The mansion's sitting room looked like a natural disaster had gotten bored and decided to throw a house party. Ice sculptures jutted from the marble floor at random angles, shadows were straight-up eating the curtains—like, actually digesting them—and soone had accidentally created their own personal weather system that was having way too much fun rearranging the furniture.
Tessa stood off to the side with Annabelle and Bella, trying not to lose it at the sight of so of the world's most powerful people looking like kids who'd been caught setting the cafeteria on fire with their minds.
"Granddad and Ethan are definitely gonna be teacher's pets," she said, watching her grandfather try to control an ice spike that seed hell-bent on redecorating the ceiling.
Annabelle shot her that cheeky grin—the one that usually ant she was fishing for a fight. "Really? Just because they got the fancy ti and ice combo? Because I hate to break it to you, princess, but even with those shiny elents and us supposedly being on the sa power tier, I'm pretty confident I could use you to mop the floor."
There it was. The competitive streak that made Annabelle both absolutely lovable and mildly dangerous when she was bored.
"Partly," Tessa replied, voice all calm and casual. "But mostly because they're smart and use their brains instead of just flexing their muscles."
Her smile was sweet enough to cause diabetes and sharp enough to perform surgery. "Oh, you adorable, deluded little thing. It's not about the elents, though ti manipulation does give so ridiculously unfair advantages that would make this whole thing embarrassingly one-sided."
The insult landed like a delayed punch.
"You see," Tessa continued, clearly warming up to completely demolish Annabelle's confidence with the enthusiasm of soone who'd been waiting all morning for a good verbal sparring match, "if you could manage to use even a tiny fraction of that brain I'm absolutely sure you have hidden sowhere under all that gorgeous hair, you'd realize this isn't so testosterone-fueled pissing contest between cosmic atheads trying to prove who has the bigger magical dick."
Jesus. The taphor was both accurate and devastatingly inappropriate for polite company.
"Why would I waste my valuable ti and energy fighting soone who's clearly operating several leagues below my level?" Tessa asked with the kind of innocent curiosity that could start wars and probably had. "That would be like challenging a golden retriever to a debate about quantum chanics—adorable, but ultimately pointless for everyone involved."
Brutal. Absolutely brutal.
Annabelle burst out laughing and grabbed Tessa's ear in a playful twist that was definitely gonna leave a mark. "You absolutely spoiled little brat! Here I was trying to be friendly and competitive, and you just casually destroyed my entire self-esteem with a smile and so creative insults!"
The laughter took any real sting out of the verbal beatdown, which was probably the point.
"Learning is important," Tessa replied with prim satisfaction, though she was clearly enjoying the hell out of herself. "Besides, you totally started it with the whole 'use you to mop the floor' comnt. I was just explaining reality to you in terms your apparently limited comprehension could handle."
"Both of you are absolutely terrible people and I love you for it," Bella said, but she was smiling too. "And both of you are gonna end up in cosmic detention if you don't pay attention to Professor Hardass over there."
Robert was indeed still in full instructor mode and looked like he was enjoying every second of watching billionaires and world leaders struggle with basic supernatural crowd control. His transformation from polite society gentleman to cosmic drill sergeant had been both instant and deeply entertaining.
"Now that I have everyone's undivided attention," he announced, completely ignoring the fact that shadows were still trying to digest furniture and soone had accidentally created a small weather system that was rearranging the room's décor with artistic flair, "we're gonna start with a comprehensive assessnt."
He surveyed the chaos with the satisfaction of a teacher who'd just been handed the world's most interesting and dangerous classroom.
"I need each of you to step forward and explain your powers in detail—what you can do, what you can't control, and how likely you are to accidentally level a city block if soone startles you during a particularly vivid dream."
The room went quiet except for the sound of ice crackling, shadows munching contentedly on fabric, and what might've been a small tornado reorganizing soone's coffee table.
Robert gestured toward Grandfather Wilder with the authority of soone who'd clearly done this before, probably with beings far more dangerous and significantly less cooperative.
"Sir, you're up first. Tell everything about your family's awakening, and please demonstrate your control—or lack thereof—over temporal ice manipulation."
Grandfather Wilder stepped forward with the dignity of soone who'd spent decades commanding boardrooms and wasn't about to be intimidated by his own supernatural powers, even if they were currently turning the sitting room into what looked like the world's most expensive ice rink.
This was either gonna be educational or catastrophic.
Possibly both.
***
The awakening had transford the Five Families into sothing unprecedented—humans wielding powers that could reshape reality itself. Each bloodline had manifested abilities that reflected their fundantal nature, though their control remained dangerously amateur.
The Wilder Family had awakened with three interconnected powers that made them formidable temporal manipulators. Ti Manipulation let them slow, accelerate, or freeze monts in their imdiate vicinity. Grandfather Wilder could make clocks run backward with a glance, while Ethan accidentally aged his textbooks during study sessions.
Their Ice control manifested as crystalline mastery over frozen elents, capable of creating architectural ice structures or weaponizing winter itself. Not just making ice cubes—we're talking full-blown arctic warfare.
Sound let them create visible sonic waves, shatter glass with whispers, or break the sound barrier with strong emotions. Vivian had learned to combine all three powers into artistic displays—ice sculptures that destroyed themselves in perfect sound harmony, becoming basically bomb blasts with style.
They had a collective unique trait called Absolute Zero—they could freeze anything completely across all dinsions. Not just physical freezing, but temporal and vibrational stasis that stopped movent, aging, and sound simultaneously. It was the ultimate defensive ability.
It was also completely terrifying when you really thought about it.
Reviews
All reviews (0)