Under_The_Whispering_Door_by_TJ_Klune

Wallace blinked. “Oh, uh. Practice, I guess? It’s not as hard as it looks,
once you get the hang of it. It just takes time to learn how to focus—”
“You need to show me how to do it.”
That certainly didn’t sound like a good idea. Visions of chaos filled
Wallace’s head, customers screaming as chairs were flung around them by an
unseen hand. “It took a long time, probably longer than you’ll—”
“I can learn,” Alan insisted. “How hard can it be?”
Mei set the broom against the counter, glancing at them before heading
down the hall to the back deck.
“Well,” Wallace said. “I … don’t exactly know how to start.”
“I do,” Nelson said from his chair. “Taught him everything he knows.”
Alan wasn’t impressed. “You? Really. You.”
“Really,” Nelson said dryly. “But you don’t have to take my word for it. In
fact, you don’t have to take any word at all with that attitude.”
“I don’t need you,” Alan said. “Wallace here can show me. Isn’t that right,
Wallace?”
Wallace shook his head. “Nope. Nelson is the expert. If you want to know
anything, you go through him.”
“He’s too old to—”
Nelson disappeared from his chair.
Alan choked on his tongue.
And then he was knocked off his feet when Nelson appeared behind him,
sweeping his legs out from underneath him with his cane. Alan landed
roughly on his back, the lights in the sconces flaring briefly.
“Not too old to show you a trick or three, you insolent child,” Nelson said
coolly. “And if you know what’s good for you, you’ll bite your tongue before
I show you what I can really do.” He turned back toward his chair, but not
before he winked at a gobsmacked Wallace.
“No, wait,” Alan said, pushing himself up off the floor as the shop settled
around them. “I…” He ground his teeth together. “I’ll listen.”
Nelson eyed him critically. “I’ll believe it when I see it. Your first task is
to sit there without talking. If I hear so much as a peep from you before I tell
you to speak again, I won’t teach you a damn thing.”
“But—”
“Stop. Talking.”
Alan snapped his mouth closed, though he looked furious about it.