Page 17 of Dark Princess Emerging

Morelle frowned. "I don't understand how it works. I wasn't trying to stop Cassandra. I was just watching the glass and expecting it to shatter. Maybe my effect is on the object and not on the power affecting it?"

Amanda tapped a finger on her red-colored lips. "That's an interesting theory. I wonder how we can test it."

"Easy," Brandon said. "Arwel's talent does not work with objects. If Morelle can nullify it, then her power works on the talent, not the object."

"True, true." Amanda walked out the glass doors and called everyone inside. "Okay, everyone. You know what to do to activate Arwel's talent." She turned to Morelle. "Do your thing. Try to stop Arwel from doing what he's doing."

The Guardian looked pained, and she wondered what was causing it. Maybe she could stop his pain?

Morelle concentrated, clearing her mind of Amanda's fascinating story of how she had fallen in love with the enemy of her clan, and she imagined Arwel smiling.

Then it happened, and he smiled. "Unbelievable. It went quiet up here." He tapped his temple.

"What's your talent?" Morelle asked.

"I'm an empath, and I can't block people's feelings. It's not as bad with immortals because they project much less than humans, but they bombarded me just now, and then it suddenly stopped. How did you know what to do?"

"You looked in pain, and I wanted you to feel better."

"Fascinating," Amanda said. "I need to do some thinking. This nullifying talent is not what I expected."

"Should we try mine?" Toven asked.

Morelle was exhausted after blocking Arwel's pain, and she really didn't want to try again with Toven.

Amanda looked at her. "You look tired, but since we've dragged Toven over here, can you summon a little more energy and try again?"

"Of course. But can we do that sitting down?"

"Naturally." Amanda led the procession to the living room, where everyone found a place to sit.

"I'll make it simple," Toven said. "Look at me and try to stop whatever I'm about to do."

Morelle nodded.

Toven turned to Brandon. "Tell Morelle that she is ugly and that you hate her."

"No," Brandon said with a smile.

Morelle was confused. "Why did you tell Brandon to say such hurtful things, and why are you two smiling about it?"

"My talent is compulsion," Toven said. "You just blocked me from forcing Brandon to say those nasty things to you."

"Ha." She looked at Brandon. "How did I do it without knowing what he was doing?"

"Good question," Amanda said. "Your nullifying ability behaves differently with each talent. I will need to study it some more. But not today."

Morelle let out a breath. "Thank you. I feel like I need to lie down and sleep for a few hours."

11

ELL-ROM

Ell-rom closed his laptop and put it down on the bedside table. He'd been practicing English with the help of the AI teacher every day for long hours, but today, he couldn't concentrate. The feeling that Jasmine would finally wake up was so strong that he kept lifting his head from the screen and looking at her, hoping to see her eyes open.

It wasn't very conducive to learning.

Jasmine had been unconscious for ten days, which was a long time, but not as long as some of the other transitioning Dormants, who had taken weeks. Everyone was telling him that he had nothing to worry about, and maybe they were right, but Ell-rom was all out of patience.