Page 82 of Visions of You

As Jaron waited, he exhaled slowly. Their conversation had been rough, but at least he was getting what he'd come here for.

Minutes later, his mother returned and handed him the card with an air of reluctant acceptance.

"Remember your promise."

"I will," Jaron replied, taking the card from her hand.

Money. The one thing he could count on his family for.

Jaron pocketed the card and turned to leave the sunroom, tension easing from his shoulders. At least that part of his day was over and he could get back to Keegan.

As he reached the front door, it swung open, and a small figure darted inside. Fei, his youngest brother, beamed up at him with bright eyes. "Jaron!" Fei exclaimed, bouncing on his toes.

"Hey, kiddo." Jaron smiled, ruffling Fei's hair. "What's got you so excited?"

Fei's face lit up even more if that was possible. "I set a tree on fire today! By accident," he added quickly, "but it was so cool! All my friends said I'm the strongest dragon they know!"

Jaron chuckled, genuinely impressed despite himself. "A whole tree? That's something."

"Yeah!" Fei nodded vigorously. "The teacher wasn't happy though. I got scolded for it." His excitement dimmed for a moment before brightening again. "But my friends thought it was awesome!"

Jaron crouched down to Fei's level, resting a hand on his shoulder. "That's because it is awesome," he said with a grin. "Just try not to burn down any more trees, okay? We don't need any forest fires."

Fei giggled. "Okay, I'll try."

Jaron patted his head affectionately. Despite everything he felt towards his parents and their expectations, he didn't begrudge Fei or Casca their powers. If anything, he was grateful they wouldn't have to endure the same struggles he had.

"Keep practicing," Jaron encouraged him. "But be careful."

"I will!" Fei promised before dashing off down the hall, probably eager to share his adventure with someone else.

Jaron watched him go with a mixture of pride and melancholy. He silently thanked the sun goddess for blessing his brothers.

Prodigies that they were, they'd never have to go through what he went through.

It puzzled him sometimes, that the same set of parents could produce children as vastly different as him and his brothers, but life was just like that sometimes, wasn't it?

Keegan sat cross-legged on the worn rug in his room, eyes closed, trying hard to focus. He inhaled deeply and reached out to his immense new powers. Without Jaron there, though, everything felt…off. His powers were a tornado within him, something that refused to be tamed.

He attempted it anyway, looking for clues about the kidnapper's identity. Instantly, visions surged forward—fragments of faces, places cloaked in shadows, disjointed scenes of chaos and pain. His head throbbed with each pulse offoresight pressing in on him. He fought to anchor himself but felt as if he were slipping on ice. The harder he tried to grasp a solid vision, the more elusive it became.

Just push a little harder, he told himself. You can control this.

The pressure built behind his eyes until he couldn't bear it any longer. He wrenched himself free from the visions and fell back onto the rug, gasping for breath. The ceiling above spun in lazy circles as he tried to steady himself and make sense of the impressions he'd gotten.

There was no point, though.

It was all too disjointed.

Too different from the neat and tidy network he'd been able to arrange his visions in before.

If only he could go back to that…

Maybe he could, if he stopped trying to look at the kidnapper for now. The shielding magic on the villain probably complicated things. If Keegan wanted to gain control over his new powers, he needed to start smaller, simpler.

Focusing again, he tried peering into the immediate future instead. This time, he concentrated on Jaron's return from his parents' mansion. Images flickered at first—a fleeting glimpse of Jaron's mother's stern face, the heavy door of their mansion swinging open—and then finally, Keegan managed to see his network again.

He exhaled a sigh of relief.