I knew I had moments before I lost all the air in my lungs. Stars lit up behind my eyelids.
“Why isn’t Drake answering?” Jax cursed as he came closer.
“Call Jace,” Will bit out.
“What’s going on,” I heard Jemmy’s panicked voice.
“Get upstairs, dammit,” I heard Noah snap at someone.
I felt cools hands on my face and Jemmy’s voice shrill in my ear. “What’s going on?! Dammit, someone answer me!”
“Jace, it happened again.” Troy’s strained voice said. “No, he’s not answering.”
“He won’t answer my text either.” Jax cursed once more.
“Okay, okay,” I heard Troy say in clipped tones.
“Blake! Blake!” I heard Jace’s imperative voice. “Listen, sweetheart. I need you to listen.” His voice was fading away. Everyone sounded far away. “Blake, sweetheart, remember a time you were happy. You must focus on that happy thought. Think them, and the pain will go away. You can breathe again. Think happy thoughts, Blake.”
I couldn’t think anything happy with this pain raging in my body.
“Blake, remember the day you took Ella to the fair,” his voice was calm, drawing me from my pain. “You saved up your money and you guys hopped on a bus. She said it was beautiful out. Not too hot and not too cold.” His words painted a picture in my head. I remembered that day. I had to save a whole week’s paycheck from the boutique to take her there. She had been begging to go and I wanted to make her happy. “The sun was shining, she said you took pictures in a photo booth, you guys made silly faces, happy faces, stuck your tongues out.” We had laughed a lot that day. It was one of the few pictures I had of us. “You bought her an ice cream cone, vanilla with sprinkles.” She dropped it and I had to buy her another one. “You rode the Ferris wheel, bumper cars, and a wooden roller coaster.” Ella was screaming and laughing the whole time. I felt the tightness begin to abate. “Then you bought some corn dogs. You ate yours with yellow mustard.” She hates mustard. Ella was a ketchup kind of girl. “You won her a mouse at a ring toss game. You got it on the second try.” She had thought I was magical for not using all the rings to get it for her. The stars behind my eyelids disappeared. “She was so tired, you had to carry her to the bus stop.” She had been so happy and carefree that day and every penny had been well spent. I could finally open my eyes. “She told me you were the best big sister ever and she wished you were her mom.”
“She’s awake!” Jemmy cried with excitement, tears rolling down her face.
“Blake, sweetheart,” Jace said soothingly. “How are you feeling?”
I looked around at Jax, Noah, Will, Troy, and Jemmy. They all looked so concerned. How could these people care so much about me, when they just met me? “Better, Jace, thank you,” I said quietly.
Noah picked me up and embraced me. He buried his head in my hair. “You scared me. I thought we had lost you.”
“Me too,” I drew in a shaky breath.
“Take me off the speaker and let me talk to her,” Jace said firmly.
Troy handed me his phone.
“Hello,” I said.
“Hey, sweetheart, are you sure you’re feeling better?” he asked huskily.
“Yes, thank you, you saved my life.” I pushed an unsteady hand through my hair.
He made a noncommittal sound. “I don’t know what’s going on, or how it happened, but I think you may have gotten my gift. Have you tried to use your gift recently?”
“No,” I answered. “I normally used it when I was afraid or angry.”
“Hmm,” he said. “Well, when you go to school, hopefully, they can figure out to show you how to tap into it without fear or panic. In the meantime, if you feel Drake’s emotions again and you feel like it?
?s choking you, you need to think of happy memories, good memories.”
I almost snorted. Until recently, I hadn’t had many of those. “Is that how you control yours? How come do I only feel him? Can’t you feel anyone you want to and push feelings back?”
He exhaled. “Each person is different. Each person has their own ways of tapping into their gifts, you’re going to have to work on what works for you. Maybe when you get a good grasp of all of this, you can reach out to others, push your feelings onto them…”
I sat there taking it all in. Last week I had one gift, now I had two. What was going on?
“You still there?” he asked softly.