Invincible (The Aerling Series Book 3) (11 page)

Her nod is curt as she grabs my hands
again and sends her power crashing back through me. I nearly groan at the
sensation, but bite it back before I really piss her off. My hands are
strangling hers as she pushes her power around trying to find whatever she’s
looking for. Finally, Olivia blows out a frustrated breath. “You can’t just sit
there doing nothing,” she complains.

“What?”

“You’ve got to help me out, Mason. I can’t
feel the difference between your inborn power and Tāwhiri’s if you’re not
using either one. It’s all muddled together right now.”

My head shakes slowly. “I have no idea how
to use Tāwhiri’s power.”

“You’ve got to be able to,” Olivia
complains. “You’ve had some part of his power your whole life. It’s in there
somewhere. You have to find it and use it.”

“You have his power, too. Can you use it?”

More frustrated than ever, Olivia says, “I
can’t feel that there’s something there now that wasn’t before, but I don’t
know how to access it.”

“You can feel Tāwhiri’s power?” I
ask. “What does it feel like?”

Olivia’s expression changes from annoyed
to contemplative in a millisecond. “It feels like I’m carrying something around
inside of me that doesn’t quite belong there. It’s just sitting there, waiting
to be opened or something.”

“But what does it
feel
like?” I
demand. If she can describe it to me, maybe that will help me recognize it in myself.

The confusion in Olivia’s eyes halts my
eagerness. “I just told you what it felt like.”

“Yeah, but you just described what it
feels like to have his power inside of you. I need to know what his power feels
like.”

“I’m not sure what you mean,” Olivia says.

Surprised she doesn’t understand this, I
say, “Everyone’s power feels different. Molly’s is like a happy bumblebee
buzzing around you. Shane’s is jumpy and energetic while Conner’s is deep and
mellow, like a good bass beat. Sloane’s is oddly soothing, like chamomile tea.
Yours feels like warm honey being poured over my skin.”

“Warm honey?” Olivia asks. Her eyes seem
to lose focus for a second. “That’s what it feels like when I use my power on
you?”

“It’s the second best feeling I’ve ever
experienced,” I admit.

Olivia swallows hard. “What’s the first?”

“Your lips on mine.”

It’s hard not to notice how her fingers
tighten where they’re resting on her knees. “I didn’t realize. I guess that’s
why our practice sessions ended so…”

“Abruptly?” I say with a laugh.

The corner of Olivia’s mouth crooks up
despite her speech from a few minutes ago. She takes in several long, deep
breaths before forcing herself to refocus. “Maybe if you use your power while
I’m, uh, exploring, I’ll feel what you’re talking about, or maybe at least feel
what part isn’t doing anything.”

Olivia reaches for my hands again, but
hesitates, biting her bottom lip. I hate that she feels like she has to hold
back around me now, but I can’t give her the answer she wants to hear right
now. My buzz from her power sufficiently dimmed, I reach forward and take her
hands as seriously as I can manage. When she pushes her power into me again, I
put all my focus into ignoring the way it makes me feel and doing something
useful.

Calling up my power takes little thought.
Warming the air to take away the pink flush from Olivia’s cheeks due to the
cold temperature take only slightly more focus. It’s easy to maintain, though,
and will hopefully give Olivia what she needs. I feel her power sweep through
me several times before she stops abruptly.

“It’s right there,” she says excitedly.

Focusing on where her power stopped, I’m
confused. “It’s in my head?”

Olivia shrugs. “It’s there, I swear. The
power you’re using right now is coming from all over your body like it usually
does, but I can feel this dense core of energy hovering around your mind. It
feels the same way mine does, like it’s sitting there waiting for something to
open it.”

“How are we supposed to unlock it?” I ask.

Shaking her head, Olivia says, “I have no
idea, but if we don’t figure it out, finding the Mother won’t matter because we
won’t have enough power to stop her or help her.”

Chapter 13

Lifeline

(Hayden)

Knowing the cost of having Sloane coach me
in understanding my power makes me hesitant to accept her help. Sitting down on
a fallen log, I cross my arms and watch her. She moves confidently as she walks
over to me and takes a seat on the pine needle-strewn ground. Her confidence
only lasts until she looks up at me and sees my wary stance.

“I just want to help,” she says quietly.

“But you’ll poke around in my memories
while you do, right?”

Sighing Sloane says, “It doesn’t work like
that. I only see what you’re actively thinking about. With Olivia, she was
searching for you, so of course she was thinking about you. If she had been
searching for her sister, that’s what I would have seen.”

That makes me feel a little better at
least. “So, while you try to show me how to use whatever power I’ve got, what
will you see? What will I need to think about?”

Sloane is contemplative as she wraps her
arms around her middle. “Honestly, I’m not sure. Usually, by the time I start
working with an Escort, they’ve already learned how to access their powers.
They just need help developing them, finding their gifts and such. Like Olivia
being a Seeker. Of course, she got a head start on her gift since she found
Mason so early.”

“But I found Levi…” I stop when Sloane’s
body goes rigid. “Sorry.”

“No, it’s okay,” Sloane says. “You can
talk about him. I wasn’t upset, I just…I wish I’d had the chance to meet him.”

Bristling at her words, even though I know
they aren’t an accusation, I change topics immediately. “Well, we might as well
get started. I don’t know that I’ll be any help in all of this, but power is
power, right?”

Sloane looks startled by my abruptness,
but shakes it off and moves on. “Right. So we need to get you trained and see
what your gift is in case we need it.”

“How do we do that?”

Olivia explained to me this morning what she
had to do to get Mason back to the Aerling world. It makes sense that she would
have to be willing to sacrifice herself for him, but Levi is already gone. How
am I supposed to replicate that?

“Why don’t we just start off simple?” Sloane
says. Her hesitant voice matches the gun shy way she extends her hands to me.
“I can at least show you where your power is and what it feels like.”

“Olivia tried to do that once. It just
felt really weird,” I say. Not in a bad way, but definitely not what I was
expecting.

Sloane shakes her head. “No, what Olivia
did was feel the difference between your power and makeup and Mason’s. All
Escorts can do that. She wasn’t able to reveal anything to you.”

“But you can?”

Smiling, Sloane gestures for me to take
her hands again. “I can show you more than you realize.” She’s grinning now,
clearly excited to put her gift to work on me. It’s hard not to be pulled in by
her enthusiasm. I don’t like the idea of letting her into my head, but what
choice do I have?

Reaching out, I take her hands and breathe
out slowly. I’m not totally sure what to expect, since she said what she does
is different than working with Olivia. All I can do is close my eyes and wait.
It takes a few minutes before I feel it. While Olivia’s power slipping over me
felt like an odd electric buzzing of some kind, Sloane’s feels more like
feathers drifting across my skin…but under my skin rather than on top of it.
It’s on the verge of tickling, but as she pushes more of her power into my body,
everything else vanishes.

Sloane’s power envelopes me slowly.
Everywhere it touches me comes completely under her power and I find myself
wanting her touch instinctively, craving it. As soon as her power enters my
mind, I stop worrying about what she might see. I stop worrying about anything
at all. Every care I have, every fear, every concern…they melt away under her
influence. Her power soothes my mind in a way I have never experienced. Being
near Olivia softens the sting of Levi’s death. Sloane’s power…it makes me whole
again.

“Hang in there with me for a few more
seconds,” Sloane whispers.

My voice sounds strange as I say, “No problem.”
Secretly, I wish she’d never stop.

As Sloane’s power moves down from my head,
I panic, not wanting to lose the peace she gave me. My hands tighten around
hers, but as I feel her power moving toward my center, the feeling doesn’t
disappear. It intensifies. I don’t know how I manage to keep hold of her as I
feel my consciousness slipping away from me on a haze of utter contentment. I
can barely breathe as her power condenses at the core of my being, pulsing,
repairing, holding.

The second I feel her power pulling back,
I can’t stop myself from saying, “No, wait.”

“We need to talk,” Sloane says. Her voice
is firm, but I swear I can hear the smile in it.

I feel strangely empty when her power is
firmly back in her own body. Opening my eyes to face the world feels like a
chore, but when I finally wrench my eyes back open, Sloane’s brilliant smile
dulls the ache of losing contact. “Was that…” she begins.

“The most amazing thing I’ve ever
experienced?” I finish for her. “Uh, yeah.”

Sloane laughs. “I’m glad it wasn’t just
me. That was like nothing I’ve ever felt before. It was…beautiful.”

“So you don’t make everyone feel like that
when you scan them, or whatever you were doing?” I ask, hoping the answer is
no.

“What did it feel like?” Sloane asks.

Suddenly, I’m not so keen on discussing
it. Heat creeps up my neck as I contemplate telling her what I just
experienced. Her expression is so eager, so open, I know I can’t deny her. “It
felt like everything I’ve ever been missing in my life was suddenly there
inside me.”

Sloane takes in a sharp breath. “Really?”

I nod, because it’s the only thing I can
do at this point.

“Well,” Sloane says quietly, “I guess I
should explain what I just did.”

A little caught off guard that she’s moved
on, I struggle to catch up.

“What you said about me scanning you, you
were pretty much right. What I did was send my power through your entire body
so I could map it out, find the source of your power, the well where it’s kept,
and see whether or not it’s been unlocked.” Sloane narrows her eyes in thought.
It’s a few seconds before she continues. “Your power is not only unlocked, as
it should have been when you met Levi, but it’s active. It’s there for you to
use, but something is holding it back.”

“But I don’t feel any power. How do I use
it?” I ask.

Now Sloane looks stumped. “I’m not really
sure. Like I said, I’ve never had to help an Escort who hadn’t already made it
back to the Aerling world. Normally, saving your Aerling activates your power.”
She shakes her head in confusion. “Yours is already active, which doesn’t make
sense, but it is. You’re using it to a small degree, probably without even
realizing, but there’s so much more potential hiding in your power. Figuring
out how to access it is the problem.

“You’re wrong about me using it. I don’t
think you’re meant to use your power if you can’t save your Aerling,” I say
sourly.

“Hayden,” Sloane begins.

My hand snaps up to stop her right away. “I
revealed him.” My tone is harsh, making Sloane pull back. “Not only did I not
stop the Sentinels from killing him, I stumbled into him that day, talked to
him, alerted the Sentinels to his presence. If I hadn’t been so bored and
begged my granddad to take me to the skate park, Levi never would have been
killed!”

For the longest second, Sloane just stares
at me. Her power extends before her hand does. It brushes against me,
attempting to soothe me, but this time I pull back. Pain blossoms on her
features, but it isn’t for herself. “Please, Hayden,” she says as she extends
just her hand this time.

“Why?”

“Because your guilt is undeserved,” Sloane
says, “and because I think it’s stopping you from finding and using your power.”

Shaking my head, I say, “And how do you
expect to fix that? Keep your power connected to me forever?”

“If that’s what it takes,” Sloane says
stubbornly. She extends her hands again, this time more forcefully. The look on
her face makes it clear she’s not about to back down from this. When I don’t
give in to her insistence, Sloane growls at me and snatches my hands off my lap
before I can protest. I start to say something, but her power slams into me too
quickly, stealing away my thoughts and breaking down my resistance.

As soon as I stop trying to yank my hands
back, Sloane’s grip relaxes as well. “I need you to trust me, Hayden,” she
begs.

How can I not trust her when she makes me
feel like this? The last of the tension I was holding onto fades from my body
and Sloane feels it. Breathing out a sigh of relief, Sloane says, “I got
glimpses of Levi when he popped into your thoughts earlier, but now I need you
to really focus on him.”

“What?” I try to pull back, but the effort
is short lived as Sloane pushes more of her power into me, healing old wounds
and making me feel protected.

“Your fear of facing Levi’s death and the
guilt you’re holding onto are keeping you from accessing your power,” she says
softly. “If there’s anyone you’re afraid to share that pain with, it’s me, but
I’m the only one who can help you right now. Let go, Hayden. Give me your
burden and I’ll share the weight.”

Her touch, her voice, her power, they
slowly draw out my fears and lay them bare. Am I afraid to let Sloane see what
happened to her brother? I’m terrified. Am I afraid to face my power and
actually use it? I don’t know if I can handle having it in my hands and not
being able to save the people I want to protect most. Losing Levi almost killed
me. Being to blame for the deaths of my friends? It won’t just break me, it
will crush me beyond what anyone can repair.

“Hayden, please,” Sloane begs. “I need
this as much as you do. I couldn’t save my brother either, but I can save you
if you’ll just let me.”

Her deepest need laid bare shatters my
resistance. I know what it feels like to need something so badly. First it was
making up for Levi’s death. Then it was protecting Olivia from a similar fate.
Now it’s saving the Aerlings and my own world. I’m not strong enough to fall short
again and let someone I care about die. I have to protect them, and to do that,
I have to face my most carefully held secrets.

“Please don’t hate me for this,” I whisper
before giving in and dragging Sloane back to that day.

“Hey,” Levi says, “let’s go out
back and play catch, Hayden. The adults are going to be talking for hours while
they figure things out and I’m bored to tears in there.”

Shrugging, I gesture for him to
lead the way. “Where’s all your other siblings?”

“They’re downstairs in the den. Amy
and Alan are in the middle of a video game marathon and Alexander has homework
he has to finish before tomorrow,” Levi says.

“Homework?” I question as we push
through the back door. “It’s summer.”

Levi grabs a couple of mitts and
one of the many baseballs lying in a bucket on the porch. He tosses me a mitt
as if he fully expects me to catch it. I do, but it makes me smile that he’s so
comfortable around me, like we’ve known each other all our lives.

“We’re all homeschooled,” Levi
explains. “We take breaks here and there, but only a couple weeks at a time.
Mrs. Burton thinks we’ll forget everything if we stop working for longer than
that.” He laughs and shakes his head like she’s crazy, but I can tell he really
loves his Caretaker family.

Levi tosses me the ball and I catch
it easily. My dad and I play catch all the time. Playing with Levi is so easy,
so familiar. It doesn’t really make sense, but I’m having too much fun to care.

“It’s crazy you found me like you
did,” Levi says. “Usually Aerlings don’t find their Escorts until right before
they have to go home.”

“Go home?” I ask. I toss the ball
back and it slides right into his glove. Neither one of us has missed a ball
yet. It’s like we’re so in sync with each other that missing would just be a
completely ridiculous thing to happen.

Levi tosses it back to me just as
effortlessly. “Yeah, when I turn eighteen, I’ll go back to the Aerling world,
and you’ll take me there.”

“How will I do that?” I don’t even
question that this is what will happen. I know it will. The how is the only
part that’s a bit of a puzzle to me. I toss the ball back.

Holding the ball for a moment, Levi
shrugs. “Not sure. Mrs. Burton said it’s different for everyone. You have to
give something up to get me home, but she said you’ll know what to do when the
time comes. Then off we go.”

“We’ll both go to your world?”
Visions of grand adventures on some distant world light up my face. I’ll be
like a space traveler! Hopping between worlds with my super powers, or whatever
they are. I can’t imagine a cooler fate.