Free Twisted Miracles by A. J. Larrieu

telekinetic kitchen disaster. Eggs everywhere.
    At six o’clock Lionel left Bruce in charge of the B&B, and the four of us drove out to Lakeview in Shane’s Camaro. I managed to sit in the back, grateful to use Mina’s comfort as an excuse not to ride next to Shane. If he noticed, he didn’t comment.
    I hadn’t been to Mac and Janine’s in years, but it felt almost as familiar to me as the B&B. They had a brick townhouse-style place with a neat front yard and a red brick walk. It had taken on water in Hurricane Katrina, but they’d had it renovated, and now you’d never know it had flooded.
    The Tooleys were expecting us, so we went in without knocking and found Janine’s husband Mac on the back porch grilling burgers and hot dogs. We sat and talked and ate potato chips while the sun went down and people started trickling in, and eventually, the Tanners wandered into the kitchen so Mina could hold court. Shane gave me a look as he got up, but I stayed where I was, watching Janine set up a fire in a brick-lined pit in the yard.
    I wasn’t alone for long. People wandered out of the kitchen, fished beers out of the cooler on the porch, started up conversations. Soon, there was a crowd. The Tooleys had a high wooden fence, and nearly everyone at the party was a shadowmind, so people were playing around. The Gagniers were roasting marshmallows over the fire, using their powers to turn them slowly, no sticks needed. My head started buzzing. I wasn’t used to shielding myself from so much mental activity, and I knew I was in for a rough night. I thought about my pills and took a gulp of beer.
    Despite the pain building in my head, I wanted to join in. It would be so easy. I could stand next to Missy Gagnier with a marshmallow of my own and hear about the latest gossip she’d overheard in people’s heads. I could slip back into mindmoving as easily as walking, play telekinetic games with Missy’s kids and swap memories with the Heberts. This was why I couldn’t stay—why I shouldn’t stay. These people were my family in a way that went deeper than blood.
    The Weatherfields had been decent, as foster parents went. They weren’t abusive, and they cared about me in their way. Kate and I looked so much alike, you’d never have known I wasn’t her natural daughter. We had the same straight blond hair, the same heart-shaped face and hazel eyes. The judge must’ve seen the same thing when he’d given them custody, but telepaths know better than most what skin-deep means. When Kate met Shane for the first time, I heard her thoughts as if she’d been shouting them —good thing we adopted her—no telling what would’ve happened if she’d ended up raised with that family with those poor mixed-race kids—
    It hadn’t taken her long to forbid me from seeing him. “Think of your children, Cass,” she’d said. “Would you want them to go through life like that?” Like that was Kate-code for black. The Tanners, the Tooleys, the Gagniers...they weren’t just the first people who’d known what I was; they were the first people I’d actually wanted to be around.
    It felt too right, being home. Too natural. It was only a matter of time before I started using my powers again every day, for things like turning off light switches. I couldn’t let that happen. I didn’t want to think about how long it was going to take me to get them back under control. I was probably in for a solid month of nightmares. I had to tell Shane I was leaving.
    I was trying to come up with the best way to do it when he came up behind me. For a moment he didn’t speak, and we both watched as Billy and Missy Gagnier’s oldest daughter Lanie caught her marshmallow on fire and had to stamp it out in the dirt.
    “Nothing yet,” he said softly, his breath tickling my ear.
    “Anyone not here?”
    “Ryan. I think he’s working.”
    I nodded and sipped my beer. “It was worth a shot.”
    “Yeah. And more people have seen him now.” Shane