I slowly made my way up from the floor and took in what had just happened. When I used my Gift, he had known and retaliated instantly. But something about that didn’t feel right. How could Jason both know when I was going to use my Gift and be able to attack me? I remembered that his name wasn’t near the top of the Combat Power ratings so I knew that his Gift couldn’t be that powerful but the ability to be able to attack people mentally was strong. I paused as I considered that. I'd only looked at the top five places on the Combat Power ratings and he wasn't on there. So he couldn't be too powerful.

Then, I widened my eyes as I realised something. While all Gifts were unique, some were similar. He could have had a version of my Gift but better. That still didn’t feel right. He didn’t move like me; with the confidence that you knew what everyone was thinking at any moment. He didn’t flinch like I did when I realised that the Ruler had stopped me from reading his mind. Nor had Annabelle threatened him about reading her mind. Not that I knew how Annabelle knew I could read her mind. The Seer probably told her.

I closed my eyes for a solid four seconds as I thought of how to respond to Jason. “Are you like me?” I asked. Is your Gift like mine?

He narrowed his eyes at me and slowly raised himself off the chair, his lithe arms pushing him up gracefully. He sauntered towards me like a predator stalking its prey. Only when he stood opposite me did I realise how much taller he was than me. He looked down on me both physically and metaphorically. He had discarded his previous careless attitude like it was a jacket in summer and wore this colder demeanour like a snug sweater in winter.

As he looked down on me from above and my heart began to race in panic, I realised just how wrong my guess had been. Jason was an unknown and one that I didn’t know how to solve. I couldn’t read his mind. I didn’t know his Gift. I didn’t know him. His arms were draped lazily to the side as if baiting me to read his mind.

But I didn’t rise to it.

“So,” he drawled slowly, “you think I’m a mind witch like you?”

Technically, the word "witch" was archaic and the term Gifted was more common. The church had basically decided this throughout the whole country when they began to claim that the powers were a divine gift. The negative connotations of the word “witch” made it hard for the church to advocate for the rights of the Gifted who had previously been prosecuted and marginalised. I didn’t correct him though. Half because it was only petty semantics and the other half because I didn’t dare to.

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“Not anymore,” I said slowly. I chose each word carefully as I didn’t know if he would suddenly attack me out of nowhere or how he would do that. Now that I was mostly certain that he wasn’t like me, I couldn’t narrow down all the different ways he could attack me. His ability could be to damage organs or it could be telekinesis. Talking with Jason made me feel exposed and defenceless. I couldn’t anticipate anything that would happen and I couldn’t tell what he was thinking or feeling.

For the first time in a long time,

I

wasn’t

in

control.

He cocked his head and I flinched instinctively. He smiled. “You want to know my Gift,” he said. It wasn’t a question but a statement. He said it with so much confidence that I felt like anything he said was absolute. Like the mere utterance of his words made them a reality. His words felt world-changing like Seraphina’s did except on a more fundamental level. But it wasn’t his Gift; just the force of his charisma. I could only nod.

He grinned wickedly in a way that reminded me of Vera before she blew things up.

“I think it’s better to show you”

He stretched his body slowly, rolling his shoulders and stretching his back. Probably for dramatic effect, I thought, so he’s a show-off just like Vera. Then, with his right hand, he gripped his left wrist and activated his Gift.