Chapter 25: Chapter 25

As he rambled on about the value of selling a few stock options, Marcus stopped short. A detail that might have seemed insignificant if I hadn’t noticed the surprising distress that could be read on Carmichael’s face. My eyes had immediately gone to the other Van Durens, all three frozen as a single man. Their absent stares gave them a demented look that could chill you with dread. Every face around the table except for Eric and me looked horrified. Obviously, the attitude of the Van Durens wasn’t a good sign. Suddenly, the voices of the cousins rose as one.

“Panchak.”

Carmichael stood up abruptly, followed by Eric who stormed out of the room.

“Salomon, go find Thomas right now!” Carmichael cried nervously.

“What’s going on?” I asked the Van Durens who still hadn’t come to their senses.

“Eve, follow me!” Carmichael ordered.

Worried, I complied. Even if I was mad at him to death, I didn’t want any harm to happen to Thomas, and you didn’t have to be a genius to understand that something serious was happening. Naomi was already shedding tears of anguish and I realised that, somewhere, she cared about him. Suddenly, we heard a huge noise coming from upstairs. I broke into a furious run as Carmichael outdistanced me with his long, athletic legs. Emerging from the stairs, a terrible crash made me scream in terror, Salomon was pulverized through the wall of Thomas’ room and crashed into the hallway wall. Carmichael leaned over his body, which lay motionless in the middle of the rubble. Suddenly, I felt an immense fury going through me. Chilled by this feeling, I gasped when I realised that this rage wasn’t mine. It contaminated me and seeped into me like poison. Carmichael got up and walked through the gaping hole left in the wall, he disappeared from my field of vision.

“Leave him alone!” he cried in the room.

I moved forward, walking slowly, struggling with the feelings I now caught as clearly as the fury in Carmichael’s deep voice. But he wasn’t the one sending me his vibes. I understood this and stopped, once again paralyzed by what was happening before my eyes.

Thomas was suspended in the air. Unconscious and covered in blood, his unmoving legs dangled above the ground like a puppet. His swollen face showed several very deep cuts while his left arm displayed an unnatural shape.

“You heard, let go!” Carmichael fumed.

“He hurt her!” Ethan cried.

“Ethan!” I said mentally.

“Eve!”

“What…?”

“We’re communicating by thought,” he said, cheerfully, as if the terrible situation he had caused completely escaped him.

Carmichael moved a few inches. He turned to me with a knowing look. He understood the situation, I was sure of it. He motioned for me so I walked back into the room, my eyes still fixed on Thomas’ emaciated body.

“So this is your other gift, Ethan?” I tried to convey, having no idea how this telepathy worked.

“No, it’s ours!”

“What?”

“So you don’t understand,” Ethan thought, disappointed.

Carmichael took a fleeting step forward and then stopped.

“What I understand is that you’re killing Thomas.”

“Which I wouldn’t have had to do if you had done it!” he protested.

“But, I never meant to kill him!”

“I read you like an open book, you wanted to crush his bones!” he said like a capricious child.

“But I would never have done it!”

“I thought the video would convince you to.”

“It was you!” I screamed inwardly as a titanic force made my anger well up again.

Instinctively, I used my power and slammed Ethan against the wall. In shock, he undid his invisible embrace around Thomas’s neck, who crashed like a stone on the bloodstained floor. I felt an invisible wave pushing me and I took two steps back, struggling with all my strength.

“I’ll be harder on you next time if you don’t stop, Everliegh!”

I looked at him with incomprehension. Carmichael was only a metre away from him now. Ethan, too focused on me, still hadn’t discovered his intentions.

“But why are you doing this?”

“Because he hurt you! Like Cedric Fabre and Sophia Chang!”

I froze in horror. The puzzle was starting to come together as I took in Ethan’s latest revelations.

“Oh my God, Ethan, what have you done?”

Carmichael threw himself on him and touched his skull. Like the time he’d done it on Eric in Sam’s living room.

“What I had to do. Protect my sister,” Ethan said before fading into unconsciousness.