Secret (Elemental 4)

Nick was distantly aware that his breath was shaking. And now he could feel pain roaring into his fingers. Not to mention his face.

What just happened?

Adam was pulling at his arm now, gently. “Come on. Can you stand?”

He could stand. They tried to get him to go back in the restaurant, but Nick didn’t want all those eyes on him.

But Adam insisted on sitting down, so Nick dropped into one of the metal chairs out front, the one closest to the shadows of the next storefront.

The man who’d gotten in front of Gabriel turned out to be the café owner. He brought them each a cup of coffee and a bag of ice for Nick.

Nick was shocked this guy wasn’t calling the cops anyway.

Nick had been the one to shove Gabriel into the wall.

“I’m sorry for disrupting your night,” Adam said to him.

“You didn’t do anything,” the man said. “The girls inside said that other boy started it.” He tsked. “Shame there are still such closed-minded people picking fights about this kind of thing. You’re lucky your . . . friend was here to stop him.”

“I know I am,” said Adam.

“You sure you boys won’t come inside? I’m worried he’ll come back.”

Had the man not noticed they were twins? That this wasn’t some random hate crime? Maybe it was too dark. Maybe it had happened too fast.

Nick cleared his throat. “He’s my brother. He won’t come back.”

Those words hung in the air for a moment.

“We’ll be all right,” said Adam.

And then they were alone.

Nick hadn’t touched the ice, but Adam sat in the opposite metal chair and reached for it. Then he put the bag against Nick’s face.

And Nick was struck with an entirely different sort of déjà vu. A different night, a different fight, but Adam’s hand holding an ice bag just like this.

Back then, Nick had leapt out of his chair to kiss him. Now, he wasn’t sure what to do. About any of it.

“Would you rather put this on your hand?” Adam said.

Nick tried to categorize his injuries and came up with nothing. He couldn’t think past his brother’s angry eyes and the fight and the way he’d walked off.

And what he’d said.

It hurt. It hurt more than anything physical.

Nick swallowed and shook his head.

They sat there for the longest time in the darkness, breathing the same air. The pain began to fade from Nick’s hand as his element worked its magic.

Nick almost wished it wouldn’t. This he wanted to remember for a while.

When he finally spoke, his voice was rough. “Did he hurt you?”

“No.” Adam looked chagrined. “And I shouldn’t have shoved him. But he kept pushing me, and there’s only so much of that big-dumb-straight-boy crap that I can put up with. Especially since . . . you know.”

Nick did know. And if Gabriel had hurt Adam . . . Nick wasn’t sure what he would have done.