“So Olivia can be among her ‘kind’.” I rolled my eyes. “Are you serious? I don’t have a ‘kind’, and neither does Olivia.”

“But you do.” Hayden moved fast. I flattened myself against the wall as if I could somehow disappear into it. I held the pad between us. It made for a weak, stupid barrier. “Jonathan Cromwell really isn’t my father, did you know that? My parents—my real parents—didn’t want anything to do with me. They were scared of me. When I was young, I couldn’t control it.”

A voice inside my head screamed at me to shut up and run, but I didn’t. “Control what?”

Hayden’s lips twisted. “I’m what they call an ‘enerpath.’ I can drain energy from just about anything there is, including the air around us. With people, I can drain a little of their energy. Or I can take it all. It works the same with people who are gifted.”

“And what did you mean about the air?”

“I could bring this entire house down if I wanted to.”

My mouth dropped open.

“I was in foster homes for several years. If Jonathan hadn’t found me, I don’t know where I’d be now. He told me what I was and taught me how to control it. Never once did he ask for anything in return. I owe him my life, Ember. As does every kid he’s ever saved.” His eyes flicked up. “I’ve scared you, haven’t I?”

“I… that’s…” I shook my head, “freaky?”

Silence stretched out between us while he studied me in a way that made me feel transparent. His brown eyes shifted to a much darker color, almost black. Then he moved away, going back to the railing.

“I’m sorry.” I found myself apologizing without even knowing why. “I didn’t mean—”

Hayden threw up his hand, cutting me off. “It’s okay. Being called a freak by you is sort of a compliment.”

Was that an insult? “What happened when you touched me? I mean, for a few seconds nothing happened. No one—nothing can touch me.”

“I can touch you for a minute or two. It’s like a buffer, Ember. I can handle small portions, but it would overwhelm me if you held on and I didn’t drain your touch.”

“But you knocked me out, like, hard-core.”

Hayden ran the tips of his fingers over the railing. “That’s what happens when I drain your touch. With others, it just stops whatever they are doing. If someone is telekinetic—can move things with their mind—my touch would stop them from doing so. If I drain just a little, it can take the edge off some of their gifts. For some reason, with you, it just knocked you on your butt.” He looked over his shoulder at me. “Maybe it’s because your gift is so tied to your life-force now. I don’t know.”

“So we can touch, but one of us ends up… hurt?”

A slow smile spread across his lips. “If we aren’t careful, yes. Anyway, how did you discover it? I—we never saw that.”