Page 28 of The World Undone

Darius stiffened, his focus darting from me to Max, eyes narrowed.

Max shook her head. “It’s just so much—too much. So many things to do. So many obstacles. We’ll be fine, I just need to process, just need to figure out?—”

I wasn’t entirely sure what she was talking about. “Is this about your conversation with Evelyn? Or about what we learned before that—that the human governments have drawn a target on our back?”

She grunted. “That, and the fact that the council is making plans to drain my powers and use them for gods know what nefarious purpose.”

I blinked a few times, willing myself to focus. Her lips hadn’t parted when she’d spoken those words. The sound was clear, her tone laced with the wobble of anxiety, but her lips were pressed tightly together, the line firm, unmoving.

I glanced at Atlas and saw him straighten slightly, his head tilting in question, as he focused on her.

“The council is trying to do what now?” Wade took a step towards her, his gaze drifting between her mouth and eyes, like he was trying to decide whether he’d missed the same thing I had.

“I didn’t—” Max stopped pacing, every muscle in her body still, “I didn’t say anything about the council.”

“Except you did,” Wade took a slow, deep breath, confusion and concern mapped out clear on his face, “just now.”

“She didn’t say that,” Darius said, his brow arched as his eyes darted briefly to Eli and then back to her, his body unconsciously leaning towards her, “she thought it.”

“I,” she frowned, “what?”

“It’s the bonds,” he clarified, shaking his head like he couldn’t quite believe it, “I thought I was imagining it earlier, when we left the meeting, I could’ve sworn—but now, it’s undeniable.”

“What?” Max repeated, a small tremor in her voice this time, her skin a shade paler as her gaze darted between each of us. “Are you saying you can hear my thoughts?” She took a step back from us all, panic pulling her breaths in harsh, uneven rasps. “They’re just being broadcasted to you? All of them? Can you hear what I’m thinking about right now?”

It was clear from her reaction that she wasn’t exactly elated by this development, and I could tell there was something she was trying to keep locked down—but I knew how that went, the moment you tried not to think about something, it was all you could think of.

She deserved that privacy. We all did.

“No,” I said, desperate to ease her reaction. “I think Darius is right—but it’s only in clips. When you’re feeling particularly strongly about something, maybe? Or maybe it comes in the form of what you’re feeling. I’ll occasionally feel anxious or excited and not entirely understand where it’s coming from—maybe it’s the same thing that caused Eli to channel your flames. Like during heightened moments, we become more connected, almost like a distress signal or something.”

Darius nodded, his jaw tight. “The bonds are solidifying, but at a speed that outpaces our control of them. I’ve heard stories of this happening, in the old days—but I never believed they were true.”

“So how do we control it?” There was a nervous tremor in her voice.

Darius didn’t respond, and neither did any of the others. Which meant we didn’t have a fucking clue.

Maybe we controlled it the same way all supernatural powers were controlled.

Practice.

Intention.

I closed my eyes, tried to calm the excited thrum of anxiety drumming through my body. I focused on that feeling I had, deep in my chest, that never-ceasing awareness of her, the desire to be close to her, to twine ourselves together. I breathed in, focusing on her scent, on the visual of her I conjured in my mind.

When she healed us, she often spoke of the bonds between us as if they were physical—tethers to tug on in her mind.

I conjured that feeling of her, braided it with the image of a long rope that extended out from me and reached for her.

I breathed into it, feeling it expand and contract and vibrate with my breath.

We’ll figure it out.

I thought the sentence as hard as I could, enunciating every syllable in my head as best as I could, so that it was more than just my vague emotions that traveled along the wobbly thought-rope.

She gasped and I opened my eyes. Her lips were parted in awe, her focus on me.

“Did it work?”

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