Chapter 130

[ 1,136 words ]

Mind-reading

130: 130.

Mind-reading Aria

Rick shakes his head.

“I’m saying that shoifters spend too much time thinking of themselves as separate from everything else in this world. Humans, Nature, hell, even packs feel the need to distinguish themselves from their kin. On the one hand, I understand it, but it wasn’t until I started looking deeper that I truly began to understand my power, what makes me stronger, and what makes me weak. It is the most important lesson every Sypher has to learn.” He looks into my eyes, holding them with a weight.

“We are, first and foremost, the balance of this world. The connection between essence and flesh.”

I lean forward, heart in my throat as his words take root beneath my ribcage.

All of my unanswered questions seem to linger on his next words.

“You don’t command fire, you nurture it, mold it, use it to seek justice and retribution for those who seek to destroy the balance we, by our very existence, are born to protect.”

“That sounds like a lot of pressure,” I say uneasily.

Rick gives me a paternal smile.

“You’ll get used to it.

It may not feel like it, but you’re strong enough to bear the weight.”

“I think that’s the nicest thing you said to me,” I smirk.

He rolls his eyes.

“Come on. Time to warm you up.”

I follow him down the brook until we’re a few feet from the mud pit.

The water spraying in the lighbreeze is warm.

The perfect temperature to soak in when the sun sets and the heat of the day cools.

Rick gestures toward the surface.

“Boil the brook without hurting the life inside of it.”

The words are tossed out so casually, as he didn’t just ask me to try something which could potentially leave a massacre of dead fish and other creatures on my conscience.

“You’re joking.

There is no way, it’s too risky.”

“That is the point.

You’ll never learn control unless you are put into a position where it is necessary.

You want to save the fish, mold your power.

Because in a battle, your pack will be the fish and you will have to separate the fine line of enemy and ally at a moment’s notice.”

I stare at him aghast.

My confidence immediately vanishes, and my throat dries as I face the water.

Closing my eyes, I attempt to push my worries out of my mind, and I reach inward.

The familiar spark answers immediately.

The well inside bubbles and boils, rising up and reaching our tendrils of its power.

The kiss of my fire settles in my palms.

As if Rick knows what is happening, he directs, “Not to your hands, into the water.

Use that as your vessel.”

“Okay,” I say, a little annoyed.

“And how do I do that?”

“You’re connecting to your core, which is good.

Now, focus beneath the brook, on where the heat is coming from the earth, and imagine a channel between the well inside you and it then pushes that energy up from the ground to the water.”

“Sounds simple,” I mock.

Instead of allowing the heat to gather in my palms, I follow the well down and start to build a shaky connection to the heat I feel coming from beneath the waters.

It opens up, and I can feel the heat, different yet similar to my own.

Like a snake charmer, my power calls to it, lures it up further into the waters.

The brook responds, slow steam starts to rise, and I focus on connecting with it through the heat molecules filtering in.

I gasp.

“Do you feel the life inside?” Rick says.

“Yes,” I say.

“Good, now you have to protect them from your goal.”

…

Hours later, my legs feel like jelly, and my hair is plastered to my head with sweat.

I pulled back so quickly every time my fire started to hurt the fish that my well feels empty now.

I failed.

“No, you didn’t,” Rick says, waving me over to take a seat beside him.

He opens up his backpack and starts to pull out containers with lunch in them.

I wobbled to his side and practically tossed myself on the ground.

“How the hell do you do that?

Is mind-reading a thing?

He laughs.

“No, but your face is a glaring neon sign.”

He hands me a sandwich.

I devour half before I stop to take a breath.

“Easy, we can’t have you choking.

Your mates would try to tan my hide if we left for training and I came back alone.”

“Clam down, you’re smothering me with all the love,” I snark.

The silence that follows is comfortable.

It’s the kind of quiet that exists between people who have spent enough time together not to fill every moment with words.

Eventually, a question slips into my mind.

One I’ve wondered about for days.

I hesitate knowing what it feels like to be the one on the receiving end of a question I might not want to give answers to.

“Spit it out,” Rick says.

I stare into the steaming water.

“What happened to you? To all of them.”

His expression changes, the lines in his face grow deeper, filled with a sorrow and pain that has rooted itself inside of him long ago.

I almost think he won’t answer.

Then he sighs.

“Before the Hunters started their war, we lived in peace. Seven great packs rule over the shifters, with each Alpha reading over the under Alphas on their territory. I had a family then. A human mate and a son.” His voice becomes distant.

“Skylar and Remy.

I stay quiet, sensing he is not done and giving him the time he needs to continue.

“The Assembly was just a group of rebels who opposed the archaic ways of our people. They claimed that strength and power were not always fit to rule. For the most part, they were ignored. But they warned that peace with the hand wouldn’t last. That they would betray us and hunt us as beasts. And they were right.” He looks out into the water.

“The hunters came at night, attacking multiple packs.

My mate was killed when I was able to escape with my son.

Those who sought refuge with other people, but then it became clear that they were hunting ciphers.

My son was a wind cipher, and your grandmother was my childhood friend.

We left together, my son and I, your mother and your grandmother, and went into hiding.

We watched as the assembly took advantage of the fear from the people, and they were seen as wiser than the alphas that Ariel because they had predicted this tragedy.

But I wasn’t fooled, and neither were the other ciphers.

Everything was too strategic, and fell into place too easily for them.

But by the time we had proof of what they had done, our numbers were almost depleted.

When the Hunters finally found our hiding place, my son and your grandmother were killed, so I had taken your mother and Brian to try to preserve her life.” He looks up at me, meeting my eyes.

“ It was Alric.

He killed my son.

He took everything from me.

Now I’ll take everything from him.”

“And I’ll help you,” I promise.

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