I can feel it all; every breath of the air, every wisp of a breeze. Esmeralda says with enough practice I will be able to control its flow, but right now I’m just using this new sense of awareness to calm myself. According to Esmeralda, hiding our gifts impedes their growth so Zeph and I have decided to slowly start telling those around us our secret. First on the list are Sarah and David. They should be the easiest but years of hiding the truth makes my heart race with fear of what will happen. We asked them to meet us at the cottage so we could talk without prying ears. From their expressions, I have a good idea what they think we want to tell them. They’re going to be surprised to find out how wrong they are.

Waiting for them doesn’t help with the nerves. Zeph has started fidgeting. A calming hand on his right arm causes him to tense up before relaxing. What are we afraid will happen? There are so many reactions that I fear… betrayal, fear, disgust… I want to soothe Zeph’s fears, but what can I say to him? “No matter what happens, we’ll deal with it together.”

“I know.” Zeph turns to me with a soft smile as his left hand covers my hand on his arm. It takes my breath away. How many times will fate cause me to fall in love with the same boy all over again? Suddenly, the sound of light whispers pulls me out of my romance centered thoughts.

“See, I told you so.” Of course Sarah and David would sneak up on us at such a personal moment.

“To think, the feared Robin actually got herself a man… I wonder how long they’ve been hiding it.” Did they think we couldn’t hear them?

“We can hear you, you know.” I take a moment to push down my blush before I turn towards them. “And we aren’t a couple. We have something more important to talk to you about than confirming your gossip.” I should have planned this more. I don’t know where to go from there. Thankfully I’m not in this by myself.

“Arai and I found out we have both been hiding the same secret for our whole life. We’ve come to realize that it is something that we shouldn’t have to hide, so we decided to tell you two.” He stops and turns to me to continue.

“Both of our parents had magical help in our conception, which had the side effect of us having supernatural abilities. It happens often enough that there’s even a term for people like us, children of nature’s crown. Each child’s abilities revolves around the element of their magical benefactor. Mine is air and Zephaniah’s is water.” I’m concentrating so much on getting out everything I think they need to know that I don’t even pay attention to the two who I am talking to until I finish. What I see gives me a shard of hope. They want confirmation. That is something we had planned for. “Did I mention that I have wings and Zeph turns into a merman?” We haven’t quite gotten down activating the transformation on command, but we do know the conditions that cause an automatic activation. Zeph’s is easier. “You’re going to want to sit down, Zephie.” It’s hard to stand without legs. Once he is on the ground, I dump the bucket of water we had prepared on him, making sure his mark gets wet in the process. I will never stop being mesmerized by how beautiful he looks when transformed. I tear my eyes away from perfection long enough to look at our two best friends. They seem to be in shock. “Zephie, I think we broke them…”

“Hey, you guys, this whole telling you about having special abilities thing is kind of nerve racking for us… so if you could let us know what’s going through your head, we would really appreciate it.” It is taking all my will power not to kiss this guy right now. Not only is he gorgeous and charming, but this whole taking charge when I have no clue what to do is a major plus.

I could feel the shared relief when David spoke up. “Um, so this is why you never wanted my help bathing while you were injured…”

“Yeah, I was raised to avoid the ‘I’m a merman’ part of the conversation.” Zeph’s smile lights up his whole face.

“I don’t know how you kept all this from me for so long.” Sarah’s statement fills me with a mix of guilt about not telling her sooner and happiness that she doesn’t seem like she’s going to abandon me because of all this.

“Upbringing, extra caution, plus for me the only way to accidentally transform is falling from a high enough height so it was easy. But that’s all in the past. Anything you want to know about this, just ask and we’ll answer as best we can.” That opens a floodgate of questions from both of them. An hour later and we are still sitting around talking about it all. At least dinner isn’t any time soon.