The Centerpoint Trilogy by Kayla Bruner

words and she could throw a tantrum that left a damaged house in it’s wake. In the earliest days, Anna had been afraid of upsetting her daughter. She had come home to too many scenes that resembled her bedroom’s current state of affairs.  Gen too became hesitant about her powers as soon as she got older. She did not like to use the special thing. Still, she was as special as possible. Those girls were the most precious things that existed. It was plain and simple.
    “Anna,” Ethan said, his voice low and tense. She could tell that her husband was not going to let her lie about the fears that she was having. “Did it have anything to do with Gen?”
    Anna nodded a little at that. She hated to admit it to him, but she could not lie. What use would lying be? Plus, her relationship with Ethan had never been one of lies. “I just can’t let myself believe that right now,” she whispered. “They’ve been quiet for five years, Ethan. The man who did this to us is dead. Why can’t things be peaceful now?” Anna knew, instinctively, just how pathetic her denial sounded, but she could not help herself. She did not want to deal with it. She could not deal with it. It was too much. It made her chest ache. She was afraid.
    Ethan was comforting, but stern. He stroked her hair lightly. “Anna, love, we would both love to believe that, of course, but we always suspected that something was coming involving the children.” He looked fearful. His eyes were narrowed and a muscle in his face near his jaw twitched, lightly. That made Anna feel more uncomfortable, more afraid than she had ever been.
    “Ethan!” she yelled, not frustrated at him, but at her own mind. “If something bad is coming and it’s going to target the girls, then it’s going to take form in something a lot stronger than dreams.”
    “He came to us in dreams before!” Ethan retorted.
    Her husband was, of course, correct. Kahn North had been a fixture in Anna and Ethan’s dreams in the days and months that preceded their eventual second abduction. It was not entirely absurd to believe that dreams meant something when dreams had foreshadowed what was going to happen before. Still, Anna felt denial hold onto her heart like it was a clamp. So what if she was a telekinetic who could move things with her mind who had an extraordinary daughter? She just wanted to be normal for a while longer.
    “We need to sleep,” she told Ethan gruffly, a tone that she hoped informed him that their discussion was completely over. She turned over in bed, shifting so that her back was facing towards him. She could feel the heat of his gaze on the back of her neck and lowered her head down, sinking into the comfort of her tight coverings. She knew she was irrational for the moment, but she just needed time to process..  “Ethan, you have work in the morning!”
    Ethan made a small sound. That was when she heard her thoughts in his head.
    I’m scared, Anna.
                  She sighed at that, knowing she was being needlessly rude to the man that she loved and who loved her as well. She was taking out her aggression on the man she loved so much. Ethan should not have to suffer her fears. He was just as afraid. She frowned. “I know Ethan,” she said out loud. The way that she was feeling in that moment, she could have projected it at him so loud that it physically hurt. She much preferred her physical voice, especially when the last thing she wanted to think about was her husband’s supernatural powers. “I am too, but we’re going to protect Gen. You and I, Ethan, we’re going to keep her safe. I’m sorry for being mean. Sleep, babe. You have work early.”
    Ethan touched her back gently. She responded by doing the only thing that she could think of. She turned around and looked into his eyes. They were a soft pair of eyes that always represented comfort to Anna. There was something so utterly comforting to Anna. He had seen her through the best and worse