Blue Violet

chapter 28



Ellie turned to Charlotte. “Do you mind?” she asked, indicating the need to use her teleportation.

Charlotte shook her head, holding out her hand.

“I’d like to try something,” Ellie began. “I want to see if I can use my power, but not necessarily with you all touching me. I’m hoping it’ll work the same if we’re linked together just holding hands.”

Once Ellie saw everyone was connected, she closed her eyes, pulled Charlotte’s power into herself, and suddenly they were in the clearing. All of them.

“You really need to show me how to do that without noise,” Charlotte murmured, impressed.

“You got it,” Ellie assured her.

“That would be a very handy skill to use in the fight,” she heard Griffin think.

“Agreed,” she thought back. “Stay close while I’m working with Ramsey. If he or I get out of control, you’ll need to try to contain it.”

After receiving his nod of assent, to the others she said, “Griffin’s on standby in case I need help. You guys might want to hang back, though.”

Ellie led Ramsey to the middle of the clearing and then turned to face him. The solemn boy was nervous, although he hid it well. She gave him a reassuring smile. “This won’t hurt.”

She held out her hands. After a miniscule pause, he grasped her hands in his, and Ellie closed her eyes. The glow inside Ramsey appeared as a deep red light. She reached out with her mind and pulled it into herself.

With a gasp Ellie felt the power surge through her wildly. She and Ramsey both literally went up in flames. But they weren’t harmed by the fire.

Ellie felt Griffin tense to use his shield. “No,” she thought at him. “Give me a minute…”

He backed off.

Ellie relaxed into the power. She could immediately feel why firestarters had such a hard time. Volatile emotions of hate, anger, fury, and rage threatened to consume her wholly, and Ellie concentrated on controlling her newly wild and foreign feelings. She felt her control slipping further and further away, and her fear deepened as her emotions grew more intense.

Suddenly, an overwhelming sense of serenity pulsed through her. It felt almost like being washed in cool water on a scorching hot day… exhilarating and peaceful all at the same time. And exactly what she needed.

“Do you feel that?” she asked Ramsey.

“Yeah,” he breathed. “Are you doing that?”

Ellie shook her head. “It’s not me.”

A suspicion formed in Ellie’s mind about where that feeling of peace had come from, but she’d have to deal with that later. Right now she needed to focus on mastering this power.

“Okay, Ramsey. I think I’ve got control at least,” she finally murmured. “Give me a little time to see what you can do.”

To the others who were watching from afar, she appeared to simply stand, unmoving, eyes closed, and engulfed in flames. After about twenty minutes of working through things, Ellie smiled and opened her eyes. She also felt Ramsey starting to shake as his control threatened to slip out of his grasp.

“Okay, Ramsey, I’m going to take over completely now. You ready?”

At his nod she pulled the glow completely into herself. The flames moved off Ramsey and solely onto her. Not even the hands still linked with hers were touched by the fire.

As soon as she had full control, Ellie started playing. First she extinguished the fire completely. She heard Ramsey’s small intake of breath and felt him relax for the first time since they’d begun the exercise.

“Don’t worry,” she assured him as her face took on a mischievous look. “I’ll show you how after I’m done.”

“Oh, jeez,” Griffin muttered. Then he added louder, “Watch out. She’s about to get feisty with it.”

Ellie gave the onlookers a sassy wink. “You ready for this?” she asked Ramsey.

“I guess,” was his less-than-enthusiastic response. Ellie grinned at his doubtful expression.

“Here we go!” Still holding one of Ramsey’s hands, Ellie let go with the other and extended her palm up, where a small flame appeared. “Eventually, as you master the skill, you’ll have very specific control.” She shrunk it to a small ember. She then grew it so that it danced about six inches above her hand.

“You can pick what you are burning quite precisely.” She changed the color of the fire to green, then purple, then white, as she forced it to burn minute amounts of copper, potassium, and then magnesium from the air.

“I guess you actually paid attention in chemistry!” Griffin called across the field. She stuck her tongue out at her brother and then continued unfazed.

“You’re also pretty unlimited in the size you can expand the fire to.” It shot up into the air about a hundred feet in a long skinny column of dancing color. “I’d go higher, but I’m afraid it would be seen.”

She brought the flame back down. “And you can control the shape and placement of it.” She shot the fire out to circle the clearing several times until it spiraled around them. Then she pulled the spiral in so that it crackled within inches of the two of them.

She doused it.

“You can control it away from your body.”

A small tree about 30 feet away burst into flame, popping and crackling. Then, just as suddenly, the blaze was gone.

Ellie looked at Ramsey. “You’ll be able to do that for anything, any size, in about a hundred mile radius eventually.”

Ramsey’s face broke into a huge grin. “That is awesome! Can you teach me all of that?”

Ellie shook her head. “Not all of it immediately. You’ll still have to learn things at your own pace, but I can help you along. What I can teach you right now is how to control it so that it can’t overwhelm you or hurt anyone.”

“Show me,” Ramsey breathed, his wide eyes impressed.

“You bet.” She glanced at Griffin, sending him a telepathic request. He sent her a surprised look, but immediately turned and talked quietly with the family watching from their distant spot across the clearing.

“We’ll need Lila,” Ellie said.