Eleos (Book two in The Empaths series)

Chapter Seventeen

"Riley, do you even know what the heck you're doing?"

Lilith was standing on the front porch of Pa's house, watching Riley attempt to use air to mend a broken glass window, but he was having trouble getting the pieces to hold together.

"Shut up, I've nearly got it!"

But that quick lapse of Riley's concentration caused the pieces to shudder and crash to the ground again.

"Dammit!" he exclaimed.

"I think you're just, well... thinking too hard Riles. Here, let me show you." Lilith turned to the glass on the floor, and with a gentle wave of her hand, the glass lifted into the air and began stitching itself together like magic. With one last flick of her wrist, it fixed itself into the frame with a pleasing click. She turned to Riley with a smug smile and dusted her hands off.

Riley raised an eyebrow. "Show off."

"Here buddy," Jared jogged over and handed Riley half of a sandwich. "It's probably because you're hungry. You need to refuel or you're going to burn out."

Riley took the food gratefully and shoved it into his mouth. "Oh yeah, that's exactly what I needed," he replied blissfully.

Lilith was shaking her head and laughing.

"I might be able to help out a little too," Lucy added. "Here... take my hand."

Riley offered her his free hand waited with an expectant smile on his face as Lucy called the elements.

As she felt the power filling her body, she allowed it to flow into Riley.

And just as she expected, she also felt the connection between the rest of their circle begin to pulse as that energy flowed through Riley and into them as well.

It seemed to be getting easier, because it only took a few seconds before Lucy could feel that her friends were re-energised and ready to continue on working.

With a simple nod of her head, she thanked the elements and gently released them back into the world around them.

"Thanks Lucy," Riley said as he clapped her on the back and walked over to continue fixing the cottage windows, but not before a quick flick of his wrist saw Lilith tripping on her own feet as she made to follow him.

"Hey! Not cool," she said, punching him playfully on the arm.

Lucy chuckled and turned to go inside.

She stopped when she noticed Pa standing on the front porch watching her in disbelief.

"Is everything alright?" she asked.

Pa scratched his chin – the same way her father used to when he was trying to find the words to tell her what he was thinking.

"I just didn't realise," Pa replied.

"Realise what?" Lucy asked as she walked up the steps to stand beside him.

"Cora tried to explain to me how special you guys are, but I had no idea just how special until this very moment."

Lucy smiled. "Well, we're still getting the hang of it."

"It seems to me that you're all coping quite well with your power. I mean, I've never seen anything like that. The bond between the six of you is very strong. It's incredible." Pa ran a hand over his face and looked over at Lucy in awe.

"Well... we've been through a lot together," Lucy replied.

"So it would seem," Pa said, still shaking his head in shock. "It shouldn't surprise me really," he added with a chuckle. "Your mother and Aunt were quite a force when they were younger. So, it makes sense that you would be able to channel the power as well as you do." He folded his arms across his chest and leant against the porch railing. "I can remember when Theo came bursting into the house to tell me that he had met the love of his life and that he was going to marry her one day, whether we allowed it or not. It was quite funny." Pa smiled fondly at the memory of his son. "We could already see it then that they were soul mates, so there was no stopping it even if we wanted to."