Chapter Twenty-Four
“Sweetie, calm down,” Maximus soothed in a tone Shaney wouldn’t have thought possible from someone forged in the fires of hell.
“Calm down?” Caleb squawked. “Calm down? Silas has gotten hold of some of the most powerful black magic in the history of the world! Black magic that was so fucking bad it was shelved as a legend, a fucking cautionary tale of a society that, fifteen hundred years ago, was purposely wiped off the planet because they had become too powerful and dangerous. Now one of the most unstable people I’ve ever known played with that magic in his chemistry set. He mixed shit together and apparently succeeded without actually blowing up the kitchen! Well, he made Shaney. And guess what? He can blow shit up!” Caleb’s voice went up about three octaves, and his face flushed red. Scariest of all, he was explaining shit in a way even Shaney could understand. That was fucking worse than bad.
“What’re you talking about?” Shaney asked, trying to keep the quaver from his voice.
Shaney swore Caleb was on the verge of hyperventilating.
“The different shit that went into making you, Shaney, borders on the insane. Without that ancient power, though, no matter what Silas and Hyrum had tried, creating you never would have worked. After years of research about your origins and from the little information Hyrum shared with me...and I couldn’t fathom anything capable of the amount of energy and power needed to actually create a human.” Caleb sighed with such despair that it was as if he’d uttered defeat. “Silas has leveled the playing field. He has the ability to wield that ancient power as well or he wouldn’t be here. He will expect you to be powerful, but also inept at using your powers, unable to control...”
Caleb trailed off and he surveyed Shaney. His breathing slowed, that calm demeanor crept back into his body and his expression became neutral. Maximus raised an eyebrow as he eyed Caleb. The ranting fit had ended as quickly as it had come on.
Caleb, back to his owl-eyed, inquisitive self, cocked his head. “I ask again, because you appear to be perfectly fine. How did you do it?”
Shaney shrugged as every eye in the room surveyed him. “It’s my energy, my body. I decided to take control. I think...I think I used something from the ground. Like something natural? It came into my body and pulled out the excess energy. I didn’t want to do what I did yesterday with the cup. I didn’t want to hurt anyone.”
“Are you fucking kidding me? Todd grabbed Shaney’s arm, his eyes wide. “Are you saying you connected with energy outside of your body and used it?”
“I don’t know. I felt the energy and knew that it could help, so I let it in and it took away the energy that I had absorbed.”
Caleb shook his head in disbelief. “You’re showing innate abilities that far surpass even years of training. Only mildly surprising. I’ve never known of another human born with innate powers. People can be born with greater sensitivity to energy, but controlling and commanding those abilities are skills learned and cultivated and honed. But, despite this, you’ll be going up against Silas who has had years to develop his craft. Anything you throw at him, he’ll be able to throw right back.”
Shaney raised his eyebrows at Caleb’s last statement. “And if he throws it back...?”
Todd grinned. “You’ll absorb it.”
Even Maximus chimed in. “Collect enough energy and you’ll be more powerful than even Silas imagined.”
Caleb pursed his lips. “While that may be true, you forget that Silas knows you have this ability. Dan was witness to the act. Any knowledge we previously acquired is information Silas now has. Silas doesn’t play fair. He’ll use everything and anything he can to get what he wants.”
Shaney’s rage grew. “Don’t you think I know that? He’s got the fucking man I love two seconds away from a heart attack. That’s everything right there! If anything happens to Hudson...”
Shaney wouldn’t survive. He gripped his hair tight in his fists. This was his fault. He’d put Hudson in danger. And despite his emphatic thought that Silas would pay for what he’d done, Shaney no longer knew what that actually meant. Did he have to kill Silas? Could he kill another man, even if that man had killed his father? Fuck, he didn’t know. This was the big time and Shaney had never been big time, even when it had been necessary. But thoughts of Hudson suffering, Hudson near death, and his father dying to protect him, brought back the anger and the hate. His emotions were battling in his chest, and he struggled to control the energy again. What would happen when he faced Silas tomorrow? Could he maintain control of the power without Hudson’s mediation? And if he thought about this anymore, he’d be a babbling, drooling mess in the corner.