Spirit of Shadows

| Chapter Twelve |

Em couldn't believe it. Another Spirit? Someone besides her has powers. She felt like crying out of relief and joy. Never had she met someone who was similar to her, someone who was her age and actually possessed powers of their own.

She smiled back at Jonah, blinking her eyes quickly to stop tears from forming.

"What are your powers?" She asked.

Jonah had brought her toward the clearing now and she could see Matthias stoking a fire, adding pieces of bark into the licking flames.

"Gravitation manipulation." Jonah replied.

"Huh?"

Jonah laughed, "I can manipulate the force of gravity."

"No way." Em replied, excitedly.

Matthias' gaze quickly travelled to them but he looked away just as fast when Em's eyes landed on him.

"Yes way. I can prove it. What should I move?" Jonah asked.

Em sat on a log close to the fire but not next to Matthias. Her mind was too occupied by Jonah's confession and she wanted to know everything about his powers and how he got them.

"Uh, how about that piece of wood?" Em asked, her head tilting to the small firewood by her feet.

"Easy," Jonah replied easily, "Watch this."

He concentrated for a moment, his eyes closing and then re-opening. He lifted his right hand in the air, Palm facing toward the sky along with his fingers. Suddenly, the log at Em's foot had began to slowly rise up from the muddy ground.

Em's eyes grew wide with amazement at what she was seeing.

Jonah used his power to levitate the wood piece, spinning it above her head, and then casually flicking it into the raging fire. The wood dropped with a pop and disappeared into the flames.

Em clapped, her mouth stretching into a wide grin.

"Thank you, thank you. I'm here all week, folks." Jonah smiled.

Matthias was watching the flames quietly.

"Now, that is what I call amazing."

Jonah scratched the back of his neck, his other hand stuffed into the pockets of his trousers. He shrugged nonchalantly and glanced down at his boots. His cheeks were a rosy pink.

Was he...blushing? Em thought to herself.

She didn't ask it out loud, not wanting Matthias to make fun of the boy for it. In fact, she thought Jonah was quite...attractive. His brown hair had been slightly disheveled from whatever had gone on the past few days. But, his body was quite lean and muscular and she had a hard time looking away, suddenly.

She smiled to herself as Jonah and her continued to talk throughout the day. The sun was going down and Matthias was quietly roasting some sort of meat in the fire. He hadn't spoken a word since their talk earlier.

But, she continued on with Jonah. She asked him how he got his powers and the boy shrugged–said he didn't really know and just had them one day.

Jonah asked how Em had gotten her own powers but she just shrugged and replied "I don't know either." Which was a complete lie. Em knew exactly how she had gotten those powers of hers and it wasn't a cool tale or entertaining story. No–Em's story was a terrifying one, one that owned more than half of her nightmares. But she didn't want to tell Jonah that yet. She wasn't ready to admit all that she went through at that godforsaken orphanage.