Kit was waiting for me when I entered. He was leaning against the central console, one foot crossed casually over the other, and pushed himself fully to standing. “So, are you ready to get started?”
I glanced nervously at the training rooms which were all divided by glass walls. Most of them had people inside, and they all looked like they knew exactly what they were doing. I hated that everyone would be able to witness me making a fool of myself, but I figured a request for curtains or blinds was probably not going to go down so well.
“I guess so.”
“We’ll start with something simple,” he said. “Wouldn’t want to tax you on your first day.”
I could never tell if he was being nice or taunting me.
“Right.”
We went into the room where I’d seen one of the other men lifting the tennis ball the previous day. It was empty of people now, though the objects remained on the table.
“I don’t know how much Hunter told you,” Kit said, moving more fully into the room, “but most of us have an affinity for one talent or another. Hunter is talented with being able to control the air, but also at your good old-fashioned telekinesis.”
I lifted my eyebrows to tell him to explain more.
“He can move inanimate objects,” Kit explained. “Others struggle more with this, but find they can control electrical things—make computers work without having to touch them, or light a whole room without needing to flick a switch.”
I nodded. “Hunter did mention it.”
“Good. So, we need to find out what you’re good at then focus on that during your training. He says he’s already seen you move objects.”
“Yes … well …” I stuttered. “He says it was me, but I don’t have any recollection of making it happen. It just kind of happened.”
Kit shrugged. “Not to worry. We’ll find out soon enough.”
A chair was set opposite the table containing the items I was supposed to lift with my mind. There was a good six feet between where I’d be sitting and the table—I guessed to reduce any chance of me being able to tamper with the objects by hand, or perhaps simply to make this harder than it already was. To the right was another chair, but this one was set in front of several computer screens and other equipment.
“Take a seat,” he said.
I did as I was told, and Kit fiddled with a few items around the computer. He picked something up and approached me, wires trailing out behind him.
Suspiciously, I eyed the things he held. “What are they for?”
The wire trailing behind him ended in electrodes, and I assumed he was headed toward me, clutching them, so he could attach them to my head.
“So we can monitor your brain activity.”
“Is that really necessary?”
“Yeah. It’s important for us to understand what’s going on when we’re able to do these things.”
“Is it? What is going on?”
“We’re not completely sure yet.”
I wondered who he was referring to when he said ‘we,’ but I was too intimidated by what was about to happen to ask any more questions. What if I wasn’t able to do anything? Would I be singled out as the fake I believed I was?
I sat in the chair as he attached the electrodes to my temples.
“Everything okay?” he asked.
I gave a brief nod. “Yeah, let’s just do this.”
This didn’t feel like I was in training. I felt like I was in a science lab. A shiver caused my shoulders to shudder. He sat behind a computer, where I assumed my brainwaves were now showing, darting up and down in a mountain range of peaks and troughs.
“Let’s start with the lightest object,” he said. “The tennis ball.”
Nerves jangled through me. I felt like I was sitting a test I hadn’t been to the classes for, never mind studied to take. I had a reoccurring dream where that happened, and the emotions hitting me now were exactly the same.
I tried to settle my nerves and focus on the job at hand. I took a shaky breath and glanced over at the table. I’d barely finished the intake of air when every single item on the table rose upward and hovered.
I caught my breath, staring, fixated. I didn’t feel as though I’d even done anything, but there it was, everything hovering in midair. I froze, unsure what to do now. Was this some kind of trick? Was Kit playing with me?
Averting my gaze from the items to glance over at him, a massive crash sounded as everything plummeted back to the table. The ball and a rock rolled off, hitting the floor.
I thought Kit would have been looking at me, or even the objects, but instead he was frowning at the computer screen.
“Did you do that?” I demanded, but he ignored my question. He jiggled the mouse, then got up and approached me. He readjusted the electrodes and tried again. He seemed less bothered by the floating things than he did the computer.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“I’m not sure. The readings are all over the place.”
“They are? What does that mean?”
“You must be interfering with them in some way.”
My mouth dropped. “Me? I’m just sitting here.”
“No, you’re not. You lifted everything on the table, and your brainwaves went insane. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“I’m not doing anything deliberately,” I said, my anxiety increasing.
His eyes narrowed, a muscle in his temple twitching. Did he think I was lying?
From the corner of my vision, I caught movement. Turning toward the floor to ceiling glass that divided us from the rest of the Cavern, I saw people had started to notice something unusual was going on. They had all stopped what they were doing and were watching me instead. Talk about a fish in a bowl. I didn’t like the feeling of being scrutinized. I was already claustrophobic from being underground, but now the walls pressed in on me from all sides. My breath grew shallow, a tremble affecting my hands. The electrodes on my head felt like they were boring into my skull, the pressure forcing themselves inward, like clamps instead of two circles of rubber.
With a gasp, I shot to my feet and yanked the wires from skin. “No, stop. I can’t do this,” I managed.
To my left, a massive crack issued through the air, and the blood in my veins turned to ice. I was transported back into the moment of the bombing, and my vision tunneled with panic.
I was barely aware of Kit on his feet, both hands held out toward me as though calming a wild animal.
“Everything is okay, Ari,” he said, keeping his voice calm, though I detected a tremor of uncertainty beneath it. “Take some deep breaths and control your emotions. You’re safe here. Everything is fine. We’re not going to do anything you don’t want to do.”
I sucked in air, desperately trying to calm myself. I didn’t want to look at what had caused the huge crack next to me, instead staring at the floor and trying to imagine myself somewhere else. I forced my thoughts to go back to the previous night, where I’d been lying in bed with Hunter beside me, staring at the familiar ceiling of my bedroom and enjoying the sensation of having a man beside me.
Gradually, my panic retreated, and my heart rate slowed, my breathing returning to normal. I stayed in position for a few beats longer, not wanting to risk the attack returning, and then I lifted my head.
Kit was staring at me with concern in his eyes, but not just concern—something else …
Fear. Alarm. Nothing good.
I needed to know what had happened. Though I was aware of all the people standing on the other side of the glass, all watching the freak who’d been brought to live with them, I turned and looked.
To my surprise, the others were no longer standing so close. They’d all retreated to the other side of the Cavern, though they still watched me with expressions not unlike the one I’d seen on Kit’s face.
My line of sight readjusted and I saw why.
Starting at the top of the glass dividing the space I was currently in fr
om the rest of the Cavern, a massive crack ran in jagged lines right down to the floor.
Chapter Thirteen
I stared at the huge crack in horror. It loomed above me, a physical threat that might give way at any moment. I must have been the one to cause it while I’d been in the grip of my panic attack, but I hadn’t done it intentionally. From the size of the fracture, I was amazed the entire pane hadn’t shattered, dumping broken glass down on everyone. From the look on everyone’s faces, I could see they were thinking exactly the same thing.
I turned to Kit. “I didn’t mean to,” I said, shaking my head. “I don’t know what happened.”
“It’s okay,” he said, though still wary. “We’re going to have to try to get out of here without the glass crashing down on us.”
The doorway out into the rest of the Cavern was to the left of the crack and was also made of glass. It was, however, mercifully intact, though there was the worry the movement needed to open the door allowing us to get out would bring the glass down on our heads.
“I’ll open the door,” I said, stepping toward it, but Kit’s hand caught my arm.
“Uh, uh. No, you won’t.”
His eyes narrowed as he focused his gaze on the glass door. So slowly I almost missed it happening, the door began to push open. I caught my breath, my eyes fixated on the crack in the glass, expecting it to go at any moment. So slowly, it was hard to see, the door edged open. When the gap was big enough for Kit to get through without touching the rest of the glass, he moved his attention away and jerked his head to motion me forward.
I didn’t want to go out there with all those other people, but I didn’t have much choice. I couldn’t exactly stay in here, and it wasn’t as though I was even hiding—everyone was still watching me through the cracked glass. My face burned with shame as I followed Kit through the gap, cringing away from the danger as I did so. The moment I passed beneath it—aware that if the bottom half fell away, it could act like a guillotine on my body, slicing me right through the middle—I ducked away and created some distance.
Back in the rocky part of the Cavern, I allowed myself to breathe.
The friendliness I’d experienced from everyone when I’d first arrived had vanished. Now I received mistrustful glances and frowns, or even worse, I was completely ignored. Dixie and Sledge still smiled over me, but even I could see the expressions were strained.
A familiar figure appeared through the group, hurrying toward me.
Hunter! I didn’t think I’d ever been so pleased to see someone.
“Ari,” Hunter said, his face shadowy with concern, but thankfully with none of the wariness I’d seen on the others. “You okay? Dixie told me what happened.”
“She did?” I wasn’t one hundred percent sure I knew myself.
“She made a good guess.”
I looked over to where Dixie was standing with Sledge’s arm around her shoulders. She gave a shrug, almost an apology. I figured she’d been able to pick up on what had happened, the same way she’d known about my thoughts about her lying on my bed earlier.
I lowered my voice. “Where have you been?”
His arm wrapped around my waist and he squeezed me tight, but mainly to whisper in my ear. “I’ll tell you later.”
I leaned away to look into his face. His eyes told me that he had something to tell me, but that he didn’t want to say it in front of everyone else.
“So what did happen?” he asked.
“Honestly, I have no idea.”
Kit stepped toward us. “Her abilities are far beyond what we’ve come across before,” he said, addressing Hunter. “The problem is, she has no idea how to control them, or even when she’s using them.”
“Hey,” I snapped. “I am here, you know.”
He turned to me. “Do you understand what I’m saying?”
“Yes, I get it. I said I was sorry. I’m still not completely sure I was the one who lifted all those things off the table.”
“That’s what I’m talking about, Ari,” Kit said. “You haven’t even tried yet, and look what you’re able to do.”
Hunter nodded. “The same thing happened when we first met, do you remember? You launched a huge trashcan out into the road, and thought I did it.”
“Okaaay,” I said, though a part of me still felt like this was one massive joke. I looked between Kit and Hunter. “So, I need to learn how to control my ability to move things.”
Hunter touched the back of my hand. “I don’t think you can just move things, Ari. I’ve seen you affect electrical currents as well. You started all the car alarms on your street, remember?”
I opened my mouth to protest, but closed it again. He was right. I also knew of numerous times where I’d burst light bulbs, and set televisions and radios going. It had been happening to me almost constantly since Karina’s death. Since the bombing.
“So, I can move stuff, and control electricity.”
Hunter frowned at me. “What about natural elements? Water and air.”
“Umm …” I thought hard. “The faucet and shower have an unnerving habit of coming on around me, but that’s it.”
“No weather anomalies?”
I shook my head. “Not that I can think of. I mean, other than the ones when I’ve been around you.”
The two men exchanged a glance.
“What?” I said, trying not to get angry. I didn’t want a repeat of what had just happened.
Hunter spoke first. “Most people only have one affinity to a certain talent, and even then it takes time to train it. It’s taken me years to be able to do what I can do, and yet you’re able to do some pretty impressive stuff right off the bat. Plus, you seem to have an affinity to several talents—telekinesis, electrical, natural.”
I lifted a hand to halt him. “We’re only guessing the natural one.”
“Okay, but you definitely have the other two. You also have no history of ever breaking a bone, and the only hospital stay you’ve had was for the bombing where most other people were killed, and you only received a few grazes and bruises.”
I shrugged, awkwardly. “So what does that mean?”
“That if the government gets wind of this, they’re going to bust ass to get hold of you.”
I didn’t like the sound of that. “Get hold of me for what?”
“To use you. Or, if they think they can’t, they’ll kill you.”
“There’s something else,” said Kit. “You need to be able to control your abilities, or you’re a danger to us all. What if you were to bring the roof down upon our heads just because someone upset you? We’d all be buried under thousands of tons of rock.”
“I’d never do that!” I exclaimed, horrified at the idea. But he had a point. How did I know I wouldn’t do that?
He put out his hands. “It’s okay. Calm down. Take a breath.”
I didn’t like the way they were both looking at me—as though I was a bomb about to go off. Plus, there was nothing less likely to make a woman calm down than being told to calm down. But considering what had happened, I made myself do as he said, taking slow breaths and pushing all thoughts from my mind. The energy that had been building inside me slowly faded away.
“I’m fine,” I told them both, as soon as I was.
Hunter caught me by the elbow, but spoke to Kit. “I’ll take Ari into the kitchen. She needs a break from all of this.”
Kit nodded. “Okay, I don’t want her around while we trying to dismantle the glass anyway. It’s going to take some finesse to get it down without it breaking into a million pieces.”
“What about using Natasha?” Hunter suggested.
I couldn’t help experiencing a zing of jealousy rush through me, wondering who Natasha was. Remembering I needed to stay in control, I tried to calm myself. I had no right to be jealous. It wasn’t as though Hunter and I had an actual relationship. He’d kissed me a couple of times, and one of those times had only been to make a point. Finding new recruits was his job.
I was a new recruit, therefore spending time with me had also been his job. I wasn’t going to kid myself that we had anything more.
From the small group still hanging around, a tall, long-limbed girl with bouncy dark hair stepped forward.
I took a good guess that she was Natasha. Typical.
“Can you help?” Hunter asked her.
She nodded, giving me an uneasy side glance as she did. “I can try.”
I frowned. My confusion as to how she could help must have been clear on my face.
“Natasha has an affinity for changing temperature,” Hunter explained.
“Seriously?”
He nodded. “Watch.”
I didn’t know how that was going to help anything, but I had to trust they knew what they were doing—far more than I did, anyway.
Everyone stepped back, giving Natasha space. She stared up, focusing on the top of the crack I had caused. I was worried the whole thing would fall apart—I already felt like public enemy number one, but I’d be worse then. Her already high cheekbones grew more pronounced as her expression grew rigid, her full lips tightening, her dark eyes narrowing. As she stared, the line of the crack at the top began to glow a bright orange. The glow moved downward, following the fissure, like lava tracking down a fault in a volcano. The glass glowed bright orange with white in its center, and red around the edges. The heat and color faded from one area as she moved to the next, somehow heating the glass enough to cause the crack to melt and mold. Natasha reached the bottom then moved back to the start, now cooling the glass in the same way she’d heated it. The process was fascinating to watch. There was no other explanation for it happening than what she was doing. Any skepticism I held fell away. This might have been explained scientifically with brain waves and distribution of energy, but right now it looked like magic.
Flux (The Flux Series Book 1) Page 10
