20. Nova

Chapter 20

Nova

I hadn’t been imagining things when I saw Ezra’s eyes shift the first time. He was a Manipulator. The anger in his eyes had turned completely black as he held Rowan. When my hand landed on his shoulder, I felt the vibrations of his body. He looked between me and Rowan as I nodded. His grip on Rowan’s neck loosened until he dropped him on the ground and severed the connection with his mind.

Killing Rowan would sink us to his level and confirm people’s fears about Manipulators. It would also be breaking the promise I made to my grandmother. I wouldn’t hurt anyone, even if that person had tried to kill me.

“Stop the fire,” Ezra's booming voice demanded from the Handlers by the entrance. They knew it was in their best interest to listen.

Once the fire was extinguished, a dozen security officers rushed in, putting the Handlers in ability-canceling restraints. Elias took a pair to use on Rowan and slapped them on, ensuring they were painfully tight. The other Carmines sat on the floor, awaiting their fate.

I mustered the remaining strength to stop Ezra from killing Rowan, but staying on my feet for too long proved painful, so I sat at a nearby table and watched the events unfold.

Elias, Baron, and Ezra discussed amongst themselves, out of earshot from everyone else, while the Redds and Ezra’s uncle’s family gave their statement to the officers. From my seat, I heard mutterings of Lost Island and a determination that their last punishment hadn’t been final or strict enough. Banishing hadn’t prevented the Carmines from trying to ruin our world again, so employing the same sentence would likely fail.

Lost Island was a cold, terrifying, and secluded place off the coast of Nova Scotia. Freezing water surrounded it, keeping the most dangerous creatures locked away. It was the kind of prison you didn’t want to be near. No one had ever escaped alive, and no one tried. It would be a fitting place for Rowan.

Baron had called Francis Rowe, the Lost Island overseer, to handle Rowan’s transfer personally. Amidst staunch opposition from Rowan and a minor skirmish, which Ezra rapidly squandered, the Carmines were shoved into a cage for transport. As Rowan was taken away, I felt like I could breathe again.

Ezra’s mom and sister did all they could to heal my back, and the pain was receding. The burning was replaced by the sting of rapid healing moving through my skin. I sat between Tara and Eva, sipping on ice water. The cold liquid decreased my internal temperature and soothed my throat. Elias and Baron’s gazes moved to me and then back to Ezra, a new look covering their faces. They looked at him with almost reverence.

The relationship between Ezra and his family would surely shift. Our relationship would definitely change. But Ezra had always been incredible, abilities or no abilities. I didn’t understand how he went twenty-seven years without awakening an ability as strong as his. We had learned in school that dormant abilities were sometimes born out of necessity, but the shock remained. What an ability to be dormant.

I shifted my eyes to the glass in my hands. The condensation dampened my fingers, and I wiped them over my forehead, avoiding the healing wound from hitting the wall. Exhaustion took hold of me as I sat silently beside Tara, so I laid my head on her shoulder. She shifted toward me so that I could be more comfortable. Commotion surrounded us as clean-up and rebuild services arrived.

“You know, Nova,” Tara’s voice was low beside me. “Ezra was always a quiet kid, and I guess we didn’t pay enough attention to him growing up.” Aside from having no special abilities to nurture, Ezra’s middle-child standing often left him lost in the shuffle. “Baron and I were so involved with everything else that we never realized how much we cast him—the both of you, really—aside.” She set her hand on my knee and smiled. “But you were always there for him. You loved him for who he was and saw him for him.”

“He’s incredible, Tara,” I said, a soft smile tugging my lips. “He’s the best part of my world.”

“I guess it was a matter of time before you guys saw what we all did,” Eva chimed in. I switched to lean on her shoulder, my burn scars tingling with the stretch of my back.

“So, what happens now?” I asked.

“I…don’t know…” Tara replied. “Technically, you and Ezra are the most powerful beings in our world now, so it’s kind of up to you. But I’m sure that’s what they’re trying to figure out.”

We looked at the three identical-looking men. Ezra nodded before approaching us, his dad and brother in tow. I slowly got up. When I stumbled, Ezra rushed to me and set his hand on my arm and elbow. I held onto him. My skin against his felt like peace.

“ I’ve got you ,” he whispered in my head.

“ I’m okay. ” I smiled at him as we all stood in a circle.

“Well…” Elias chuckled, clapping his hands in front of him and summoning everyone’s attention. Eva’s husband and Elias’s wife joined the circle of Woodhavens. In the distance, a creature from clean-up services struggled to move the busted door until his friend came to help him. “This has certainly been quite the evening.”

“So, what happens now?” Tara reiterated my question.

“Ask Ezra,” Baron said, deferring the question to his middle child. All eyes turned to him.

Ezra’s face was bruised from his smacks against the floor, and a scrape covered the top of his cheekbone. Eva had helped his face, and the scrapes were almost healed, but the burn marks around his wrists would take longer. His eyes were back to their tangerine orange, my favorite color. My arms wrapped around his waist as I was enveloped in his embrace. He put his arm around my upper shoulders but didn’t lean on me as he was careful to avoid the wounds.

“Dad and Elias are going to help oversee Rowan’s processing in Long Island tonight to ensure he’s placed in maximum security,” Ezra commandingly explained. My quiet, sweet best friend fully held his family’s attention for the first time. “Elias will gather the heads of the families on Tuesday for a meeting. We’ll meet with everyone to decide how to move forward with the knowledge that there are not only one but two Manipulators out there.” He turned to me. “I don’t want to speak for Nova, but I feel confident in saying that we have no intention of taking over the world.”

I scoffed. “Definitely not.”

“We’ll figure all of this out together,” Ezra continued. “Word will spread soon, but we need time to process and think. I don’t want to make any decisions without us being on the same page.” He sighed, placing his hand on the back of my head. “But for tonight, Nova and I are going home so she can rest and heal.”

“There’s certainly a lot to process,” Baron nodded. “We will talk tomorrow.”

Baron offered Ezra his hand to shake, and he took it. Tara and Eva lightly hugged us, and we turned to walk away, making our way out through the back door of the cleared hotel.

Ezra was considered the lesser Woodhaven for years because of his lack of special abilities, but he was always my favorite. He was sweet and kind, and his humor always made me smile. After I told him about my abilities, he carried my secret as his own and hadn’t treated me differently. But now, he was one of the most powerful wizards alive.

We were two of the most powerful creatures alive.

My grandfather endured days of torture and had given his life to ensure no harm came from his ability. On her deathbed, I made my grandmother a promise that I wouldn’t let his death ever be in vain. I looked at myself in the car mirror for a few seconds, proud of upholding my promise. The purple and blue marks rounding my neck would disappear, the thumbprint injuries covering my arms would fade, and the scarring on my back would heal, but other creatures were safe. I didn’t know what this meant for our world, but I felt like everything would be okay.

After an hour and a half on the road, neither of us had said a word. The only sound was the drumming of the tires against the pavement. Ezra’s hand rested on my thigh, occasionally drawing circles with his thumb, but he kept his eyes forward. His shoulders had fallen, and the bruises on his face had faded. Eva’s healing was helping.

“So what do we do now?” I broke the silence.

“We’re going home,” Ezra calmly replied. “We’re going to take a warm bath and change into clothes that don’t smell like burnt fabric and blood.”

“What if I don’t want to sit in Nova soup?”

He laughed and shook his head. It was a welcome sound in the car. He hated when I called warm baths Nova soup.

He continued, “Then we’ll take a warm shower. We’ll make sure your wounds are healing properly, bandage them, and probably go to sleep.” I looked at the time. It was almost two in the morning. “If you’re hungry, we’ll eat. If not, I’m sure you will be when you see my food.” I chuckled. Whenever he offered me food, and I insisted I wasn’t hungry, I would eat half of his plate. It was a bad habit I was in, but he had never once complained. “We’ll have to discuss what happened and determine what we want to do before meeting with my dad. But for now, we’ll go home.”

“Are we going to my condo or your cottage?” I asked.

“We’re going to our cottage,” he stated.

“We don’t have an ‘our cottage,’ Ezzy.”

He smiled at the road. “Nova, do you remember when I begged you to come to the showings with me a few months ago?”

“Yep,” I said. “You said you needed an opinion since you know nothing about interior design. We must have seen twenty cottages before we found one you liked.”

“Nope,” he said, pulling into his driveway. “We saw twenty-six cottages until we found one that you liked.”

“What?” I snapped my head to him. He nudged me to get out of the car, and we stood in the dimly lit driveway. The grass was mostly brown, and the large tree in the front yard had turned bright red.

“I wasn’t kidding when I said I’ve been in love with you for a long time.” He carefully took my face in his hands and softly kissed my lips. “When I was buying the cottage, I wanted to make sure it was one you’d want to live in once I finally told you how I felt.”

A few months ago, when Ezra said he was buying a cottage, he had made sure I could make every showing. We went from place to place, and Ezra asked me a million questions about everything I saw and wanted all my opinions, from what I thought about everything from the color of the walls to whether I liked an arch at the front. After he interrogated me at the sixth cottage, I just started telling him everything I thought about during each visit, going into detail about the places we saw. I didn’t think he was listening; I just thought he didn’t want to go around alone.

The gleaming of his eyes took my breath away as I stepped back to look around me. I turned to look at the white-bricked cottage I loved. Black shutters lined the windows, and a bright orange door welcomed everyone in. Vines wrapped around the walls and crawled up to the thatched roof with a chimney on top. A faint glow of the light displayed the gorgeous cottage, and two massive trees framed it like a postcard. I fell in love with this place the minute Ezra parked in front of it.

“Ezzy, I…” I felt the tears coming.

“Come on.” He grabbed my hand and walked me to the door.

The front door creaked open, and the hallway leading to the living room looked like it always did. However, today, I noticed its subtle details.

The walls were the perfect shade of gray I had shown Ezra at the store. A painting of a pumpkin wearing a witch’s hat hung on the wall. I had pointed it out to him at the farmers market a few weeks ago, but I claimed I had nowhere to hang it at the condo. As we walked into the living room, I saw the couch in the middle of the living room in a different light. His incredibly plushy couch was the one I had collapsed on at the store before declaring it the best couch I had ever sat on.

His kitchen was always stocked; never had we had to run to the store when I suddenly wanted to bake something. The stand mixer sat on the corner of the kitchen counter, and I knew measuring cups and an array of baking tools were just underneath. Ezra didn’t cook but always had the equipment and ingredients I needed.

Ezra watched my realization as the puzzle pieces in my head formed a clear picture. He had put together the home of my dreams right under my nose. Slowly, I stepped toward him and climbed on my toes. My arms softly wrapped around his neck, avoiding his injured shoulder and feeling the sting of the stretch of my back. I pressed my lips against him as he sighed into me, one hand cradling the back of my head and the other sitting on my hip.

“You asked earlier what happens now, and the truth is—I don’t know.” His fingers dug into my hair and sent a chill down my spine. “I don’t know where we all stand, but I know that you and I will be together no matter what.”

“I love you, Ezzy.”

He cupped my face, pressing his forehead against mine. “I love you, Nova. Welcome home.”