The Last of the Pure

Seven

Against the advice of Serena and the boys, I decided to call Samuel after school Monday. I spent most of Sunday sleeping and made plans with Thomas to train in the afternoon.

Thomas wasn’t happy when I cancelled our second training session, but he seemed to like the idea more than the others.

“Just be careful around him,” he warned. “He’s not the easiest person to read.”

Samuel picked me up from my house around 3:30, having told me to wear something I would work out in, I put on some volleyball shorts and a t-shirt, tying my long hair into a bun, deciding it didn’t matter too much what I looked like, as much as I tried to argue with myself.

“Where are we going?” I asked after we’d passed through most of the town, driving down a gravel road that could very well lead to my demise. I had to be careful with him. I had to remember that.

“There’s a clearing outside of town that I used to train in, I thought we could start there.”

He drove a bit further before pulling off the road into a field, driving his Jeep through the bumpy grass until he approached the center.

Samuel briefed me on each member of Lucas’s army, giving me a slight description of their gifts, ways to defend them, and what to avoid. We were sitting in the grass, he was picking handfuls and ripping up little blades while he spoke while I toyed with a rip at the corner of my shorts. When he said that was everyone, I disagreed.

“I still don’t know what you do,” I pointed out.

“I’m not sure I want to tell you,” he chuckled. “It’s kind of nice being around someone with no filter.”

I crooked my head, raising an eyebrow when everything kind of clicked.

“Are you a mind reader?” I asked, trying to stop the blush I felt creeping up my neck.

“Not specifically,” he shook his head.

“But I’m on the right track?”

He sighed, tossing the handful of grass he had back to the ground and brushing his hands through his hair.

“I can basically just get inside of people’s heads,” he said. “I can read thoughts, I can place thoughts, I can force actions,” he shrugged, looking a bit self-conscious. “And the most useful aspect is, that if I know someone’s head well enough, I can manipulate their gifts. It usually turns out to be more of a curse.”

I began to worry if I’d thought anything about him and then the second part hit me. Had he put any thoughts in my head? Made me do anything so far?

“I wouldn’t do that, Nora,” he said, answering my internal question and making me blush even more.

“What was Cyril’s gift?” I asked changing the subject quickly. Despite what Thomas said, I was kind of curious.

“What did Thomas say?” he asked. I wished he’d stop doing that and he chuckled a bit. “Sorry, when we’re this close, your thoughts just kind of pop into my head.”

“He said that he thought my gifts would be like Cyril’s, but he couldn’t tell me what they were.”

“That’s smart of him,” Samuel nodded. “Until you know for sure it’s better that you have no idea what kind of gift you might have.”

We talked like that a while longer, before he decided he’d better show me how to fight a little. That was the most difficult part. He first taught me how to defend; throwing slow punches and either having me block or dodge. When we finished with that, he showed me some basic self-defense, saying we’d save the real stuff for another day. Thomas had walked me through a few things, but it seemed much simpler with Samuel.