“Were you very close with Hastings?” Aethelred asked Seth. Today, like everyone else, he wore a dark suit that brought out the true redness of his hair and eyes, giving him a menacing appearance despite his inherent placidity. Though the Stark twins were fairly tall for sixteen-year-olds, the chief of Mentals towered a head over them, dwarfing even the muscular twin.
“Not really,” Seth said, his verbal statement as transparent as his thoughts. “I always talked to him, but he never answered. I did like him, though. Right now, I don’t like him so much, because his death is forcing me to wear this uncomfortable suit.”
Eliana was relieved to see Tray roll his eyes as his brother squirmed. “You’re so inconsiderate.”
“I’m just joking, bro. Trying to lighten the mood…”
“There’s nothing light about this,” Tray grumbled. For the first time, his moodiness was actually appropriate for the situation.
“What are they saying?” Ackerly whispered to Eliana, who jumped at the realization that he’d followed her to this shady cluster of trees. All three of their faces were visible from here, but the sound of their voices was still faint.
“Just bickering. C’mon.” She motioned for him to follow her through the trees until they were at a better vantage point, hidden by the brush but close enough to hear the conversation with their ears.
“What did the Reggs ask you in their interrogation?” Tray asked his brother, who had finally stopped his obnoxious fidgeting.
“Lots of pointless stuff.” Seth shrugged and then scrunched his nose at the constricting fabric of his suit. “About Hastings’s routine, his meetings with Angor—why would I even know about that? They also wanted to know if Adara was somehow in on the whole thing, as if her becoming a fire monster to kill Angor wasn’t proof enough that she was pissed. They’re just looking for an excuse to keep her in that jail. How’s she doing, anyway?”
“When she woke up, she was just as pleasant as usual—spewing profanities, mocking everyone who breathes…”
“She’s awake? Damn, I need to go see her.” Seth stroked his chin as he glanced up at the teacher standing between them. “Am I allowed to go see her?”
“Normally, yes, with an adult escort, but now that Mr. Periculy is also in jail, I am unsure as to how the rules will change,” Aethelred explained, studying the Rosses where they stood across the field. His mental wall was fortified enough that Eliana couldn’t glean specific thoughts, but the aura of distrust was evident.
“Angor’s in jail?” Seth blurted incredulously.
“What else would you expect them to do with a murderer?” his twin questioned. “They even put him in the same cell as Adara, so that shows you how dangerous they think she is.”
“Adara’s in a cell with him—alone? We gotta go bust her out!”
“I don’t believe Mr. Periculy to be as much of a threat as everyone thinks,” Aethelred cut in pensively. “He was never fond of the Reggs’ rules, but he never expressed any desire for violence. I’ve known him for many years, and he has made mistakes but none this grave. He will not injure Miss Stromer. I find it hard to believe he would have even put Mr. Lanio in such a dangerous position…”
Eliana didn’t find it hard to believe, and Tray was just as skeptical. “The important question now is could he have put Hastings in that position?” he asked. “Does Angor have the ability to control minds?”
Aethelred’s red eyebrows creased in contemplation. Even from this distance and even with the wall, she could detect a different sort of block around his thoughts—one similar to the shield and void in Angor’s brain. “I…am not entirely sure,” he finally admitted. “He is a Mental, and I know his Affinity…or I should…but it’s as if someone has removed the knowledge from my mind.”
Tray exchanged a look with his brother but then remembered Seth hadn’t been present when Angor had said almost the same thing about his memory. “So…” Tray started slowly, “you don’t know what Angor’s Affinity is? But you did…and you think someone erased your memory?”
“It seems that way. I don’t doubt there are those with an Affinity for erasing memories. I believe the same thing happened to Miss Stromer, actually. When I saw her past a few days ago, portions of it had been tampered with—blocked from view almost. This feels the same.”
“So, you think someone has the ability to block memories, but you don’t think it’s Angor?”
Aethelred opened his mouth to reply, but Eliana already knew his answer: No, he did not believe Angor could block memories. He didn’t even believe Angor could control minds. But…how? And why?
“Mr. Certior!” Fraco Leve hissed loudly, his frantic thoughts breaking Eliana from hers. The greasy man scampered over to where the Starks and Aethelred stood, and the crowd parted for him, none wanting his oily suit to brush against them.
“I’ll mull it over,” Aethelred muttered to Tray, the volume too low for Eliana to hear outside her mind. Though she sensed his thoughts had drooped into consternation, he met Fraco with a cordial smile. “Mr. Leve. Is there a problem?”
“Is there a problem?” the vice principal mimicked boorishly. “There are several problems, Mr. Certior. Our leader has been hauled off to the very prison he built, and now the people of this town are worshiping the Regg ambassadors as if they are gods! You know as well as I that there is no possibility Mr. Periculy is guilty.”
“What makes you say that?” Tray asked, eyes narrowing.
“Because, for one, Mr. Periculy is an upstanding citizen and valiant leader. Two, Mr. Periculy is a man of strategy, not violence. Three, Mr. Periculy did not care for many people in this world, but he did care rather ardently about Mr. Lanio. And four, Mr. Periculy does not have a mind controlling Affinity. That should be enough proof to sway you, Mr.—”
“What is his Affinity, then?” Tray interrupted.
“It’s…” Fraco’s confidence wavered immediately as his dark eyebrows wrinkled. That strange wall settled over his mind, foreign and formidable. “It’s…it’s not mind controlling, and that’s all you need to know.”
“You can’t remember, can you?”
“I—remember perfectly…”
Tray wasn’t listening anymore, though; he and his twin actually exchanged looks now, and they aimed one at Aethelred as well.
“Mr. Leve,” the chief of Mentals interrupted over Fraco’s stammers. “Is there something you wish for me to do?”
“I—I wish for our leader to be freed from jail. Stromer can rot in there for all I care, but Mr. Periculy must be released. Certainly, we are the two most powerful people in this town now. Can we not do it?”
“In Mr. Periculy’s absence, it would appear you are the principal. Why are you asking me what you can and cannot do?”
“Because…because…”
“Because everyone likes Aethelred and no one likes you?” Seth offered, making Fraco seethe.
“Shoo now, both of you!” he fumed at the twins, waving them away with his oily hands and spraying droplets on their faces in the process. The Starks complied, wiping their skin as they departed from the authority figures.
Eliana tapped Ackerly’s arm and prompted him to trail her through the trees until they were only paces away from the twins, who were still removing Fraco’s grease from their eyes. They were so blinded by it that neither noticed their friends about to emerge from the woods, nor the person who had sauntered up to join them, halting Eliana before she could reveal herself.
“Wait,” she whispered, grabbing Ackerly’s arm and nearly throwing him into a tree. His grunt was drowned out by Calder Mardurus’s wry greeting.
“Starks. I would offer to clean your faces, but water and oil don’t mix.”
Tray blinked his eyes open and frowned at the sight of the smirking secondary. “I don’t want any of your water near my face ever again. What is it that you want, exactly?”
Calder cocked his head to the side, shifting a few wisps of his deep blue hair. “Rumor has
it you two were there to witness…” He paused, all humor dying from his expression. His mental shield was thick, but Eliana still anticipated his next words. “You were there to witness Hastings’s death. I want information.”
“Is Nero asking?”
“I’m not Nero’s secretary.”
“Kinda seems like you are,” Seth noted.
“I’m not—” Calder cut himself short and ran his hand over his hair, stopping when he hit his bun. “Where is Stromer?”
Tray raised an eyebrow. “You haven’t heard Avner broke the Wacko free and fled town to save Maddy?”
Calder shook his head dismissively. “I don’t care about him—I’m talking about his sister. One of you must know where she is, considering you’re both dating her.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Seth said, appalled.
“Please,” Tray groaned, massaging his temples. “Don’t ever even think there’s a possibility I could be romantically involved with Adara Stromer.”
“Yeah, she’s like a sister to us,” Seth insisted. Eliana almost felt sorry to know it was true, given the way Adara thought about him.
“Like the kind of sister you got stuck with and could never get rid of, even though you hate her,” Tray added. Eliana almost sensed that wasn’t true, but his sentiments toward Adara were too convoluted to decipher.
“I like my sister, so I can’t really relate,” Calder mused with a shrug, though the nonchalance seemed forced. “And I always know where she is, so you two must know what happened to Stromer.”
Having simmered down from their minor outburst, the Stark twins glanced at each other knowingly. “Who’s asking?” Seth finally said, crossing his arms.
“Me?”
“Why do you want to know?” Tray pried, adopting his brother’s stance.
Calder rolled his oceanic eyes. “Because everyone’s saying she’s in jail, and if she is, then I have some payback to dish out.”
Seth’s head thrust backward in confusion. “Payback?”
“You two were there when I got locked up and she came to mock me.” Calder averted his gaze momentarily and then added, “I just want to return the favor.”
“Oh, well in that case, she’s in jail, first cell on the right—same one you were in,” Tray said without hesitation. “Give her hell for me, will you? And let us know if Angor’s killed her yet.”
“Angor? She’s…in jail with Angor?” The intensity of the boy’s dread seeped through the bricks of his mental wall. “She was in on it then, the attempted murder?”
“She was not in on it,” Seth scoffed. “Where the hell are people coming up with this crap? Adara tried to murder Angor after what happened with Hastings. She became a raging fire demon.”
Calder’s wall began to crumble with his nausea. “She did? Like when Aethelred touched her the other day? And when…” He glanced down at his suit, unable to verbalize the way Adara had burned a hole in his shirt during their skirmish in the library.
“Worse,” Tray clarified grimly. “Her skin became…dark, like hardened lava, and the blaze was so strong we could barely see her through it.”
“So, she’s in jail because she’s dangerous?”
Seth laughed. “She’s probably the most dangerous person in Periculand, since Hastings is dead. At least he knew how to control his emotions; Adara doesn’t even know what the word control means.”
Calder actually winced at that. “Hopefully Periculy will be able to contain her with his mind controlling Affinity.”
“If he has a mind controlling Affinity…” Tray said, but his words were unheard by the others when Kiki Belven scurried up to them and yanked on Seth’s arm.
“I need to talk to you,” she demanded, digging her black-painted nails into his bicep. She’d clearly done them to match her dress, but the dark hues didn’t compliment her pale skin and hair well. Even so, she wore no makeup over her mildly freckled cheeks or around her vibrant blue eyes, and there was something appealing to Eliana about her natural beauty.
Seth wasn’t fazed by her looks or her clutch on his arm. “About what?”
“Everything!” she exclaimed, but her frantic energy subsided when she noticed the third boy among them. “Ooh, and you, Nero’s cute friend—I’ll need to talk to you later.”
Calder’s expression remained indifferent with her request. “Okay.”
Kiki shot him a flirty wink before issuing one final tug on Seth’s arm that forced him to comply. They weaved through the crowd until they were on the outskirts of the park, sheltered beneath a large, dormant tree. Eliana could have revealed herself to Tray now, considering Calder had also strolled away, but something drew her deeper through the trees, like a magnetic force attracting her mind.
“So, you’re into Calder now, huh?” was the first thing Eliana heard Seth say once she was within earshot. Ackerly hadn’t joined her this time, and it left an uneasy feeling in her gut. Listening to the twins discuss relevant topics like Hastings and Angor was justifiable, but eavesdropping on Seth and Kiki’s personal conversation? They had dated, and, though Eliana had overheard plenty of their thoughts about each other, this was intentional and immoral—but she didn’t even start to walk away.
“I have no interest in him,” Kiki insisted, rolling her eyes.
Seth squinted in what Eliana realized was an attempt to study her irises, because he was convinced there was something different about them. Intrigued, she positioned herself behind a tree where she could better see Kiki’s features. Still, the only change she could deduce was in the girl’s demeanor. Around the others, she’d been superficial, but now her panic was evident, her capacity for substantial emotion revealed.
“Then why did you say you’d have to talk to him later?”
“Because I have to make myself seem normal, Seth, so people don’t get suspicious. If everyone realizes I’m not interested in boys anymore, they’re going to know something is wrong.”
Seth blinked, baffled. “You’re not into boys anymore? That’s…unexpected—but hey, there’s nothing wrong with being a lesbian. I’d prefer it, I think, because then I’ll stop taking our break up as a personal slight—”
“That is not what I am talking about!” she hissed. “I just don’t…I don’t care about having a boyfriend or hooking up with anyone or any of that, really, and you know that’s always been my top priority. There is something wrong with my brain, Seth, and it’s distracting me from my top priority.”
“Kiks, you know you can be honest with me. If you’re attracted to girls, I’ll support you all the way—”
A loud, shrieking groan escaped her lips, drawing a few confused glances. “I am not talking about my sexual orientation,” she whispered irritably, almost too low for Eliana to hear. “I am talking about…well, I don’t really know. All I do know is…is that I knew this was going to happen, Seth—all of this.” She motioned toward the funeral and the crowd, stopping at last on Hastings’s grave. “I saw this in a dream. I knew Hastings was going to die. I don’t know how I knew, but I didn’t tell anyone and I feel awful. I’m such a bitch.”
Eliana had been still before, but now it was more paralysis than an attempt for stealth. Kiki had known Hastings would die? Eliana had always gotten a weird vibe from her brain, but she’d never gathered any information regarding Hastings’s death. Was that why Kiki had been straying away from their group?
Tentatively, Seth met his ex-girlfriend’s desperate gaze. “Well…I’ve never wanted to say you were a bitch before, but if you’re saying it…”
“This is no time for jokes! Hastings is dead. Maybe he was a quiet loser, but…he thought I was funny, I think. He would always snort at me in our Mental Class, and…and I’m going to miss being laughed at by him. How pathetic am I? I actually liked that freak! I sat in our classroom and cried all last night—so much that my eyes were too swollen to put on makeup this morning!”
“I…I’m upset too,” Seth managed, speaking honestly. “We didn’t talk much,
but he was my roommate, and he wasn’t a dick like everyone at our old school.”
Kiki bit her lip, eyes darting for any sign of eavesdroppers. Luckily, Eliana was still too frozen to be detectable. “I…agree,” she admitted, causing Seth’s eyebrows to perk. “Everyone here feels real. Hastings didn’t care what people thought of him. He was always truthful, when he actually talked, and he died to save two strangers. I would never do that, Seth. Hastings was so much better than me—better than all of us—and he’s gone.”
Eliana could feel the ache in Seth’s chest. Everyone thought he was as shallow as Kiki, and they were equally shallow—but also equally not shallow. Beneath their good looks and cool-kid facades dwelled two fragile souls, surviving this world in the only way they knew how.
“You said…you knew he would die?”
Kiki’s blonde curls bounced as she nodded. “I saw it in a dream a few nights ago. I’ve been…seeing a lot of things recently. That’s what’s wrong with me.”
“All of these things you see…happen?”
“Yes. The first thing I saw that happened was those Wackos breaking in last month. Since then, I’ve seen small things, like predicting what you’ll wear the next day or a lesson we’ll learn in class. I saw…Adara exploding in flames. I thought it was a nightmare.”
“They’re not dreams,” Seth said warily, voicing exactly what Eliana had concluded, “and it’s not what’s wrong with you, Kiki. It’s…your Affinity.”
She blinked her wide blue eyes, and through Seth’s thoughts, Eliana registered what had altered in them: They were streaked with pink, like two rings of cotton candy.
“You can predict the future.”
“You didn’t know,” Angor concluded as he swung his legs over the side of the metal table to face Adara. She had already jumped off her own table and couldn’t decide if she wanted to punch him or puke.
“Of course I didn’t know! Hastings barely ever spoke—and you two weren’t exactly the perfect father-son duo. Did he even know?”
“He was a smart boy; I assume he suspected, at least. I never forthrightly said so—”
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