CHAPTER 2

Hunter tried to think of a way out of this. He was coming up short.

“That better be unloaded,” said his uncle. He was still in uniform, and it always made him look taller, more official.

“It is,” said Hunter. He let go of Clare, keeping the barrel pointed downward, trying not to meet his uncle’s eyes.

There was no way his dad wouldn’t find out about this.

“I figured we’d catch you with a girl one day, but this isn’t quite the scenario I imagined.”

Hunter sighed. Humiliation was going to kill him.

“It’s my fault,” said Clare quickly.

“Really?” said Uncle Jay. “You stole the keys and guessed the combination? Was Hunter trying to get the weapon away from you, then?”

He couldn’t be in too much trouble if his uncle was going to stand here and joke about it. “It’s not her fault.”

“Should I give your girlfriend a ride home?”

“Let me guess,” said Hunter. “You mean in your police cruiser?”

“Oh, I can walk,” said Clare. She was already edging toward the door.

Hunter wished he could go with her.

She didn’t look back at him as she dashed for the stairs.

Well, that had been short-lived.

But at the top of the steps, she ducked back to look at him. “I’ll see you tomorrow at school.”

Then she was gone, and the gun room was completely silent.

Hunter held out the gun, stock first. “You want to just shoot me and save Dad the time?”

Jay smiled and took the weapon, checking the magazine before putting it back on the wall. “He’s not going to shoot you.”

“That would be too quick?”

Now Jay laughed, but then he quickly sobered and gave Hunter a look. “We’ve talked to you about girls before.”

“It wasn’t like that.”

“I’m pretty sure I know exactly what it was like.”

Hunter scowled. “I did a presentation on the second amendment at school. She had some questions about firearms.”

“Is that the new lingo for saying you’re her anatomy tutor?”

Jay’s voice was easy, but Hunter knew that the questions behind it were serious. “Look, I said it wasn’t like that. I haven’t even talked to her before today.”

“Hunter, our abilities are a blessing and a curse . . . it’s very easy to get taken advantage of.”

“She wasn’t taking advantage of me! We were just talking!”

“No. This”—Jay gestured at the space between them—“is talking.”

Hunter flushed and looked away.

His uncle straightened and put his hands on Hunter’s shoulders. “You’re a Fifth. While that means you’re connected to all the elements, it also means you’re connected to the people around you.”

Hunter rolled his eyes. He knew this rhetoric better than a nursery rhyme. “And when people are drawn to me, I’ll be drawn to them, and it’s hard to remember my own purpose—”

“Don’t mock it, Hunter.”

Hunter shook Jay’s hands off. “We were just talking. You’re acting like she was trying to—”

“I don’t care what she was trying to do. I’m trying to tell you that it can be hard to distinguish what you want from what others want. You’re going to want to help everyone, and that’s not always a good thing.”

“How is that not a good thing?”

His uncle leaned back against the table. “What if I wanted to help every criminal I had to arrest? What if your dad went on assignment and empathized with the bad guys?”

“Did you really just say ‘bad guys’?”

Now Jay didn’t smile at all. “You need to take this seriously. Your abilities are going to get stronger. That means it’s going to be more difficult instead of less.”

“So I can’t ever have a girlfriend.”

“You’d probably be better off if you had lots of girlfriends. You know what your dad used to tell me when I was your age?”

“What?”

Hunter’s dad spoke from the doorway. Even in khakis and a polo shirt, he looked like he’d stepped right out of a recruitment poster. “He’s too young for that, Jay.”

“If you’d walked in here five minutes ago, you wouldn’t think so.”

Hunter wanted to roll his eyes, but his dad was a lot less tolerant of attitude than his uncle was. He kept his voice mild. “Uncle Jay is overreacting.”

“Is this about the girl I just saw walking down the driveway?”

“Clare.” Hunter couldn’t read his dad’s expression, but the man wasn’t an idiot. He’d probably figured out half of it already. “She’s in my government class. I did a presentation on firearms and she had some questions.”

“Did you answer them?”

Hunter wasn’t ready for a question. He was ready for lecturing. “Most of them.”

“Good.” He looked at Jay. “Thanks for coming over. You have time to stay for dinner?”

That was it?

“You’re not mad?” said Hunter.

His dad glanced at him. “Not yet.”

Hunter frowned. “Yet?”

“You’re about to teach yourself a lesson a lot more effectively than I ever could. I’ll be mad if you don’t learn it the first time around.”