Once we were back inside and the door shut, Mother set me down on my bum before putting her hands on her hips.

I looked up between my brother and mother as Theo’s elbows hugged inward and he wrung his hands together as we both sensed a scolding coming on.

Mother’s expression lightened as she let out a sigh. “You aren’t in trouble. I just worried that you were going to tell Elliot about Maddie’s magic. You know that’s a big secret if we want to keep her here with us.”

“I know! That’s why I didn’t say anything. I don’t want her taken away.” Theo hugged me tight.

I put my arms around him. “Tee-oh.”

“Okay now, I just wanted to remind you to not tell anyone,” Mother said.

“I know. I won’t,” Theo promised before grinning at me. “Let’s play! You are the monster chasing me—No wait. I’m going to get you!”

I giggled as I crawled away. He lumbered after me making monster noises until we crossed half the room where he descended on me for tickle torture. He stopped when I was giddy and breathless.

Theo stood by my side, one hand rubbing the side of his other hand as I recovered.

I reached for his hand, noticing a scratch.

“I got hurt playing. We were sword fighting with sticks. I won, more than Elliot did.” Theo puffed his chest out proudly.

I took his hand and tried something I hadn’t had a chance to try before.

Light appeared around the scratch and it healed before our eyes.

Mother bustled over and took a good look at his hand and then me. Fear filled her stricken eyes. “Maddie, this is amazing, so amazing, but you can’t use magic in front of anyone besides Mama, Papa, and Brother, all right? Do you understand?”

I nodded and smiled to reassure them everything was fine even as I worried about the stress I inflicted on my parents.

Before I had healed his hand, I had been raring to go for a loop around the room, but now I yawned, a nap calling my name.

It had been a while since my magic brought such an onslaught of exhaustion. My mind clouded, but not to the extent of a daze.

“Madeline’s so smart. She’s a genius, not Elliot,” Theo said smugly as my eyelids drooped.

“Don’t dismiss Elliot’s efforts. He’s exceptionally talented for his age. Our little Madeline is just one of a kind. I don’t know if anyone has ever displayed magic at infancy before, let alone advancing to stage-two. She’s so smart for her age too.” A knit of worry furrowed her brow.

Theo frowned before grinning. “It’s because she’s amazing. The most amazing sister ever! Look at my hand! She healed it all the way better! I’m going to go out and fight monsters and come back to get healed and then go fight more monsters.” He punched and waved his arms in the air as I struggled to keep my eyes open.

Summoning my light was second nature now. Healing must be more exhausting.

I yawned, mouth big and open.

Mother scooped me up. “Take it easy on the magic. I don’t want you overexerting yourself.”

I nodded again, eyes already drifting closed.

***

“Look! Look at me!” Theo yelled from somewhere in the house. Over a year had passed with no dazed, blackout moments for me in months.

I sat in my crib, arranging wood blocks to train my fine motor skills as my light bounced around to try keeping up with two tasks simultaneously. My light took the shape not of an orb, but a little bunny with ears and a tail to boot. I could make my light into different shapes, but simpler proved easier to maintain.

I got to my feet, but my door was closed. “Teo! Let me see!”

He opened my door, his attention fixed on the candlestick he carried.

“Careful,” Mother cautioned him from behind. “Fire magic is still fire, and we don’t want our nice home going up in flames. Then we would be homeless.”

“I’ll be careful.” Theo grinned like he had a dark secret. “Watch.”

The small flame jumped off the wick and spun in a circle. My light hidden behind my crib vanished as my attention broke.

“Careful,” Mother warned again, clutching a pot of water.

The flame returned to the wick and Theo roared in victory of his accomplishment. “Look at me! I have magic too! Fire! I’m going to burn monsters to smithereens! Like pow! Boom! Burn!” He flicked his fingers around the room, but no fire sparked. That didn’t surprise me. If this was his first-time using magic, he wouldn’t be able to do much. As much as I tried other things, my light was all I could create.

“Why no more fire?” I asked, hoping to gain answers. Mother and Father liked changing the subject when I asked, “how?” I understood they worried about me drawing attention, but they didn’t know I had all the rationality of an adult and could keep a secret, especially for the good of myself and my family.

“Because creating fire is stage-two. For now I can only control fire that’s already burning,” Theo told me with all the pompous attitude of a child explaining something the other didn’t know.

“Me? Two?” I asked. I could talk better if I wanted, but I had to put up some pretenses to being two years old. I hoped my words came across as that of a toddler, but I couldn’t be sure. To be safe I kept talking to a minimum. As fascinating as it would be to see their reactions if I mouth vomited a monologue about the human condition, or the concept of a television, it wouldn’t be worth it. Being locked away to be studied as a freak of nature was the last thing I needed.

“Your stage-two is healing. Only minor injuries, little cuts and such. You’ll have to train for a while before you can heal more moderate ouchies,” Mother told me.

“Three, more?” I asked, bouncing up onto my toes.

Mother gave me a look that told me she knew what I was up to and wasn’t thrilled about it. “Stage-three is complicated. There are three choices for each element. For light, it’s healing most wounds, sensing lies and darkness in others, or purifying people and objects and imbuing them with divine power for a short time. For fire, Theo will choose between withstanding attacks with a stronger body through forging his body with fire, but I don’t want him to try that for a long time, or he can create fire that doesn’t burn people or objects, or even summon lightning. You choose one of the three, and if you master one then you can try another. Like with fire, it’s best to master not burning people or yourself before forging your body stronger.”

“Dad?” I questioned to glean as much information I could pry from her.

She gave me a suspicious squint before answering. “Earth magic starts with feeling tremors, vibrations, and even footsteps through the ground. The next stage is moving the earth as they want, and the choices afterwards are manipulating metal, wood, or stone and rock. Your father can manipulate wood and to a lesser degree, stone.”

“That’s why he built us everything!” Theo exclaimed to me, arms up in the air.

Mom sighed, weary of Theo’s fire shenanigans and probably the future mayhem of both our magics.

“I safe. I secret.” I put my finger to my lips. “Magic only Mama, Papa, Brother.”

“Exactly! I’m going to practice!” Theo did a little jump, earning a grimace and sharp intake of air through Mom’s teeth as he still carried the candlestick. “Come watch me!”

I put my arms up and Mother took me out of my confinement and set me on the ground to chase after him.

Theo stood before the unlit fireplace. He made the fire jump off the wick again.

“Keep it away from things. I don’t want anything catching fire. And don’t you let it get near anybody, especially Maddie,” Mother warned, sticking close to supervise with the water on standby.

“I’ll be careful,” Theo promised, his attention fixed on the fire flitting around.

Sweat beaded on his forehead and Mother intervened. “That’s enough. You’ll overheat yourself. No more for now. You’ll practice little by little and get better gradually.”

“Teo hot?” I checked as Theo made the lick of flame return to the candle. So magic affected people differently. Light magic made me tired, that much I learned myself.

“Yes. It will hurt you if you try too hard so that’s why I don’t want you using magic very much,” Mother told me.

“What Papa magic do?” I asked, eager to put the puzzle pieces of this place together. Magic seemed random, not genetic if me, Theo, and Dad all had different elements while Mom had none at all.

“His body gets stiff, hard to move,” Mother explained, uncomfortable with my interest in magic. “Enough of that. Who wants lunch?”