Hall of Psychics

by Alicia Fabel

  “Nothing more than normal,” Ian said with half a shrug.

  “I don’t know why she keeps tutoring you,” Axton said through clenched teeth.

  “Because she loves me.” Ian batted his eyes.

  Axton snorted. “No amount of extra credit can accomplish that.”

  “I don’t know,” Ian argued. “I think I’m growing on her.”

  “How many grades did Quinn skip in school?” Annessa asked.

  “Three,” Axton answered with pride.

  Annessa lifted her brows. “That’s incredible.”

  “Or unfortunate,” Ian mumbled.

  “You have a problem with my sister, Ian?”

  “Chill.” Ian swiped a hand down through the air. “I wasn’t saying it’s unfortunate for us—unless we’re talking about how she destroys every bell curve. I just meant that it’s hard for her, being an outsider because of her age.”

  Axton dropped his fork. “Keep your nose out of Quinn’s head.”

  Ian sighed and popped another fry into his mouth, which wasn’t good enough for Axton, apparently.

  Axton pulled Ian’s tray away. “Did you hear me?”

  “Yep, but I chose to ignore you,” Ian replied. “Because Quinn doesn’t need or appreciate you protecting her. Even from the likes of me.” Ian dusted salt from his fingertips. “And your baby sister is ten times scarier than you. So right now, I’m going to walk away before I knock you off that bench and land myself on her shit list.” Ian didn’t bother reclaiming the tray from Axton before he left.

  At Sam’s look, Axton’s shoulders drooped. “I can’t stand him.”

  “Clearly,” Sam said. “But he’s right. The last thing Quinn wants is her big brother jumping to her defense every two seconds and making her stand out more than she already does.”

  “I’ve been doing better,” Axton said defensively.

  “You have. So don’t screw it up and have a relapse.” Sam patted his fist.

  Annessa was sure Sam didn’t see how Axton’s eyes widened just a bit when she did that. Or how his breathing caught. Sam had no idea that Axton had a thing for her.

  “You coming to the bonfire tonight?” Sam asked Annessa.

  “Bonfire?” A gray streak caught Annessa’s attention. One brave gargoi eyed Ian’s abandoned tray. It shot Annessa a pleading look. She tossed a fry.

  “You didn’t hear me talking about it at all did you?” Sam asked.

  “When were you talking about it?” The little beasts converged from everywhere. Annessa tossed them each a bit of Ian’s lunch.

  Sam leaned across the table and said with a smirk, “While you were not staring at Elion.”

  “I wasn’t.”

  “That’s what I said.” Sam smirked and then sat back in her seat and sipped her drink. “So are you coming?”

  “Sure.”

  “Yay. It’s going to blow your mind.” Sam gathered her lunch garbage when the campanile rang out.

  “I’ve been to a bonfire before,” Annessa reminded her.

  “You haven’t been to any like this,” Sam promised.

  “How so?” Annessa asked, but Sam just winked and left for her class. Annessa turned to Axton. “What’s she talking about?”

  Axton smiled and shrugged. “Guess you’ll have to wait and see.”

  She opened her mouth to pester him for more information, but he stood up to leave too. Once he left, Annessa would be alone with Elion and Barbie. Elion caught her gaze as she scrambled to get the heck out of Dodge before it was too late. She looked down quickly and ran away.

  Annessa planted her elbow in Elion’s ribs to break his hold. She was being particularly aggressive. While that would serve her well if she ever needed to fight off an attacker, he knew that wasn’t why she was going after him like that. Might as well jump into the deep end, he figured.

  “By the way,” he said while she took a swig of water, “her name is Marcy not Barbie.” Annessa’s back stiffened. “I don’t care what your girlfriend’s name is.”

  “She’s not my girlfriend. Not that she hasn’t been vying for that position ever since we turned five, but I’ve never been interested.”

  Annessa shrugged. “And?”

  “And I thought you should know she was never anything more to me.”

  “Elion, I don’t care if she’s your girlfriend or if you have a whole harem of girls. It’s none of my business.”

  “Fine. Whatever you say.” Elion slipped his hands into a pair of focus mitts. “Let’s go. You’ve only got one more week, and you still hit like a little girl.”

  “I remember you sitting in the sand crying after a little girl hit you,” Annessa recalled.

  “I was a kid, and you hit me in the throat,” Elion defended. “I thought I was going to suffocate.” His arms vibrated from the impact of Annessa’s hits. “And then you got me in trouble.”

  “You threw a rock at me,” she reminded. “I had to get stitches.”

  “One stitch,” he scoffed. “And how was I supposed to know you were going to duck into it?”

  Annessa stopped. “You see the future.”

  “It doesn’t work like that. I don’t see everything.” He motioned for her to keep hitting the pads. “Sometimes things just come to me out of the blue, but most of the time, I have to focus on wanting to know something about a person.” He smirked. “And I already knew you were a brat at that point, what more was there?”

  “I was a brat? You kicked down my sandcastle.”

  “You told all the boys in the neighborhood that I ate my own poop so no one would play with me.”

  Annessa tried to hide her smile but failed. “Guess you should’ve been nicer to me when we first met.”

  “I should’ve gazed you coming and run the other way,” he retorted.

  Annessa’s smirk faded. “If you could go back, would you erase everything?”

  “Would you?” he countered.

  Annessa thought about it. “Maybe.”

  And didn’t that feel like a kick in the gut? Not that Elion blamed her. “If I could, I’d undo it.” It would kill him, but he’d do it. “But I can’t because my abilities don’t work like that. I can’t time travel and change past events.”

  “You just slow time or speed it up, right?”

  “Something like that. It’s more like I can step out of the flow of time. Or I can shove something out of the flow or even force it along in the stream. Forwards or backwards.”

  Annessa folded her arms. “You allowed to tell me this?”

  “You already saw it, I can’t exactly make you forget about it,” he said.

  “What about your weird aging-backward thing?” She gave him a look that dared him to deny it.

  “I can’t age backward,” he replied.

  “Bull.”

  Elion held up a hand. “Hold up, let me finish. I don’t age backward, but I was just finishing an aging cycle when I came to Florida to save your butt. See, if I’m not careful when I mess with timelines, I can accidentally let go of my timeline and get swept up in the flow. So one day I’m twenty, and the next day I’m twenty-two, headed for one-hundred.”

  “You’ve been that old?”

  “Well technically, I’m still only however old I am, but I look older. And I can’t swim back upstream. Think of it like a lazy river that goes in a loop. I have to ride it around to get back to where I started. When I was a kid, I pretty much cycled through on a constant loop. But eventually, I got better at holding on to my true age.”

  “You must have been pretty good at it by the time we met,” Annessa said.

  “I could hold on for a week or two by then. Why do you think we never stayed more than that long? I’d lose it, and we’d pack up and leave.”

  “And you never said goodbye,” she remarked.

  “I couldn’t.”

  “By the time you were a teenager, you guys would stay for a month sometimes,” Annessa pointed out.

  “Once we became friend
s, my parents used you as an incentive to get me to work harder to hold on to my timeline. The deal was that we could stay up to a month, if I could keep a hold of myself. By the time I was sixteen, I was begging for longer because I’d held on for a full year. That’s when they realized I liked you more than I should. And they said we wouldn’t be going back anymore.”

  “But you did,” Annessa said.

  “I threw a fit. After that, I lost hold of my timeline for the rest of the year. I just kept cycling. To get me to try again, they agreed to bring me back to you.”

  “That’s the year you told me that you were scared the Academy would change you.”

  “It was a hard year,” Elion agreed.

  Annessa’s brows furrowed. “Wait. Does that mean you go from being an old man to being a baby? How does that work?”

  Elion hesitated, but she propped one hand on her hip, and he knew she wouldn’t let it go. “I die of old age.”

  Annessa became very still. “How many times have you died?”

  Elion shrugged. He’d rather she believed he lost count than admit that he remembered every time. Nine times out of ten, he hadn’t died peacefully in his sleep. Ten times out of ten, the end was scary. Even knowing he’d probably wake up again. And sometimes that made it worse because he knew he’d wake up a helpless infant who couldn’t even control his eyes or limbs. How could he ask someone like Annessa to live that kind of life with him? She couldn’t change his diapers a few times a year and still see him as the man he was.

  “Are you reborn?” She had a disturbed inflection in her voice that made him want to laugh, but he didn’t want to upset her.

  “I don’t go back into my mother’s womb, if that’s what you’re thinking. Actually, I’m never conscious for that part, but my mom says it’s like watching me on rewind.”

  “So it doesn’t hurt?”

  “Not physically.” Elion stripped off the focus mitts. It was clear they were done training for the day. “But every time I cycle, it gets harder for me to grab back on to my true age when it comes back around.”

  “Then why use your abilities?” Ness asked. “You said that’s what makes you lose your hold, right? So stop using them.”

  “Believe me, if I could, I would’ve a long time ago. They’re like a reflex sometimes, though.” Elion shoved his hands into his pockets and changed the subject. “Starting tomorrow, I want to spend our time teaching you how to take someone down. You’ve got the defensive moves down for the most part. Now, I want to give you a little more edge.”

  “You’re not telling me something,” she accused.

  “I’m not telling you a lot of things,” he said honestly. “That’s the deal, right?”

  “Ian said you made a deal so I could come here,” Annessa revealed.

  “Ian needs to keep his mouth shut.”

  “But it’s true? Why do your parents want you to use your powers more if using them makes you lose hold of your timeline? Especially since you just said that it gets harder to grab back on to each time?”

  “Because they know I will have to use them,” he answered. “So they want me to get better at doing that without losing myself.”

  “Why would you have to use them?”

  “Ness, some things are too dangerous for you to know. If you cross paths with the wrong Phyton out there, and you happen to be thinking something you shouldn’t…”

  “It’s not just my life that would be in danger. I get it.”

  Elion waited while her thoughts seemed to spin. He knew her well enough to know she was trying to figure out how to say something that was on her mind, so he waited.

  “What happens if you can’t grab back on someday? What kind of life would you have?”

  The kind of life that would burden those around him. “I wouldn’t be the first to live that way. But if everything goes well, hopefully, I’ll be the last.”

  “So you are trying to get rid of the Legends?”

  “We need to end this conversation,” he informed her.

  Annessa bit her lip. “I’m sorry, Elion.”

  “You have nothing to be sorry about.”

  “I’ve been a royal bitch to you, even after I knew the circumstances.”

  “It was deserved,” he assured. “You’ve been through a lot because of me.”

  “You didn’t ask for the cards you were dealt any more than I did.”

  “But I let you get caught up in the game,” he pointed out.

  “You didn’t force me to tell those boys you ate poop.” Her lips curved up. “And if I hadn’t done that, you never would’ve thought I was so charming.”

  “That’s not what I thought about you back then,” he laughed.

  “Tell yourself whatever you want.” Annessa’s smile grew, but then she said seriously, “We were kids who became unlikely friends. And it isn’t fair to blame yourself for what’s happening to me just because you needed a friend.”

  “Yeah, but I was selfish to not let you go sooner, before…”

  “Before it became something more,” Annessa finished.

  Elion didn’t agree, but he didn’t refute it. There was no hiding from the fact that their friendship had changed.

  “When Zoom gave me a piece of your shadow, did that make things worse for you?”

  Elion shook his head. “No. I mean, I had a little hiccup the other day with Bruce, but I tend to have a lot of hiccups when it comes to you.”

  “A hiccup?”

  “Yeah, I thought he was attacking you—”

  “I remember that part,” Annessa said. “And you slowed time.”

  “I told you, I don’t slow time. What I did was yank you out of the timeline, but I didn’t do a very good job. You slipped right back into the flow. So I’m glad he was just trying to cuddle you, or I wouldn’t have forgiven myself. And that’s one more reason why I gave in to my parents badgering me to stretch my ability. Someday, I will need to use it, and I don’t want to screw up like that.”

  Annessa looked stunned.

  “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah.” She gathered her bag. “Just trying to wrap my head around it all.” She paused at the door and without looking back said, “I know that revenant only took Aunt Jess’s body after she was already gone—losing her wasn’t your fault. So everything that’s happened to me has been worth the cost of knowing you. You are in all the best memories of my life. If I could go back, I wouldn’t change it.”

  Annessa walked away.

  Elion let her, because in a week, he’d have to let her go for good. Nothing he said or did now would make that moment easier for either of them. But the muscles in his legs jumped with the urge to chase her down and wrap himself around her.

  Ian wasn’t waiting for Annessa when she walked out of the training center. Instead, Quinn was there, a severe expression on her face.

  “Have you seen him?” Quinn demanded, not needing to say Ian’s name. He was the only one who could make Quinn that upset, as far as Annessa knew.

  “What did he do?” Annessa asked.

  “He didn’t show up for our tutoring session. I wasted thirty minutes waiting for him. He always comes here afterward, so I thought he might show up.”

  “No, he must’ve had something come up.”

  “Something’s up with him,” Quinn said. “I don’t know what, but he’s been skipping his classes and now this.”

  “I thought skipping classes was normal for him.”

  “He acts like he doesn’t care about getting an education,” Quinn said. “But that’s just a load of crap that he feeds everyone to maintain his reputation.”

  “If he’s not slacking off, why does he need a tutor?”

  Quinn gave her a look that said Annessa was an idiot. “Because some people don’t learn the same way the masses do. Is it a problem for you?”

  “No.” Annessa shook her head, afraid to say much else with the way Quinn was jumping down her throat. “Are you okay, Quinn?”

 
; The girl looked up sharply. “I’m fine. I just don’t like when people assume that someone’s not smart just because their brain is wired differently.”

  “I don’t assume that at all,” Annessa assured gently. “And Ian is my friend, so I know how smart he is.”

  Quinn’s face relaxed, and she blew out a breath. “Sorry. I’m not good with people.”

  “I think you do just fine with people. If you want, I can check up on Ian. I’ll let him know you were worried that he didn’t show up.”

  Quinn stepped back like Annessa had just slapped her. “I’m not worried,” she protested. “I’m angry. So if you find him, tell him that he’d better have a good reason for not showing.” With that, Quinn spun on her heel and marched away.

  Wow, that girl did not pull any punches. Annessa angled for the residence halls after she verified that Ian’s bike was still in the parking lot. As she walked through the doors of Tapper Hall, she cleared her mind and wrapped all her thoughts in a fog. Ian said most of the tappers would need to touch her or use a focus item to discern her thoughts, but Annessa wasn’t going to risk it. She breezed through the common room and took the stairs to the third floor. When she knocked on Ian’s door, he didn’t answer.

  “Ian? Are you here? Open the door.” She banged a few more times and waited. Then she tried the knob. It was locked. She was about to leave when the door opened. Ian looked at her with sleepy eyes.

  “I can’t tell you,” he said before she said a word.

  “Tell me what?”

  “What I am.” Ian retreated into his room and sank dejectedly onto the edge of his mattress.

  “I already know what you are,” Annessa reminded him.

  “No, don’t say that.” Ian pressed the palms of his hands into his eyes. “I didn’t want this.”

  “Ian, you’re starting to scare me.”

  He looked up sharply. “I don’t want to scare you, Julie.”

  “Ian?” Annessa looked closer and realized his eyes weren’t just sleepy, they were vacant. “Ian, wake up.” She shook his arm before remembering that waking a sleepwalker was supposedly a bad idea. But he looked wrecked.

  “I’m so sorry,” he said. “Please forgive me.”