by Strand, Kai
“Wait, wait!” Jeff interrupted. “I’m confused. Dad, aren’t you a villain?”
Frank smiled and nodded.
“Mother, you’re a white hat?”
Sarah nodded and patted Jeff’s shoulder.
“And you both knew this the whole time?” Jeff looked between the two of them.
“Yes, dear,” Sarah said.
“Why all the secrecy?” Jeff asked.
“We didn’t know for certain you’d turn out to be anything special or anything at all, for that matter. Our powers may have canceled each other out and left you kids with nothing,” Sarah said. “I was worried about Sandra.”
Jeff looked down at Oceanus. “When did you figure out you were the one?”
“I don’t have any idea what’s going on here,” Oceanus said. “I’ve just always had a major thing for you.”
“What about the ‘complement’ comment?” Jeff asked.
Oceanus laughed. “Not that I’ve kissed a lot of guys before, but none of the other kisses have stopped the world.”
“Twice,” Sandra and Source said simultaneously.
“I’m the one who figured out it was Oci.” Source beamed. “You were always so focused on her and it never made any sense to me. But when the shit hit the fan and Sandra fessed up that we had known where you were and that we’d seen Mystic take you, well, we all finally shared everything we knew about you. That’s when I realized that for you, it always came back to Oci. So we invited her to the party.”
“I didn’t know why. I thought they wanted my awesome skills,” Oceanus said and grimaced.
Jeff looked over at Mystic, still pouting. “Why isn’t someone containing or restraining her?”
“Oh, there’s no need for that,” Frank said.
“We’re all balanced now,” Sarah said.
“No one is only good or only bad.” Sandra slugged his arm. “Good job, bro.”
Jeff looked around the room. Clusters comprised of an odd assortment of people stood around talking. They compared powers and abilities and asked questions about good or bad depending on what they hadn’t been before. But everybody treated each other equally.
Jeff gathered Oceanus into a hug. “Wow, we did this!”
“That’s pretty amazing,” she agreed.
Frank snaked his arm around Sarah. “I like to think we had something to do with it.”
The group laughed.
Jeff pulled Oceanus against him. “Now that I finally have you, I’m never going to let you go.”
She smiled up at him. “Wild dogs would have to drag me away from you.”
Mystic sneered across the room at the jolly group and mumbled, “Dogs? Dogs I got.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kai Strand writes fiction for kids and teens. Her debut novel, The Weaver, was a finalist in the 2012 EPIC eBook Awards. As a mother of four young adults, her characters are well researched and new stories are inspired daily. Kai is a compulsive walker, addicted to pizza, and a Mozart fan-girl. Visit her website for more information about her work and to find all her virtual haunts; www.kaistrand.com.
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