Guild of Truth 01 - Silent as the Grave by Mary K. Norris

Understanding dawned. Cali was using her powers.
    And by the looks of it, she had no idea how, and was terrified.
    He knew that fear. Had felt it many times, only this time she wouldn’t be alone as he’d been.
    He gripped her shoulders as much to comfort her as to draw her attention back from where she was staring down at her own body as if it wasn’t hers.
    “It’s okay,” he mouthed. “I’m staying right here.”
    She nodded shakily.
    He took a moment to think.
    How the hell was he supposed to help her when they didn’t have the same powers?
    He kneaded her shoulders absently until something clicked. It was only a hunch but it was all he had.
    He removed his hands from her shoulders and brought them to rest atop hers where they gripped his hips like a lifeline.
    “What are you doing?” she mouthed.
    Any other time he would have found her reluctance to release him amusing.
    “Trust me.”
    He pulled her hands from him and let them drop by her sides.
    She gave him a funny look. “What was the point of that?”
    Had it worked? He didn’t feel any different, but then again, he never felt anything when Sydney used her powers either. “It was just a theory,” he said.
    His eyes widened.
    “I made noise.” He looked down at himself, amazed she was able to take all sound from him.
    Her arms waved. “Why am I still silent?”
    Panic was starting to set in. He reached out to grab her and stopped himself short. If he touched her again, her powers would leak over to him.
    “Don’t panic. Getting control of your powers is the hardest thing to deal with.” He wracked his mind for some kind of instruction to give her, trying to remember back to those first cursed weeks when he’d discovered his power and had been abandoned and ridiculed by his “friends.” When nothing helpful surfaced he went with his gut. “When your power first manifests, it’s usually brought on by strong emotion.” He bit back a smile at what must have triggered them. “Do you have a weird prickling at the back of your neck?” It was the only common symptom that he knew of.
    Cali nodded.
    Should he try what he’d done with Sydney all those years ago when they’d found out about her ability? It was worth a shot. “I need you to try and relax.”
    She gave him a dead stare. Are you serious? it said.
    His lip twitched. “Close your eyes and picture yourself releasing all the tension in your body. Trust me. Just … let … go.”
    She eyed him balefully for a moment as if to convey that if he was pulling her leg she’d amputate his. Finally she closed her eyes.
    He waited, watching as she inhaled, held it, and slowly let it out.
    A few cars sped by and still she kept her eyes closed. “Did it work?” she whispered.
    He threw his head back and laughed. “I can honestly say with some confidence that it did.”
    She punched him in the arm. “You jerk. That was not a laughing matter. I was terrified.”
    He rubbed his arm. “So does that count, then?” He held up a finger much like she had earlier. “That was one.”
    Her eyes flashed with the challenge. She raised her chin, not saying anything, and he took it to mean that he had indeed evened out her little scoreboard. But he was far from finished with it.
    “How’d you know what to do?” she asked after a few more cars pass by.
    He stepped back to give her some room, his shoulder rising in a careless half shrug. “That’s the only thing that seemed to work for me.”
    “When did you first learn about your … ” She faltered. “Your, uh, ability?”
    It was not a time he liked to remember, but it looked as if she was opening up to the idea of having powers, so he’d do what he could to help her. “I was twenty-one. It was after finals. I went out with a bunch of my buddies and we got drunk. We were leaving when one of them made the offhand comment about my current girlfriend at the time being a whore. I got pissed, there were angry words exchanged. I wanted to fight.”