Page 5 of Knight's End
Blue said, “Check your pockets for a ring. If you’re a part-djinni, you’ll have a ring.”
Quinn patted his pockets and removed a simple black ring with a small diamond on it. He stared at it and blinked for a moment, then handed it to me.
“Why don’t you keep—” I said.
But Quinn shook his head and closed my fingers around the ring. I slid it on my thumb, surprised when it fit perfectly.
“Be careful with that. If someone else gets ahold of it, they can make wishes and he’ll have to grant them,” Blue warned.
“Can anyone just take it?” I closed my fingers into a fist, alarmed.
Blue wavered his hand in the air. “Physically, yes. They could take it from you. Magically, the ring is tied to you. So, if you mean—can it be wished away? The answer to that is no.”
Ryan took a step forward and his deep baritone was hushed as he asked, “Does that mean that the rest of us have powers?"
Everyone glanced around the circle.
Connor ran a hand through his very messy dark curls. "I haven’t felt anything since we've been brought back, but in all honesty, I don't know what any of your powers feel like. I've always been so overwhelmed with emotion that everything now feels … empty. As if I were completely alone."
Blue jumped in. "I can't tell if anything is different, because everything is different for me. With these beads, I'm constantly hearing everyone's thoughts and it's just a constant barrage of military formations and worries about the castle, and which spells to use—"
"Which spells to use? Who's been thinking about what spells to use?” I interrupted, scanning faces.
Cerena slowly raised her wrinkled hand. Her eyes darted from me to Blue. "I was trying to think of a spell that might help any of them." My castle mage shrugged, her sagging eyes keen. “I haven’t come up with anything, though.”
My eyes scanned the rest of my knights. "Can anyone else hear Cerena’s thoughts?"
Everyone else shook their heads.
Quinn gestured to get our attention. He put his hand to his throat and drew it upward, like his hand was spilling out his mouth.
“Talk,” Declan muttered. “That’s true. How can you still talk?” He tilted his head and studied Blue.
Blue shrugged. “Am I not supposed to be able to?”
Ryan said, “Quinn has never been able to talk.”
Declan’s eyes narrowed. “I wonder … Blue, focus on Cerena’s thoughts. Cerena, focus on a spell. Blue, try to recite it.”
Blue turned and stared at Cerena as though she were a test that a tutor had set. His eyes widened; I could tell the moment he got the gist of her thoughts. And his mouth opened, but nothing came out. He opened wider. He beat at his chest, tried to clear his throat. He visually yelled, but not a drop of noise spilled from his lips.
Declan walked over to stand in front of Cerena, blocking Blue’s view. “Stop reading her mind.”
Blue squinted hard, but eventually, he straightened. He opened his mouth and at first, only the tiniest sound could be heard. But eventually, he was able to talk again. “What was all that?” he asked.
Quinn strode back over to Declan and threw his arms wide, his gesture shouting, “How is this possible?”
Declan glanced between the two men, thinking. I could almost see his mind whirling as he ran through the options. He held up a hand, as if telling both men to stay calm. “Now, this is just a theory. But, I wonder, because your power isn’t innate for Blue, he wasn’t born with it, if it takes effort for him to use it. And when he’s not using it, it seems like he can speak. I mean, my power—myoldpower—didn’t require constant reductions. I only had to reduce when I multiplied.” He shook his head. “I’m not sure why I never thought of this before. I just always assumed some powers were absorbent versus creative and the absorbent powers were constant. No study has ever shown they could be turned off—”
Ryan interrupted, “But no one’s ever switched powers before, have they?”
Declan shook his head. “No. Not that I’ve read. Perhaps the absorbent powers were only constant for you and Connor because you were born with them. And you didn’t know that you could turn them off.”
We all stood as we realized what that meant. But my heart gave a leap when I realized what that meant for Quinn. I rushed over to him and said, “This means you can speak!” I grabbed his hand and pressed it to my chest.
Quinn’s jaw dropped.
Connor came over and put a hand on my shoulders. “It means he can learn to use his vocal chords, Bloss. But it will take practice. He’s never spoken before.”
