“It’s all your fault, you little tramp!” he yelled.
Her temper flared and before she could think, she’d unlocked the car door and slipped outside. It took Dylan a few seconds to realize what she’d done, and he sprang out of the car too. Aspen marched toward Stephan.
“You’re the disgusting one. You’re just a bully.” With a snarl, she walked right up to him.
Stephan’s eyes bulged and he raised his hand to strike her. A ball of electricity surrounded her and crackled along her skin, raising the hairs on her body. Power rushed from her in a wave and struck him with a huge bang. It swept him off his feet and dumped him into the hedge surrounding the boundary wall.
Still shaking, she didn’t notice that Dylan had joined her until he laid his hand on her forearm. Glancing at him, she saw his eyes glowing with rage.
Stephan groaned from within the hedge. He extracted himself painfully from the hard twigs and branches that had broken his fall.
Leeman strode over to where he struggled in the undergrowth. “If you ever speak to my niece or my sister-in-law like that again, you won’t be let off so lightly,” he promised. “Get up and get out of here. I don’t want to hear that you, or your daughter, are harassing my family in any way again. If I do, I’ll make sure you suffer so much that you’ll regret the day you met them.”
Dylan shouted at him too. “Stay away. Don’t come near Aspen again.” A muscle ticked in his jaw and his face was dark with anger.
Stephan stood up unsteadily and brushed a hand over his face. With a groan, he bent down to pick up his helmet. Fear laced his eyes as he rushed back to his bike. Muttering something that sounded suspiciously like freaks under his breath, he turned the key to start the engine. He pulled the helmet over his head and flipped the throttle. The smell of exhaust floated in the air as he raced off.
Once he was out of sight, Aspen wrapped her arms around Dylan’s waist and let out a sigh of relief. Power flowed from his body to hers, instantly calming her. He pressed his chin onto her head and clasped her against his chest for a long hug.
Chapter 21
Making a Stand
“If a train is four point eight miles long and traveling at a speed of seventy-five miles per hour, and you are waiting at the railroad crossing for the train to pass, approximately how many minutes will you wait from the time it enters the crossing until it has completely passed?”
Dylan looked up from his textbook and stared blankly at Aspen. He was so handsome with his strong jaw and startling blue eyes that she had to remind herself to breathe.
Without a moment’s thought, he answered, “Three point eight four minutes.”
Her mouth opened in shock as he lowered his gaze and wrote something in a book. “How do you do that?” she asked, and tapped her ankles together in the air.
The living room carpet was soft and they lay on their stomachs while Aspen crossed her calves above her. The bright yellow sundress she wore was tucked neatly under her body, and her feet were bare.
When he looked at her again, he flashed a smile that displayed his perfect white teeth. “Do what?” A grin played across his lips.
“How do you know the answer to every one of my math problems? It’s not fair.”
“If you remember the formulas, you can work out most math problems.”
She sighed. “Tell that to my brain.”
It had been a week since the incident with Miriam, and thankfully she’d been expelled from their school. Even without her presence, Dylan had stuck to Aspen like glue and followed her everywhere. He came home with her each day and helped her with homework in the afternoon.
It was hard to tell if he was protecting her because she was important to his clan, or if he really liked her. The slightest brush of his hand against her arm and the way he guided her with a palm in the small of her back when they walked made her nerves sing, but whatever he felt was kept well hidden, and she wasn’t about to question him about it.
Both of them turned to look up at Leeman as he entered the room.
“Hey, kids.”
“Hey, Uncle Leeman.”
“Do you have a lot of homework left?” he asked and collapsed into a comfortable couch next to them.
“Nah, I’ve got my own calculator here, and he’s just finished my last problem.” Even though Dylan rolled his eyes at her, she knew he liked her compliment.
The smell of fried chicken drifted into the living room from the kitchen, and pots clanked noisily.
Leeman arched an eyebrow. “That’s good because after dinner, I’m planning an attack on the castle.”
Dylan perked up and closed his books quickly. “Wow, that’s amazing. Can we come along?”
After studying him for a second, Leeman scratched his head and said, “I suppose that’ll be okay. I’m getting the Fire Walker clan to go with us. We’re going to find out if the Chancellors are holding any clan members in their castle.”