Starcrossed

intimate positions they pressed each other into as Helen tried to grasp the basics of jujitsu, but not that afternoon. Lucas was all business.
    “I just realized, we’ve been fighting all day,” Helen said as she tried and failed to break out of his armbar for the tenth time. “And I don’t think I’ve won once .”
    “How long has it been?” he asked, suddenly curious about something she didn’t understand right away. He craned his head and looked at the clock on the wall, then back at Helen. “Do you have your bolts back yet?”
    Helen connected to that strange sense at the bottom of her belly and felt a spark there. She nodded at Lucas, a bit surprised, and he grabbed her hand, pulling her to her feet.
    “Then let’s go try it out,” he said with a grin as he led her out of the gym.
    “Wait,” Helen said uncertainly, stopping him with an outstretched hand. “My lightning almost killed you today.”
    “Because you don’t know how to control it yet.” Lucas turned and cupped her shoulders in his hands. “You have to accept this. I know it freaks you out, but as harsh as it sounds, you’ve just got to get over it. This is who you are, Helen, and I’m not afraid of you, or your lightning. So you shouldn’t be, either.”
    Helen looked up at Lucas. His eyes were so sure, so accepting.
    “You know what?” she said, standing up straighter. “I want to learn how to control my lightning.”
    “Yeah, you do!” he nearly shouted. When they got outside, they saw Hector’s truck pull up and the rest of the Delos siblings pile out.
    “We’re going to test her bolts!” Lucas yelled toward them. Jason and Hector glanced at each other briefly with wide eyes. They both broke into a run.
    “How long has it been?” Hector shouted, sprinting toward them, giddy as a schoolgirl.
    “About an hour and forty-five minutes,” Lucas said. “She drank two gallons of water.”
    “And I still feel a little thirsty,” Helen admitted.
    “Well, get her some more water, Lucas!” Cassandra ordered as she and Ariadne caught up. “How is she supposed to make lightning bolts without hydrogen?”
    “Right,” Lucas said distractedly. Jumping into the air, he flew to the house and back in about twenty seconds. “Why didn’t you tell me you were thirsty?” he asked Helen, handing her a large bottle still cold from the fridge.
    “I didn’t know. I guess I should start paying better attention to that,” Helen mumbled to herself sheepishly.
    “You have to pay attention to everything that makes you more powerful. And your bolts make you very powerful,” Hector said, a feline grin spreading across his face. Helen tipped the bottle back and drank deeply.
    “That door was insane!” Jason exclaimed. Recalling it, he rubbed a hand across his face in that Delos gesture that Helen always noticed. “It was like you had taken an industrial-strength welder to it.”
    “How many volts do you think you have stored right now?” Cassandra asked. They all entered the arena.
    “No idea.” Helen shrugged. She felt for the charge and tried to gauge it, but she couldn’t describe it. “It’s a feeling, not a digital readout, Cass.”
    “Oh, then wait!” Cassandra said, holding up her hands. “Maybe I can devise a way to measure it.”
    “Cassie, geek out later! We’re all dying to see this right now,” Hector whined.
    “All right, fine! Sorry, Helen. Whenever you’re ready,” she reluctantly allowed.
    The Delos family moved behind Helen, giving her plenty of room to aim her bolt out across the nonconductive sand of the arena. She held up her right hand. That was the hand she wrote with, but it didn’t feel like the best fit, so she switched to her left. Then she summoned her bolt—deliberately for the first time.
    Lightning shot out of her hand. Not static, not some pathetic splinter of a spark, but actual lightning. It arced forward in a bright, branching blur, and it made a huge cracking sound, like an orchestra of leather bullwhips snapping simultaneously. One second the air was full of blinding icy blue light, and the next second half of the arena was coated in a thick sheet of smoking amber-colored glass.
    No one said anything for a second.
    “Unbefrickinglievable,” Hector cussed quietly into the silence.
    Helen smacked her tongue against the roof of her mouth and stumbled toward the water bottle that Lucas automatically held out for her. She finished an entire liter in five gulps.
    “Maybe that was