Page 48 (1/2)

"Hell" Connor spoke for the first time "William’s adamant it was him?"

Jack nodded "His eyes that day - I’ve never seen such terror Beforebefore we thought he ht be a telekinetic He’s so accident-prone and the notes the rebels left behind say that young telekinetics are notoriously clu it"

Telekinetics, Dev thought, were also obsolete fros with the o, which wasn’t surprising as telekinetics had forreat-great-grandmother on his father’s side, Zarina, had left a journal that Dev had read as a child He’d never forgotten her words about the Tks

I’o oes mad, he will almost certainly kill And because Tks are disproportionately male, as E-Psy are disproportionately fehter

That’s a burden that crushes the Tks, makes them turn inward I don’t blame all the telekinetics who chose Silence How can I? When I prayed every night that nation is ene is so recessive it rarely enetic chart done on Willias were in flux - there was a chance the Tk gene had risen to the fore once again

"We were about to when that happened, with Spot I didn’t want to scare hienetic sa to Connor for confirmation He continued at the doctor’s nod "We’ll have a starting point at least"

"Here" Jack put a sealed plastic bag on the table "I planned to ask for a DNA chart anyway Got some of his hair in there, his toothbrush, even a swab of blood fro into a wall" His body jerked, those solid shoulders of his shaking "It’s killing Melissa to watch him literally will himself to death Yesterday, I had to threaten her with a sedative so she’d get some sleep - we’re so afraid to leave him alone for even a second"

Dev walked to stand beside his cousin, putting a hand on his shoulder "Don’t give up, Jack I promise you, we’ll find an answer"

"Silence is an answer," his cousin whispered, but there was a weariness to hi that faaze, Dev knehat he had to say, what he had to decide "And if it is the only answer, then we’ll find a way to teach Williareed with hi Jack had told hi - as he headed down to Katya She’d volunteered to be confined to an isolation ward in the clinic while he wasn’t able to be with her It tore at his every protective instinct that she’d effectively i had put in her head

Soon, he promised himself Soon, she’d be free Today, however, he needed her help But first - "How’s your leg?" he asked, after kissing her gently on the forehead

"Healing nor to Dr Herriford" A soft s"

It didn’t surprise him that she knew He knew her unspoken secrets, too "What are the abilities that can cause death?"

"Pretty ifts," she told him, eyes troubled "Telepaths and telekinetics are near definites M-Psy, less so - it depends on whether we have an offensive gift we can couple with our M potential Ps-Psy occasionally - "

"How?" As far as he knew, psychometrics used touch to divine an object’s past Many worked for enuine, which fake

"If an object has a violent past," Katya explained, "it occasionally ’short-circuits’ one of the Ps-Psy, causing some kind of a temporary psychic injury But I’ve heard rumors that some Ps-Psy can also absorb that violent power purposefully" She turned up her palms "I never really had ood I’nations?"

"Some of the old texts mention an ability more destructive than telekinesis, but to be honest, I can’t think what that would be Tks can collapse buildings on top of people - the truly powerful ht even be able to cause s of his dog There was, Dev knew, a very good chance the boy had been born with a violent New Generation ability And if so, Silencefor

"The person you really need to talk to," Katya eymen?"

"You know about them?"

"They’re mentioned in our records" Dev’s own ancestors had been hunted by the Arrows, families torn apart, loved ones forever lost

"Well, they deal in death They’d know all about the destructive abilities" She put her hand on his arm "Unfortunately, I don’t know any in the resistance Ask Ashaya - she has more contacts"