Chapter Four
There was breaking news of a dangerous woman on the loose. I was accused of causing the building’s explosion and for leaving a trail of dead bodies the previous night. They offered a reward to anyone who turned me in.
“Armed and dangerous! Damn right she is. If they try to hurt you, I swear to God!” Kevin paced back and forth.
“Relax, Kevin.” Annie put her hand on his shoulder. “She’s safe here with us. They don’t know who we are or what we look like, but just to be on the safe side, we’ll all stay in hiding as well.”
“That’s the problem,” Jay said. “How long can a large group of people remain in hiding? Eventually, you’ll need food, and you can’t stay cooped up in here all the time.”
“What do we have you for? You can be our errand boy.” Kevin smirked.
“I’ll be happy to run out for things, but for how long?
A month? Ten years? Forever? I imagine this group will not stand for this for long.
Personally, I’m voting for us to clear Ryan’s name and .
. . are you even the people she spoke about?
Where’s the fight? Are we just going to sit back and hide? ”
I shook my head. “I want my name cleared without putting anyone else in danger. Don’t be a hothead. I don’t want anyone fighting.”
“We’ll need to get everyone here so we can figure out a plan. I hope Robert gets in touch soon,” Nick said.
Annie nodded. “I’m just glad we have powers to help clear Alexa’s name and fight off the rebels.”
“You’re glad?” Nick stood up. “These damn powers got us in trouble in the first place. Is this the kind of life you want for our son?”
Annie frowned. “What are you talking about? Once we fix this, everything will be fine.”
“If you think this will ever end, Annie, then you haven’t been paying attention to our lives.” Nick stormed out of the kitchen into the backyard, slamming the door behind him.
I looked at the door, surprised it wasn’t broken. “I’m not sure what it’s like actually having powers, but so far, I don’t disagree.”
Kevin raised an eyebrow. “You say that now. Once you remember what you lost . . . and it sinks in that you lost it, you’ll feel empty.”
“I don’t know what got into Nick,” Annie said, staring at the kitchen door. “I love my powers, and when you get a hold of yours again, Ryan, you’ll see how amazing it is. You just don’t remember how to use it. Have you thought anymore about letting Nick fix your memory?”
I looked toward the backyard. “I doubt he’d be up for that.”
“Nah, he’ll do it. He gets antsy when one of us is in danger. Once he cools off, let him help you. We’ve been through a lot with—well, because of powers. Mine specifically.” She gave me a weak smile. “But he’ll help you.”
“No offense, Annie, but I don’t know about powers any more than I know about you guys.
Does my gut tell me I can trust you? Sure, but with everything that’s happened to me because of being a Luminary, I don’t think I want to remember anything.
Plus, Jenny thinks it might be good practice for me to try healing myself. ”
“What about you, Jay?” Kevin asked. “What do you know about your powers? How were you trained, and how do you feel about it?”
“Date number two! Okay.” Jay smiled. “I suppose, just like the rest of you. I was recruited and trained by the rebels. You were recruited and trained by the Org. If it makes a difference, they failed at brainwashing me. So I pretended I had very weak telekinesis powers and snuck my way to work in their labs.”
“You chose to stay and work with them?”
“Yeah, I mean, they paid me to do quality control at the lab. It was the perfect place for me to learn as much as possible about Luminary powers. And since I wasn’t on their radar, why wouldn’t I do it?”
“How are you good at physical combat if you worked in the lab? And how do you know to use your powers so well if you were hiding it?” Kevin asked.
He shrugged. “Ryan helped with both. I practice a lot on my own, too. No one there knew when I mimicked them, so I had many Luminaries to pull from.”
“I don’t understand something,” I said. “You said they didn’t brainwash you. Does that mean most of the rebels are brainwashed? Like, are they not all that bad?”
“Well, some of them love power and incline naturally to being criminals. Money talks, you know?” Jay said. “But some are being controlled.”
“That would make sense.” Annie nodded. “Do you know if they’re hypnotized, or is it something else?”
“Both. Kill chips as backup, but they also had a hypnosis Luminary who took care of those who resisted. I never met him. I only know they like to keep control of those whose powers were strong. No questions asked. So whether or not they agree with the ultimate goal, they have no choice but to comply. The rest of us were just paid to do our jobs.”
“And what exactly is the ultimate goal?” Kevin asked.
“I don’t know. But they used that phrase often.” He frowned. “Optimizing the order of things or something? I’m really not sure.”
Kevin pointed to Jay while looking at the rest of us. “You see this guy? He’s just here bullshitting us. So far, he hasn’t actually given us any information.”
Jenny walked in just then and said, “You can trust him. And if you don’t, please trust me. I’ll vouch for him.”
Kevin’s jaw tightened and he stared at Jenny for a few seconds, then gave a single, stiff nod. “Okay. I guess you’re part of the team, Jay.”
“Just like that?” I asked him.
He shrugged. “It’s Jenny.”
Since we were supposed to sit back and wait, we figured learning to control my powers was the thing to do. If only I could concentrate.
I’d spent an embarrassing amount of time straining, as if that was the secret. I was just happy I didn’t end up laying an egg. Even happier that was not actually anyone’s superpower. Gosh. I sure hoped it wasn’t.
“Explain to me again why I have to do this?” I opened one eye to peek at Kevin.
We sat cross-legged on the grass in the backyard, facing each other. Our eyes were closed—well, his eyes were closed—and I was supposed to sync my breathing to his.
“It will help,” he whispered.
“But I’m on edge!”
He opened both eyes and stared. “And that’s why you have to meditate. Instead of fighting me, you should try it.”
“You don’t strike me as the type of person who’s into meditating.”
Kevin smiled. “I’m not. Well, I wasn’t. Derek is the one who taught me. He taught us all. And believe it or not, you enjoyed it a lot. I didn’t.”
“Sounds like you were the problem child.”
“Pretty much.” He laughed. “Anyway, you can do this. Just focus on my breathing and try to match it. Only for a few minutes.”
“Okay, but why did Jenny say this could help me focus my powers?”
He raised an eyebrow. “Really? Think about it.”
“Fine. I get it. Shutting everything else out helps. But you keep repeating the same instructions and so far nothing is working.”
“Do you think maybe it’s because you’re refusing to stay quiet for more than five seconds?”
I sighed. “I’ll try.”
“Here.” Kevin reached over and pulled the beanie hat over my eyes. “This should help. No matter what, inhale one, two, three, four, and exhale. One, two, three, four, repeat. Yes . . . like that . . . and repeat.”
I did it several times as he counted. I wasn’t sure how long it went on for, but the sound of his voice was very soothing. Though I’ll admit that every so often I found myself distracted by it. And honestly, that should have been a warning.
I felt him move in closer but tried to stay focused on my breathing as I counted the beats of my heart.
Which was very easy to do, considering it was pounding in my eardrums. I felt his hands on my shoulders as he tried to .
. . well, I don’t know what he was trying to do.
All I knew was that everything went into slow motion—and then my back slammed against the floor.
I hit the deck hard, and once again, everything hurt.
I tried my best to stand up gracefully, but I failed. I was still hunched over when I spotted Kevin lying about ten feet from where we were. I tried walking toward him but kept losing my balance.
“What happened? What was that?” I heard Annie asking from the doorway as Nick ran past me to help Kevin.
Jay zeroed in on me and ran to help me stand straight. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. I’m fine.” But everything ached.
“Sit.” Jay walked me to a chair. “Uh . . . was that you?”
“What? No! I was there,” I said, pointing to the mat on the grass. “And then I was . . . I mean, I don’t know what happened. I think it was an earthquake?”
Nick brought Kevin to sit on the chair next to me.
“I went to give her a massage. She was meditating but was so tense, I thought I’d help. Then I saw the lights . . . flashes? I don’t know . . . but they were almost blinding, and then I was thrown all the way across the yard.”
“Here. Drink some water.” Jenny gave us each a bottle of water.
“Thanks. Wow, Ryan, wow!” Kevin looked at everyone else. “She had lightning flowing from her hands, and her whole body seemed to glow.” He threw his hands up. “It was all so fast and I don’t know what that was, but it was definitely Ryan.”
“It’s Alexa. And no,” I said, shaking my head. “There was . . . like an earthquake, seriously. It had to be. I felt the rumble. I even felt it in my belly and my body was shaking or trembling or something. It was so fast! It got hot and then suddenly cold and then I was on my back.”
“It was crazy, Ry—Alexa! I can’t believe you did that,” Kevin said.
“No, I’m telling you, it wasn’t me. Maybe your powers are coming back? Or check for natural disasters. I’m so sure it was just that, you know? An earthquake.”
“Ry, look at me.” He cupped my face so gently with both his hands, I had to blush. “It was you.”
We locked eyes, and the heat on my face must have burned his hand. He jumped back and stared at me. The soft rumble started building up again around us. Within me. Beside me. Under me?
“Drink your water,” Jay said, pushing up the bottom of the bottle still in my hand.