Free Milayna by Michelle Pickett Page B

webs that shoot from my hands?” I asked, only half joking. If Azazel was as evil as they said, what could a group of teenagers do to stop him?
    My dad laughed. “No, you don’t have spider webs or laser beams. You’ll have to rely on good, old-fashioned, hand-to-hand combat against his demis.”
    “The Tae Kwon Do and every other type of self-defense class you could find—is this why you made me take them?”
    “Yes.” My mom set down her coffee mug and moved to pull me into a hug. I squeezed her to me, breathing in her comforting scent.
    “As your powers increase, you’ll have telekinetic energy, but it will be weak. You won’t be able to rely on it until your powers fully mature.”
    “Wow.” My brain was slogged down with information. It was so full that I had trouble focusing on one thing to process. But telekinesis? Really? I was really starting to believe my dad was embellishing the story a little. Everything I’d heard so far seemed mega far-fetched, but the telekinesis tipped it over the mountain into bizarro world.
    “It’s a lot to take in, I know. Think about things for a while. When you have questions, and I’m sure you will, I’ll be here to answer them,” my dad said with a sad smile.
    Nodding at him, I grabbed my music player from the counter and started to clear the kitchen table, rinsing the plates for the dishwasher. I hummed along to the song playing through my earbuds while my parents still sat at the table, drinking the last of their coffee. I could hear them talk about getting the oil changed in the cars and other boring stuff that parents had to do.
    I tried to clear my mind of everything we’d talked about and just let the music distract me for a little while. I needed some downtime away from demons, visions, and evil people named Azazel who wanted to kill me for powers I wasn’t sure I had.
    Hey! My powers…
    I pulled out my earbuds and leaned over the kitchen island. “Dad, I have a question now.”
    He turned so he was facing me. “Okay.”
    “You said I’d have telekinetic powers, right? What about mind reading?” I tapped my temple with my finger. “Will I have that, too? Because it would really be killer this Friday when I have my calculus exam.”
    “You can’t read minds, but you will develop the ability to read people’s emotions and perhaps even know what they might do just before they do it. This will help you with your visions,” he paused and narrowed his eyes, “but when it comes to calculus? You’re on your own.”
    “Bummer.” I drummed my fingers on the counter. Putting my fingers to my temples, I glared at my dad’s coffee cup.
    “What are you doing?” my mom asked. One side of her mouth curled up.
    “I’m trying to move that cup.”
    My parents laughed. I concentrated on the coffee cup, but it didn’t budge.
    “I guess I’ll have to work on this telekinesis thing. It’ll come in handy when Ben is hogging the TV remote and forcing me to watch Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for the fifty-millionth time.”
    That night, I sat in my room and tried to move everything. I wasn’t sure how the whole telekinesis thing worked, so I just stared at stuff and chanted, “Move, move, move.”
    Everything ignored me and stayed where it was.
    Telekinesis, my ass.

 

    Six weeks, four days until my birthday.
    I was doodling across the front of my notebook when Muriel came into class. Interestingly enough, it was a picture of angel wings.
    Muriel slid into her seat beside me and brushed a lock of hair from her cheek. “I think you need to come over tonight. Have some pizza?” She bounced her pen off her notebook. “There are some people you need to meet.”
    “Yeah. My parents told me.”
    The instructor began speaking, and I snuck a smile at Muriel before turning forward in my seat. But I wasn’t interested in looking at the stodgy, old professor. My eyes searched out another. When my gaze fell on him, he was staring back at me, his blue-green eyes