Page 11 of Hunted

She wanders over to the herbs I’ve barely—and only with Bennett’s help—learned not to kill. Bending over, she examinesthe parsley. That’s a big thing for me. Being able to tell the difference between a herb and a weed, so I know which one to water and which one to kill.

“You’re like a ball of nervous unfocused energy,” she says, touching a leaf.

I stare at her. “But you’re not even looking.”

“I don’t need to look. I see your soul and I see the energy surrounding you. When was the last time you watered this?”

“Adela!” I try to get up. Failing, I flop onto my back instead and wince at the twinge at the base of my spine. I immediately sit up again, try to stand up, and fail. “Uh! I’m like a beached whale.”

I cover my face with both hands as I choke back tears. I sat on the grass worried I might break the lounger, and now I can’t get up. My powers aren’t working, and I can’t remember the last time I saw my ankles. Which is probably a good thing because I’m sure they’re as fat as the rest of me.

“Aerin?” Mack’s voice drifts from up high.

I peel my palms from my face to find Mack is hanging out of an upstairs window. The nursery window, to be exact. He said he wanted to put a few last minute finishing touches to a surprise he was working on in the nursery and forbid me from going inside. Since the room overlooks the garden, he must have heard me.

“Are you okay?” he calls down, frowning.

“I’m okay,” I lie. I’m not sure I can get up without potentially rolling down the garden and into the forest, but that’s another problem.

His long stare tells me he’s not convinced.

Lately, I’ve become a source of concern and I hate it. Not just to him. To everyone. They tiptoe around me, as if afraid of hurting my feelings or making me cry, which, I will admit, doesn’t take much.

When the back of my eyelids burn, Mack pulls his head back inside. “I’m coming out.”

“No!” I try to get up. Fail and try again. “I’m okay. I just?—”

“Close your eyes and ground yourself,” Adela softly interrupts. “That might be a better starting point to achieving your goals.”

I hope she means getting upandgetting my powers to work, because I feel like I’ve been searching for an on switch and can never find one.

But since nothing else is working, I close my eyes and concentrate on grounding myself.

“It’s not working,” I say after five minutes.

There’s a way of reaching beyond myself, using nature: the grass, earth, and even the air to lull myself to a level of calm where all the things usually inhibiting my ability to control my power fall away. The usual culprit is my insecurities about myself. I think it’s why I relate so much to Penny’s struggles with thinking she’s not a good baker when she is.

One aspect of my powers never needed any effort from me, so I never learned how to purposely and expertly wield it. That’s my healing ability. And the other newer, more out-of-control power, which is my ability to use emotion—pain and anger—as a weapon, only appeared a few months ago.

Ihadbeen getting better at mastering my abilities until they stopped working.

My power has always been there, like an eager puppy. And now? Now it’s like a dog that’s escaped the leash and has run down the block and I’m yelling for it to come back with no hope it ever will.

I smell Mack before I feel his soft kiss on my lips. Instinctively, I lean into it and he smiles in response.

His scent is warm caramel and sandalwood, a loved scent that reassures me like no other.

When Mack breaks the kiss, I flutter my eyes open, meeting his brown gaze as he crouches in front of me, clutching a pillow.

I raise my eyebrow. “Is it nap time?”

He kisses me again. “If you’re going to sit out here, might be easier with a cushion.”

I sit still as he places it behind me, so I have something supporting me a little. “How’s that?”

“Better,” I say. “When you’re around, things are always better.”

Smiling, as if pleased, his next kiss is softer, slower, and sweeter. When he pulls away, his voice is husky and his eyes heated. “This lesson isn’t important, is it, Adela?” he calls out, still looking at me.

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