Whisper (Whisper #1)(50)

Enzo just continues to look at me, his face a mask of disbelief. “She’s a Creator?”

“She is,” Ward confirms. He doesn’t seem worried about Cami and Enzo knowing the truth, so I can only assume his earlier rules were never meant to apply to them.

“All this time?” Enzo asks.

“All this time.”

Enzo shakes his head. “That’s not possible. We would have known.”

“How would we have known?” Cami cuts in. She doesn’t seem as incredulous as Enzo. Compared to the reactions from the others last night, now that she’s shaken off her shock, she appears not to be concerned at all. “She didn’t say a word to anyone for over two and a half years. She gave no indication of any kind of Speaking ability, let alone the rarest one.”

“This is crazy,” Enzo states. “I don’t believe it.”

I feel a sting of hurt, like his adamant words are some kind of personal rejection. Despite him keeping his distance as my evaluator, I still grew to care about him enough to consider him a friend.

“I’m sorry,” I whisper, unable to meet his eyes. “I can’t help what I am. But I’ll do whatever it takes to learn how to control it. I promise I won’t become someone you have a reason to be afraid of.”

“Jane, you don’t have to —”

“You’re seriously a Creator?” Enzo interrupts Cami.

Something in his tone causes me to glance back up at him. He baffles me completely when a wide grin stretches across his face.

“This is wicked!” he exclaims. “Seriously — I don’t believe it.”

He said that before, but I now realize his reaction isn’t negative.

“This is the best news ever,” he declares. “It’s too good to be true.” He shakes his head again, laughing to himself. “Little JD — a Creator! I never would’ve picked that!”

He takes five quick strides across the room and gathers my startled self into his arms, lifting me clean off the ground as he draws me up in a massive bear hug. My eyes nearly pop out of my head with surprise, and I let out a gasp of pain when tiny kitten claws dig into my arm, telling me Schr?dinger isn’t a fan of being squished.

When Enzo releases me to the ground, still beaming, I grin back. Deciding to give an impromptu demonstration — and trusting that after my morning of practice I can pull it off — I look down at the kitten again. I make sure to imagine the picture of what I want clearly in my mind, then I send a quick warning glance to Ward — just in case he needs to step in — and I say, “Schr?dinger, to my bed.”

Immediately the kitten disappears from my arms, hopefully to rematerialize in my room as I imagined. I’ll find out later if it worked, but at least for now, I no longer have him scratching my flesh off.

Seeing the damage, Cami dances over and places her hand on my forearm. With a quietly Spoken word — “Heal” — and a touch of light, my skin mends in an instant.

“Thanks, Cam,” I say gratefully. I’m amazed to discover that my throat doesn’t feel as strained now, either.

“That’s one of the funny things about Creators,” she says, smiling softly at me. “You can do pretty much anything, except heal yourself. No one knows why that’s the case. It’s the same for me, though — I can heal anyone except me.”

“Too much power,” I suggest. “If we could heal ourselves, then we could live forever.”

She nods seriously. “Yes, I think you’re right.”

“Was there a reason you two came by?” Ward interrupts.

“We brought some cookies for JD,” Enzo says, pointing to the brown bag. “She didn’t get breakfast, and while they’re not exactly nutritional, she still needs to eat.”

Mmm. Cookies. My stomach grumbles with anticipation, so I open the bag. Inside I find a pile of gooey chocolate chip cookies.

“Fresh out of the oven, direct from Aunt Esther and straight to you,” Cami says. She snakes her hand into the bag and pulls a cookie out for herself, then takes a bite. “And lucky for me, you’re good at sharing.”

I roll my eyes at her but pass the bag around to Enzo and, reluctantly, Ward. After they each take one, there are still plenty left.

“Better get your strength up, Chip, since we still have a lot to do today.”

I freeze in the act of raising the cookie to my mouth, but Ward doesn’t seem to notice — nor does he seem to realize that he just slipped up and called me “Chip.”

Taking a deep breath, I nibble on my cookie, deciding it’s best to act as if the verbal slip never happened.





CHAPTER SIXTEEN


It’s been two days since I discovered what I am and began working with Ward to control my Speaking ability, but it’s as if he’s communicating in a foreign language.

I can comprehend what he’s trying to have me do. Everything he’s said about intent makes sense — it’s more the practical side of things where I … lose my way.

After the success with the farmyard animals, my hopes had risen, and I’d wondered if perhaps it wouldn’t be so hard to learn control. As if sensing my growing confidence, Ward has since found a way to smash me back down to reality, and today he is particularly brutal.