“There are more. Two more that I know about. We meet up after school most days for at least a little while. We’re still trying to figure out all we can do.”
“Bring me.”
Bria’s eyes flicker to the ground. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“Why not?”
“Because they won’t trust you. You’re one of them.”
“Maybe that’s been true in the past, but things are different now.” I press my lips together, weighing my options. If I lie, she might be able to tell, so I choose my words carefully. “I’ve… changed a lot recently. I’m not the same person you’ve known for the last four years. I only found out recently about my psychic side, and I want to explore it.”
She studies my face, eyes crinkling at the corners. “Fine. You can come today—but I’m not promising the guys’ll like it. And if they don’t want you there, it’s majority rule.”
Guys. My heart skips. Is Owen one of the guys? I want to ask, but doing so might set off red flags. So far as she knows, I have no reason to be so interested in Owen. “Okay. Where do you meet? When?”
She sighs like she’s already regretting her decision. “Usually about half an hour after school at West Harmon’s house. He lives on—”
“I know where he lives.”
Bria arches an eyebrow and I bite the inside of my cheek. In my other reality, I’ve been to West’s house. But I’m not that girl.
Before Bria can ask the question that’s probably forming in her mind, I straighten. “I’ll be there. See you after school.”
Chapter Twelve
West’s house looks just like I remember it from the other reality, which comforts me. I recognize Bria’s mom’s Camry in the driveway as I approach. Mom and Jodi are still at work and I walked here. I’m glad it’s only a couple of blocks because my nose and ears are already frozen. I jog to the front door but pause before knocking, hoping to find Owen inside. Taking in a breath, I bring my knuckles down against the door.
“Who the hell knocks?” West’s voice is muffled by the door, but still understandable. The curtain covering the front window flickers. “What’s she doing here?”
“Open the door, West.” Bria sounds farther away.
I bite my lower lip, waiting for something to happen. After a beat, the door swings open, revealing a thoroughly bewildered West. His brow is furrowed, making his eyes look even more deep-set than usual. “Can I help you?”
I scan the room—I can’t help it—before looking at Bria. “You didn’t tell him?”
She shrugs. “I didn’t know for sure you were gonna show.” She approaches West and gives him a gentle shove. “Let her in already.”
I step inside, closing the door behind me. Besides West and Bria, the living room is empty. Unless the other guy Bria mentioned is in the kitchen, we three are the only ones here. “Hey, West.”
“She says like she knows me.” He crosses the room and sits on the armchair at the far side. “What are you doing here?”
I sit on the couch across from him—the same place I sat last time I was here, in my reality. “I bet you can figure it out.”
He stares at me for a beat before looking at Bria, whose face remains impassive. When his gaze flicks back to me, he shakes his head. “Uh-uh. No way.”
The doorknob twists and my heart picks up its pace. The last member of the group has arrived. I hold my breath as the door begins to swing open, just waiting for Owen’s form to appear… But it’s not Owen who enters.
“Felix?” I look at Bria, hoping maybe she’ll be as surprised as I am, hoping he’s not the person she was expecting either. But if she’s surprised at all, it’s at my reaction. Her eyebrows cinch together.
“Whoa—wait.” Felix pauses, door still open. “Is this a dream?”
West snorts. “Nightmare?”
Bria crosses to Felix, pushing him into the house and closing the door. “Okay, clearly you two are wondering why she’s here, even though the answer should be obvious.”
Felix closes the distance between us and sits on the couch beside me. His brown hair tickles his shoulders as he bobs his head, appraising me. Although I’ve been sitting with him in health class, this is the first time I feel like he’s accepting me and happiness rushes through me. Bria, West, Felix—three of my friends from my old timeline all here under one roof, all looking at me like I’m a person and not a thing? It’s better than good—it’s fantastic. The only thing that would make this moment better is if—
I bite the inside of my cheek, my eyes dropping to my lap. Owen’s not here. And if he’s not, could it be because he’s not psychic in this reality? If he were, wouldn’t Bria and the guys already know? They didn’t know about me—but that was probably because our paths didn’t often cross. But what about Owen? I scan my mental files from this week at school, trying to remember if I’ve seen Owen with Felix or West at all.
“I don’t like it.” West’s voice cuts through my thoughts. His arms cross over his chest. “She’s one of them.”
His tone is so cold it makes me shiver. I’ve never heard West talk like this: The West I knew was quick to smile and laugh. But now, his deep-set eyes are fixed on me, his brow heavy and brooding. I square my shoulders. I figured this would come up—it was Bria’s first reaction, too. “It’s true. I’m a witch, and I’m part of Crystal Jamison’s circle.”
Beside me, Felix lets out a small, choked sound, pumping his fist. I glance at him, alarmed, but his eyes are fixed on West. “I told you. Dude, you totally owe me ten bucks.” He sticks out his hand, wiggling his fingers. “Come on. I know you’ve got it.”
Bria sighs, crossing and sitting on the couch adjacent to mine. “We’ve had our assumptions, but we didn’t know for sure.” She leans toward me. “What I don’t understand is how you’re both.”
The fact that they didn’t know about the witches, that I’ve let them in on a secret, should unsettle me, but it doesn’t. I want their trust, and this might be the best way to earn it. “My dad’s from a witch line. My mom’s from a psychic one. Somehow, I’m both. That’s all I know.”
West settles down in the room’s armchair after slapping a bill into Felix’s hand. “And while that’s fascinating and all, I’m more concerned with why you’re here. Why aren’t you hanging out with your circle or whatever you call it?”
I ignore the accusation in his voice. “I’m not here to spy if that’s what you’re thinking. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’m not exactly in Crystal’s inner circle at the moment.”
“So you think we want you?”
I open my mouth to defend my intentions, but Bria’s faster.
“Stop being a dick, West. She’s on the level.”
Bria doesn’t meet my eyes when I look at her. I’m not sure why she feels so confident about me. Did I share something more with her than I meant to? Or is she just able to sense more about me? I have no idea how much her abilities have developed, nor what she’s capable of. An empty sensation gathers in the pit of my stomach. Maybe this was a mistake. What if she can sense the truth about me? Oddly, the idea doesn’t send me into panic. It relieves me. I want her to know. Maybe if she knows who I really am, I can start putting my life back together. But would it be fair to her to learn about a life she isn’t living, one that seems, in many ways, to be better than the one she has now? By changing things, I stripped her of her best friend, and turned Lexie into someone even I don’t want to associate with. No, it’s better that she go on thinking this is the way things are supposed to be, the way they’ve always been.
“If she’s on the level, let her prove it.” West holds his hands toward me, palms up. “Who’s in this circle of yours?”
My mouth goes dry. I don’t care so much about betraying Crystal’s secret—and it’s not like the witches are particularly stealthy about things, since, until recently, we all were in the same social group. The knot in my stomach is about Fox. By letting the psychics in on this information
, I’m selling out Fox, and he doesn’t deserve that. Then again, Bria doesn’t deserve the abuse she endures from Lexie, and Fox hasn’t stepped in to stop that. “Crystal, of course. She’s kind of the leader.”
“Surprise, surprise,” Bria mutters.
“And Lexie. They get it from the Taylor line.” I consider mentioning that our principal, who is also a Taylor, has magic, but I keep that to myself. They’re just asking about the circle’s members. “Bridget. Zane. Fox’s older brother, Griffin. And…” I take a deep breath. “And Fox.”
Felix gives a loud whoop, startling me. Bria rolls her eyes as he holds his hand toward West again. “And that’s ten more dollars you owe me!”
West groans as he shifts to remove his wallet from his back pocket. “You don’t have to be so excited about it.”
I raise an eyebrow, confused. “Have you guys been betting on everything related to the circle?”
“Well, yeah,” Felix says, relieving West of another bill. He pulls it apart at the corners, making it snap. “Excellent way to make a little extra spending money.”
I smile, but his explanation doesn’t answer my question. “No, I mean… You’re psychic, right? Can’t you figure this kind of stuff out without guessing?”
Felix cocks an eyebrow comically high. “Why, can you?”
“She figured out what I was,” Bria says. There might even be a hint of admiration in her tone.
Felix apprises me for a moment before shrugging. “We’re all still kinda learning how to use our abilities.”
“Yeah,” West agrees. “And as much as it might surprise you, not everyone spends every waking moment obsessing over you and your friends.”
The venom in his voice is more than I can take. I round on him. “Okay, enough. I come in peace. You want to know about the circle? I’ll tell you. You want me to prove I’m psychic? I’ll do it. Why are you being such an ass to me?”
Felix and Bria exchange glances and I know I’m missing something. Something alternate-me would know. West’s face is tight and he examines me like I’m something unsavory he’s found on the bottom of his shoe.
“You really don’t remember, do you?” He snorts, shaking his head. “I don’t even know why I’m surprised. It doesn’t matter, not really. I remember what you did to Owen. So excuse me if I’m not your biggest fan.”
The air rushes from my lungs. Owen. What did I do to him? My mind reels and I grip the arm of the couch. I want to know—desperately—what I did, but I don’t think I can hear it. Is this why Owen looks through me? Did I do something that hurt him so badly he can’t bear to look at me? Tears prickle my eyes. I can’t cry—not here. How would I explain that reaction? Bria avoids my gaze and Felix is suddenly very interested in the dirt beneath his fingernails, but West’s eyes bore a hole through me.
“I’m not that girl anymore,” I manage finally. “Whatever you think you know about me, whoever you think I am, it’s not me. I promise you that. Just… give me a chance. I’ll prove it.”
West leans back in his chair. “Pass.”
“Okay, that’s enough.” Bria straightens, though her height is far from impressive. “Whether you like it or not, she’s one of us.”
“She’s one of them,” West grumbles.
“Which, if you think about it, is actually pretty cool,” Felix says. “And it could be useful.”
I shift, suddenly worried my scant knowledge of the circle might not be enough. “I’m not exactly one of them—not at the moment, anyway.” I purse my lips when their eyes flicker to me. I press on quickly before I lose my nerve. “They did a spell the other day that increased their abilities. I thought it was a bad idea and tried to stop them. Now my membership in the circle is… tenuous.”
Felix whistles. “Nice vocab word.”
West crosses his arms over his chest. “Convenient.”
Panic flares and I sit up straighter. “Still, I’ll do anything I can do to help.”
Bria smiles and my heart swells. Although we’re meeting at West’s house, I get the impression Bria is really the leader of this group. And if she wants me here, I don’t think West will kick me out.
West sits up again. “Prove it.”
“Sure. What do you wanna know? I already told you who’s in the circle.”
Felix leans forward, his knee brushing mine. “What do you guys do at your meetings? I mean, I assume you have meetings, right?”
I shrug. “Practice spells, mostly. What do you guys do?”
“The same thing, I guess,” Bria says. “When we first started meeting, we’d do simple things—like try to figure out what each other was thinking or send thoughts. You know, the basics. But for a while now we’ve been working on some harder things.”
“Like that invisible wall thing you did to Lexie and Crystal today?”
The curl in Bria’s lips is all the confirmation I need.
“What else can you do?” Giddiness bubbles in my stomach like it did last night when I talked to Seth about magic. I have these abilities swirling inside, but I don’t know what to do with them. I don’t know what I’m capable of. The thought of being able to focus this power makes my skin tingle.
Bria’s eyes light up. “Lately, I’ve been working on manipulating objects. You know, like making things levitate.” A grin stretches across her face. “It’s pretty cool, actually.”
“West’s been working on apportation—which is making something disappear and re-materialize somewhere else. He’s lost more pencils and pennies than I can count. And I’ve been working on astral projection.” Felix’s eyes are alight. “I was actually able to do it for a hot second before it all went haywire.”
Bria snorts. “You mean before you got so scared you almost crapped yourself.”
“Hey, give me a break! Having an out-of-body experience is kind of freaky.”
I lean in. “Out-of-body experience? Really?”
Felix nods, a smug smile on his face. “In theory, you can send your spirit out anywhere in the world. I’m aiming for the cheerleaders’ locker room.”
I shove his shoulder while Bria yells, “Gross!” Felix allows me to push him into the arm of the chair before righting himself.
“Astral projection is just step one. If I can get good at that, then I might be able to bilocate, which would be epic.”
My eyebrows pull together. “Bilocate?”
He grins. “Be in two places at once. It’s cooler than astral projection because you can actually interact with the place you’re bi-locating to. And then, when you’re done, you just—pop—disappear.”
Everything sounds so amazing, I can’t wait to start trying these things myself.
Over the next couple of hours, Bria and Felix take turns showing me the things they can do. They’re disappointed that I don’t know how to do more, but neither can hide how impressed they are with how quickly I pick up on how to levitate an object and apportate a newspaper from one side of the coffee table to the other. Since I already know how to direct my abilities to do magic, I’m able to channel my psychic powers with minimal direction.
West disappears soon after we start working—“Probably sulking,” says Bria—and doesn’t emerge until Felix, Bria, and I are about to leave. We’re walking out the front door when he calls my name, asking me to hang back. Bria and I exchange glances, but I stay.
Felix pulls the door closed behind him, but West doesn’t speak. I shift, uncomfortable. He asked me to stay, so he must want to say something. I consider reaching forward with my abilities to get a sense of what’s on his mind but don’t go through with it—not only is West a psychic and therefore possibly able to sense such an intrusion, I want to give him the respect and the space to say what’s on his mind in his own time.
He surveys me with his deep-set eyes like he’s trying to look inside me. After a minute, he shakes his head. “I bet you’re happy right now. You think you’ve got them fooled—and you might. Just know that you don’t fool me, Kristyl Barnette. Neve
r forget I know who you really are.” He pivots on his heel before heading toward the back hallway. “Now get out of my house.”
Chapter Thirteen
West’s words haunt me. I know who you really are.
But who is that exactly? Who does he think I am? There’s no one who can answer that question for me. What am I supposed to do, go to Fox or Lexie or Zane and ask them to tell me about myself? Not an option.
I try to follow the thread of the conversation at dinner, but my mind wanders. There has to be a way to figure things out without being too obvious, without drawing attention to the fact that I don’t remember my life here in Clearwater. There’s the psychic angle: Maybe I can read someone’s mind and get my answers that way? I dismiss the idea before it’s fully formed. Even though using my psychic abilities is easier now that I know what they are, I’m still leaps and bounds from being able to scan a person’s mind to find the information I want to know—if it’s even possible. At best, I can get a sense of what people are feeling or thinking in the moment. I wouldn’t know how to start digging through someone’s memories.
I’m loading the dinner dishes into the dishwasher when the idea hits me. It’s so obvious I can’t believe it took me so long to think of it: my diary.
When I was younger, I kept a diary full of my innermost thoughts and feelings. When things got bad at the end of sixth grade, I quit—why would I want to record such terrible things? But my alternate-self lived a different life. Maybe once she moved here to Clearwater she started writing things down again. At the very least, it won’t hurt to look.
I feel like a thief as I rifle through my dresser drawers. Although I’ve been using the clothes in this room for days, sometimes it’s still hard to believe all these things are mine. And even though I know alternate-me isn’t going to come upstairs and catch me going through her things, I still feel like I’m doing something wrong.
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