Page 50 of Cursed
“I honestly don’t know. I’ve only spoken with her a few times. But you are right. She must feel very isolated, even though she’s a member of this enormous Pack. I have no idea how to fix that, though.”
chapter thirty-one
As soon as Nori walks into Ryland’s rooms, she apologizes to Aylin. “I’m so sorry I put you through that, but at least we know what my power is. You did really great! Hopefully, we never have to see her again.”
“It would be best if we didn’t. I don’t understand why I was so angry at her. She was pretty helpful. Let’s try to access your power,” Aylin says excitedly.
Nori sits on the couch, holds out her hands, and closes her eyes, looking for some bright light inside herself. After a minute, she throws her hands down, exasperated. “Shit, this is stupid!”
Aylin’s laugh echoes through Nori’s mind. “Yes, it feels stupid, but you know it’s there. The power worked all on its own, while you were, you know, not breathing the other night.”
“OK, I’ll try again, but you help me look, too,” Nori says, closing her eyes again. She holds up her hands and concentrates. After only a moment, Nori’s eyes fly open to find an extremely bright light surrounding both hands, lighting up the entire room.
Heart racing, she jumps off the couch. Panic seizes her, and the light blinks out. “What the hell was that?”
Aylin, startled as well, nervously laughs. “Oops! I think that was my power, and it does actually resemble a warm light inside me, like the Seer said.”
Nori smiles as her heart slows back down. “That felt, well, I don’t know how to describe it, other than to say, ‘big.’ It felt big!”
Nori sits back down, surprised that she was able to access Aylin’s power. “OK, let’s find mine now.”
It takes Nori another five minutes to find it. She opens her eyes when her hands feel warm. A soft, golden light that sparkles like stardust now covers her hands. “Oh. Oh wow. It’s warm. So, mine is warm and kind of sparkly, and yours is like holding the sun.”
Aylin is very proud of her human. “Great job! Now, let’s practice first turning yours on and off, then mine.”
By the time Adele shows up with dinner, Nori is exhausted from all of the practice, but she’s still excited to show Adele her new ability.
“Nori, you look like shit; what have you been doing?” Adele stops short, frowning with concern.
“Aylin’s been helping me practice turning my healing power on and off, ever since we returned from the Seer’s house. So, yeah, I’m pretty tired, but I want to show you what we can do,” Nori says with a smile. “Oh, but it’s not, you know, much, so don’t get too excited.”
Nori repeats the steps she’s taken all afternoon, closing her eyes and looking for the warm light. She finds it relatively quickly after hours of practice. She opens her eyes when her hands warm up. She smiles proudly when she sees the glowing, sparkling light.
Stunned, Adele slowly slides into an armchair across from Nori and her golden hands. In a hushed tone, she says, “Nori, that is remarkable. It’s the same light that surrounded you two nights ago, right before the big flash of light.”
Nori releases her power and leans back. “We’ve figured out that the big light is Aylin’s power, but we have no idea what it does.”
She runs her hands through her hair. “I’ve now read through four of Ryland’s books on the history of wolf shifters, but none of them mention either of our powers.”
“Why didn’t you shift and let Lyra try to read Aylin’s powers?”
Nori doubles over laughing then quickly regains her composure. “I’m fairly certain Aylin would have killed her, and she would have felt bad about that later. I was barely able to last as long as I did inside that house.”
“Oh, I know; my wolf, Sorcha, was screaming at me to leave the whole time.” Adele pauses, then asks, “Can you turn on Aylin’s power? Can I see it?”
“Yes, we practiced with her power, too. I just didn’t want to freak you out.” Nori looks at Adele nervously. “Are you sure you want to see it again?”
When Adele nods, Nori sits up. She holds out her hands and asks Aylin to turn on her power. The whole room lights up from the radiance surrounding Nori’s hands.
Adele panics and jumps out of her seat, backing away from the clearly powerful she-wolf. Adele is powerful in her own right, and she’s grown up around powerful wolves, but this kind of power is utterly foreign and a bit frightening.
Sorcha’s panicky voice rings out in Adele’s mind. “Holy shit! What the hell is she?”
Adele tries desperately to control her breathing and her pounding heart. “She’s a powerful Mate for our very powerful brother.”
Nori quickly snaps off the light, leans back on the sofa, and waits for Adele to calm down. Once she hears Adele’spulse return to normal, Nori says, “Are you hungry? Because I am starving!”
Adele laughs nervously, eyeing Nori with suspicion. “Yeah. Good idea. Let’s eat.”
