Free Exposed by Lily Cahill

life dying was sharp as a knife in Ivan’s gut.
    Ivan breathed deep. Out here, away from the glares in town, his shoulders relaxed. The tension that gripped his neck and clenched his jaw was blown away on sweet mountain breezes. In moments like this, with his mother’s cooking waiting for him on the table and the sun falling behind the mountains giving everything a golden cast … moments like these Ivan could almost forget the people who inhabited the town and love the place fully and unconditionally. This was his home, no matter what others thought. Ivan closed his eyes for a second and turned his face to the giant, orange sun. It was warm on his cheeks. 
    But no. It was foolish to let himself think such things. Independence Falls wasn’t perfect. It could never be perfect when there was no place for him among the people. They’d made that plain. And if they learned of this power …. 
    He’d already let foolishness overtake him with the flower he’d given to June and when he’d accidentally been caught using his power by Cora and Clayton. He’d only known of his power for a handful of weeks, how would he learn to discipline himself over the coming months and years? Maybe going to the mine wasn’t a bad idea, after all.
    Ivan walked faster, like he could escape the way town was creeping into his life whether he wanted it to or not.
    Kostya was still in the barn with Anastasia and the stallion Nikolai, giving the horses a leisurely brushing. Ivan ran a hand down Nikolai’s flank, and the horse nosed him, snuffling for any hidden treats. Kostya leaned around Anastasia’s neck.
    “Did you frighten off all my regulars yesterday?”
    Ivan spared him a glare then went back to stroking Nikolai’s soft, black coat. “What regulars? I’d say by the state of things, you’re regulars are long gone.” Ivan quirked his lips in a smile. “But they’d prefer me to you any day.”
    Kostya laughed at that and slapped Anastasia’s haunch. Ivan’s older brother was shorter than him, and stocky, with wide hands and a wider face. But he smiled easily and often. Ivan wondered if it was because he’d never had to attend school with these people, be subjected to the glares and insults day after day. A decade older than Ivan, Kostya was already eighteen when they’d moved to Independence Falls from Washington, D.C.
    Kostya and Ivan walked back to the house together, and both sniffed the air when they ducked through the kitchen door. The smell of warm bread mixed with the scent of butter and onions, and Ivan’s stomach growled. Both men sat at the table, their father at one end and their mother at the other. 
    With a nod from Abram, the family descended on the food. It was warm and dim in the house, the setting sun glowing through the western windows and the giant fireplace at the other end of the great room flickering orange. Even with the overhead lights, shadows filled the corners of the room and reached up to the vaulted ceiling. Along the back wall, where his father’s bookshelf dominated the space, a rolling ladder disappeared into the loft above—Kostya’s quarters. He’d never seemed concerned with building himself a cabin on the property. Their voices carried up to the ceiling, a mixture of Russian with a smattering of English from Ivan and Kostya.
    When he was small, Ivan had thought if others just saw them at home, people would realize they were just like everyone else. They loved each other and fought and played cards by the fireplace in winter. They took great pains to make each other laugh, and would sometimes spend just as much energy arguing. 
    But Ivan had grown up. The entire town could come watch them like they were animals in the zoo, and still they’d be wary. They’d point at the odd foods they ate and narrow their eyes at the shelf of books and scientific journals written in the Cyrillic alphabet. They’d be confused by the varying names they called each other—Ivan had quickly learned the