Star Gods, стр. 43
“I can’t do it. I’ve been trying.”
“I don’t want it, Sage.”
She sighs heavily. “I don’t think you have a choice. I’ll help as much as I can.” She lays her hand onto my arm.
With my eyes on my sister’s, I latch onto the new ability and slowly let it absorb. I inhale deeply, rest my head against the wall, and sigh in relief.
“Thank the gods.” Sage scoots to sit next to me so our bodies touch to offer me comfort, but I’m too exhausted, it doesn’t help like it normally has.
“Make sure he knows I didn’t mean to scare or hurt him.” With my heart pounding in my chest, I use the last of my strength to travel to my room to stand in the middle of it, confused by my own behavior. I don’t know what happened or what the whispering was, but I do know I have to gain control and accept my fate or I’m no better than an Assassin; I don’t want to become an uncontrollable killer.
12
I’m sure my stomach was growling long before I woke. Who could sleep through the smell of pancakes and bacon, especially with Cesar most likely at the stove? I stretch out the kinks in my back as I head toward the kitchen, and narrow my eyes at the young Assassin sitting at the table with my family, pouring syrup over a heaping plate of pancakes. I gaze into the living room confirming this is the same Assassin, then back to him.
He pales, slowly setting the syrup back onto the table, his eyes nervously breaking and connecting with mine.
Guilt settles into me like a brick.
“’Bout time,” Sage mutters around a mouthful of pancakes. “You better sit down and chow before Tyce finishes everything off.”
“I can’t eat another bite.” Tyce rubs his stomach and leans his chair back onto its hind legs. “You’ve done it again, Cesar. Thanks for a delicious breakfast.”
“My pleasure.” Cesar brings a filled plate and sets it at the vacant spot in front of me. “You look better, not great, but better. Eat now, Zeke, while it’s still hot.”
I watch the Assassin as I take the seat next to him. He looks much younger than I thought. His violet eyes still hold innocence, his brown hair lines his teenage face. He sets his fork down and sits uncomfortably back in his chair, his black clothes the only reminder of what he is.
“I’m sorry about what happened earlier.” I extend my hand. “I don’t know what came over me and I took it out on you. I’m Zeke.”
He looks nervously at me before taking my hand with a grip I’m certain is usually much stronger. “Maliki.”
I pull slightly, watching his eyes widen. “Sorry, it’s a habit now. I’m only checking.” I break the connection. “Can you pass the syrup, please?” I grab my butter knife and smear butter onto my pancakes.
The syrup is set carefully next to my plate.
I pick it up and pour some on my pancakes. “You can heal, but not the same as my brothers, and something to do with electricity?”
“Huh?” Tyce questions, his chair righting with a thump. He gazes between Maliki and me. “Is he right?”
“Yeah,” Maliki responds. “How’d you do that?”
I shovel in pancakes before I answer. I’m hungrier than I thought I was and beginning to feel more like myself. “I can read abilities—apparently.”
“Just add it to the list.” Sage makes a checkmark in the air with her fork.
“So, you’re the ones.”
I chomp on a slice of bacon. “Why don’t you elaborate on that statement, Maliki? What were you told?”
His chair moves slightly away from me, his pancakes soaked through with syrup. “Two half-breeds would come, brother and sister, with a magnitude of abilities and eliminate the Assassin race.”
I stop chewing, my brows jutting upward in surprise. “Excuse me?”
His Adam’s apple bobs when he swallows.
I let my fork clank onto my plate and he jumps, pressing his back against his chair. “I’m not going to hurt you again, I promise that. How old are you?”
Sweat beads onto his forehead. “Sixteen.”
“Same age as Sage and me.”
He gazes nervously between us.
“They recruit that young?”
“They can recruit you, take you, whatever they want, whenever they want when you possess an ability that enhances them.”
“Is that the textbook explanation?”
“You could say that.”
“This electricity ability of yours, what are you able to do?”
He swipes at his brow. “I can use electricity through the sources available around me.”
“Power lines, outlets, that sort of thing?”
“Yes. And lightning.”
I pick up my fork and jab it into a precut pile of pancakes. “That’s cool. You can be out in a lightning storm and never get electrocuted.”
“Pretty much,” he responds, starting to relax.
I peer at my sister out of the corner of my eye. “Sage, I’m assuming there’s a name for his ability?”
She smirks. “Electrokinesis.”
“Electrokinesis,” I murmur. “What happens to the person you use electrokinesis against, Maliki?”
“I’ve never killed.”
“I’m sure you’ve zapped a person or two.”
He wipes sweat from his upper lip, looking away. “My brother told me it stings.”
“And your brother is he an Assassin as well?”
“He’s dead. Assassins kill your family when they take you. They don’t like distractions.”
“Are you sure?” Abby asks.
He turns a perturbed look her way. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Exactly what I asked. The Assassins have my sister. I’m alive and well.”
His gaze turns to surprise. “Ally, she’s your sister.”
“That’s right. Is she okay?”
He smiles for the first time. “Yeah. She’s a fighter. You really think my family could really be alive?”
“I’m proof.” Abby picks up her coffee mug and sips.
“But, I heard their cries…”
“You didn’t see it though, right?” Tyce asks.
Maliki shakes his head vigorously.
“I’d say it’s a strong possibility your family is alive and well,” Ashe responds. “If you’re on our side, we’ll do everything we can to reunite you with your family.”
“I’d appreciate that.”
“Better eat your pancakes before they go to waste,” I recommend. “They’re getting soggy.”
He cuts into them and glances toward me. “You’re really only sixteen?”
“Yeah.” I pick up my