“Hunter? But he can just sense emotions. How is that dangerous?”
“He can manipulate emotions too. Turns out that over time, it can have grim consequences due to repressing their true feelings.”
“Doesn’t that mean he can make you fall in love with him?” she says with knitted brows.
“Sure, I guess, but I doubt he would do that.”
She gets up from the bed with a sigh. “Just be careful with him. He’s kind of scary, now that you say that.” She goes to the side of the bed and lifts our backpack onto the bed. “The ability to change people’s emotions? That’s kind of messed up.”
“Yeah, that’s why he doesn’t do it anymore. He has control over that, but the sensing emotions thing doesn’t seem to have an off switch.”
She opens up the backpack and puts the envelope inside. “No offense, but I’m glad I’m not gifted. Sounds like a pain.”
I laugh. “Yeah, it’s the biggest pain in the ass.”
She laughs too.
She takes out my phone charger and my other change of clothes from the backpack. “Here. I know you’re coming back soon, but just in case. This way we can at least talk on the phone sometimes.”
I take them and tuck them into my bag. “Thanks.”
“By the way,” Ron says, coming back to sit next to me. “I’m pretty sure that Noah guy is dead now.”
My eyes open wide. “What? Dead?”
She nods. “Yeah, but I get the sense that this isn’t over. I overhead Carl talking on the phone earlier. He said something about getting proof that one of his machines work. I don’t know which one.”
“That’s not good,” I say. “That means he could try to kill someone else using Noah’s gift.”
“But how is he supposed to do that without Noah?”
I think back to Li clutching her head and squirming on the floor. “When do you think Noah died?”
“This morning—maybe eight or nine—around when the power went out.”
The timing matches up. Li said a gift was removed from circulation just as this Noah guy died and the power went out. If Noah died, his gift should have just passed onto someone else, but maybe it was stolen instead.
I get up and face Ron, still sitting on the bed. “What exactly was on this laptop? Did you get a look at it?”
“Yeah, I opened it up. I saw Noah begging some boy to help him. I could hear it too through headphones. The boy told Noah to leave him alone and brought his hands up and some sort of invisible force shot him through the wall.”
Invisible force? That sounds a lot like Jayden’s gift. “What did the boy look like?”
She puts a hand on her chin. “Um, blond, like not dirty blond like Carl and Noah, but a paler kind. He looked like a pre-teen, I guess? I didn’t really notice anything else about him.” She puts her hand down and stands close to me. “Why? What are you thinking?”
“I’m thinking Carl somehow put Noah’s gift into the laptop.”
“Is that possible?”
“I don’t know, but I have to tell the others about this,” I say.
Ron frowns. “You’re leaving already.”
“Yeah, I’m sorry.”
She smiles sadly. “It’s fine. You’ve got stuff to do, I get that.”
“And you need to stop looking into this guy, okay? The people at camp can handle it.”
“But now what are me and Giselle supposed to do? I have these people believing I’m searching for the camp and anything related to gifted people.”
“Wait. Didn’t you say in one of your emails that you’re staying with giftists? Is Giselle a giftist?”
“Yeah, seems so.”
“But her brother…” I don’t bother finishing my sentence.
It makes a lot of sense, actually, to have a deep loathing for the one who hurt you and killed your parents, and anyone else like him. It’s just like how I’ve never forgiven myself for all the deaths I’ve caused, even though I know they weren’t intentional.
“Anyway,” I say, “we’ve been hiding out in here for long enough. Let’s go.”
“Alright.”
Ron leads the way out of the bedroom and back to the living room.
Hunter looks up when we come back, relieved. His face is still a light shade of pink. I hope Iris wasn’t torturing him this whole time with questions about our “relationship.”
“Well, it was nice meeting you two,” Chrys says, “but Hunter and I were just passing through. Figured we’d stop by and see Ron for a bit.”
Iris frowns. “Leaving so soon? Why don’t you stay for dinner? I’ll make something.”
“We appreciate that,” I say, walking into the room some more, “but that’s a while from now and we really should get going before it gets dark. But do you mind opening your store for a bit? Hunter and I would like to buy some things for the trip.”
“Oh, sure thing,” Iris says, standing up. “Just let me get my keys.”
Giselle digs through her pocket and holds out a ring with two small keys on it. “Here, take mine.”
Iris takes the keys and holds Giselle’s hand and kisses the back of it, like a prince. Giselle takes her hand back with a roll of her eyes, but she’s also smiling.
I head over to Hunter. He stands up, not meeting my gaze.
“Ready to go?” I ask him.
He nods.
“We’ll be back in a jiffy, Elly,” Iris says, going to the door.
“Mhm,” Giselle says.
Hunter follows Iris.
I go back to Ron quickly and give her a hug. “Bye.”
“Bye,” she says softly.
We let go and I follow after them, down the stairs.
Chapter 28
Iris unlocks the door of the convenience store and lets us in, a tiny bell jingling as the door opens. Hunter goes straight to the snack aisle while Iris and I stand near the entrance.
“Hey, do ya like chocolate, Chrys?” Iris asks.
“Sure, I guess.”
“Elly just brought in a new kind yesterday and it’s so good. Let me show ya.”
Iris leads me down an aisle with rows of sweet snacks and boxes of chocolate bars.
The tiny bell on the door jingles. Iris looks
