My phone, of course, was full of unanswered calls and text. Strangely, none of Iris or Xinyi, but I’d left my bag with them, so maybe it was them that Kyren had gotten it from. Still, I was glad to have it and not have to go through the process of replacing everything.
Crap.
I was losing the panic feeling.
Think bad thoughts. Horrible thoughts. Think of getting ambushed by those rebels again. Ten on one was obviously my limit. I’d been lucky to get away let alone be alive. There were just too many of them, and they kept coming. As soon as I took a few of them down, more were on me. Why couldn’t they be like in the movies where the heroine fights the bad guys one on one, waiting their turns like a respectable fighter?
“Jack, you’re going to have to try some time.”
Tabby’s urging sent my pulse rocketing. The truth was I didn’t want to use my powers. I didn’t want to learn to control them. I just wanted them to go away.
“Come on, Jack. You’re not even trying.”
I gritted my teeth together, trying to focus, but her voice kept grating on my nerves.
“If you don’t get control of your powers, you are going to end up hurting someone. If not Tate again, then it could be one of your parents. Do you want that to happen?”
Her words caused havoc on my stress levels, and it took everything I had not to just run away and tell her I didn’t want her help anymore.
“Or maybe you can’t handle your powers?” Tabby sighed, the disappointment clear in her voice. “Maybe you’re too weak to do this. We could find some kind of binding ritual to get rid of them, I suppose. Then everyone would be safe because you can’t handle them.”
My eyes snapped open.
“Shut your mouth,” I snapped, the words reverberating out of my mouth and hitting Tabby full force in the face.
All of a sudden, she clipped her mouth shut. Her eyes widened with fear and then she was smiling, eyes beaming with pride as she waved her hands in front of her face.
I’d done it.
“I did it!” I screamed as I jumped out of my seat.
Tabby grabbed my arms, and we jumped together for a second before she started pointing at her mouth.
“Oh, uh, how do I undo it?” I scratched the side of my head thinking of how it felt to command her. It was like I was pushing my voice into her, shoving my will into her very being.
Which I had no idea how to replicate.
Taking a deep breath, I spoke with intention the way my dad had told me, focusing on Tabby and envisioning pushing my voice into her. “You can talk now.”
For a moment, I thought it didn’t work and then Tabby opened her mouth, rotating her jaw before beaming at me. “Wow, I can happily say that I do not enjoy that. But yay, we figured it out.”
“Figured what out?”
We turned to see Julian walking toward us from the open library door.
Releasing Tabby, I met him a few feet away. “We were practicing my powers. I hadn’t been able to get it to work before, but I just did. Right now.” I grinned from ear to ear, all the panic and fear of using my powers completely pushed aside.
“That’s great.” Julian cupped my waist and drew me to him in a tight squeeze. “I’m proud of you. I knew you could do it.”
Hands on his chest, I chuckled. “Just like you knew I could hit five targets in under five seconds from ten yards away?”
Julian’s eyes twinkled with amusement. “Okay, sure, but that was a hard training course. None of the others had been able todo it, so excuse me for assuming you wouldn’t be able to do it either.”
“Ye of little faith,” I pointed out, biting my lower lip. “What are you doing here?”
“I was going to…” he trailed off his eyes sliding over to Tabby. “I apologize, I’ve interrupted your training. Should I come back later?”
“No, no.” Tabby waved her hands, gathering up her things. “We’re done for the day.” She smiled at me on her way by me. “We’ll pick up again in a few days. Keep practicing. We want it to be as easy as breathing by the time we are done.”
