A World Without Power ⊹ kotlc

04 - bronco

At the last second, as we all light leap, I decide to lightly touch Dolos's sleeve. Just light enough that she won't notice, especially after a dizzying light leap.

She leaps us outside of a small, crumbling house. It looks to be one of the working-class elven cities, and the door of the house has the brand of the Unwanted seared permanently into the dark wood.

I stumble over my own foot and grasp Dolos's shoulder hard to prevent from falling. She spins around suddenly, causing me to lose grip and spill onto the ground. Her eyes are furious as she recognizes me.

Damn clumsy feet.

"Bronco! What the hell are you doing?! You shouldn't be here; you need to leave! Now!" I push myself off of the ground and stare into her round blue eyes, scrunched in worry.

"I had to make sure you were okay. You're injured. You need me to take care of you. You're only fourteen!" She massaged her forehead, like the very idea of me was giving her a headache.

"You're only a little older than me. We're basically the same age." I chuckle. "Dols, almost four years isn't a little." She sighs.

"Well, it's a little to me. Little enough, in fact, that I-" she stops herself, a pink blush dusting her skin. "That's not important. What's important is that you go home. I live with my parents, so I'll be fine. I'm an expert at hiding stuff. I can hide this injury from them."

I tilt an eyebrow. "You can't keep it from them forever. Sooner or later, they're going to find out that you've been hiding it from them and they're going to learn everything." She looks at me darkly.

"They say you can run but you can't hide... I find that wrong. I can always hide." There's a new light in her eyes. A dark light that seeps into the blue and turns it as cold as its icy color. For the first time, I see how powerful this tiny, beautiful girl is and I know that she would stop at nothing to make sure her family never found out about the dangerous lifestyle she's been living.

"Dolos, I-" We jump, startled, as her house's front door opens. A middle-aged woman with Dolos's light brown skin stands in the doorway, holding a baby wrapped in red cloth. Her brown hair is done in braids that she pushes out of her confused face.

"Adelina? Who's this?" I gasp at the mention of Dolos's real name. It's gorgeous.

"No one, Ma, I just..." Dolos trails off and I finish her sentence for her.

"Was going to head inside." I place a hand on her back and gently guide her to the door. "Bye, uh, Adelina." I make to go but Dolos's mother gestures towards me.

"No, no, don't leave! Any friend of Addie's is welcome here," she says. "Stay for dinner, Mr..."

"Um, Macklin," I say. "Silas Macklin." I watch Dolos's mouth fall open as she mouths my name silently. She has to be just as astonished as I am.

"Yeah, stay for dinner, Silas," she says. "It can't hurt." I see the plea in her eyes and nod. I turn to Dolos's mother. "Thank you, Mrs..."

"Shaffer," she tells me, smiling warmly and heading back inside. I turn to Dolos.

"So...Adelina Shaffer," I murmur. "I like it." She blushes and turns her teasing gaze on me.

"Hey, it's better than Silas. Who in their right mind would name their kid such a stupid name as Silas? I like Bronco much better." I laugh and roll my eyes.

"Well, you'll have to get used to calling me Silas, Adelina," I tell her. She shakes her head. "Call me Addie, actually. That's what everyone does." We enter her house, which is warm and cozy. The smell of delicious food wafts into the air, and I gently touch the wall, which is covered in light brown wallpaper.

"Addie, show Mr. Macklin to the dinner table," Mrs. Shaffer says, bouncing her baby on her hip in the kitchen and stirring a pot at the same time.

"You can call me Silas," I say. She nods and turns back to the food, which smells more tantalizingly good by the minute.

Addie shows me to the simple wooden table. There are three chairs and one high chair, obviously for her baby brother. "My father works the night shifts at the food distribution hall. He just left for work. You can take his seat." We both sat down and I shift uncomfortably, feeling strange to be sitting at the head of the table.

Mrs. Shaffer emerges from the kitchen. "Addie, hold on to Efan for me, will you?" her mother asked, plopping Addie's baby brother into her arms an heading back into the kitchen. Addie held her Efan at arm's length as if he was radioactive.

"Everything okay?" I ask. Her expression was scared.

"Sometimes, I wonder if I'm going to hurt him," she whispers. "You hold him." She passes him to me, and his gentle weight in my arms makes me understand her fear. His delicate head, covered in brown tufts of fuzzy hair, rests in the crook of my elbow, right under my bicep. One wrong move, and...

"Dinner's ready!" Mrs. Shaffer says, and she brings a pot to the table. Inside the pot is a steaming jumble of vegetables that look delicious. She takes Efan from me and straps him into his wooden high chair, and we dig in.

The food is some of the best I've ever tasted. And I don't usually eat my vegetables.

After dinner, Addie leads me outside. "Time to go, Bronco," she smiles, and I am suddenly aware of how close we're standing. I lean down to reach her height, comically placing my chin on top of her head.

"Bye, Shortie." Her shocked expression splits my face into a huge grin as I hold my leaping crystal up to the quickly fading evening sun. "Take care of yourself," I whisper, and watch her nod. I light leap away, hoping that she'd have the common sense to treat her injury.

In my heart, I knew she was going to be okay.

Too bad my stupid head got the best of me.