She studied him, trying to puzzle this out for herself.

She was coming up with nothing.

Abruptly Nick stood and seized her by the hand. “Come on. We need to go outside. This will work better with show-and-tell.”

He trudged through the woods, dragging her behind him. She could feel the tension in his grip. Whatever his secret was, it had him keyed up. The sun had already begun to dip behind the horizon, letting a chill seep into the air.

“Keep walking,” he said. “I need some distance from the neighborhood.”

“Your secret is in the woods?” said Quinn, shivering. “Dude, if you turn into a werewolf, I am outta here.”

He smiled, then stopped and turned to face her. “I’m not a werewolf.”

“Vampire? Alien?” She snapped her fingers. “Harry Potter. Or wait, you’d be one of the Weasley twins . . .”

“If you could shut up a second, I’d tell you.”

“Should I hold your hands? Are we going to phase out and appear in Narnia?”

“No.” He glanced around. “If any trees fall, I don’t want them to hit a house.”

Trees falling? What? “So you’re secretly Paul Bunyan?”

“Quinn.”

She shivered again. “What? Seriously, Nick, what’s out here?”

“Air.” As he said the word, the breeze kicked up, finding a true wind that ruffled his hair and swirled between them. Leaves shifted and rustled along the ground.

Quinn frowned. “Air?”

Nick nodded. His expression said that she was missing something important.

But . . . air? Air was everywhere.

Leaves lifted from the ground and began to spiral around their feet. She started to shiver again—but then the leaves swirled off the ground, forming a moving wall to enclose them. First two feet high, then three, then eye level.

Quinn felt the first lick of fear. She moved closer to him—then wondered if that was worse than moving away. “You’re freaking me out a little, Nick. Is the mother ship landing?”

“Relax.” He spoke gently, confidently. “It’s just wind.”

She stepped away from him, but not too far. The swirling leaves remained out of her reach, and the wind caught her blond hair and tossed it across her face. “Are you doing this?”

“Yes.”

“How?”

“I’m feeding it energy.”

She looked at him again. “I don’t understand.”

“I can control air. Wind. Atmosphere. Whatever you want to call it.” He paused. “That’s how I choked Tyler.”

Quinn put a hand out. Leaves caught against her palm immediately, crumbling before getting swept into the maelstrom again. It wasn’t enough to disturb this mini-tornado. A bare path appeared on the ground where the wind continued to whip in a circle.

“You’re telling me you’re doing this all by yourself?” said Quinn. “No machine? No—”

“All me,” he said. “But the wind is willing.”

She turned to look at him again. “Okay. Make it stop.”