Cold Fire [SAMPLE]

[12]

 CHAPTER TWELVE

“You do realise that we only have an hour before my mum is expecting me home?” I ask, leaning on the dark wood table in the dining room. “And I doubt I’m going to learn how to use my abilities in one day.”

Rand nods. “I’m just going to teach one thing. It won’t take long, but it will buy us some time to teach you everything. That is, if you are able to do it. The only abilities we know you possess right now are regeneration, telekinesis and some sort of elemental control.”

“How many abilities can one person have?” I ask.

“The most anyone has ever had is twelve.” He heads for the stairs. “I’m just going to get something.”

Next to me, Caden is sitting silently, staring at nothing, and I take the opportunity to ask him a question.

“How do you know Rand?”

He looks at me, apparently surprised that I’m speaking to him, and says, “He’s good friends with my father. I think they mainly became friends because they both share similar abilities.” He shrugs. “But I’m staying with him until my dad gets back from his overseas business trip.”

“So, I’m guessing you have abilities too?”

He nods. “But only one, and I’d rather not talk about it.”

“What about your mum? Does she have any?”

“She used to.”

I raise my eyebrows.  “Used to?”

“She died in a car crash when I was twelve,” he explains, running a hand through his hair. “I’d rather not talk about that either.”

After a brief silence, I say, “I’m sorry.”

He shakes his head. “No, it’s alright. You didn’t know.”

At that precise moment, I hear Rand’s heavy footsteps on the stairs, quickly descending. I watch as he enters the dining room holding a cage. He places it in the middle of the table and I feel my eyes go wide.

“A mouse?” I ask.

He grins and sits opposite me. “I’m testing you for the ability of mind control. It can be extremely useful and is fairly common among those with abilities.”

“Mind control?” I can’t help my disbelieving tone. “There’s no way that’s possible.”

“And regeneration is? What makes mind control so impossible when you can heal almost completely in a day?”

He stares me down and eventually, I look away. He got me on that one.

“Fine. What do I have to do?”

“To start, I want you to look at the mouse. Make eye-contact if you can.”

I sigh, and do as he says. Inside the cage, the brown mouse has squished itself up against the thin metal bars that keep it trapped. I spot one of its beady black eyes and stare, feeling ridiculous. “What now?”

“Think about what you want it to do and clear everything else from your mind. Maybe start off by trying to get it to take a drink from its water dropper.”

“So, think about it, as in, picture it?”

He shakes his head. “Say it. In your mind. So for instance, you could say, ‘Drink’ over and over until it does it.”

I try to clear my mind as best I can before thinking, Drink. But the moment I say it in my head, I feel like a complete idiot and my mind fills with thoughts again. I try a second time, vowing to just go through with it, and I repeat the phrase numerous times. After a while, the mouse starts running around in circles, breaking eye-contact, as if it knows what I’m trying to do to it. Maybe it does.