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“When I first started developing my powers, the telekinesis was the worst—the hardest to control or accept. ”
“Really?”
“Yes. ” He held the book up. “I started taking notes, assessing myself, testing my limits. This—” He passed it to me, and as I took hold of it, could actually feel the ancient energy within its pages—could almost see the past. “I’m sure this will help you on your journey, too, Ara. I want you to have it. ”
“This is your journal?” I frayed the pages with my thumb, flipping it open to the first page.
“Yes. And it contains many secrets about my powers, so you must promise to keep it safe. ”
I hugged it to my chest. “I promise. ”
“Good. ” He nodded once and shimmed down a little deeper into his covers, closing his eyes, though he didn’t give the impression he wanted to sleep. “You did good today. ”
“I broke your arm. I hardly think that’s good. ”
“Don’t you?” He opened one eye. “Because I think that’s pretty damn amazing. ”
True. It was kind of amazing. A little. If I really thought about it. “Well,” I said lightly, standing up. “Next time you’ll think twice about making bets to win a kiss from me. ”
“Your Majesty,” he scoffed, laughing, “If that’s the pain I have to go through to kiss you, then, no offence, but I’ve got better things to do with my time. ”
I laughed. “Good. So do I. ”
“Yes, you’ve got a whole lot of reading to do now. ”
“That, I do. ” I held the book up, laying it on the bed after, my thoughtful gaze falling on its leather binding.
“How’s your hand?” Jason asked softly.
“It’s okay. ” I unfolded my fingers as he took it in his and traced a line down my palm.
“I didn’t do it, you know?” he said.
“Do what?”
He drew my palm to his lips and kissed it. “I didn’t heat that stone. ”
“I know. ” I smiled. “I’m sorry I thought you did. ”
“Don’t apologise, Ara. ” He left my hand in his lap, still holding it. “As soon as the pain stops, I’ll figure out how you did what you did, and then we’ll get started on mastering it. ”
“Without David’s approval, huh?”
“He has no say in this. ” His green eyes bore into mine with stern appeal. “You’re showing signs of a power he knows nothing about. Husband or not, he can’t stop me from helping you. ”
“When he finds out what happened, I’m not sure he will. ”
“Well, I hope not. Because you melted that stone, Ara. I was in agony, never hurt so much in all my life, but I still saw you tip the water and sand remains away. ”
I looked down at my hand, reliving that moment. “Do you think that’s another power? Melting things?”
“No. ” He closed his eyes and readjusted his head on the pillow. “I think your blue light heated the stone—almost like a reverse fulgurite. ”
“What’s that?”
“Ever seen what lightning does to sand?”
I shook my head.
“It strikes the ground at such a high temperature for such a short time that, when it retracts again, the ground cools quickly and the sand turns to glass. I think maybe you heated the stone enough to basically melt it back to sand again. ”
“Whoa. That would have to be pretty hot, right?”
“As hot as lightning. About three-thousand-two-hundred-and-seventy degrees Fahrenheit to be exact. ”
“But you’re not sure yet if that’s what it was?”
“Not yet. ” He winced, scrunching his eyes tight. “But I will figure it out, Ara. I promise you. ”
When I looked up from the journal, his eyes were open again, swearing that promise to me with all his heart.
“Okay. ” I leaned over and planted a kiss to his cheek. “Get some rest, Jase. I’ll see ya later. ”
“Later, Ara,” he said, and I closed his door behind me, shaking my head as a smile passed my lips for a moment. I knew I needed to go up and speak to Arthur about all this now. I knew he wouldn’t just walk away, amazed by it all. But I needed to tell someone more important first.
“You did what!” David’s shock came right through the phone line and made me grin.
“I . . . it just broke, David. Like, just snapped in half. ”
“Ara. ” I heard him sigh. “I took a tour through the Vampiric Institute of Science a few years back—saw the Brokemon Test. ”
“The what now?”
“The Bro…it’s a demonstration, really, more than a test, where they pit vampire against machine. And these were powerful machines, Ara. They’d lay the vampire’s arm under it and attempt to break the bone. The test was conclusive each time, sweetheart; One hundred per cent conclusive. The machines always failed. Now, I’m not trying to undermine you here, but are you sure it broke?”
I just laughed to myself a little. “You can talk to Arthur, if you want. ”
“I. . . ” He went quiet for a second. “Damn, Ara. ”
My smile grew.
“That’s amazing. ”
“That’s what everyone says,” I chirped.
“Everyone? Who else have you told?”
“Just you. I mean, Arthur and Falcon know, and obviously, Jason, but no one else. ”
David went quiet again. “He’s okay, though, right?”
“Yeah. He’s healed now. It only took about six hours. ”
“Six hours? Why didn’t you call me the second it happened, Ara? If that much time has passed—”
“I did. But we haven’t been able to get hold of you. No service in the dungeons, remember?”
“Right. Sorry. Didn’t think of that. ”
I laughed. “Now you’re just starting to sound like me. ”
“Well, rather than sound like you, can I have your power, please?” he said, and I giggled. “That’s not fair. You’re not supposed to be cooler than me. ”
“Well, maybe you’ll get some wicked new talent soon. You’ve only been officially sworn in on the Stone for two weeks. ”
“Very true. I guess I have a whole month worth of a lifetime to find out, right?” he said.
My shoulders sunk. “It would’ve been nice to see how powerful you became after another century. ”
“Yes. But, perhaps I’ll pass that power down to my daughter. ”
I laid a hand across my belly, thinking about what Eve said. And a part of me wondered if maybe, in some small way, she meant that our child held the key to saving David. “I did that pregnancy test. ”
“And?” I heard the smile in his voice.
“It was negative. ”
A long moment of silence followed before his deep, whispery voice came down the line, distorted with a bit of static. “I’m sorry. ”
“There’s always next time, right?”
“Right,” he said in an almost quick, insincere manner. “Now, what were you doing, exactly, when you broke my baby brother’s arm?”
I laughed. “I was running away so I wouldn’t have to kiss him. ”
My ability to silence him surfaced again. “Okay, I’m going to assume there’s quite a story behind that. ”
“There is. ” I sat down on my bed and crossed my legs. “Remember when I threw that guy at training the other day?”
“Yeah. ”
“Jase said it wasn’t my blue light that did it. It was telekinesis. ”
“Telekinesis?”
“Mm-hm. Apparently I can snap bones with, too. ”
“Okay, just . . . I need a second to get my head around this. ”
I smiled, letting him have his second.
“So, you have telekinesis? You didn’t snap his bone with your bare hands, but with . . . your mind?”
“Yes. Because I thought he was the one that was hurting m
e. ”
“What do you mean?”
“He told me I could move things with my mind, that the power had surfaced the other day out of necessity, and that if we could recreate a situation where I felt threatened, it would surface again. ”
“So he hurt you?”
“No. He tried to kiss me. ”
“Right. ” He paused again, clearly seething on the other end of the line. “Just give me the full story from start to finish. ”
“Okay, well, he was throwing stones into the ocean, and I was headed down to the beach. I asked him to show me how to throw them with my mind, and he said we needed high stakes to force my power out of hiding. So we agreed that. . . ”
“The wager was a kiss?” David asked, but not in a dull, flat tone, more like he was laughing.
“Um, yeah. We were playing keep-off. If he got the stone, I had to kiss him. ”
“And if he didn’t get the stone?”
“I—”
“Right. So he didn’t believe for a second that you’d actually use that power, did he?”
“Of course he did. But I guess that was my grand prize—the knowledge of power. ”
“Fine. So you were running from him?”
“Yes. But, when he captured the stone and he was standing right in front of me, all geared up to accept his prize, I couldn’t do it. And I was holding the stone in my hand, and it got really hot. ”
“Why?”
“I thought Jase—”
“Jason,” he warned.
“Jason,” I corrected, rolling my eyes, “was doing it to me, you know, making it burn to make me fight. But even he got scared when my hand started melting. ”
“Melting?”
“Yeah. The stone got so hot my hand fused shut and I couldn’t get it out. Jason stepped in to help me, but I thought he’d make it worse. So I kind of, I dunno, I didn’t want him to touch me, and then he just fell to the floor. When the stone stopped burning, his arm was broken, and I don’t really remember doing it. ”
“Do you remember how you got the stone to stop burning?”
“I melted it,” I said simply. “I felt it turn to cold glass in my hand, and then it just melted. ”
“You . . . you melted it?”
“Uh-huh. ” I nodded.
“Okay, I’m gonna need some time to process this,” he said distractedly, then came back into the conversation with a completely different tone. “On another note, did you go see Arthur about that rash?”
My hand went to my hip to scratch it. “No. ”
“Why not?”
I inhaled to the deepest part of my lungs and let it out. According to the book Petey showed me, the one safely back under my bed, I already knew what the rash was. I just wasn’t sure Arthur could mix up a remedy to fix a Mark of Betrayal, and I wasn’t really sure what I’d done wrong, either. So, until I figured this out, the last thing I wanted to do was tell anyone about it. “He’s my uncle, David. I feel kind of funny talking to him about that stuff. ”