have mended it without damaging it further. He wouldn’t have been able to walk again with serious reconstruction surgery. She asked Gavin and Sierra to help us.”
“I have never felt that much power in my life, and I’ve been around Will,” Sierra said in a somewhat dazed tone.
“It was like her power had been unleashed. Like it’s caged in her and wants to break free,” Gavin said grimly.
“She controlled it and made it listen to her. We healed the man. He’s going to be stronger than he ever had been. He used to have issues with his knee,” Noah said somewhat stunned. “I don’t know how I knew that, but when we’re connected it’s like I can feel the injury too. I never felt the injury before. I just healed it and hoped it would work. Now I can feel everything. Like the bodies are trying to talk to us.”
“We were able to mend his bones even though he was missing fragments,” Gavin added. “Somehow, someway it fixed. Better than new, like Noah said.”
Noah was suddenly above me. A concerned look on his face. “Are you with us, angel eyes?” He turned to everyone on shore. “Her eyes have been open since it happened, but she hasn’t spoken after she asked to be brought back here. She wanted, no she needed all of us.”
“Her gift wanted her. It wanted to consume her,” Sierra voice was shaking.
“I could feel it,” Jemmy said tears in her voice. “Then I could see it like when I’m manipulating electricity. It was like she was surrounded by electrical currents. Did anyone else see that?” she asked tremulously.
“No,” Gavin stated, and I looked over as he drew her into his arms. He kissed her nose. “I think you saved us all, though. With all of us connected, it was like we were all plugged into a power strip with no power surge protector. Her gift was going to fry us all. I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t move. It was draining me of everything. Jemmy told Sam to disconnect us, so he used his wind to break us up. The moment our hands disconnected…it released us.”
“That was some crazy shit,” Terrance exclaimed. “I don’t think the Nons will ever underestimate us again.”
Micah was now back with Terrance.
“Pops said he can’t authorize the change in the training exercise,” Drake said ruefully as he joined us in the pool. He reached for me, and Troy reluctantly handed me over. “I’m sorry, Jemmy, but he doesn’t want the other team to claim he is being biased or partial to the gifted. He thinks it could cause further dissension among the Nons and us.”
“That’s not fair,” Jemmy protested. “It’s not like Blake and the guys are supposed to be locating us. The mission is to locate them. There is no added advantage for them if Gavin, Sierra, and I were to stay here. I want to be with my best friend and brother.”
Terrance grunted. “If it was up to me I would be fine with them staying here. Especially now that-” He looked around. “…I see how sweet you guys got it here. You got a pool!” he exclaimed.
There was a tittering of laughter despite the heaviness in the air.
The sound of their laughter seemed to draw me from the edge I had been clinging onto. I felt like a thaw spread through me, like I was waking from a deep sleep. I wrapped my arms around Drake. I wrapped my legs around his waist and clung to him. I needed to get closer to him. I was terrified how close I had come to death, and I knew that’s what the results would have been had I held on a few seconds longer. I would have killed myself and hurt the others.
“I’m hungry can you feed me.” I murmured in his ear.
He breathed a sigh of relief. “Can you please stop scaring me like that?”
Jemmy, Gavin, Terrance, Micah, and Sierra stayed with us for a little while and ate some fish stuffed with wild garlic, wild onions, and cranberries with a water cress and cattail salad. I felt like my limbs were still heavy, but I was famished.
Jace insisted that I sit in his lap as he fed me. I wanted to protest but honestly his tender care was sweet.
“Do you want to tell us what happened?” Jace asked me after I had eaten my full.
My throat was dry from disuse. Remy handed me a canteen of water as if he knew.
“They were right,” I finally confirmed Noah, Gavin, Sierra, and Jemmy’s theory. “It was like, once I asked Gavin and Sierra to help us out, my gift got out of control. I had to force it to obey me, but once that guy was healed it seemed reluctant to go back to rest. Do you think it got out of control because Gavin and Sierra’s gifts are so strong that it was too much power at once? Do you think it’s because I haven’t been using it that often lately and it was pissed at me?”
Drake cleared his throat. “When the gifted were first discovered, some people believed that our gifts did have a life of their own. They believed that our gifts chose us. Once that gift became a part of us, the gift would only give us the amount that they thought we could handle. Thus, the reason we have levels within each gift.
“It’s a possibility that your gift resented the idleness. Plenty of gifted people believe it is a muscle and you need to use it constantly, or you will either lose it or you can strain it when you use it again.”
“I thought the gifts having a mind of their own was only an urban legend though,” Jaxson said skeptically.
“I thought it was, too, but you weren’t there today, man. The power that was running through us with our gifts was unlike anything I’d ever felt. It had a mind of its own.” Noah said emphatically.
Gavin, Sierra, and I nodded in agreement.
“Maybe we should make sure you work on your gifts everyday just in case,” Jace declared.
“I don’t think we should join our powers for a little while either,” Remy commented. “It’s not worth the risk.”