“Quick, grab her hands.”
I drop to the floor at Rose’s side and clutch her tense hands in mine, the rough carpet burning my knees.
Parker’s immediately at my side. “Think about the electricity you feel when you wake from your dreams. Focus on Rose. See if you can feel it in her hands.”
I press my fingertips into Rose’s palms, her skin cold and clammy. “I can’t feel anything.”
“Keep trying,” he says, his voice smooth and even.
I close my eyes and concentrate on the warmth growing between our skin, but there’s nothing. I adjust my grip and wait, but I don’t know what I’m waitingfor. I ignore the blood draining from my arms, and the numbness in its wake. Maybe there’s a reason nothing’s happening? Maybe Parker’s made a mistake, and I don’t have special skills. I’m just Mariella. The weird girl who can’t speak out in class. The loner who’s more alive when she’s absorbed in a book than in real life. Tears build behind my closed eyelids but I scrunch them tighter and concentrate. Another five minutes pass before I drop Rose’s hands. “I—I can’t do this.”
Parker’s golden eyes are ablaze, as if lit from within. “Yes, you can.”
“I can’t, Parker,” I cry. “Nothing’s happening.”
He kneels beside me, only space where our shoulders should be brushing. His amber eyes lock on mine. “Iknowyou can, because I’ve seen you do it before. I’ve seen you push yourself to breaking point. I’ve seen you get knocked down time and time again, and never once did you give up. You need to stop running from what you are. You have no idea how much power you have. You can do this, Ella. Now focus.”
Drawing in a deep breath, I clutch Rose’s hands, focusing on the tips of my fingers. I imagine the layers of skin, blood and bone separating Rose’s from mine, searching for anything beyond my racing pulse. I’m about to give up when the tiniest spark licks my finger, so small I might have imagined it. I tense but grab hold of it, and it happens again, a flicker of warm energy, humming against my fingertips.
“I feel it,” I say, not daring to open my eyes.
“Good,” Parker says in my ear, his tone warm with approval. “Now imagine that current is a string you’re pulling through her body to yours.”
I nod and envision the energy at my fingertips flowing into me. And like the flicking of a light switch, fiery, crackling electricity races up my arm and into my chest, pooling beneath my sternum. “It’s working.”
Rose groans, but I keep my eyes clamped shut.
“Okay, Ella,” Parker says. “I want you to send it back the other way.Now.”
I focus on the energy swirling in my chest and envision it flowing down my arms and back into Rose. Power ignitesin my chest and that familiar ball of unstable energy bursts to life, pulsing against my rib cage.
I immediately force it away and energy gushes from me, through every skin cell coating my body. I push what I can toward Rose, but the moment the current passes through my fingertips, a band of tension clamps over my head. I double over, as if the air’s been ripped from my lungs. Scrunching my eyelids tighter, I will the energy to flow into Rose, who’s now silent on the bed. She draws in a deep, steady breath, and her rigid hands slacken.
“That’s it. See how long you can hold it,” Parker says.
It won’t be long. Within seconds my limbs grow heavy, and the power inside my chest dims. I need to let go, but the memory of Parker’s fading form has me gritting my teeth, shutting out every thought except pouring energy into Rose. The band of pain around my head tightens, pressure building inside my skull.
Gasping for breath, I release one of Rose’s hands and sink back onto my feet. My sweaty, pounding forehead presses against the mattress, but I don’t dare break contact with Rose.
Parker’s voice is a warm caress against my shaking core. “Let go. You’ve given her enough.”
The energy is dwindling, but I keep drawing on it, willing every ounce into Rose. Sharp, stabbing pain rips through my head, but I cling to her hand like a drowning swimmer to a lifebuoy, ignoring Parker’s panicked pleas for me to stop.
Rose has spent months sacrificing her mental and physical health for Parker, and if this is my one chance to ease the burden, I need to give it everything I have.
I hold on until each breath is a gasp and my body feels lined with lead. Warm liquid trickles from my right nostril.
“Ella!” Parker yells.
Without warning the current breaks, leaving nothing inside my weary chest but a sluggish heart and burning lungs. I have nothing more to give, and there’s relief in the knowledge I can let go. The hand holding Rose’s falls to the floor. I open my eyes, but the room spins and I collapse, Parker’s voice a distant call as I plunge into darkness.
19Mariella
I wake on the floor beside Rose’s bed, pressure lingering over my temples. Parker’s sitting beside me, no longer translucent, but vivid and whole. My heart stutters at the sight of him, his blond brows drawn in, a bloody hand pressed over the wound on his torso. He lets out a breath when our eyes lock, but the tension in his body lingers.
I push myself into a sitting position and lean against Rose’s bed frame. Every muscle aches like I’ve run a marathon. “How long was I asleep?”
“Over an hour.” His mouth tenses and he averts his gaze, but then it’s back on me. “Why didn’t you stop?” he asks. His nostrils are flared, the back of his neck red. “Your nose was bleeding.”
