I began to watch the screens once more. I grudgingly admired Miranda—or Randy, as she was calling herself now—as she as she darted from person to person, cloaking those who needed to be protected.
I heard a keening cry from behind me and jumped. I had forgotten that Harry was in here with us. Greg was struggling with him again. I walked over and held my hands open to him. When Randy wasn’t around, I happily interacted with my youngest brother. We had found out earlier that he seemed to calm in my arms. I didn’t know how or why, since my gifts were so weak, but it worked.
Greg gave me a grateful smile and handed him over to me. I placed Harry against my chest and patted his back. He immediately soothed and sighed as he laid his head on my shoulder. His eyes seemed to focus as he looked up at me. He really was a cute little bugger. I waited until his breathing calmed before I looked back up at the screens.
I began to pace behind the chairs in front of the screens, conscious of the fact that I didn’t want to block the view for everyone sitting. The few people we had given access to, to observe, were sitting in the back of the room, but I wasn’t in their way. The watching helped with my nerves, and it allowed me to calm Harry down.
I wouldn’t say that I was okay with having my biological mother, technically my stepfather, maternal grandmother, and half-brother around continually, but I was becoming used to it. It bothered me that they were a daily reminder of my horrible past, but I also saw how it was giving my siblings a chance to tackle their own issues and possibly heal from them.
When I was in California, Pops informed me that Alex and Kade would visit Harry from time to time. Both of them seemed indifferent towards Miranda, but they cared about Harry and had admired Greg. Alex was also helping Harry sleep peacefully from time to time.
As predicted, Ella became enchanted with Hazel. Ella and Nadia often hung out with Hazel before bed. Hazel told them stories that the girls found interesting. With Hazel’s ability to know the history of an object, she had some of the most exciting stories. I even found myself enthralled with some of the tales she told about objects she had run across.
Micah didn’t want anything to do with any of them; Hazel, Miranda, Greg or Harry. He wasn’t rude to them, though. When they talked to him, he would respond, but he never sought them out. He didn’t seem in any hurry to garner any relationships with them, at all.
“We have runners,” Jaxson pointed out some of the enemy forces that were seeking refuge in the trees.
“Runners on the east side,” Paul spoke into his mic.
“Copy that,” Terrance responded.
I watched as Terrance yelled to his right. Then I watched Ford take flight. He had an arsenal of restraints in his backpack. We didn’t want to kill our attackers. We knew it was inevitable, but Will had encouraged submission before extermination.
“I’ll be damned,” Kirk said as he leaned forward in his seat. “That’s my brother, and he can fly.”
“He didn’t tell you?” Jaxson asked in surprise.
“He wanted it to be a surprise,” Remy stated with a smirk and a shrug.
“How the hell did he learn he could fly?” Kirk sputtered. “Why wouldn’t he tell our dad and I about his gift?”
“I guess he wanted to show you,” Noah said amused.
The battle was still raging about forty-five minutes later, and I watched as some of our people dragged or carried the injured towards the facility entrance. I had enough of sitting in helplessness.
“We have to go,” Noah stated emphatically.
“We can’t. The skirmish is still going,” Jace sighed as he rubbed his face. “We’re still at risk of getting hurt without…” He looked hesitantly over at Kirk who was hovering over one of the screens before lowering his voice. “…being at our full potential.”
“Micah and I can do it,” Kade spoke up from the back of the room. I had forgotten that Kade, Micah, and Patrick were in here. They had begged to stay and watch. We told them they could if they remained quiet. “I’ve kind of realized my gift is more than just turning back time. I can manipulate all time. Even our current time,” he explained slowly.
We all looked at him in confusion. He smirked as he looked around the room and focused in on Rachel. She was currently swinging her legs back and forth in nervousness and biting her nails. Kade held up his hands, and just like that, she was frozen in mid-swing and her mouth had stilled in an upward angle.
Jaxson released a surprised laugh before he ran over to Rachel and moved his hands in front of her face. Her eyes never moved. A glint of mischief entered his eyes. He grabbed a pencil and inserted it in her slightly opened mouth.
“I was wondering if that was in your list of capabilities,” Greg said with a grin around his lips. “Time is written all over you, but each person may not be proficient of flexing ‘all of time’. With the way the gifts have manifested in all of Miranda’s children, I wouldn’t be surprised if you can all encompass the full aspects of your gifts, not just a part of it like most of us. There’s a small, and I mean a small, possibility that you can even jump forward.”
Kade seemed awed by that fact.
“Time out,” Troy said in confusion. “You aren’t a normal reader either. You can read gifts and determine gifts. That’s more than most of the readers we know can.”
“True,” Greg said with a shrug, “-but I can’t read people from a distance like Herman can. I have to visibly see them, whether they’re in front of me or in digital form. I will also like to add, though, that with some of our gifts we need to be careful.” He gave Kade a pointed look. “We don’t want to mess with things too heavily, especially when we are talking about time, because the consequences could be devastating.”
Kade nodded as if he had already considered that. “When I jumped back I realized that. Especially,” he swallowed thickly. “When I lost my family. Each time I jumped, it seemed to end in a more devastating consequence.”
“So, you need to keep that in mind,” Jace said gently. “It shouldn’t be something taken lightly.”