Free The Order of the Elements 01 - Breaking Point by Jess Bowen Page A

if it wasn’t any good, he didn’t have to eat any more. Ethan put the spoon in his mouth and was pleasantly surprised to find that it had the exact taste, texture, and temperature of spaghetti and meatballs. He hadn’t even realized that he was hungry until this very moment, and he greedily jammed another spoonful into his mouth.
    After a few minutes, he decided to put this crazy food to the test. Ethan thought about salad—a completely different texture, taste, and temperature. The next bite was perfect. It tasted like the salad had come straight from a garden. Amazing , he thought. As he continued eating, he noticed Bree and Sadi running laps around the room.
    “Not to be a nudge or anything, but shouldn’t you feed them?” Ethan asked Evan and Jared, motioning to the two small animals.
    Evan laughed and choked on his food. He coughed a few times and when he had recovered he explained his amusement. “Well, we could. They don’t often eat anything, although they can.”
    Jared’s face contorted in disgust, and he shook his head sadly.
    Ethan was confused.
    Jared spoke up, apparently better at the explaining part. “What he means is although they can eat separately if they want to, it’s not really necessary, unless we were starving or something. When we eat, they eat. Well, not technically, but when we’re done eating they’ll feel as if they have just eaten as well. It’s part of the connection.”
    Oh. It was weird, but Ethan could see how that would save time and food.
    The rest of the evening passed quickly. Ethan listened to Evan and Jared talk about all kinds of things he didn’t understand while he asked questions here and there. As they talked, he mostly thought over everything that had happened and been said that day.
    Ethan finally had some answers, which was nice, however intimidating those answers may be. Being a Master of an Element now sounded like a big deal. He still wasn’t quite sure what power to expect, but apparently he should be expecting something. He already missed his parents and his friends. James, Mark, and Kyle had been his best friends since second grade. They did practically everything together. Ethan was pretty sure that he could comfortably call Evan and Jared friends, but it didn’t replace the ones he already had.
    He had no idea what his parents planned to tell his friends when they came by tonight to pick him up for the bonfire. Maybe they would tell them he’d suddenly decided to join the military or got kidnapped by the Russian mob. Ethan was sure that whatever they said was going to sound a bit crazy, but there was nothing anyone could do about it. He was here now, and that didn’t seem to be changing any time soon.
    Ethan had a full work schedule at a local restaurant for the next week. He was sure they could get someone to cover the shifts, but that wasn’t exactly the point. He loved that job. Sure he was only a bus boy, but he had a lot of fun there, and he loved to talk to all the different people that came and went. So many people had fascinating stories if someone would just sit down and listen long enough.
    Then there was school, Dartmouth. His parents had pushed him hard enough to keep his grades high, and he had managed to get into an Ivy League school. All for nothing. They had known too; they had known that he would never actually be going, and that made him angry. Why go to all the trouble if it wasn’t going to benefit him in the end? Perhaps he was being a little whiney. Ethan was glad Phoebe couldn’t read his mind now; she probably would have slapped him upside the head, and he considered that he would have deserved it.
    Evan and Jared were discussing training when something Ethan heard caught his attention.
    “How many people do you think are in First Order?” Evan asked.
    “Probably not many. Maybe ten or fifteen. I heard someone say the number keeps going down every year. After all, we’re the only two from our safe place. Although, I