Page 78 of Our Little Moments

I smile back. Her eyes glimmer with hesitant trust. I step into the harness and she helps me tighten it.

I glance at our opposite team, finding Jay and Adrian paired up and Adrian already having the harness settled. Layla and Sam are both staring at each other. Layla laughs softly and puts on the harness, Sam grinning in response.

Isabella pats my shoulder and I know we’re all good to go. After checking mine and Hazel’s gears one last time, we approach the looming rock wall.

As Hazel and I get ready and grab the rocks, preparing to start, Layla and Adrian do the same next to us.

I feel Adrian’s eyes on me, his familiar gaze making me smile. When I look back at him, he grins warmly. My heart flutters in my chest.

“Three!” Isa starts, distracting me from the moment. “Two . . . One . . .Go!”

All of us start climbing, as fast as we can. With a smile on my face, I climb and climb and climb.

A calmness settles in my heart. Confidence. Strength.

This makes me feel alive. Laughing without a care in the world under the sun. Friends who make daily life seem colorful and bright by being in it. Silly races for the sake of it.

I feel home.

Suddenly, something weird and wonderful happens. The rocks shift under my feet, turning into stairs. My heart stops. My body freezes. My eyes widen. My cheeks hurt and easy handholds to reach for form as I climb.My powers.

They’re coming back, they’re coming back! They are coming back to the way they were months ago! I could cry from joy.

It’s like my life is all falling into place, like puzzle pieces finally coming together. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Adrian

By the time I hauled myself over the last ledge, Stella was already there, standing tall, wind in her dark curls, eyes bright from joy. She won.

And somehow, watching her, steady and shining, made something quiet settle in me. Pride, definitely. And maybe something deeper, too—the quiet certainty that no matter what, a part of my heart is always with her.

As we head back to the cabins, all laughing and beaming, I can’t help but wonder . . . Maybe the reason we all underestimated Stella was because she’d underestimated herself.

And if that was the case . . . There’s no way in hell that it’s going to keep happening.

Not on my watch.

As we walk back to the camp, there’s a weird pressure in my fingertips. I try to ignore it as I walk to follow the others, but it gets more insistent, stronger, with every step I take.

When an incessant buzzing fills my ears, I mutter some kind of excuse to Jay as I walk away.

I walk through the forest, but with every step forward, the pinching against my skin and the buzz in my ears get stronger.

A voice I can’t recognize echoes behind me, but I can’t hear a word.

In the woods, the buzzing turns sharp. My magic’s trying to tell me something. I’ve felt this before—a storm forming. Thunder cracks inside my head, and panic floods me.

I’ve stopped storms before. Dozens of times. But it doesn’t matter how many times I’ve had to do it, the same panic always flares to life when I need to do it again.

My heart is beating so loudly, I hear it more than the next thunder echoing in my head. I can stop the storm from coming to life if I use my magic fast enough. I’ve done it dozens of times. Yet my heart is still trying to beat its way out of my chest.

My eyes are laser-focused on finding the best spot I can stand in to really focus and be able to stop it.

Or I try. Because, in my panic and hurry, I slip on the muddy, slippery ground and pain shoots through my leg.

I’m sure I’ve gone down with a scream, and I remain on the ground, like an idiot, closing my eyes and trying to catch my breath, when I hear a voice calling from far away. I ignore it and focus again on the tingling from my magic. An electric current makes its way up my arm, and I close my eyes. I focus all my attention on that magic, that electricity, and start twisting it. Thebuzzing starts to die down in my ears, and I use my magic to pull the storm away, to make it fade into oblivion.

When I’m confident the crisis is averted, I open my eyes again. The rain has dulled to a drizzle.

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