I was beginning to sip the delicious liquid when the man from the first day came into the lounge. I saw him from where I was sitting in the café. I watched as some jocks began to pick on a group of other students. Then I heard him laughing.
His laughter rubbed me the wrong way. Apparently, this guy enjoyed watching people being bullied. The thought turned my stomach, and I couldn’t help but think of the men who’d done horrible things to me and the other kids for years.
I ended up throwing the hot chocolate away, my appetite for it completely gone. I was about to leave when I heard him laughing hysterically. I turned to see a couple use their powers to bury the other group.
God, this man was disgusting. He must love to see people picked on.
I walked toward him, almost compelled by a force outside my control. I stood behind him, wanting to call him an ass, but when he turned around, the words stuck in my throat.
He did something strange to my insides. Like I was somehow under his spell. He was definitely my nemesis or something for him to have this kind of control over me.
“You think it’s funny those kids are being picked on?” I asked.
When he acted like he didn’t know what I was talking about, the flames began to burn inside me.
I pointed out the window. “You’re laughing at a bunch of kids being beaten up with snow?”
He turned back toward the events outside, and I knew I wasn’t prepared to deal with these kinds of emotions, not yet.
I quickly dashed out of the back of the building, heading toward my dorm. Dr. Grace was right. I needed to learn how to control my powers, ’cause if watching someone being an asshole set me off like this, I was sure I could be dangerous.
Chapter eight
Lysander
IntroductiontoTelekinesiswasboring. I mean, I was never going to be able to move stuff with my brain. Kyle and Kelsey, however, were so wrapped up in what was being taught you’d think it was the most interesting lecture ever given.
Of course, they were allowed to use their powers while those of us who didn’t have that skill sat and watched as they performed their magic.
The other classes were the same, but at least they weren’t dull lectures about the physics of telekinetic powers. In every class, students with those skills took center stage and demonstrated them to the professors.
I’d been labeled as Terrestrial during orientation. Well, probably before, when the recruiter had assessed me. But I had never heard the word terrestrial to describe powers before I came here.
I watched other students do things that looked a lot like magic. Of course, the only thing I could do was absorb energy, and my professor had warned me not to try without supervision, because if I absorbed too much energy, I could die.
There weren’t many people with my skill, but according to the Terrestrial professor, we had a bad habit of doing just that, dying.
So, as the other Terrestrial students created mini storms, transported across the room, and one guy walked through walls, I sat and watched, just like I sat and watched in every stupid class I went to.
Dr. Bisbee approached me during the first week of classes and asked me to attend her sophomore-level Practicum class about controlling abilities. “You’re not going to be able to do much with your power until we understand and know its limitations,” she’d told me.
Supposedly, her Practicum course was about actively using our powers and understanding their limitations. I had a sneaking suspicion I would be seriously disappointed at how little I could do. Oh well, being able to test myself would be an improvement over simply watching every other student in the school use their power while I did nothing.
The next day I went to my student advisor, Mr. Morehouse. The first-year students were prevented from taking second-year classes “to protect them from getting in trouble,” we’d been told.
Mr. Morehouse would have to give me access to Dr. Bisbee’s class, and by the time he’d finished what he was doing, I was ten minutes late. We walked in to see a bolt of electricity flowing between two students. One was clearly struggling with the effort, while the other seemed to be enjoying himself immensely.
I was so caught up in the display that I didn’t immediately notice the same tingle that alerted me to the darkling’s presence in the room. When his presence registered, I turned to see his scowl. Before I knew what was happening, the energy bolt transferred from the students to the darkling. From the darkling, it came rushing toward me, and I acted without thinking, thrusting my hands forward then opening them into an arc. The bolt's power vibrated between my hands before disappearing into my arms and body.
It was as if my body was the ground to the electric charge.
The entire class applauded, but my eyes were locked on one person and one person alone. The one I was convinced had just tried to kill me.
Chapter nine
Kaden
“Iwillnotworkwith him. In fact, I don’t even want to be in the same room,” I argued with Dr.Grace.
