She closed her eyes and held her arms out in front of her in the form of an x out of instinct. A while had gone by. The fireball hadn't hit them. She slowly opened her right eye, a thick icy circle shield of sorts was just a few centimetres away from her arms. From the corner of her eye, she could see Caspian beside her with his mouth open. She felt like all eyes were on her at that moment, even Dexters.

"What?" she asked in an almost whisper.

"That isn't your brothers shield, sweetheart," Dexter said calmly.

"That's yours," Caspian almost whispered.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"Separate your arms then put them down," Dexter instructed. "This is part of your powers."

She followed his instructions to the letter, putting her arms down and deforming the "X" position, causing the compacted barrier of ice to dissipate into wisps of cold air, as if it was never there in the first place. She looked at Dexter then at her brother. Caspian looked like he wanted to kill the boy who threw the fireball. His fist was clenched and his eyes never left the boy.

"I've got this," Dexter said after a little while of silence.

Dexter raised his hand, his index finger out straight, pointing towards the black haired boy. A lightning bolt shot from his finger to the fire wielding boy and shocked him.

"What was that for?!" he yelled out.

"Be careful next time," Dexter warned. "Or I'll have your powers taken away."

"You can't do that!" he argued, throwing his hands up.

Dexter only smiled. "I can. Choose your next words carefully, Alex."

Layla kept her eyes on Dexter as he spoke. Admittedly he was quite a handsome man, with skin just about kissed by the sun to a light tan. Complimenting his good looks was his composure to effectively mediate any sort of stressful situation and keep a level head.

–

A little while had gone past before they all decided to go home. The moon was in full blossom over the skies with Layla, Caspian and Dexter being the only ones left.

"Let's go back to my place and hang out," Dexter suggested after a brief moment of silence. "It's still quite early."

"Sure," Caspian said before he stood up from the ground. "We'd love to."

Layla had gotten back into the car with Caspian. Dark clouds invaded the skies, an occasional spurt of rain poured and stopped as quickly as it came. Riding in the air was as majestic as it seemed.

"So, the Arclight household will finally have a snow queen, hey?" Caspian said, breaking the silence as he stared ahead with a smile on his face.

Layla closed her eyes and sighed. He had a point. She was the first in their family with her kind of powers. "Maybe. Keep talking out loud and maybe I will freeze your brain out."

Caspian laughed. "Sure, lil sis. I'd love to see you try." He lowered the vehicle and floated just above the houses. "You do know that ice is a subset of water, right?"

"Huh?" Layla looked up at him, staring at the side of his face. She had no idea what he was saying.

Caspian sighed. "Did they not teach you these things in physics class? Ice is formed by freezing water." He rubbed his temple with his left hand.

"Well, they don't really teach that kind of physics in my classes. Times have changed Caspian. Come to think of it, I don't think we even have a physics class," Layla said, looking outside the window at the scenery as it went by in a quick haze.

She could hear Caspian sigh once again. "Remind me to teach you physics next time." The car slowed down and it lowered down onto the ground. "Anyway, we're almost at Dex's place."

The houses they passed were a lot bigger than their own. They were almost mansion like, and it made Layla wonder how these people could afford everything. One five story house caught her attention. It was a glossy maroon round house that seemed to float on an invisible platform with no stairs in sight. Caspian didn't let her marvel long before he walked around the car and stood outside the car directly in her line of sight. She fought an eye roll then reluctantly got out the car.

"Dexters already home. Hurry up," he urged, locking the car as soon as she closed the door.

"Huh?" she said but her brother had already started to walk off towards the circular sort of house she was marveling at just moments earlier. She quickly ran to him in a failed attempt to catch up to him.

He stopped beside a large tree trunk was multiple small ones wrapped around each other with white lilies travelling up them. She gazed up to see the leaves were various shades of purple and seemed to sparkle under the moonlight.

"This is a Fanged Demon tree. There's only about seven like it in the world," Caspian said with a smile. "They're very rare but very beautiful when you do see one."

"Wow!" Layla looked up at the tree some more. She had never seen anything like it. "It's stunning!"

"Come on, sis. Let's go," Caspian said after a small pause.

She nodded and followed her brother up the pebble-like pathway that led to the house. It seemed to float a lot higher than hers did.

"Hey, you guys made it!" Dexter's voice said above them. "Here." He throw down a rope ladder that attached to the house. "There's usually another way to get in but my dad is getting it fixed so we have to use the old fashioned method."

"After you," Caspian said, holding his arm out towards the ladder.

She froze and stared at him. "No. You go first. I'll go after."

He simply shook his head. "No sis. You go first. Our mum basically ingrained it into my head. Ladies first."

Layla rolled her eyes. "Fine." She reached up and hold onto the ladder, pulling herself up.

After they reached the top, they were standing on the glossy black porch. She didn't know what it was, but it had to be top of the range as it matched the front door of the house. Dexter even had time to change before they arrived somehow. He was now wearing a black button up shirt that had the first three buttons open and a golden swirl design around it. It was tucked into dark grey skinny jeans. He had his hair down this time.

"Welcome. Please come in," Dexter greeted as he then held the door open for them.

Layla walked in first, followed closely by Caspian. She stood there in the hallway. It was a lot different to her own place. The wall was the same glossy material as the door and floor except it was a dark grey in colour which spanned as far as the eye could see. She didn't have much time to marvel before Dexter spoke again.

"Just this way," he said and started to walk up the hall, his footsteps echoed on the tile floor as he walked.

Caspian and herself followed Dexter. They seemed to walk forever before they reached any potential rooms. Dexter stopped and faced the right wall. There was no door. It confused her why they stopped. She watched as he raised his hand and pressed his index finger against a part of the wall. A green light lit up just above his finger with a small beep sound echoing the hall. A small puff of smoke filled the air near the wall, a small grumble sound was heard and then a door slid open, sideways, disappearing into the wall. Layla's mouth hung open and her eyes went wide. Dexter was rich. Her house definitely didn't have that kind of technology.

"Come on guys," Dexter said with a laugh as he walked into the room.

Layla followed him and was in complete awe. It just kept getting better. The same grey walls lined the living room with the white tiles lining the floors too. A medium sized black fur rug rested in the middle of the floor with a range of sofas neatly placed around it. Two single seat chairs laid across from each other. The cushions were black with gold and white swirls, the frame of them made of silver metal in the shape of a dragon with wings opened out and around the chairs. Two matching two seater sofas rested next to them with the same design except the dragons where white. She had never seen anything like it. It was so beautiful,

A table in the shape of a dragon's window rested between the sofas, neatly in the middle of the fur rug. A white mantlepiece sat on the wall with a normal rectangular table on the wall across from it. The entire place was extremely clean, and she wondered how his family could keep everything looking the way it was and dust free. One thing did catch her eye. It laid on the table. She couldn't believe her eyes. It was the very jug she saw advertised many times. A new product barely even a few days old was right there. The cloud jug that everyone was talking about. The very one everyone wanted but couldn't have because it was so expensive. It was right there. It looked small, probably about one liter and looked like a cloud was black swirls and a white handle. It somehow kept drinks and liquids and stored more then it seemed to hold. It was a lot more beautiful in person then it did on the advertisement.

"Have a seat, please," Dexter said, breaking her gaze away from the jug.

She followed Caspian and they sat on the two seater sofa. It was a lot more comfortable than it looked. The cushion was soft.

"You have a beautiful home," she complimented, resting her hands on her lap.

Dexter smiled and sat back on the sofa across from her. "Thank you. It isn't much but it's good."

Caspian and Dexter spent the next little while talking about their studies. She felt a little out of place but she didn't dare say a word, instead she just listened as they spoke about their teachers, some sort of group project and their fellow peers. They then fell into silence where her mind kept replaying something Dexter had said and made her grow more curious by the second. It had been days since he said it but it kept replaying in her mind.

"Hey Dexter. The other day you said something about taking powers away. Can you really?" she asked, looking across at him, catching his gaze towards her.

"Hm? Oh, it's nothing. I just say it as a threat. It doesn't mean anything," he said. He was lying. She could tell by the way he was looking everything but at her. The way he shifted a little in his seat.

"Bullshit. Don't you remember last starlight when you took away Licar's powers after he threatened to kill you? The man got expelled and killed after that," Caspian said, leaning his elbows on his knees and leaned forward.

Dexter sighed. "I haven't forgotten. It's a bloody curse."

"It seems like a really cool power to have!" Layla said. She meant it.

He forced a smile and took a deep breath in.

"So how did you find out about your powers, Dexter?" Layla asked, leaning her head to the side.

"Well, I once lit our lemon tree on fire on accident. It was a wonderful way to discover having lightning as a power and get yelled at too," he answered with a laugh.

"That poor tree," Caspian said in amusement, a smile on his face.

"Hey, at least I burnt a plant," Dexter said in defense.

"Hm?" Caspian hummed as he looked at Dexter. "What do you mean?"

Layla sat up properly, a smile on her face. "So, I may have almost lit someone on fire," she said before Dexter could utter another word.

"With a lightning bolt," Dexter finished.