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"Yikes I bet So when you did it, was there a lot of screahed "Yeah, she was nowhere near as happy to be healed as I'd thought she'd be"

We were sitting so close that our hips touched He srass and sunshine I wondered if he'd been outside already this , or if that's just the way Cal always smel ed

I was about to ask hi, but he changed the subject "So you're learning to control your powers,"he said, studyingout?"

"Great,"I answered, before I rerievously injured during one of those lessons "Ithe hang of it Sure beats the idea of going through the Reer around the paisley pattern on the couch "I think so, yeah,"I replied, leaning back against the cushions The cut on my palm lad,"he said quietly The space between us suddenly seemed smal er, and when he covered my hand with his, it was al I could do not to juout ofmy arm

"Better?"The sparks faded, but Cal didn't take his hand off mine

"Much"Of course, al that tiredness had now been replaced by a weird jitteriness that hadup

"What does it feel like, doing healings The early rass

"What do youed "It seeing people back from near death"

"It's actual y kind of the opposite,"he said, getting up off the couch "It's liketouching electricity, I guess You're handling soy, so it's intense, yeah, but there's like this charge fro rinned, and I was taken aback by how different itstoic and soleet he even had teeth "I'l buy you dinner first next ti, but that had definitely been flirting Then, like I wasn't thrown enough, Cal leaned down and picked up a potted African violet on the low table next to the sofa and brought it over to me For a second, I wondered if this was his social y aay of trying to give ium can do it, real y Not on the same level I can, but stilYou just have to be patient"He pushed the plant toward me, and I noticed a fen spots on its velvety petals "Wanna try?"

I looked at the droopy violet and snorted "Thanks, but that poor little flower looks like it's suffered enough"Wiggling -stuff-up part of ed to e Nick's clothes yesterday, but healing seemed a lot harder than that Not to ed piece of paper, and how Dad had covered up our stealing the griedyour powers No ht about protesting that I was too worn out from the spel with Dad earlier, but the truth was, thanks to Cal's ic, I felt better than I had in days

And I'm pretty sure he knew it

I took the terra-cotta pot "What exactly do I do?"

Cal curled his fingers around mine and raised my left hand to the brownish flower There was a cal us on his thuainst ic You concentrate on what you want to change, and you make it happen"

"Or, in my case, explode"

Cal just shook his head and said, "But when you're healing so, you have to take it into account, too"

"And I do that how?"

Cal's fingers tightened on mine, and my heart thumped in response The library felt very quiet and very stil around us "You'l feel it"

I shich was hard to do ithout "Okay"

I closedup froht about those brown spots on the petals, al the while keeping Mo too self-conscious to actual y say the word out loud The flower stirred under my hand, but when I cracked my eyelids, it looked as brown as ever

I closed my eyes and tookthat it was no wonder Prodigiu their asses handed to them by humans I mean, every ti, and relaxing, and picturing, and breathing It wasn't exactly thelike The Eye

I should've known better than to think about The Eye, though As soon as the name popped into my head, my control shattered

And so did the terra-cotta pot

Black soil rained down on my feet, and the purple flower drooped even further I could have sworn it actual y bobbed accusingly at ed pot out of irl"

"Don't worry about it,"he said, even as his hand curled protectively around the plant "You ale "Oh, ,"he said, surprised

I wiped my dirty hands on my jeans "That bad?"

"No, it's not that,"he said "Look"

He held the pot out to me The floas stil awful y droopy, but just behind it were two other smal er, non-droopy flowers And these were vibrant purple, without a brown spot to be seen "Whoa Did I make those?"I asked

Cal nodded "You ave him a rueful smile "Yeah, wel , shiny neers or not, there's stil a broken pot, and a very sad old violet"