42: GRADY

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Beckett has taken to sitting by my bestie any time we’re at the Oculus, and I’m totally on board this train. Chugga, Chugga Beckett! WOO! WOO!

The guy fits the bill for everything I could want for Ainsley. He smiles with all the teeth, she smiles back at him with all the teeth, and best of all, he doesn’t give a lick about her sparks. I like the way he looks at her as a person. Not a spark snack. Not his property. Not some other bullpucky to claim ownership of. He looks at her. Only her.

She’s still sleep sharing with Luke, but she’ll put a stop to that just as soon as she tames her sparks. It seems that might be soon with the amount of practise she’s been putting in.

“Hey GT!” Frank whoops from down the table line.

“Hey what?” I growl, despising his pet name for me. Gradient Taint. Really?

Fiona gives him a pleading look, and he frowns at her, conflicted, but he hates displeasing her in any capacity, so the bumblebulb flies to a different flower.

“Hey Grady.” He coughs a little over the discomfort of saying my actual name. Fiona pats his hand reassuringly on the table. “Can you skip Stadium training this afternoon and help me move Fiona’s stuff up to my room?”

“Our room,” Fiona clonks.

He beams at her and gives her a sloppy kiss on the mouth. She clackles.

Frank and Fiona went directly from what if to what next in their relationship. She’s spending all her nights with him anyway. Moving in seems a logical course of action, even if it’s a little quick in my opinion.

“I’ll help you adorable rattleheads,” Ainsley clips, excited to participate.

“You can’t,” Luke spumes from lower down the table. I’d forgotten he was there, which is usually for the best. His constantly dismal expression is a real bag of blue balls. “You need to train.”

Ainsley leans her head forward so she can see him, narrowing her scopes as she catches his gaze. “You don’t know crap about what I need, White Horse, and you don’t get to tell me what to do. You or any other controlling scut.”

Beckett bends himself forward between them, blocking her view. “How about you spend the afternoon training, and I’ll reward you for it by taking you to my favourite place this evening?”

She grins, instantly forgetting about Luke who stares on with such dark, fiery eyes I almost forget he’s a Light Water Wielder.

“Deal,” she holsters.

“We have great news!” Witley gusts, tugging Cam along behind her.

Everyone looks relieved. The only time Ainsley engages with Luke is when she’s roaring at him, throwing stuff at him, or trying to make him bleed with her glorious Pamplona bull horns. He never responds or reacts, just takes it in stride like he deserves every second of it. And he does after the ultimatum he gave her. Self-inflicted bag of blue balls.

She swears she isn’t going to bed pissed though, and she’d never lie to me, but if she’s staying true to that, she must be waking up pissed instead. Having Beckett around helps. She’s different with him. Softer. More pliant. It’s because he isn’t being a pushy punk, so she has no reason to behave defensively. Luke has not learned that lesson. I doubt the spunkbucket ever will.

“I tamed my air and fire sparks!” Cam puffs with joy, waving her naked wrist in proof of her claim.

“Congratulations!” Elaina and Nick boom in unison, standing and wrapping the two of them in their arms.

It’s nice to see them so doggone happy. They’ve been having a pretty bad time of it which makes me feel guilty for what I have with Sunny. Cam and Witley’s relational problems didn’t stem from a lack of agreement about what spark she should choose, but rather the fear of Cam getting stuck with the one she didn’t want. Now that she’s gained control, since her body hasn’t passed the spare spark naturally, she’ll be granted external help to push the one out she doesn’t want to keep, and she wants to keep air to align with Witley.

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I shift my gaze to Sunny. She’s unreadable like always, diligently working away to beautify the table in front of her with her carving knife. She still hasn’t reached Singularity, but her water spark has been dominating her fire spark at the weekly scale readings. I assume her water spark is going to flood out her fire eventually. I’ll miss her fire spark, but it won’t change how I feel about her. It’s her spark. Her choice.

“You’re putting your fire to sleep,” Ainsley slamfires. It isn’t a question. We’ve known what Cam would choose for months.

Cam’s lips downdraft as she sits down next to Witley at the table. “Of course I am.”

“Have you made up your mind yet, Ty?” Witley whirls the conversation to a safer participant.

“Probably my earth spark,” Ty rumbles. “It’s the strongest.”

“Ainsley?” Cam wafts, and I wonder why she’s waving a red flag at my bull friend.

Ainsley folds her arms across her chest. “I’m not freaking choosing.”

Beckett doesn’t seem bothered by her letting go of his hand, but he isn’t about to let her crawl back inside herself either. He drapes an arm over her shoulder, pulling her toward him. “She doesn’t have to,” he supports her.

“They’re going to come now,” Cam reasons. “Sooner rather than later. That’s why I’m pushing, Ainsley. I just want you to be ready.”

Now that one of the spare spark charges have tamed their sparks, the rest will be expected to make their choices. The Dark Royal Guard will come to facilitate that.

“I’m ready,” she shoots back. “It’s a big blitzing no.”

“Sorry,” Witley rustles. “We didn’t mean to force you into anything. Any of you. We know it’s a lot of pressure. We’re just excited.”

“I’m the squib who should be sorry for spoiling your awesome news,” Ainsley reports. “You should be excited to make your own choice.”

“No one can force you to do anything you don’t want to,” Cam whirs, “and not choosing is a choice too.”

Ainsley clicks a sigh, snuggling further into Beckett, who’s wrapping the ends of her hair around his fingers at the base of her ponytail. It reminds me of the black and blue of Sunny’s hair around my fists, and my yowler stands at attention. Sunny was ignoring me before that, but it’s like she senses it and turns to me, running her tongue along her lower lip. An earth spark shudder rumbles through my body, making my yowler howl.

“Don’t be gross at the dinner table,” Ainsley snicks, reaching past me to slap Sunny’s hand before it can make it under the table where she fully intended to gauge my physical reaction to her overt display of affection. My cheeks flush red, and my earth spark lowers its head in shame. I grab Sunny’s hand to hold it on top of the table, knowing that love tap from Ainsley will just spur her on.

“How long do you think it’ll take before they come?” Cam refocuses my attention on the group.

As if on cue, the Oculus doors swing open, and silence follows. Two robed figures look around the space, setting their sights on us. My earth spark rears its head again, awaiting orders, and I pat it back down where it’s jamming up my throat. Would those punks really come this quickly? Cam literally just announced her control.

But instead of pointing to Cam, the leading guard points to Nick and Elaina, crooking their finger as if beckoning them over. Everyone tries to get a closer look, but it’s hard to see with so many heads between us and them. I only catch the briefest glimpse of their eyes, red rings circled by an outer golden ring.

There’s no way to tell which is the sheath or wielder as they can shift the role between them at will. Synergy allows that, denoted by the golden ring. Still, there’s something off about how the one’s staring at the other like they have them collared by the chew toys. Nick and Elaina are speaking directly to the leading one. The other isn’t saying crap. They’re just the shadow, not even really there in any capacity other than to follow. I suddenly feel more sure than ever of my choice to be with Sunny. If Synergy makes me look at her like that, I want zero to do with it.

Ainsley recoils her nose. “What’s that horsecrap about?”

Elaina and Nick are jumping up and down and squealing with excitement. Those closest to them start cheering too.

“They just got an early invitation,” Beckett explains.

I headtilt. “Invitation for what?”

“The Synergy Ceremony,” he clarifies.

The ceremony is supposed to be reserved for graduates. Quite often, the invitation never even comes until secondary schooling is complete. While Elaina and Nick are already registered for the Healing Sect, they still have a long way to go before they technically qualify. But the Order has been allowing them anything they want because of their success with the charges. Not only did the crop double, we’re also progressing faster than any charges ever have before, even if it seems sometimes, like in Ainsley’s case, there are huge roadblocks.

Nick and Elaina jet back to the table just as Luke leaves to join the guards. Ainsley watches him curiously, and Beckett leans in to whisper, “They’re Luke’s parents. The leading one’s his mom. The other one’s his dad.”

“White Horse has Dark Royal Guard parents?” she quickfires.

Beckett laughs. “I can give you all the gory details on our date if you want.”

“That’s okay,” she backstops, leaning into his embrace. “I’d rather hear about you on our date.”

She might be fine with that, but I want those gory details more than anything. I’ll spend the afternoon prying them out of Frank.

“You’ll all come, right?” Elaina begs, tears of joy in her eyes.

“You’re sure that bullpucky is what you want?” I snap.

That really hadn’t been what I thought Synergy would look like. Nothing about it appeals to me now. Sunny and I take turns being the boss. She leads me around on a little leash outside the bedroom I use to strangle her when we’re rutting. It’s balanced. Those guards were something else, something wholly unnatural and definitely imbalanced.

“More than anything,” they confirm in unison.

“Of course we’ll all come,” Ainsley promises. “We wouldn’t miss it.”