She nodded. “I’ve sat through a billion of my brother’s trainings with Lena and her sisters and our brothers.”
Did that mean that when I learned to properly use my power I could… break us out of here?
She seemed to read my mind. “While those are still on, you can’t do much.” She pointed to the cuffs. “But if we can get them off… or you can become powerful enough to pull back your power from him while he’s awake…”
Pull my power from him while awake? Then it would bemethat would controlhim. The mere thought of that excited me greatly.
“Let’s do it,” I told her.
We went to bed that night and set the alarm next to our beds for two a.m. It had a vibration feature that we engaged, and then Maddy placed it on her bed, right next to her pillow.
If Lora thought that Silas was going to use my power to hurt Brayden, she had another thing coming.
* * *
Hours later,I was shaken awake by a bleary-eyed Maddy, the bright light from the moon cast shadows across her face. She had the room fan on but didn’t speak. I sat up, confused about why I was awake, and then I remembered. Silas went into his room every night around nine p.m. like clockwork. He was like an old man who couldn’t miss his bedtime. Now I wondered how many of those nights he’d snuck off to the Ether Realm to… be… with Lora, and I shuddered.
But it was two a.m.… he had to be asleep.
I looked down at the cuffs on my arms and Maddy nodded, tapping her chest as if asking me to hit her with my power. I rolled my eyes and shook my head.
She tapped her chest again, harder, and gave me a look that said I would try to hit her with my power or she would cut me.
Geeze.
Okay.
I sat up straighter.
Taking in a deep breath, I pulled for my power, but it was like I’d pulled on a brick wall. Nothing happened. My brow creased in frustration and I pulled again, harder this time, praying that it wouldn’t wake Silas somehow.
There was a slight tingle along my spine and the cuffs glowed ever so faintly as a small amount of my power came back to me.
Maddy watched the cuffs illuminate and nodded. “Now freeze me,” she whispered, barely audible.
Freeze her?Like the guys at the bar parking lot when I’d protected Brayden? I hadn’t really been paying attention then. I’d just lashed out. I didn’t want to hurt Maddy doing something carelessly.
She started waving her arms in the air like a lunatic and I had to suppress a giggle.
Worth a shot, I guess.
Once I’d built up my magic, I threw it at her and she went from waving her arms to hunching forward, grabbing her gut as she gasped for air.
“Crap!” I whisper-screamed. “I’m so sorry.”
She nodded, head bowed, and held up a hand. Finally, after a few moments, she stood and looked at me, her face still pinched in pain from my sucker punch to her gut, which had clearly taken the wind out of her.
“No worries,” she whispered. “You need to learn to tease apart all of your powers. A fully trained Greywolf can stop time, speak into anyone’s mind, do mild healing, throw shockwaves, which is what you just did, and more.”
Okay… that was a lot to digest.
I must have looked terrified, because she smiled. “Just keep trying stuff and you’ll start to feel a difference in the various powers. At least that’s what Brayden says.”
Brayden. The mere mention of his name made my chest ache.
She seemed to read my mood. “Try again. Freeze me.” She waved her hands and shook her butt in a weird, twerking, crazy-lady move, and I genuinely had to bite the inside of my cheek to keep from laughing.
I pulled on my power again, the cuffs lighting up brighter this time, and then I tried to tease out one feeling from another. But it all felt the same.
