Alex crinkled her forehead before understanding dawned. “Right. The time paradox.”
Kaiden nodded. “One second I’m here, then Athora swoops me off for training, then the same second I’m back here with no one any wiser.”
Alex marvelled at the wonder of it all and followed when he started moving towards the staircase leading up from the Library and out of the Tower building.
As they headed towards their dorms, Alex tried to sort out the enormity of what she’d learned. Of what Kaiden knew about her. Of what Kaiden himself could do.
“I have a question,” she said as they trudged their way through the snow.
Kaiden paused, so she stopped as well and turned to face him.
“Just one?” he said with a wry smile.
Alex returned his expression and admitted, “Well, no. But just one for now.”
“Then shoot.”
“If you have the ability to use so many gifts,” she said, still struggling to comprehend the scope of his power, “then when we were at Sir Oswald’s and you realised Jordan and I had been taken captive, why didn’t you just storm in, all guns blazing?”
“All guns blazing?” Kaiden repeated with a chuckle. “I’m presuming that must be a Freyan expression.”
“Shhhh!” Alex hissed, jumping forward to cover his mouth and looking wildly around.
She felt his body shake under her hand, and when she turned back to him, his eyes were bright with humour. Hastily, she dropped her arm and stepped back again.
“It’s after nine at night and we’re standing outside in the middle of winter,” Kaiden said. “Only an idiot would be out here spying on us. And,” he added, “with your heightened senses, I’m pretty sure you’d know if they were.”
Alex cringed both internally and externally at him knowing yet another secret of hers. “You really have figured out a lot about me, huh?”
“I knew something had changed after watching you fight Aven at Sir Oswald’s,” he said, not bothering to deny her words. “I even told you I’d never seen a human move or fight like you, let alone hold their own against a Meyarin.”
“You didn’t demand answers,” Alex said, remembering how he’d let it go but made her promise to ask for help if she needed it. Softly, she added, “I was really grateful for that.”
Kaiden offered a one-shouldered shrug. “To answer your question about that night, and calm your earlier fears about my hypothetical megalomania,”—he still looked way too amused by that—“while my gift means I can potentially do a lot, I also have some strict limitations.”
Alex just looked at him, waiting for him to go on.
“It’s extremely challenging for me to use the gifts of others,” he admitted. “It requires a great deal of concentration if I want to have any kind of control.” He waved a hand around the campus. “Akarnae students study for years just to learn how to manage their own, single gift. Now multiply that by how many abilities I can choose between and you’ll have an idea of how much discipline it takes for me to control what I can do.”
“Sounds exhausting,” Alex guessed.
“It is,” he confirmed. “Depending on the particular ability I use, it can drain my energy very quickly. So I have to be careful what I do and for how long.”
Alex nodded, knowing from people like Jordan and Skyla how keeping some gifts activated took effort and became tiring after a while.
“I can also only use one gift at a time,” Kaiden said. “I can’t read someone’s mind while also using Jordan’s transcendence, for example. It’s one or the other.”
Alex nodded again, since that made sense.
“So, that night at Sir Oswald’s,” Kaiden continued, “once we figured out something had gone wrong, I decided that using Hunter’s perception and awareness gift was the best way to go, so that when Declan and I did burst in ‘all guns blazing’, I knew exactly where to shoot off a few Stabiliser rounds to drop people before that telekinetic woman caught us in her grip. But unfortunately,” he added, “I didn’t know about the nullifying woman who stopped me from then being able to do anything else after that.”
“Why didn’t you just steal Lena’s gift and turn it back around on her?” Alex asked, pulling her coat tighter around her body. “Nullify her nullification? Then the others could have been freed from her grip, too.”
Kaiden shook his head. “I can only take on someone’s gift by physically touching them, and that night was the first time I’d ever encountered her.” He let out a sound of frustration. “I wish I’d had a chance to steal her ability, though. Then I’d be able to stop what she’s doing now.”
Alex peered at him in curiosity and repeated, “What she’s doing… now?”
Kaiden cocked his head to the side. “You don’t know?”
Even more curious, she asked, “Know what?”
He looked astonished. “I thought you were close to the headmaster?”
Not sure what that had to do with anything, Alex said, “I am.”
Kaiden just continued looking at her in surprise. “Then he didn’t tell you how he and others both at the academy and out in the rest of the world are being targeted by Lena? How they’re unable to use their abilities because she’s neutralising them?”
Alex paled. “What are you talking about?”
“She has to know the person and the specific gift they have in order to stop them, but some people’s abilities, like Marselle’s, are common knowledge,” Kaiden informed. “He, as well as a stack of others, have been blocked for months now.”
Alex’s stomach plummeted as she thought again of Lena nullifying D.C.’s gift—and she wondered how she’d never considered the possibility that others were being targeted as well.
“I thought you knew,” Kaiden said. “Without Lena’s interference, Marselle and his supernatural wisdom would have been way ahead of Aven and his plans by now.”
That explained so much. It explained why Darrius was so full of doubt, so concerned for Alex, and so hesitant to speak up amongst the other teachers to force a plan of action. He was used to being guided by his gift, but now he couldn’t even access it.
“I didn’t know,” Alex said quietly. “Who else is Lena targeting?”
“I’m not sure,” Kaiden answered, “but I think a few of the teachers, as well as some of the higher ups in the military. Jeera’s mentioned some Warden friends who haven’t been able to use their abilities for a while now, too.”
“Is she…?”
“She’s fine,” Kaiden assured her. “Lena doesn’t know about Jeera’s gift.”
Alex toed the snow with her boot. “And you? Does Lena—does Aven—know what you can do?”
“Are you kidding?” Kaiden laughed. “At the risk of sounding arrogant, Aven would have tried to Claim me long before now if that were true.”