Chapter Fifteen
‘Did you know that there are
points around the globe, veritably alive with electromagnetism?’ Teague says, twisting
dials on his remote. ‘I discovered a long time ago that…ghosts as you call them
flock to them like they truly possess magnetic properties and you’re all made
of iron.’
‘I thought you weren’t
monologueing,’ I reply. It doesn’t hurt being hung in the air, it’s just quite
a peculiar feeling. The thing I don’t like is not being able to move. I feel
trapped. My chance is to annoy him, so that he hopefully makes a mistake and
lets me go. I close my eyes, trying to travel, anywhere but here.
‘I told you, you can’t do that,’
he boasts. ‘You figured out that you’re now constructed mostly from protons,’
he explains. ‘And that you can make yourself visible by changing the charge of
the air. I’ve changed the charge again.’ He waves the remote. ‘Though my power
sources is a little bit stronger than the mains. You can’t travel, you can’t
even move.’
I close my eyes, apparently in
defeat. I try to reach out. My fingers prickle. I try very hard not to smile.
That power remains mine. I reach out to him and find he’s solid again. I can’t
read his feelings. I can imagine he’d shine triumphant. Does this mean he doesn’t
know about the Edge?
I open my eyes again, I don’t want
to make it obvious. If I have something he doesn’t know about I have to use it
to my advantage.
‘How are we connected? The hand
I touched in Rome?’
‘Spot on,’ compliments Teague
like a teacher. His eyes are very bloodshot, and the beard on his chin has
grown scraggly, tiny brown hairs are beginning to skew off, randomly. Not that
he seems to care. His clothes look unwashed. He must be hot in that coat,
despite the wind up here. He looks like a desperate man with the gift of
control.
‘Why does it matter?’ I ask. ‘It’s
hurting you isn’t it.’
Teague’s eyes narrow. I’ve hit
the nail on the head.
‘It’s none of your business what
the connection does,’ he snaps. ‘What matters is you saw something shiny and
you touched it, like a magpie, like a…child.’ He finishes like the idea
repulses him. ‘It won’t take long to reverse, I just want to get you out of my
hair.’
He turns a dial. I feel a
prickle, but not like the Edge. It’s like a thousand needles digging into my
skin.
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