One (One Universe)

right?”
    “No, I mean…that’s why. Everything I’ve been able to figure about malleability… Well, there’s not much, but it’s only going to work on rapidly growing bodies.”
    Elias nods. “Little kids. Teens, at the latest. That makes sense.”
    “What do you mean?”
    He does that thing where he looks off into the distance again and kind of blows out a breath. “The Hub has been kind of hyper-interested in me since I was a kid. Because I’m a One, you know? Testing my power, trying to strengthen it… I’m a mystery because my sisters are so awesome.”
    If Elias is a mystery, so am I. And the two of us together are freaking Grand Unification Theory.
    “Anyway, I don’t know if you want to become kind of a resident freak around here like I was, you know? You can make your own way. We can make our own way. We don’t need the Hub.” Suddenly, Elias seems more distant than ever. There’s something behind his eyes, like he’s holding something back from me.
    “I don’t know.” I shrug, try to look nonchalant. “I always thought maybe I’d figure out a way…”
    “To become a Super?” Elias shakes his head again. “If they could have figured it out, they would have. The existence of Ones… It bothers Fisk. Always has. You read the news feed, right? You sat in that lecture? He’s been trying to solve us forever when no one else really seems to care.”
    No one cares except me.
    I’ve never really wanted to tell anyone else about the flying, not even Leni and Daniel. I haven’t minded that it’s just ours. Especially since I’ve known I couldn’t duplicate the dual power I feel with Elias on my own, not the full extent of it. No matter how hard I try. But now that we’re here and there’s so much interest in Ones, maybe we can help. Maybe our bodies have the answers.
    “Should we… Do you think we should say something? About what we can do?”
    Elias shakes his head, fast. “No. No, Mer.”
    “Seriously, Elias. They’re researching it, and maybe we could even – ”
    “Merrin, I said no.”
    Suddenly, this dance feels a whole lot less romantic. I barely put up with my parents talking to me like that. My eyes flare at his sudden change of tone, and Elias sees it.
    “Hey,” he says, “Hey, Mer. Let’s get out of here for a sec, okay?” From the tone of his voice, I know he wants to talk to me for real, not on a dance floor and not to find somewhere dark to kiss. So I nod and follow him, trying to keep the tears behind my eyes instead of spilling out from them.

SEVENTEEN
    W e get within about 15 feet of the ballroom exit, and Elias drops my hand and says, “Follow me in a couple minutes, okay? I’ll wait around the corner two hallways down.”
    What are we about to do that we don’t want the cameras to catch?
    I nod and do as he asked. I wait a few minutes and then walk down the hallway, trying to keep my heels from making too loud of a noise in the empty, cavernous space. The lights have been dimmed so that the stark white seems much softer, probably trying to achieve the sense of evening in a space without natural light. I pass the first hallway to the right, and it stares back at me, a tunnel of more unknown emptiness, the turned-out lights leaving it pitch black.
    The second hallway is just as dark, and as I approach it, Elias’s hand shoots out and grabs mine. I squeak, surprised even though I knew he’d be waiting there for me. He pulls me to him and kisses me, his palm pressing against the small of my back. In the dark of the hallway, it’s exhilarating, and for a second, I forget that that’s not why we’re here. At least I didn’t think it was.
    Elias pulls back and touches my face, running his thumb along my lips, and the outline of his face, dark-on-dark in the slight shadows, smiles at me. He speaks in a low whisper. “I could get used to this ‘Merrin-in-heels’ thing,” he murmurs. “Much easier to just grab you and kiss you.”
    My head swims. He’s right. And if they weren’t so damn painful, I’d wear them all the time.
    I would be pretty thrilled with this whole standing-in-a-dark-hallway scenario if we weren’t right in the middle of the Hub. Or if Elias hadn’t just shut me down for no freaking reason. But there’s too much of everything that makes me happy or excited everywhere around me to focus on just one thing. Even Elias.
    I step back and push his shoulders playfully. “What are we doing down here?”
    “I want to show you