Blue Violet - By Abigail Owen Page 0,58

Ellie,” Griffin interrupted. “You just finished healing from potentially life-ending injuries… today.”

The frustrated look he leveled on her couldn’t have been clearer. He thought her decision was rash. Then he heard what she was thinking, crossed his arms over his chest and grumbled, “Fine!”

“Nothing’s fine,” Alex said, glancing back and forth between the twins.

“You’ll soon learn that my sister has the ability to reason away every decision she makes,” Griffin said, and glared in Ellie’s direction. “And most of the time you can’t argue with her logic… It’s very exasperating.”

Ellie shot him a superior look. “How many good reasons do you need, exactly?” She then ticked off her reasons to the rest of the room, holding up a finger for each. “I’m done healing. We’re short on time. This skill would be extremely useful in a fight. If it’s hard to control, I’ll need to practice with him longer than anyone else. I might be able to help him learn to control it.” She paused and glanced around the room. “Any other arguments?” she asked sweetly.

“You’re right, Griffin.” Alex obviously felt unhappy about this decision but was just as obviously resigned to it. “That is very frustrating.” He softened the comment with a squeeze of her hand.

“Okay, for this one, I think we take the practice outside.” Ellie hopped up. “There’s a clearing about five miles from here that would be perfect.”

Chapter 28

Ellie turned to Charlotte. “Do you mind?” she asked, indicating the need to use her teleportation.

Charlotte shook her head, holding out her hand.

“I’d like to try something,” Ellie began. “I want to see if I can use my power, but not necessarily with you all touching me. I’m hoping it’ll work the same if we’re linked together just holding hands.”

Once Ellie saw everyone was connected, she closed her eyes, pulled Charlotte’s power into herself, and suddenly they were in the clearing. All of them.

“You really need to show me how to do that without noise,” Charlotte murmured, impressed.

“You got it,” Ellie assured her.

“That would be a very handy skill to use in the fight,” she heard Griffin think.

“Agreed,” she thought back. “Stay close while I’m working with Ramsey. If he or I get out of control, you’ll need to try to contain it.”

After receiving his nod of assent, to the others she said, “Griffin’s on standby in case I need help. You guys might want to hang back, though.”

Ellie led Ramsey to the middle of the clearing and then turned to face him. The solemn boy was nervous, although he hid it well. She gave him a reassuring smile. “This won’t hurt.”

She held out her hands. After a miniscule pause, he grasped her hands in his, and Ellie closed her eyes. The glow inside Ramsey appeared as a deep red light. She reached out with her mind and pulled it into herself.

With a gasp Ellie felt the power surge through her wildly. She and Ramsey both literally went up in flames. But they weren’t harmed by the fire.

Ellie felt Griffin tense to use his shield. “No,” she thought at him. “Give me a minute…”

He backed off.

Ellie relaxed into the power. She could immediately feel why firestarters had such a hard time. Volatile emotions of hate, anger, fury, and rage threatened to consume her wholly, and Ellie concentrated on controlling her newly wild and foreign feelings. She felt her control slipping further and further away, and her fear deepened as her emotions grew more intense.

Suddenly, an overwhelming sense of serenity pulsed through her. It felt almost like being washed in cool water on a scorching hot day… exhilarating and peaceful all at the same time. And exactly what she needed.

“Do you feel that?” she asked Ramsey.

“Yeah,” he breathed. “Are you doing that?”

Ellie shook her head. “It’s not me.”

A suspicion formed in Ellie’s mind about where that feeling of peace had come from, but she’d have to deal with that later. Right now she needed to focus on mastering this power.

“Okay, Ramsey. I think I’ve got control at least,” she finally murmured. “Give me a little time to see what you can do.”

To the others who were watching from afar, she appeared to simply stand, unmoving, eyes closed, and engulfed in flames. After about twenty minutes of working through things, Ellie smiled and opened her eyes. She also felt Ramsey starting to shake as his control threatened to slip out of his grasp.

“Okay, Ramsey, I’m going to take over completely now. You ready?”

At his nod she pulled the glow completely