ICE (The Benders Series) Read online

  “Not here,” he rebutted.

  “Four minutes,” she threatened, her eyes locked on the watch on her phone.

  “Please put that away,” he begged as he rolled a few stop signs. And in a matter of three short minutes, he pulled up to the park and shifted gears with haste.

  “One minute,” Kenna noted. “You have one minute left,” she repeated, her arms still folded in anger. If there was one thing that her relationship with Jon had taught her, it was how to protect herself. And she had no intention of letting her guard down ever again. However, her threats and her anger had yet to make any noticeable impact on the Colewell. But she knew what might. “You know, Jason’s not going to be happy about me talking with you for even five minutes.”

  The trick worked immediately. He opened the driver’s side and slammed it behind him, rattling the entire vehicle in the process. The fuming boy then proceeded to the passenger’s side where he practically threw the door off its hinges upon opening it. “Jason?!” he hollered. “Did you really move on that quickly? Did our relationship mean nothing to you?!” Kenna pivoted herself away from him, her arms remaining folded. “Forget it! If you would rather be with that pompous ass then go ahead!” he hollered as he slammed her door. Jon stormed back to the driver’s side of the truck, practically growling in animalistic rage as he went.

  Once inside, Kenna noticed that his eyes were beginning to change color, and that somehow his pale skin was growing more ghostly than she thought possible. The thoughts of vampires and werewolves quickly resurfaced as she felt an urgent fear take hold of her. As a result, the girl rethought her previous statement. “I lied,” she muttered, fighting every word that she spoke. “Jason asked me on a date today, and I turned him down.”

  She had turned away from him again, but could hear his rapid, snarling breaths begin to slow. “Why would you lie?” he asked. Kenna didn’t need to see him to know that his teeth were clenched in an attempt to gain control of his thoughts.

  Kenna only shrugged her shoulders although she knew exactly why she’d turned down the rebound. She would never admit it, but buried beneath her feeling of anger were still feelings of affection and hope and attraction. Her heart still yearned for Jon, even if her mind didn’t.

  “Do you still want to be with me?” he asked, wasting no more time with her rather effective attempt at making him jealous.

  She paused. “I don’t know,” she replied, her fury still evident in the way she spoke.

  He seemed to note her pause, probably taking it as a sign that she was lying and did indeed want to be with him. She could tell that he didn’t believe her reply as he became suddenly very calm and confident. “Let’s talk,” he said again as he left the vehicle one more time, this time much more slowly and peacefully that the first.

  Kenna reluctantly stepped out and began to stride alongside the boy. She couldn’t believe how insensitive he was being, how unapologetic and almost confrontational. When she half-agreed to communicate with him, she certainly expected some kind of remorse. She didn’t need him to get on his knees and beg for her forgiveness, but it would have been a nice touch.

  Yet, here she was with none of the above.

  The thought just angered her as they moved rather quickly about the hiking trails that they’d done so many times before.

  “Okay, I changed my mind. I’m so done with this. You don’t even care and I’m done trying to make you,” she said sharply.

  “Why are you trying to frustrate me?” Jon shot crossly. “You don’t know anything.”

  The Colewell came to a swift stop and gave her a slight push to indicate that she should sit. It didn’t take long for Kenna to recognize the old, decaying log that she was sitting on as it was the same one she’d sat on when Jon revealed the truths behind his conception.

  “I don’t want to talk,” she mumbled, her anger softening into sadness. The log caused a flood of memories to invade her mind, good memories, happy, real memories.

  “Yes, I realize that,” he sneered. He was pacing back and forth in front of her, biting his nails and occasionally kicking the snow as he went.

  Kenna was silent for a moment as she observed his obvious anxiety. “Just out with it then,” she ordered without a hint of sympathy. “The sooner you talk, the sooner I can go home and forget that you exist.”

  He stopped pacing and looked at her as if trying to read her soul. She turned away at his gaze without another word. “We both know that’s not what you want,” he said matter-of-factly.

  “You don’t know what I want,” she rebutted, her eyes finding enough rage to glare directly into Jon’s.

  “Yes, actually, I think I do,” the arrogant boy replied, giving her an equally hard stare.

  Kenna shook her head as they glared at each other for a moment. But seeing that he had no intention of apologizing or taking back his words, Kenna shot, “Screw you, I’m leaving.” She got up quickly and with every intention of following through with her declaration.

  “No!” he hollered. “Wait. Wait. Please, I’m sorry!”

  The word made her stop in her tracks. Jon wasn’t one to apologize so he was indeed desperate to talk to her, though he had still released no clues as to why he needed to converse with his ex.

  She turned around and walked slowly up to him. “What do you want to say? No more games. Just out with it,” she ordered again.

  He took a deep breath as he stared into her eyes as if searching for a clue of his own.

  “How much do you know?” he asked, an investigative look still on his face.

  Kenna returned the expression with a similar one of her own. “What do you mean? I don’t know what you want to talk about.”

  Jon proceeded to purse his lips and search her eyes once more.

  “You aren’t a spy?” he inquired.

  Kenna almost laughed at the question. “What the hell are you talking about?”

  Jon shook his head and stepped away from her. “How can you not know? You have to know. You have to be an infiltrator. It’s the only thing that makes sense,” he said, rambling off the thoughts as if he expected her to retort with a confession.

  But Kenna remained confused and even angry. “Sense? You don’t make any sense, Jon. Are you dumb? Spy? Infiltrator? Are you in the FBI or something?” she interrogated. The girl felt a jerk of fear take hold as the words passed her lips. She suddenly realized that something was wrong and that Jon was very serious in whatever was causing him so much anxiety.

  He was pacing again. “No. How can you really not know?”

  “Know what?!” she shouted, her irritation and curiosity trumping her fear.

  He stopped to search her again, but again found no answers.

  “If I tell you, Kenna, I don’t know what will happen,” he choked, his nervousness beginning to strangle his once angry and confident voice.

  Kenna sighed and felt a wave of unwanted sympathy spread over her. She collapsed to a sit on the log and patted on it to signal that he should sit next to her.

  He was reluctant at first but soon found himself next to her, fighting the urge to put his arm around her and hold her.

  “I never told anyone,” she said quietly. “What you told me when we sat here. Even after we broke up, I was never going to tell anyone.”

  He nodded and put his head in his hands. “Kenna, I want to be with you. But… there is so much that I don’t know and that maybe you don’t know,” he said solemnly. “I really, really want to be with you. I think I love you, but I don’t know what you’ve been hiding.”

  Kenna felt her stomach turn into a tight knot as he said it.

  He thinks he loves me, she repeated to herself.

  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 do
n’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 no
t.”

  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.