#Chapter 215 – Between Us

Alvin folds his hands in his lap, shrugging one shoulder. “Ever since we were very little –“

“Since we can remember, I guess,” Ian picks up, miming his brother’s action.

“We’ve always been able to see the magic. To notice it, when others don’t,” Alvin finishes. Both boys look apologetically Victor and I, then, as if they’ve been keeping a big secret and are sorry for it.

“But what is it?” Victor presses.

“It’s just…extra stuff, I guess,” Ian says, frowning, trying not to be vague but failing. I sit back and try to be patient, to let them work through it. “Like, it is the thing that is between Alvin and me. The thing that makes us able to talk to each other. The thing that makes us able to do…extra stuff.”

I frown at this, confused. What kind of extra stuff?

“When we were little,” Alvin says, “it was just around, the magic. And it was just between us – like always floating there, in the air.”

“Do you mean,” Victor says quietly, “that you can see it?”

Ian nods lightly. “Sometimes, we can. Not all the time. Or maybe we just don’t notice. But when we look for it, and it’s there, we can see it.”

Alvin nods, agreeing. “And then,” he continues, “as we got older, we learned how to start to use it.”

“That’s actually pretty new,” Ian says, excited. “Alvin figured it out most – like, he was able to use it just a little bit ago – on the battlefield –“

“The Alpha command,” Alvin clarifies, nodding. “I was able to…grab the magic. In the air. There wasn’t a lot. But I was able to use it to make the command work, even though I’m not technically their Alpha.”

Alvin smiles at Victor then, the Beta’s actual Alpha from whom he had briefly stolen command. Victor just shakes his head at him, not in denial, but in wonder and confusion.

“We thought,” I say, hesitating, “we thought you could just do that stuff because you’re smart. But you’re saying it’s because you’re…magic?”

wrinkling his nose at the idea of it. “We can just see the magic, and now, I guess, move it around sometimes. But,” he quirks his head, considering. “Maybe we can

my head, not able to figure any of it

at the smoke forms that I now imagine brushing up against the fabric of the tent. I shudder at the thought. “They’re the magic. And you can see them because you can see the magic.

curious. He saw

here.” Ian says, stretching his arms over his head. I can see that he’s starting to get tired, but no way in

thought of it. “Like,

could

word sputtering from my mouth. “I – I have the

at me. “Yes,” he said. “You always had a little bit of the magic, when we were little. But then

up at his father. Victor just blinks at him, shocked. “When we met you at Quiz Nation. You had a little magic around you. Just blip blip blip!” Alvin pinches his fingers in the air, dancing them around

looks at me as he scrounges through it. “And then, after the claiming ceremony, when daddy tried to bring you into his pack, you both

a chocolate bar out of his pack. He takes a bite, looking

you got lots more right before the wedding. And then more and more later, when

a little squeak of protest, which I ignore as I take a bite and hand it back to him. I need the

looking at us in disgust. “You guys are

Victor says, baffled and frankly

you, because we didn’t want to hurt your feelings – and because, like, you wouldn’t get it – but ever since the first night after daddy came home from the hospital…you guys are

for any sign of

the air around me, like he’s scattering flies. “You

sense. I still don’t know what the hell this magic stuff is,

so many unexplainable

Alvin, who accepts it gratefully and takes a bite. “That’s what the ghosts were drawn

down into

know it’s the understatement of the century, but I

to our kids. “For telling us. Explaining it. If there are any changes

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