The MORE Trilogy (79 page)

“Like the leaf?” Sophie asked skeptically.

“Yes, like the leaf. Don’t look at me like that.” Audrey clapped her hands together once. “Let’s start small. Adjusting the temperature right around you, perhaps?”

“Just like that,” Sophie muttered.

Ava laughed. “You sound like me. It sounds harder than it actually is. You have to become familiar with your gift, learn to recognize it. You should feel it inside you. Mine’s kind of like a tingle.”

“Yeah,” Sophie said slowly. “I think I know what you mean.”

“Try to feel it.” Ava took her hand. “I’m going to use my gift to try to help you. Close your eyes and take a few deep breaths. Try to be calm. Your gift wants to work for you. So try to just . . . let it.”

It took a while, but Sophie was finally able to lower and raise the temperature around them with more control and even create a light snowfall.

Sophie’s power stirred under Ava’s fingers—different than her own, or even Emma’s—and she began to understand the uniqueness of each person’s Race signature.

They tried for the ice balls, but seemed to hit a wall.

“Maybe we’re going at this wrong,” Audrey said, rubbing at her chin. “I want you to think back. How do you feel when you create these ice balls?”

Sophie’s eyes narrowed as she concentrated. “Panicked. Afraid. Kind of . . . I don’t know . . . trapped?”

“Like you’d run away if you could?”

“Yes.” Her eyes lit up. “It only happens when I can’t. Run away, I mean. Like when Caleb and Ava came for me. I knew I couldn’t run or they’d catch me, but I couldn’t get to my car in the garage.”

“So you fought back the only way you knew how.” Audrey nodded, a small smile on her face. “It makes sense. Your gift was simply trying to protect you, even if you didn’t do it consciously.”

Sophie deflated. “So how do I do it consciously, then? It’s not like I can make myself feel threatened if I’m not.”

Ava held out her hand and reached for her gift. In a moment, an apple formed, shimmering into existence in her palm. She smiled at Sophie’s sharp inhale and tossed the apple to her.

She fumbled with it a moment before examining it closely. “It looks real,” Sophie murmured.

“It
is
real,” Ava said. “If I’m understanding this right, what I do and what you do really aren’t that different.” She looked to Audrey for confirmation, and the older woman nodded in encouragement.

Ava reached for the apple and it disappeared, the molecules transforming back into thin air. “You need to picture in your mind what you want to happen,” she said. “See the ice forming around you. Visualize it flying toward your target.”

Sophie closed her eyes and tried, but nothing happened. “I don’t know what I’m doing,” she admitted. “It’s different, somehow. I can’t seem to make it happen.”

“It might be the block.” Audrey rubbed her bottom lip as if she were considering all the possibilities.

Ava stared at Sophie, gaining her focus once more with a long, slow exhale, turned, and strode away, whirling back to face her when she was halfway across the field. She eyed a soccer ball tucked in a box next to the shed and reached for her gift.

The ball flew across the yard and into Sophie’s stomach.

“Hey!” she shouted, clutching at her belly.

“If you can’t access it any other way, we’ll have to work with what you’ve got,” Ava shouted back. “Try not to think about it too hard.” She picked up the ball again, drew it back toward herself, and let it fly at Sophie once again.

The other girl ducked, and the ball flew past her to bounce on the grass.

Audrey moved to the side to watch. “It’s a reflex,” she told Sophie. “You said it yourself. So let it happen.” She turned to Ava. “I think you need more of a threat.”

Ava grinned and used her gift to pull a few more balls from the box. The soccer ball joined the group, whirling around Ava in a wide circle. “I’m going to send them your way,” she told Sophie. “You ready?”

Sophie squared her shoulders. “Ready.”

“Don’t overdo it,” Audrey warned.

Ava waved her off with a grin.

It wasn’t pretty.

Ava started off slow, lobbing balls toward Sophie and hitting her about half the time. At Audrey’s insistence, she increased the pace and the impact, but Sophie simply dodged the balls, or got hit by them.

Finally, Audrey huffed in frustration and went to stand behind the girl, pinning her arms to her side with her Race strength. “Don’t fight it. Now there’s nothing you can do to avoid the hit, so you either need to take it, or fight it off.”

Sophie gritted her teeth, and the air chilled as Ava lifted the balls once again. She tossed the soccer ball and laughed when a gust of heavy wind blew it off course.

“That’s it!” Audrey exclaimed, tucking her face behind Sophie’s back to protect it. “A little harder, Ava!”

Ava followed instructions, and this time, the gust came right toward her, shoving her back a step. She shivered at the icy wind but couldn’t keep the smile off her face. “Try to focus it on the balls, okay? I don’t want frostbite!”

Sophie laughed but seemed to take the advice in stride.

When the gust focused into a spray of icy fog followed by a piece of marble-sized hail, the little group erupted in cheers.

Sophie collapsed onto the grass. “I’m exhausted. How do you guys keep doing this?”

“It gets easier with time,” Audrey said.

“And as you get more familiar with your gift. Not to mention when the block—” Ava jolted, her whole body spinning toward the gate as she felt Caleb approach. Not only Caleb . . . Tiernan, too, and Gideon, and someone . . . else. Someone unfamiliar.

So close and I didn’t even notice.

The thought left her oddly unsettled.

“What is it?” Sophie got to her feet and moved to Ava’s side, watching carefully until the gate creaked open and drew her attention.

Caleb, Tiernan, and Gideon filed in, along with a teenage boy—tall, black, and gangly—who seemed somehow familiar. Ava wasn’t certain if it was his appearance or his gift that sparked recognition deep within her.

Sophie gasped. “Isaiah?”

She ran across the field, and the boy’s eyes widened as his step faltered before he dashed toward her. They met in the middle and embraced, a chorus of, “What are you doing here?” and “Are you okay?” filling the air.

“Isaiah?” Audrey whispered.

“Sophie’s brother,” Ava replied, unable to pull her eyes from the tearful reunion. “
My
brother.”

Audrey took her hand and squeezed it gently as they walked toward the little group.

Ava eyed Tiernan and Caleb. “I take it this is where you disappeared to?”

Caleb leaned down to kiss her, his palm warm on the back of her neck. “Sorry. It was before dawn, and Gideon was worried Tiernan might need my help.”

“I had everything under control,” Tiernan grumbled.

“Just a precaution.” Gideon’s response left no room for argument.

It didn’t keep Tiernan from glaring at him, however.

“So what’s going on here?” the Guardian leader asked, clearly ignoring the look.

“We’re working with Sophie, trying to help her hone her gift,” Audrey replied.

“And?”

“It’s going well, actually,” she said. “Only the cryokinesis right now, but she seems to be gaining some control.”

“Really?” Gideon glanced at Sophie. “Do you think I could see? I haven’t seen a cryo in action for more than twenty years.”

Ava eyed her sister and saw how tightly she clung to her brother’s hand. “Maybe this can wait.”

“No, it’s fine,” Sophie said quickly. “Now that I know Isaiah’s safe, I need to make sure he stays that way. I need to be able to protect him—both of us.”

“Hey!” Isaiah elbowed her. “I can take care of myself.”

“Hush, now,” she said with a smile, and his returning grin showed it was a frequent admonishment in the past. “Watch this. You’re going to love it.”

Isaiah looked a bit confused, but the smile didn’t leave his face as his sister turned to Audrey expectantly.

“You ready?” she asked.

Audrey frowned for a moment. “Perhaps Isaiah would be a better choice,” she said, eyeing the boy. “If you’re protecting him, it might even be more motivation.”

Sophie looked her brother over from head to toe, took his hand, and led him to the center of the field.

“What’s going on?” His voice cracked, and he cleared his throat nervously.

“You’ll see,” she replied, pulling him behind her. “Just stay there, okay?”

He obeyed but kept a hand firmly in hers, peering over her shoulder toward Ava, who’d taken her place down the field.

She heard him gasp when the balls flew up to circle around her, but she kept her focus on Sophie. Ava could feel her sister’s power, even across the field, and something . . . different.

Without warning, Ava shot the balls across the field at high speed, one after another.

Sophie let out a distressed squeal of sorts, and to Ava’s surprise, an ice ball the size of a baseball knocked the first rubber ball out of the way and flew toward her.

Ava reached for her gift to deflect it, the other balls falling harmlessly to the ground as she lost focus, and the ice ball shattered three feet before her, showering her with icy spray.

A heavy silence fell over the field, broken a few seconds later by Gideon’s booming laugh. “I think that’s more than a
little
control!” he exclaimed.

It took a moment for Ava to catch her breath. “That’s the first time she’s been able to do it.”

The group converged on the middle of the field, all eyes turned on Sophie, speculative and more than a little impressed.

“The threat to Isaiah, you think?” Gideon asked Audrey.

“Perhaps. Not really much of a threat, though.”

Ava snorted. “I’m not going to throw rocks at her.”

“Thanks,” Sophie said wryly.

“Maybe more of the block fell,” Caleb offered.

“Maybe,” Gideon replied, darting his gaze back and forth between Sophie and her brother still huddled behind her and clutching her hand.

Without thinking, Ava laid her own had over their joined ones. She gasped at the feeling of power that shot up her arm and yanked it away as though she’d been shocked.

“What is it?” Caleb reached for her, half pulling her behind him.

“It’s . . . I’m not sure.” Ava took a step forward, drawn by some compulsion she didn’t really understand. When Caleb stiffened, she tore her eyes away to look up at him. “It’s okay.”

Caleb didn’t release her, his gaze flashing to Gideon. “What’s happening?”

Ava knew he was remembering the last time, and she could imagine his frustration when she was under Emma’s influence. His fear when she was no longer herself.

This is something else entirely.

“It’s okay,” she said in a firmer voice, taking his face between her hands. “I’m here. I’m okay. I promise.”

Caleb looked into her eyes, and she felt his gift pushing, testing, almost probing, before it withdrew, and he nodded.

Ava smiled and reached out to touch Sophie’s hand again. She expected the jolt this time—the surge of power that raced up her arm and through her body. Still, she gasped, her mouth dropping open a little at the sensation.

Sophie watched her with wide eyes.

“Do you feel that?” Ava whispered.

“I feel . . . something,” she replied. “More than before.”

“Ha!”

That’s an understatement
.

Ava turned to Isaiah. “Do you feel anything?”

The boy shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t understand what’s happening. I don’t understand any of this.”

Ava reached for Caleb, drawing him forward and laying his hand atop theirs. “Do you?”

Caleb closed his eyes for a moment then looked at her with a slight frown. “I feel you. And faintly, what I assume is Sophie. That’s it.”

Ava pulled away, shaking her hand a little and flexing her fingers. “I think I know where Sophie’s sudden control came from.”

“A link,” Gideon murmured. “A link between the Twelve.”

She nodded.

Tiernan grunted. “Anybody care to translate for those of us who have no idea what’s going on?”

Isaiah giggled, and the bigger man smirked at him.

“It appears Elias Borré created some kind of link between the Twelve,” Gideon said. “A link that can boost their power.”

“A boost?” Tiernan eyed Ava warily. “How much of a boost?”

“I’m not sure,” she replied. “I’ve felt it with Caleb before, but not as strong as this.”

“It’s not uncommon for bonded couples to share a link to varying degrees,” Gideon explained. “It doesn’t always happen, but it makes sense with your superior abilities that Caleb’s power could strengthen your own.”

“I’ve never heard of such a thing outside of bonded couples, though,” Audrey said.