“Don’t you just want to see what else you can melt, Clark?” Jackson asks on a long inhale of breath, looking at me with sad eyes. “Come on, I bet you could melt this whole tree if you wanted to.”
“Well, one, that’s not good for the environment,” I say, rolling my eyes at him – which makes him laugh, just a little. “And two, no, I don’t want to melt the tree – I want to talk about you. Honestly, Jackson, I won’t tell anyone – you know I won’t. I won’t even let anyone know that I know! I’ll keep your secret.”
“Why does it even matter, Ari?” he asks, looking away from me. “Why do you want to know so badly? It doesn’t change anything.”
A thousand answers flood my mind. That it could help me understand what I can do – how his power compliments mine. That I want to know more about him. That I
