Jennifer nodded and watched a gull dip over the water. “Still, I don’t need this. I’ve adapted, you know? It’s been three years. I can live without it.”
But Sam heard the longing in her voice and knew she wasn’t going to convince herself. He murmured soothing things to her, about the ordeal she’d been through, about how being afraid was understandable, but that if she could be brave and trust for a few minutes, the reward would be worth it.
Under his hand, her muscles relaxed, and she leaned into the rail, her face lifted as if to catch the scent of the water. Sam could sense Nick and Quinn waiting behind them, but he didn’t rush Jennifer. They would have a better chance of success if she were completely committed.
Finally, she turned. “I’m ready.”
Quinn motioned for Jennifer to sit in one of the reclining patio chairs they’d set up on the deck. They wanted proximity to Jennifer’s source. Any flowing water might do, but the Mississippi River was her favorite, like a security blanket. It would be the first thing she’d reach for when her capacity was restored, and her affinity for it might help the restoration.
“Okay, first I need to heal the crack, Jennifer. The one that occurred when Anson leeched you initially. It shouldn’t hurt or anything, though you’ll feel it happen like healing any injury. Okay?”
Jennifer nodded and gripped the arms of her chair, taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly.
Sam stood quietly while Quinn put one hand on Jennifer’s abdomen, the other on her head. Jennifer closed her eyes. Nothing visible or audible happened, but the look of concentration on Quinn’s face intensified, and something seemed to fill the air, like when a stereo was turned on but not operating. Jennifer gasped, and her eyes flew open, her whole body tensing, but then she smiled with wonder.
“I felt it close. I couldn’t even tell it was open before, but now that it’s not, I realize I was aware of it all along.” She leaned forward. “Wow. I haven’t felt this good in years.” She got to her feet and hugged Quinn. “Even if the rest doesn’t work, thank you.”
Quinn laughed and hugged her back. “You’re welcome.”
Jennifer released her and stepped back to the rail. “I can feel the river.” She turned her head and gazed into the distance. “And the creek. That’s fainter, but I know it’s there, ready for me.” Her brow furrowed a little. “But I can’t touch it. Like wearing latex gloves.” She turned back to them. “Let’s do the rest.”
“Do you need anything first?” Nick asked. Jennifer said no, but Sam knew he’d really been asking Quinn, making sure she was okay. But healing the rift had been easy for her, Sam could tell, and she shook her head.
Jennifer sat back down, and Sam went to the other chair.
Quinn explained, “I have to move the power into Sam first, and then we’ll send it into you, Jennifer. You ready?”
“Ready.”
“Sam?”
“Ready.” He adjusted his position on the chair and held out his hand. Quinn wrapped hers around it and closed her eyes. He didn’t know what he’d expected—a slow, tingling charge, maybe, or the sensation of light entering his body—but not this. Electricity surged through his entire body almost at once. It was the closest description he could think of, but unlike an electric shock, it wasn’t painful. Just the opposite. He bowed in his chair, his gaze locked on the sky, knowing he probably looked terrified but unable to convey the truth. His jaw tightened against the pleasure hitting him in waves.
“Now.” Nick’s voice came from very far away. As the surge from Quinn ended, Jennifer’s hand laced with Sam’s, and the energy drained out of him, into her. Unlike him, she didn’t hide her response to the rush. Her cry was joyous, ecstatic.
In a few seconds the transfer was complete, and the women both let go of him. Sam lay limp, panting and trying to get a handle on everything.
He caught his breath and his heart rate slowed until he was able to assess where he stood. And he could feel it, too. Remnants of power. No, he knew that wasn’t how it worked. Remnants of ability. Like Jennifer, he could sense the river. The awareness was fluid, silky, more than the usual senses. Deeper. He wanted to use the energy coming off the water, try to do something with it, but had no idea what.
Jennifer stood nearby, laughing and crying, a pebble in her hand. She held it up between two fingers, and it glowed red as she infused it with light energy, making it shine through the pigments inside it.
“It’s back,” she said. Tears spilled over and streamed down her face. Her eyes were darker, more naturally brown now. “I don’t care if I can only ever make novelties with it, but it’s here, in me. I’m whole again.” She looked at all of them in turn. “Thank you. I can never thank you enough.”
“We just returned what was yours,” Quinn said, and the strain in her voice had Nick and Sam both jerking in her direction. She held up her hands, subtly, so Jennifer wouldn’t see, and sat in a deck chair. “I’m so glad it worked.”
“Me, too.” Jennifer knelt at Quinn’s feet and clasped her hands in her own. “I’m so sorry. For all these years, I’ve hated you.”
Quinn looked startled, then resigned.
“I blamed you as much as I did Anson for all of this.” She took a deep breath. “I thought you didn’t care,” she continued, “that you wanted all that power for yourself and could give it back if you tried.”
Quinn’s body sagged, lines deepening around her eyes and mouth. Her exhaustion was as much mental as physical, he realized. No wonder she had refused to run for Society president when they first asked her three years ago. This had been weighing on her for years.
“I’m sorry, Jennifer,” Quinn murmured. “I should have kept better contact with you. I know what we did seems simple, but I’ve been researching it for a long time.”
“I understand,” Jennifer rushed to assure her, but Quinn shook her head a little.
“I didn’t update you, any of you, because I didn’t want to give false hope, and I didn’t want to be a reminder of what you’d lost. Of course you hated me. How could you not?”
She pushed to her feet, clearly shaky. Nick walked over and slid his arm around her waist, bracing her.
“We’re going to go back to the hotel,” Quinn said, “but we’ll check on you tomorrow, make sure everything’s okay.”
Jennifer sobered. “You mean, like, make sure it doesn’t fade or go wild or something.”
Quinn smiled a little and leaned almost imperceptibly into Nick when he tugged her toward the car. “Yeah, something like that.”
“Okay.” Jennifer turned to Sam. “Let me help you clean everything up.” She collected Quinn’s papers and shuffled them into a pocket folder, so he turned his attention to putting the furniture to rights.
As soon as Nick and Quinn were around the corner, when Nick probably thought they were out of sight, he swept her into his arms and carried her the rest of the way. Trying to preserve the façade of strength she presented, but taking care of her just the same.
Sam had a fierce throb of longing to be with Riley. She hadn’t answered when he tried to call earlier, and he’d turned his phone off when they got to Jennifer’s so it wouldn’t interrupt the transfer. He dug it out to turn back on, and as soon as it powered up, it rang. He grinned, anticipating Riley’s sweet voice, but it faded as soon as he saw John W on the display. For some reason, anxiety seized his chest. He tried to tell himself it was nothing, but John never called him to shoot the shit. He hoped no one had tried to attack Riley again.