He nods stiffly.
“And with Enid?”
“Yes.” He pauses. “And, I can only assume, so it will be with you.”
I start, incredulous. “When I was with Soren, I didn’t feel any…link.”
“You have barely begun to understand your own powers. You are stumbling around in the dark, unable to tell shadow from night. In time, your sight will adjust and adapt.” His eyes hold mine. “Do you feel it with me now?”
“Feel…what, exactly?”
“The energy. Like an invisible string, connecting us. Tethering us together.”
“I don’t…” I shake my head. My heart pounds so hard, I cannot hear myself think. “I’m not sure.”
He closes some of the distance between us and orders softly, “Close your eyes.”
I hesitate.
“Trust”—he echoes my earlier statement back to me, gesturing from his chest to mine—“goes both ways.”
I close my eyes.
“Good.” I hear him move closer. “Now, calm your breaths. In through your nose, out through your mouth. That’s it. Slow and steady. Feel your pulse. Focus on each heartbeat.”
I do as he says, shutting out everything except the thudding of my heart against my ribs. Eventually, it slows from a frantic, panicked patter to a uniform rhythm.
“Good,” Penn says. He’s even closer now, his voice only an arm’s length away. “When you’re ready, reach out with your senses.”
“I don’t know how.”
“How many senses do you have?”
It is a question even a young child could answer. “Five.”
“Wrong.”
“Sight, smell, taste, touch, hearing. That’s five.”
“Youhave another,” he counters. “You merely need learn how to use it.”
His hand comes down on the fabric of my dress, directly over my Remnant. I suck in a breath. I can feel the heat of his fingers, his warmth a sharp contrast to the chill that always ebbs from my mark. It is an effort to keep my heartbeats steady.
“Here,” he says, applying a bit more pressure. “This is the center of your power. Do you feel it?”
I nod. I feel it. That cold prickle, coiled within.
“What does it feel like?”
“It’s like…like there’s a storm swirling inside me,” I explain haltingly. “My mark is the eye of that storm. A dangerous point of stillness, surrounded by chaos.”
“Focus on the stillness. Shut out the chaos. Find your center.”
I try to envision the storm within me. In my mind, I see a hurricane moving fast over the water, clouds spinning round and round with increasing violence, waves cresting white with each swell. And, at the center, an eye.
Calm.
Cool.