the driveway.”

“I don’t want to talk about Tyler.” He slammed another drawer and moved on to the bottom one.

“What are you looking for?” she asked quietly.

“Something that doesn’t make me look like I spent twenty minutes doing exactly this.”

“Are you sure you don’t have a spandex suit under those clothes?”

“I do, in fact. Little surprise for later.”

Quinn snorted. “What you’re wearing is fine.” And it was: a soft blue T-shirt that clung to his body and made his eyes almost vibrant.

“Are you nervous about what you told me? You said you were in danger.”

He gave up on rummaging through the drawer. “We are. We’re always at risk of someone coming to town to kill us all.”

“The Guides, right?”

“Yeah. But we try to keep our heads down and not reveal our talents. That’s one of the rules: we have to demonstrate our abilities to earn a death sentence. When we were younger, Tyler and Seth used to beat the shit out of us to try to force us to use our powers, but we’re stronger now and they mostly stay away.”

Until this afternoon, she thought. But then she picked up on what Nick had said, that Tyler and Seth used to beat the shit out of them. Like his twin brother, Nick was tall, and landscaping gave his body some solid definition. She couldn’t imagine anyone beating the shit out of him—but then again, if everything he’d told her was true, maybe he’d been afraid to fight back.

“I just don’t understand why,” said Quinn. “What do they care?”

Nick glanced over. “We scare them.”

“They’re scared of a little breeze?”

“Remember Homecoming? Remember the tornado that formed over the soccer field? Ripped out a few trees?”

“Yeah?”

Nick gave her a significant look.

“No way,” she said.

“Way.” He grimaced. “I lost control of it. Ended up breaking my leg in three places.”

More events were clicking into place. “You said you threw out your knee playing soccer.”

“It made for a good cover story.” He looked away from her eyes. “Air is everywhere. I heal fast.”

“Can you fly?”

She couldn’t keep the hushed wonder from her voice, and Nick smiled. “No. Too much weight. I can’t focus the air pressure enough for that.”

“What does air pressure have to do with anything?”

“Are you kidding? Air pressure is awesome.”

She rolled her eyes. “You are such a nerd sometimes. You’re lucky you’re hot or you couldn’t get away with saying things like air pressure is awesome.”

“Seriously. Air pressure affects everything. Haven’t you ever heard the expression nature abhors a vacuum?” He grinned. “Actually, we were doing this experiment in class once where Dr. Cutter was trying to prove a point with a balloon, but I kept making it pop—”

“You are the only person alive who would use superpowers to be more dorky.”

“They’re not superpowers.”

That sounded a lot like the difference between to-MAY-to and to-MAH-to to Quinn. “Would it be okay if I told Becca?”

Nick hesitated. He lost the smile.

She rushed on. “I know it’s your secret. I don’t have to tell her. I—well, she’s dating Chris, too, so maybe he could tell her . . .” She stopped. “What? What’s that expression?”

“Becca knows,” Nick said gently.

“Becca knows,” said Quinn. “Like . . . how long?”

“Since that party at Drew McKay’s house. Tyler and Seth came after Chris, and chased him and Becca into the water.” He hesitated. “According to Chris, he lost control of the current. She almost drowned. He dragged her out.”

Quinn sat up straight, rotating to face him from the bench seat. “Becca almost drowned and she didn’t tell me?”

“Quinn—she couldn’t tell you. Knowing our secret—it’s not a good thing. It makes you a target. It puts you in danger.”

That sounded like a whole lot of bullshit. Quinn used to tell Becca everything. Everything. “Then why did you tell me?”

“Because you’re my friend. I wanted you to know.” He paused. “And you kept my other secret.”

Quinn felt herself softening.

The floor creaked in the hallway.

Quinn shoved Nick in the shoulder. He was off balance and rocked back, sitting down hard on the carpet.

Quinn was in his lap before he could move, her hand pulling at the hem of his shirt and her mouth latched on to his neck.

Nick sucked in a breath and grabbed her waist, but then Gabriel spoke from the doorway.

“I’d tell you two to get a room, but at least close the door.”

Nick froze. Quinn lifted a hand to give his twin the finger. She didn’t take her mouth off Nick’s neck.

God, he smelled good.

“Classy,” said Gabriel. He was already moving down the hallway.

Quinn straightened and let go of Nick’s shirt. “You’re welcome.”

He gave her a look. “If there’s a hickey on my neck, I’m going to kill you.”

She patted him on the cheek. “Come on, Romeo. Maybe you’ll get a chance to get one from Adam.”