ICE (The Benders Series) Read online

  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. Consequen
tly, 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.

  CHAPTER TEN

  Discrete.

  What does that word mean again? Kenna asked herself as she tossed off her covers.

  The weekend had come quickly, and she hadn’t managed to dupe her father in the slightest.

  “Oh Dad, can you light this candle? I can’t find any matches,” she had tried.

  “Can’t light something without matches, Kenna,” he had replied with a nonchalant chuckle.

  “Oh Dad, you are kinda warm. Are you feeling okay? Nothing abnormal going on?” she’d interrogated one evening.

  “Nope, you just must be colder I guess,” he had brushed off her concerns like they were nothing.

  “Oh Dad, did I tell you how much I like the winter? Don’t you love the cold? We should move even further north,” she had suggested.

  “My business is here, Kenna. And I’m not a huge fan, no, but it’s tolerable,” he had admitted, once again spurring her advances.

  Kenna didn’t know what else to do but was finding that being discreet was not a plausible option. Turning over and rolling out of bed, the girl made her way to the bathroom to give herself a quick fix. A braid would do it as she hardly had the patience to shower on a weekend.

  With hair and make-up in place, she slumped her way downstairs and into the kitchen where her father sat reading the morning paper.

  “What can I make you for breakfast this morning?” he asked upon her arrival.

  “Nothing,” she sighed. “I’m not hungry this morning.”

  The man immediately put down the paper and gave her a stare. “What’s the matter? Not that boy again? Kenna, I told you if he breaks your heart once, he’ll feel no remorse doing it again,” he warned with a stern glare.

  “No,” Kenna defended immediately with a shake of her head. “It has nothing to do with Jon. Jon and I are good.”

  He nodded slowly, “Well then what is the problem?”

  Kenna was beginning to feel the barrier between her mind and mouth beginning to fail her. Without a word, she went to the sink and filled a glass with cold water, very cold water. Hastily, she slammed the glass down in front of the man. “Drink it,” she demanded as she crossed her arms.

  “Kenna, what has gotten into you?” he fired back as he took a stand. “You haven’t been yourself these last few days. I know it’s that Jon kid and I’m about to forbid you from-.”

  “No, it’s you, Dad!” she shouted back at him. “You can’t drink the water, can you?!”

  The man looked perplexed by his daughter’s freak rage. “Yes, I can. But I’m not going to until you tell me what your deal is,” he said calmly while giving her an intense stare.

  Kenna swallowed hard and let the anxiety in her gut form words. “I know everything,” she confessed.

  Her father’s expression didn’t change. “You’ll have to be more specific,” he offered in a confused tone.

  “I know you’re a flame bender, Dad. And I know you’ve been hiding that from me for forever!” Kenna yelled, her face turning red with anger and voice being choked by the feelings of betrayal.

  He didn’t say anything to her at first, just continued to stare at her intensely, perhaps hoping she might boast about it all being a joke of some sort. Moving his glance away from her, he took a loud and deep breath. “How did you find out?” he mumbled, his head now hanging in shame and anger.

  “What’s it matter?” she asked without remorse. “You’re a liar.”

  “Kenna!” her father hollered, finally snapping. “Who told you?! Your mother?! My brother?! Who?!” he howled as he stepped into his daughter’s space and began to tower threateningly over her.

  The girl could not recall ever seeing her father in such a way, so emotional, so hot-tempered. She took a step away from him and continued to glare. “Why does it matter? Why have you been keeping that from me?” she demanded back at the fuming man.

  He took a breath. The muscles in his back had formed tightly coiled knots, and every vein was popping from his reddening face. His neck began to relax first, then the fists at his sides unclenched into open palms. “Did you think that maybe I had a good reason for that?” he questioned through a tight jaw, but with a calming voice. “Who told you?” he asked again.

  Kenna didn’t know if she should hide the truth from him but figured she’d be a hypocrite for doing so.

  “Jon,” she admitted. “Jon told me. Why didn’t you?”

  Her father suddenly took on a countenance of confusion and his anger hurriedly died and formed a figure of concern. “Jon?” he clarified. “What would he know about any of that?”

  “He’s a bender, too, Dad. And he says I’m a moiety. Is all that true?” She had calmed as well, her inquisitiveness becoming more intellectual and less ferocious.

  The man sighed and plopped down in the dining chair behind him. “Yes. But I never wanted you to know, Kenna. Bending is a burden. And the life of a bender is not a fun one,” he said as he pulled out a chair, indicating that she should sit as well.

  “You still should have told me,” she disagreed, her arms remaining folded as she took a willing sit.

  “Maybe,” he nodded. “But I gave up that life. I didn’t want it for you, Kenna. The moment that I knew that you couldn’t bend, I decided to give it all up,” he explained. “And it was selfish for Jon to have told you… what type is he anyway?”

  Kenna took a long stare into the man’s eyes to search for any malicious intent but found none. “He doesn’t want me to tell you about him. He says the two of you wouldn’t get along,” she replied.

  Her father’s face began to change color again, and he took a quick punch at the table. “ICE?!” he interrogated. “Kenna, you are involved with an ice bender?! What’s his last name?!”

  “He prefers the term elementalist,” Kenna said with a raise of her eyebrows. “Why does that upset you? And why is his name any concern of yours?”

  He growled at her question. “Do ice and flame create a peaceful coexistence, Kenna? No. One always destroys the other,” he responded though he was finding more control over his anger. “What’s his name?!”


  “Jon Colewell,” she answered calmly and matter-of-factly.

  “A Colewell?! You are dating a Colewell? Just tell me not the third son!”

  Kenna became quickly suspicious. “Yes, he is the third of four sons. But why would you know that? Is there something else you still aren’t telling me?”

  The man growled again in anger. “No. It’s nothing. But I need to meet him,” he demanded quickly. “Today. Bring him for supper.”

  “Why? So you can scare him off?” she argued quickly. “Dad…I really like him…”

  “He broke up with you a week ago, and you said you hated him,” he contended. “I don’t know if I want you to see him anymore. Not until I meet him.”

  At this, Kenna’s eyebrows drooped, and her eyes began to glisten with tears. “I never said I hated him, and he broke things off because he found out about you, Dad. He thought I was some kind of villain. But you know what? Despite all that, he decided that he did trust me and feel strongly enough for me to tell me the truth! Something my own father couldn’t do!” Several tears began a steady stream down her face as Kenna felt an uncanny combination of anger and hurt.

  “I didn’t tell you because I love you, Kenna! I need you to understand that,” he pleaded, the man feeling his own combination of rage and guilt.

  “Well I need you to understand that I am going to be with Jon and that I need an apology!” the daughter shot back without mercy as she stood to remove herself from the discussion.

  Firmly but gently, her father grabbed her arm as she walked by. Kenna stopped in the march away from him but looked away as the feeling of betrayal once again emerged.

  “I’m sorry,” he said under his breath. “But I do need to meet him before you two are alone together again.”

  The girl glared into the distance at his words and flinched her arm away from his grasp. Without another word, she tramped hurriedly out of the kitchen and up to the safety of her bedroom where the steady stream of tears turned into an indefinite cascade of cries. For several hours, she remained in her bed, her emotions causing her mental capacity to remain temporarily obliterated. But as time passed, Kenna began once again in thought, her problem-solving skills making their way back into clear focus.