I left the puppet show about mice planning to wage a war with frogs. I headed upstairs in the kid’s fun house, which seemed innocent so far. All the doors were taken off, leaving the doorways all open. I peeked through each room I passed. There were some where kids gathered around adults who seemed to be demonstrating magic to do a specific task. Some rooms were empty. I entered a quiet room where kids read books from a small, singular bookshelf. Blankets covered the floor for them to sit or lie on.

“I haven’t seen you here before,” an older woman with her hair in a bun said. She sat on a chair by the door. She struck me as a librarian.

“I’m Madeline. My brother is Theo, and Susan and Nathaniel are my parents,” I introduced myself.

“Theo’s little sister? I’ve heard about you. Thought you were a sickly child.” She peered at me as if I should hack up a lung right about now.

“I’m not sick. Can I read in here?” I asked.

“You can, as long as you’re careful and put the book back when you’re done.”

I scanned the small selection of available books and took one about elements to peruse. Since Theo and Elliot hadn’t followed me, I found an empty blanket to settle on and read, avoiding the supervising woman’s gaze.

The book was on a child’s reading level, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t anything extraordinary in it. Reading a book after so long invigorated me. It had been I don’t know how long since I got swept up in the pages of a book. I found gleaning more understanding to be incredibly refreshing. I learned about the other elements I hadn’t been told about, doing my best to ignore the woman’s stare. I got it, new kid shows up that isn’t trusted yet, but that attention kept me from relaxing as I would have otherwise.

Wind users like Elliot could move the air around like he had done to cheat in some races with Theo. They could also move objects around like telekinesis and then choose between flying, air slashing, and muffling and projecting noise. It didn’t mention the repercussions so I wondered what Elliot had to deal with as backlash for overtaxing his magic use.

For water users, they could control water, summon water out of thin air, and then purify liquids, heal, or use a small pool of water to show unclear glimpses of the future, past, or present.

Those with the dark element could dim people’s vision, darken an area, and then use dark energy attacks that drains what it comes in contact with, curse objects and people for a time, or control shadows.

I was reading about my light element when someone sat next to me.

“I didn’t expect you to be here,” Elliot said, a book in his hands.

I glanced around, but Theo wasn’t around. “I’m learning to read. I want to learn more about the world. Where’s Theo?”

“He doesn’t like coming in here. I can teach you to read, if you want.”

“My dad started teaching me, but the sooner I learn, the better.” As it was, it sounded exhausting to draw this farce of ignorance on. The sooner I got done with the lessons, the sooner I could read in peace without anyone questioning me.

Elliot used his book as the teaching tool. His finger trailed along the page as he read aloud quietly to not disturb the other readers.

I followed along, acting puzzled enough to not raise suspicion, at least not from him. The monitor watched us more than keeping track of the others or the book on her lap.

“Here, you try this word.” Elliot pointed to the next page.

I leaned closer as my lower lip pushed up in concentration. “I, Ae, Ah, Azzzu, Azuuur, Azuri?” I got there with little signs of being wrong or right from Elliot.

“Yes! You got it. Good job.” He pointed to another word and I restrained a sigh at having to pretend to be near illiterate.

When I had had enough of pretending to struggle to read, I told him I wanted to explore a different room.

“But you can stay and read,” I told him.

He didn’t need to be told twice, finding a spot by the wall to sit against. I left, replacing my unfinished book on the shelf.

I glanced into more rooms, curious if there was a light user teaching but didn’t see them if they were. Despite Theo’s warning, I traveled to the third floor out of curiosity. It seemed full of older kids doing craft projects and magic lessons so I returned to the second floor and then first.

Theo still watched the puppet show. I glanced at the door, craving to go and have fun with Mot, but I had made a promise and didn’t want either of us to get in trouble. The last thing I needed was to get grounded, the trust for me to go to town revoked.

I made my way over to him and tapped his shoulder as I took the seat next to him. “I’m going to the square. Okay?”

“What? No.” He frowned at me. “You can’t go there.”

“Why not? Come with me then.” I wanted to shrink away when some kids around us glanced at us for disrupting their attention on the show.

“Not now. I want to watch this,” Theo said, his eyes on the mice puppets slowly chasing after a frog.

I glared at the side of his head before moving to the back of the room.

I wanted to believe this town was full of good-hearted people who would never do anything bad to a lone little girl, but I couldn’t take the chance. And it wasn’t like I had an element I could defend myself with either. Perhaps if I could make my light really bright right in front of their face to blind them.

I ended up bouncing from room to room, leaving if it felt too juvenile until I rounded back to Theo.

“Here, I made this in a craft room.” I set a sock puppet on his leg as he watched another puppet show, this time with royal wolves cursing innocent bunnies. “Can we go now? I bet it’s almost dinnertime already.”

“Huh? Fine. I guess we can go. Find Elliot for me, would you?” he asked, distracted.

I sighed at Theo shooing me off to find Elliot as he enjoyed the puppet show. I returned to the library room.

Two girls had sidled up by Elliot and listened to him read aloud. I felt bad walking up to them and drawing Elliot’s attention. He trailed off mid-sentence to ask, “Is something wrong?”

“We were going to leave. Theo wanted me to find you.”

The girls pouted. “Do you have to go? We’d rather have you read for us than Petunia.”

“Sorry, but we have to get back home,” Elliot apologized as he stood. He held the book out to them, his finger keeping the page they left off on. “Do you want to get someone else to read this for you?”

The girl’s shook their heads. One had blonde hair in ponytails on the sides of her head and the other had red hair pulled back from her face with a yellow ribbon.

“We’ll wait until next time to continue on. Will you be back soon? Tomorrow?” the redhead inquired.

“I’m not sure. See you later.” Elliot walked away from the girls who weren’t happy with me. I followed him to where Theo laughed along with the audience at the puppet antics.

“Yeah. . . We aren’t leaving until the show ends. . .” Elliot said, watching Theo thoroughly transfixed on the show.

I frowned at the back of Theo’s head. “But he said we could go. That’s why he sent me to get you.”

“He won’t leave before they’re done unless he’s forced,” Elliot said.

An exasperated breath escaped me. “I wanted to stop by the square before we go home.”

“Fat chance of that happening.” Elliot left me to sit beside Theo.

The two girls who had been listening to Elliot read approached me from the bottom of the staircase. “Why do you want to go to the square?” the blonde one asked.

“Because it’s fun there,” I answered, warily defensive.

“We can go with you if you want. We were going to leave here anyways,” the redhead offered. The other nodded in agreement. They seemed genuine, not like petty girls trying to mess with me for disrupting their time with Elliot, but I’d hate to be tricked.

“I can’t go without my brother’s approval, and he won’t give it,” I told them, edging his way to wait out the end of the show.

“But the show will still go on another half hour. They always end at six,” the blonde girl said. “We can go and get back before he notices you’re gone.”

If only I could trust these girls, I might have gone with them. “I’ll just go to the square later. Thank you for offering to go with me though. And sorry for cutting short your reading time with Elliot. If I had known Theo wouldn’t budge, I wouldn’t have got him.”

“Are you Theo’s sister? You look alike,” the blonde girl said.

I stopped my inching towards the audience. “I’m Maddie, Theo’s little sister.”

“I’m your cousin Francesca,” the blonde girl introduced herself.

“I’m Penelope,” the redhead told me with a small smile. “Maybe we’ll see you around here more and then we can get to know each other.”

“Yes? Maybe,” I said, confused if they were being genuine or acting with a deceptive ulterior motive. If Francesca was my cousin, why had her family never visited? “Is Aunt Cheryl your mom?” That was my best guess as Dad sometimes made head-butting comments about his sister.

Francesca sighed. “Yes. My mom is Cheryl. Well, if you aren’t leaving, come sit.”

They left to join Theo and Elliot for the show’s finale. I trailed along and promised myself I would get to choose where we went next time we came to town.