Chapter 147

Claire POV

Nathan continued to visit me as he said he would, keeping me updated on the state of the world.

From the goings on around my own pack to the general state of the realm, Nathan made me feel like I was truly informed about what was going on with my people and my citizens.

Amelia did much the same with keeping me informed about the clinic, even discussing larger administrative issues with me.

They both acted like I could hear them, or that by speaking to me they could help pull me back from wherever I had gone. Or at least keep me from going over the edge.

And they weren’t wrong.

My gratitude for the love and devotion of both my mate and my friend was truly endless.

They kept me going.

They gave me the strength, the energy and the support to turn my focus inward.

Into the prison in which I found myself.

After gathering my strength, I began to test the limits of both my prison and my powers.

After all, if Baldwin, a fellow healer, could turn his talents into attacks and imprisonment, then I could learn to use my own healing abilities to fight against him.

So I pushed and pushed against the walls of the prison he made in my mind.

Day after day, inch by inch, I pushed and explored, I fought against panic and hopelessness, I grew stronger and more confident.

And I began to learn.

First about the prison itself, which was like a wall of glass multiple feet thick. I could see through it, I could hear and feel the outside world.

Things touch and sounds and sensations could get through.

But I couldn’t make any noise or push my body into any kind of motion.

I couldn’t get out in any way. I couldn’t push through it.

But I could go around it.

From the beginning I’d sensed a kind of energy outside myself that I could connect with. A way for me to broadcast those psychic cries for help that had so far gone unanswered.

If my mind was a small stand of trees, then this channel was like a stream flowing through it.

When I relaxed and just let myself float, that stream carried me - or at least a part of me - out of the woods and into the wider world around me.

So I spent a part of every day, a large part, simply studying that stream and practicing the certain kind of relaxation I needed to slip into it.

And something exciting happened:

It got easier.

Because I was getting stronger.

And one day I realized something incredible:

I wasn’t alone!

Sensing a mind near my own, a mind that felt different than those of the doctors and staff in the clinic around me, I reached out carefully.

Slowly.

Gently.

Hello? I said. Are you there?

I sensed surprise from the other mind, a quick jolting shock.

No matter how gentle I’d been reaching out, it must have been quite disconcerting for the other person to suddenly hear me speak to them.

But then I got my own shock in return.

Claire??

Is that you, my darling girl?!

Dad??

Dad! Is that really you??

My heart leapt at the sound of his voice, and the realization that I truly had made contact with my father.

Yes! It is!

Oh Claire, I’ve missed you so much. I’ve been so grateful for every visit, and every time you tried to heal me.

I burst into tears, but also began laughing at the same time.

You heard me? You knew I was there?

I did, he answered, growing more serious. It’s been terrible to be so alone, so isolated.

I know, I said. I’m so sorry I didn’t know what was happening sooner. Maybe if I had…

Remembering what Baldwin had hissed at me about my mother, and about his plan for revenge, I wondered if there was anything I could have done.

Even if I had suspected Baldwin was behind my father’s coma, his powers in this area were superior to mind.

We might have ended up in an all-out psychic battle, but a part of me suspected I still would have ended up here.

I still would have lost a direct fight with someone as skilled at psychic attacks as Baldwin.

That made me think of the battle he mentioned between our mothers, and I wanted to know if it was true.

Dad, Baldwin mentioned Mom. He said she died because of a battle she had with his mother.

Is that true?

A wave of sorrow came through our connection, and I could tell he was thinking about Mom.

I have long suspected that something other than an illness was the reason for her death. And I knew his mother and yours had their share of disagreements, but…

No, darling, I never knew for sure if his mother was the reason for the death of yours.

I accepted what he told me, and even though it still hurt my heart to think of my mother suffering under circumstances similar to what I was now dealing with, I just didn’t have time to grieve.

I had to save that for later.

Listen, Dad, I said. I know it hurts to think about what happened to Mom, but we have bigger problems right now.

I know, he answered, his voice growing grim. Baldwin.

Exactly.

He’s locked you in just as he’s locked me, Claire. And for that, I swear I’ll have my revenge.

I couldn’t help but smile, thinking about just how similar our lines of thought were.

Actually, I said, that’s exactly what I need your help with…

After sharing my plan with Dad, and preparing ourselves, we spent the rest of the time we had resting and gathering our strength.

And when Baldwin next came to visit, to once again try to “heal” me, I was ready.

He greeted me with his same casual arrogance. He was so confident that he had me right where he wanted me.

I doubted the idea of me trying to escape was something he even thought possible.

And that’s exactly what I wanted him to think.

So I let him begin the session without fighting back or trying to push against him.

I let him believe I was too tired, or too weak, or that I’d finally just accepted my fate.

But what I was really doing was taking in all the energy he was sending into me.

Everything he was directing at the wall around my mind, to strengthen it, I directed instead toward myself.

While he thought he was reinforcing that block around my subconscious mind, he was actually charging me up.

Like a battery.

I waited until the right moment, until just before he finished his little “healing” session.

And then I grabbed onto that energy.

And I used that battery reserve like a battering ram, sending out an intense blast of psychic energy that knocked Baldwin backward a full three steps.

He stared at me, stunned.

“Wha- what do you think you’re doing?

“What kind of game are you playing here, Princess?”

He shook his head, recovering himself, and stalked toward the bed.

“Do you really think you can stop me somehow? Do you think there’s some kind of hope for you, any hope at all?”

His face appeared directly above me.

“Think again.”

He leaned down closer.

“I was going to let you rot here, just like your father. Let you live out the rest of your life locked in as a vegetable.

“But you know what? I think I’ll just kill you instead.”

He put his hands on my head and hit me with his own blast of energy, a needle-sharp stab of energy meant to snuff out my life.

And he hit a wall.

But not the one he made.

Having studied the walls of my prison for weeks now, I knew exactly how they were made.

And I threw up one of my own, blocking his attempt to kill me.

Holding it up with every ounce of energy I had left.

From the other room, I felt my father throw his own energy into the struggle.

It helped, but I knew we couldn’t hold out forever against Baldwin’s strength.

I could only hope we could hold out long enough for my message to get through.