Sleight of Hand

Chapter 21

"It's a wonder any of this survived," Hanna marveled as she leafed through one of the leatherbound books Kurtis had kept on Superhuman culture and knowledge. She glanced up to find Bacon rifling through a pile of papers on the coffee table.

"No kidding," he responded, holding up a weathered piece of parchment pinched between his thumb and pointer finger. "This stuff is ancient."

Ammee was quiet in the corner, immersed in another of the old books. A small frown was etched on her face.

Kurtis walked in.

"Who knew history books could be so entertaining?" he teased, surveying the threesome. Bacon rolled his eyes.

"Hardly. I don't think I can stand to look up another answer to Tom and Sierra's questions."

Hanna eyed her boyfriend. "Bacon, they didn't even come over today."

He stood and planted his hands on his hips.

"I know that, but I've had enough for a lifetime."

Hanna shook her head, smiling. She turned her atten­tion back to Kurtis and asked, "Where's Aiv?"

In the two weeks they'd been released, Hanna felt like she hadn't seen her friend nearly as much as she'd have liked. Aivilo was reserved and distant, not at all what she was like before the war.

"I'm not sure," Kurtis said, frowning.

Trebor walked into the room yawning, hands shoved in his shorts pockets and hair unkempt.

He squinted tiredly at Hanna as she asked him the same thing.

"I think I saw her outside by the woods a minute ago," he said, jerking a thumb over his shoulder.

Hanna stood from her chair. She set the book she was holding down gently and made her way to the front door. Bacon went to follow her, but Trebor put a hand out to stop him.

"I think they want girl time, Bacon," he said with a glance to Hanna for confirmation. There was an almost knowing look in his eyes.

The night before, Hanna noticed that Trebor hadn't been able to stop glancing worriedly at Aivilo at the dinner table. Aivilo's nose and cheeks had been slightly pink, a subtle sign she'd been crying.

Trebor must've understood what she was thinking; she smiled gratefully as she pulled the front door closed behind her. She wandered out into the plains beyond Kurtis's lone house, breathing in the clear air. None of them had training today, so they'd all found other things to do while lounging in their comfiest clothing and not taking for granted their day of rest.

After two weeks of training, Hanna felt tired and sore, as did all the other Superhumans she'd talked to about being retrained. But she was improving. She'd managed to change into a field mouse at her most recent training. Though it left her incapacitated and in mouse form for a while, she'd been ecstatic to finally feel her power surge through her whole body, morphing it into the animal's form. When she first summoned her power again, it had been in the usual form of a lion, her definition of power. She'd had to wake it from hibernation. Now, it was finally awake again, and she was in control of it. Like most everyone else, she was just trying to get back to the point she had been at before the war, when her power was the most precise and professional as it had ever been, thanks to Kurtis's teaching.

Hanna walked around the perimeter of the house, searching for her friend. She finally found Aivilo sitting at the edge of the woods bordering the house.

She, like every­one else, wore casual clothes: gray sweat-pants and a t-shirt. She was barefoot, her hair unbound and dancing like fire in the slight breeze. She faced the forest, her gloved hands resting on her legs.