Harbinger

by Emme DeWitt

  “Not usually, but some families have a natural affinity for certain planes. Mags used to brag that not a single person in her family ever strayed from the Temporal plane. Used to think that was cool,” Evangeline muttered to herself. “At least before she went batshit crazy.”

  “Just because she’s crazy doesn’t mean she’s wrong.” I turned over page after page of notes until I found the note I’d been looking for. “Here, it says even carriers of the Elevated senses don’t always manifest in full form. They can carry it on to their children, though, so it’s possible to have two carriers birth a fully Elevated child.”

  “What’s the point of this biology lesson again?” Evangeline rested her head on her pile of textbooks. “We’ve been talking about it for so long, I’ve forgotten.”

  “My point is that even if you take the main families into consideration, there are still too many possibilities of Elevated kids being born into non-Elevated households. If enough generations snowball their energies together, you could ultimately have a super powerful, completely untrained Elevated person,” I said.

  “Or, conversely, a bunch of duds who will eventually push the Elevated lines into extinction by not breeding with other Elevated people to make Elevated babies,” Evangeline said through a yawn. “It’s a toss-up.”

  “I don’t think the energy would just dissipate the weaker it got.” I frowned at my notes. “Where’s that physics book I had?”

  “Oh, God, not the physics book,” Evangeline howled. “I passed all my science classes early so I wouldn’t have to deal with this.”

  “Hush.” I waved my handful of notes at Evangeline’s ruckus. “What’s the rule about energy not being able to be destroyed, only transferred?”

  “Conservation of energy.” A sigh escaped her huddled mass. “I hate myself for knowing the answer.”

  “Five points for you,” I replied.

  “Yay,” Evangeline said weakly into her notebook. “I’m a winner!”

  “Something like that,” I said under my breath.

  “So your big grand point is that we need to track all the Elevated people back in time, cross reference all their baby making for generations to find possible Elevated kids who have no idea they’re special little snowflakes caught in the middle of a family feud they never knew existed.” Evangeline propped her head up on her hands.

  “And warning them not to drink the Kool-Aid,” I finished. “Essentially.”

  “Can I take a nap first?” Evangeline asked seriously. “That sounds like a lot of work.”

  “Why are you so tired? Didn’t you have more coffee for lunch than actual food?” I asked, not understanding people’s intense need for naps.

  “Why are you so loud?” Evangeline said. “Just give me five minutes.”

  “Are you feeling okay?” I asked, sticking my hand out to feel Evangeline’s forehead. “Maybe I should take you to the infirmary.” Heat leaked from Evangeline’s forehead, and I immediately thought low-grade fever.

  “I don’t get sick,” Evangeline mumbled.

  “Then why is your forehead hot enough to fry an egg on?” I reached into my bag for my stash of ibuprofen. “Humor me and take this. If you seem fine, I won’t haul you to the infirmary for no reason.”

  “Just sleepy.” A worry line creased her forehead.

  “You didn’t even pass your own lie detector test.” I cracked open a fresh bottle of water and held out the ibuprofen. “Your body is literally rejecting its own lie. Drink up.”

  “Can’t,” Evangeline said. “Gotta sleep.”

  I stood up, crossing over to the opposite side of the table. I propped Evangeline upright, hoping she’d be awake enough to drink some water, but her head lolled to the side.

  A bolt of panic shot down my spine.

  “Evangeline!” I grabbed her face in my hand. “Can you hear me?”

  “So loud,” she muttered, her eyes rolling upward into her head.

  “Stay with me, Evie,” I said softly, hauling her petite frame into my arms.

  My back hit the doorframe hard as I tried not to pin Evangeline’s legs in my hurry to get into the hall. I winced but kept my focus on Evangeline. Her eyes rolled back in her head, but every other second, she kept coming to, as if she was beating whatever fever she was fighting, only to lose her grip on consciousness again.

  A hiss of frustration leaked from Evangeline’s mouth, and I frowned down at her, softening my footfalls in fear of jostling her too much. I looked around in the library, finding it eerily quiet once again. I couldn’t see anyone, but the itch of eyes on me told a different story. The hairs on the back of my neck and forearms confirmed something amiss. I blinked my own eyes hard in quick succession. What was I missing?

  As I neared the top of the stairs, I wondered if I should throw Evangeline over my shoulder in a fireman’s carry or if my biceps would hold up the two stories down and across the courtyard. Regardless, I had to set Evangeline down to open the door. She crumpled forward like a doll, but I managed to catch her head before she smacked it against the floor.

  My focus turned to the door, which was not cooperating as a fire escape door should. I jostled it hard, willing it to open. I traced the outline of the bar, trying to find the reason for it remaining locked. Just as I was about to weigh the option of breaking one of the fancy glass windows, Evangeline came to life beside me.

  Her ragged inhalation spooked me, making me jump back in surprise.

  When she was fully upright, a growl escaped her clenched teeth.

  “Adair!” Evangeline hollered down the empty corridor.

  My eyes darted behind me, waiting for him to walk around the end of a stack of books.

  Evangeline let out a horrible scream.

  Thirty

  “Coward!” Evangeline shrieked.

  I crouched down beside her, placing my hand protectively on her rising shoulder. Her breathing was sporadic, as if she had just sprinted down the corridor instead of being carried by yours truly. A wild glint hardened her eyes, and any words I thought to say hardened in my throat. I could feel her anger shooting off her in tendrils of energy. The strength of it kept the hairs on my neck on end.

  I wanted to wait to be sure she was back to normal, but she stumbled upright, lurching her shoulder out from underneath my hand. Her eyes bounced around the hallway in search of a ghost.

  “Evie,” I said quietly, not wanting to spook her. “What happened?”

  “His party tricks have gotten better, I’ll give him that,” Evangeline muttered darkly. “I wonder how long he was in range.”

  “I thought you said no one was in the library?” I asked, biting the inside of my cheek immediately.

  Evangeline’s burning eyes swung to mine. “No one I could sense,” she said, crossing her arms. “But I guess shields can work both ways. The audacity though.

  A rude snort escaped Evangeline, and I couldn’t help but smile. Somehow seeing her doll-like features creased in anger made it all the funnier.

  Her dark doe eyes swung to meet mine again. I tried to stifle my smile but failed.

  “I can hear you,” Evangeline said, tapping her temple knowingly. “And as Adair knows, you don’t want to get me angry. That’s why he bolted.”

  “Are you sure?” I said. “He duped you once before.”

  “Yes, well, he’s a little worse for wear since I sent him packing. I’ve been learning a few tricks myself,” Evangeline said. “He should have practiced more on someone who couldn’t see him coming.”

  “Did you see him coming?” I asked, leaning against the doorframe, now having no reason to rush through it.

  “As soon as he was fully in my head, I caught him right away. I didn’t notice him lulling me to sleep. It’s not uncommon for me to nap around this time of day anyway.” Evangeline shrugged. “Plus, it takes a lot more effort to pull someone below consciousness who isn’t helping. Adair’s powers work much better on those already under.”

  “So now that h
e’s failed to pull you under, what’s his next play?” I asked, watching Evangeline pace slowly in front of me.

  “He’s a lot better at shielding than I was expecting.” She twisted a lock of hair around her finger. “I wasn’t able to figure out quite why he was pulling me under, just something about him proving himself to someone. He seemed a little put out that he couldn’t get you under.”

  “I don’t sleep.” I shrugged.

  Evangeline paused in her pacing. “What?”

  “I don’t sleep,” I repeated. “You said it yourself. You can tell I’m not conscious, but also not unconscious.”

  “Yeah, you turn murky.” Evangeline twisted another strand of hair on another finger.

  “So, if he can barely pull a fully awake person into unconsciousness, then he definitely bit off more than he could chew with me,” I said. “Although I don’t know why anyone would want to put me to sleep in the middle of the day. That in itself is super creepy.”

  “Agreed,” Evangeline said, a shiver rippling through her entire body. “Dreamwalkers have always given me the heebie jeebies.”

  “I’m sure I’d be more worried if I weren’t immune,” I said, finally thankful my rotten sleeping arrangement finally had some sort of pay off.

  “Oh, I don’t think you’re immune. Adair just hasn’t cracked the code on you quite yet.” Evangeline halted her pacing. “And if he’s already been able to learn to shield since the fallout with Mags…”

  She paled.

  “What fallout with Mags? Did they have a fight?” I said. “They seemed quite close.”

  “No, my fallout with Mags. It was the beginning of winter term, last year,” Evangeline said, her feet dragging slowly back toward the glass cubicle.

  I trailed behind, not wanting to interrupt with the questions shooting out like fireworks in my brain. “We had been close friends for a while. I had some family issues that pulled me away from school quite a bit. Set me off more and more frequently, which snowballed into more and more frequent trips to the school psychologist. If missing school wasn’t bad enough, the cocktail of antipsychotics kept me fuzzy at best. Mags thought I was weighing her down, so she cut me loose.”

  “That’s a shitty thing for a friend to do when you were in a tough spot,” I said, unable to hold my tongue. “So you were replaced by Adair?”

  “Apparently.” Evangeline sighed. “Mags always prefers someone a little lacking in her beta spot. I outgrew it, and I’m thinking Adair will outgrow her soon, too. I have a very bad feeling Adair wasn’t showing his full hand.”

  Our feet stalled at the doorway of our cubicle.

  “Or maybe he just did,” Evangeline said, her jaw hanging slack.

  Where there had been piles upon piles of books, notecards, and a nest of loose leaf papers, there was now an excellent view of the glossy shellacked cherry table, completely unmarred by any trace of the research we had been working so diligently on for over a week.

  “I feel like I’ve been shot,” I said, my hand on the ball of ice in my stomach. I was even starting to lose feeling in my fingers and toes. All of our hard work. Gone.

  Evangeline walked slowly around the room, her eyes searching for any scrap of paper that might have been missed. She rifled through her bag on the floor, muttering to herself.

  “Even took my sketchbook, the animals,” I heard her growl into the depths of her bag.

  I walked over to my bag.

  “Of course.” I sighed. “My composition notebook is gone, too. I’m not sure what they want with my attempts at songwriting, but it’s a bit much.”

  “Oh,” Evangeline said, mixing around the remnants of her personal artifacts carelessly. “Oh, not good.”

  “What?” I asked.

  “I, uh, had another project I was working on.” Evangeline cleared her throat. “That’s gone, too.”

  “What do they want with your schoolwork? That seems excessive.” I tossed the flap of my satchel back into place.

  “No, not schoolwork. Banshee work,” Evangeline said, her face contorting in guilt.

  “Excuse me?”

  “I had an impressions notebook for you specifically. Helps get all the details out,” Evangeline said, her hands shaking wildly around her head. “But your impressions were a little too detailed. It was more like explicit words and screenshots compared to the waves of emotions I typically get. Especially about your banshee powers. And your dreamscape.”

  “And Colm.” I kicked my chair violently.

  Evangeline winced.

  “How explicit are we talking?” I asked, gripping the high back of the chair to keep my energy focused there instead of denting the matching leg of the table.

  “I know it well enough to be familiar with several of your night visitors, as you call them. I know you’re by yourself when you’re there and that you can’t help getting pulled into it during certain times of the day,” Evangeline said. Tendrils of dark hair snaked through her shaking fingertips.

  “So you know enough to know what my weaknesses are, when they turn up, and my complete lack of control in changing any of them.” My throat grew hot in anger. I shook my head. Now was not the time.

  “And now they know, too,” Evangeline said, finishing my thought out loud. Her hand flexed nervously.

  “Do you know where Adair is now? I have a hard time believing he ghosted away with all those books and papers on his own,” I growled.

  “Oh, a novice on the Relative plane could have transported everything in ten seconds or less.” Evangeline shrugged. “Let me see if he’s gotten his shield back in place or not. It took a beating when I fought back.”

  Evangeline looked off in the distance. Anyone else would have thought she was lost in thought, but I knew enough now to know how far her range was in picking up emotions. Her zoned out concentration wasn’t as irksome as Mags’ had been, but seeing Evangeline retreat back into herself made me uncomfortable. She looked like a lobotomy victim.

  “It’ll go faster if you’re quiet,” Evangeline said, spooking me.

  “Sorry,” I muttered out loud, forgetting for a moment she meant the white noise of my thoughts.

  “He’s across the quad. Infirmary,” Evangeline said, a line creasing her forehead. “He’s shielded himself, but others are noticing him and pinging him like a wireless signal.”

  “What’s he doing in the…goddammit!” I grabbed my bag as I sprinted out of the door.

  Colm was let out for class and mealtimes but kept a room in the infirmary for overnight observation. The nurses were still uncertain at his miraculous recovery, preferring to keep on the cautious path rather than let him back in the dorms.

  I yanked my phone from my back pocket, checking the time. The bells tolled the end of class as soon as my foot hit the stairs. As I rocketed down the cramped switchback, I hoped against hope that Aileen was dragging Colm down like an anchor. Keep him slow. Give me time to get there ahead of him to weed out the bump in the night before any lasting damage was done.

  My shoulder caught on the doorframe, sending me reeling and throwing my balance off kilter. It slowed me down enough to propel my upper body forward too much, leaving my toes to catch on the cobblestones at my feet. I went down hard.

  Eyes darted in my direction. Even a few laughs echoed around the courtyard at my expense. The crowd was growing denser with more students flowing from the building. I was up again before I could waste any more time. My hands stung, bouncing off blazers in an attempt to weave my way through the crowd. I didn’t think I would make it in time.

  I gasped when I broke through the final wall of bodies. The stairs in front of me were clear of any obstructions. What student wanted to go to the infirmary during free period? The hiss of the door cut through the empty space, warring for attention against the blood pumping through my head.

  The elevator was stuck on the third floor, and I couldn’t wait.

  I flew up the stairs, finding myself in the same hallway I had a week ago. The
déjà vu felt strong, and a growing sense of dread weighed me down as I marched toward Colm’s room. A shadow passed over the vacant nurse’s station, and my gut clenched.

  Colm walked around the corner, his head down. The earbuds hung in stark contrast to his newly pressed blazer. He was alone. No Aileen. No Adair.

  I released a sigh of relief. I had been worried for nothing. I slowed my pace to match his, not wanting to fly at him and spook him. He would get to his room well before me. I could knock, pretending I hadn’t been behind him the whole time. I could pretend to be there innocently and not to safeguard him against another Elevated person who saw him as a chess piece instead of a person.

  Well, he was still a chess piece to me, but at least I cared enough to try to keep him out of it, if possible.

  Colm didn’t look up as he ducked into his room, and I began to count to ten before making my entrance.

  Before I could even reach five, Colm’s body keeled backward into the hall, his head hitting the linoleum with a sickening crunch.

  “No!” I screamed, crashing to the ground next to Colm’s lifeless limbs.

  I pulled his head back slightly, checking for blood. My fingers came away clean, and I could tell a bump would be forming shortly. Luckily, Colm seemed otherwise unharmed from his fight with gravity.

  My eyes slid to Colm’s room, ready to give Adair a piece of my mind.

  But the room was empty. Even the monitors in the background were black and lifeless.

  You need to get out of there, a voice said in my head.

  “He needs help,” I whispered, glancing around the hallway for an answer to my not-so-silent prayer.

  My eyes caught on an alarm box on the wall. I flipped the plastic casing up, pressing my palm on the button. Lights and horns blared to life, casting shadows in the hallway in between flashes of light. A door slammed, and I could hear sneakered feet smacking the floor at a run.

  I walked backward, sending a volley of apologies toward Colm’s eerily still body. The door to the stairwell hissed as it shut me away from the chaos. I kept my fingers braced on the bar, leaving enough room for one eye to peek through the crack unnoticed.