the butterfly effect | l. garmadon

twenty-two

"I wasn't about to leave you here alone," Lloyd said, as if it were normal and I didn't have friends who absolutely would've left me alone. Still, I warmed at his thoughtfulness. "Besides, my parents called this morning. They saw the readings from your pendant."

"Oh, right." I forgot they could see that. "What'd they say?"

Lloyd shrugged, switched off the stovetop, and turned in my arms to face me. "The same as what I said last night - conduits are known, but not in people. They want to do some testing when we get back."

My expression soured. "Ah." I didn't really want to do anything else with my powers at all, actually, though I knew it was a futile wish. I didn't have of a choice.

Lloyd read the hesitation on my face and gently smiled. He cupped my cheek and pressed a kiss to my forehead.

"I'll be with you every step of the way," he promised.

That eased my fear, if only a little, and I tried to reassure him with a nod. I'm not sure it worked so well.

I stepped back to let him finish sorting out breakfast and pulled out the plates when he pointed to where they were. My stomach grumbled unapologetically as I watched Lloyd dish up the food, and I blushed at his amused smile. We grabbed our plates and ascended the stairs to eat on the upper deck.

It was definitely mid-morning, and the world was astonishingly silent save for the gentle lapping of the waves. I could barely believe how blue the sky was, how far the gentle ocean stretched. It felt as though we were the last two people alive.

Lloyd took a seat and crossed his legs. I sat beside him, probably a little too close, but he knocked his knee against mine so I knew he didn't mind. If anything, he appreciated the proximity. I did, too.

"How did you sleep?" he asked.

"Like the dead," I answered monotonously as I pinched up the wilted spinach with my chopsticks. He snickered. "I think I had a weird dream."

Lloyd turned his attention away from his breakfast. "Yeah?"

I nodded. The spinach tasted dull on my tongue. "I can't remember it, though. You know that feeling when you've had a dream but it escapes you? It's that."

He hummed thoughtfully and took a bite of a strip of bacon. A seagull perched on the masthead and cawed, ruffling its wings. I inhaled the salty air.

"Weird dreams are common for our side of the world," Lloyd said. "It's usually the fates trying to deliver a new prophecy." He shrugged. "Sometimes it's just our ancestors giving a warning or telling us to do something... kinda like with Uchū and your mom."

"I thought you said you didn't believe in ghosts?"

Lloyd sent me a lopsided smile that made my heart skip. "I don't. Ghosts are said to be stuck on this plane, which isn't true. Spirits exist in the afterlife, above the cloud kingdom. That's where the fates live, too."

"The fates are people?" I asked in confusion.

"No," Lloyd chuckled softly. "They're not spirits or people. They're embodiments of magic that we don't really know how to explain. They rule over the cloud kingdom." He glanced at me questioningly. "Do you remember a face from your dream?"

I shook my head. I couldn't remember anything, except for the faint feeling that it was important.

"Maybe someone's trying to contact you about your powers," Lloyd suggested. "The barrier around your mind could have opened to them after you used it. You usually need to meditate to do that, but you're not exactly our common case."