by Lynette Noni
“It’s just a few little cuts, Fletcher. I’ll live.”
“I’ll be the judge of that,” the doctor said in his no-nonsense voice.
“Look after the others first,” Alex begged. “You know they won’t take as long as me. Please, Fletcher, we’re all tired. Don’t make them wait for me.”
Fletcher looked like he wanted to argue, but at her pleading expression, he sighed and relented. “Only if you promise not to move a muscle until I’m done. Agreed?”
“I’m not going anywhere.”
He nodded and moved away to begin checking on her classmates while Alex shifted into a more comfortable position and waited for his return. She was almost asleep when she heard the curtains being drawn around her bed and Hunter’s voice prompted her to sit up again.
“I have to admit, Alex, I’m amazed by your performance this weekend.”
“What are you talking about?” she asked. “You weren’t even there for any of it.”
Hunter’s disbelief was clear. “Do you really think I’d send eight students into the wild without having a way to keep an eye on them? Just because you couldn’t see me doesn’t mean I wasn’t following you.”
“You were watching us?” Alex said, incredulous. “Why didn’t you help when we needed it?”
“When did you need it?”
She gaped at him. “Are you kidding? Where do I start? Maybe when Pip almost fell off the mountain? Or what about when there was a mind reader at the military compound?” She lowered her voice so it wouldn’t carry to the others when she hissed out, “A mind reader who just happens to be an ‘associate’ of a homicidal Meyarin? Kaiden and Jordan were almost captured at the outpost because of him! And then me—I can’t even begin to explain what it was like having to deceive General Drock and Major Tyson. And that’s nothing, nothing, to how it felt being at Sir Oswald’s party when everyone else was imprisoned because your ID tags were counterfeit. Great job with those, by the way.”
She broke off, trying to rein in her words, but couldn’t resist adding in her still lowered voice, “Am I right in thinking you somehow knew Aven would be there and you sent us along anyway? I’m guessing you didn’t tell Darrius—he never would have agreed to that! Did you know Sir Oswald’s little party would turn into a Villains ‘R’ Us sorority group meeting? Because that’s what happened. And we barely escaped with our lives. Where were you then, Hunter?”
Throughout her rant he continued to look at her calmly, and that annoyed her more than anything else.
“Well?” she demanded.
“First off, if Philippa had fallen, don’t you think her backpack would have opened her parachute, just like everyone’s did when you all fell down into the river?” Hunter asked.
Alex realised he was right. But she hadn’t known that at the time.
“What about the rest?” she pressed, unwilling to concede his point.
“Signa’s presence was an unanticipated challenge,” Hunter admitted. “He was meant to be away from the outpost for the weekend, but his trip was cancelled last-minute. Kaiden and Jordan both have gifts that helped them to evade capture, and the same goes for you. Your creative use of subterfuge tactics made your act all the more believable. If there had been any real problems, I would have stepped in personally, but I also had a man on the inside who would have helped get you out of there if I couldn’t. Coincidentally, he was also the same man who helped you get in there.”
Alex had to think about that before the answer came to her. “Major Tyson?”
“He’s a close friend who was willing to assist me in your training exercise,” Hunter confirmed. “He admitted to being impressed with your ability to remain calm under pressure. That’s high praise from someone of his ranking.”
“Why didn’t Signa pick up on his thoughts?” she asked, confused. “Or yours, if you were as close as you claim?”
“Upper-level military officers—and Wardens—have to undergo extensive training to protect their minds from intrusion,” Hunter said. “Signa couldn’t read Tyson’s thoughts because he wasn’t able to break through his mental barriers. As for me, I’ve undergone similar training to the same effect.”
Alex grudgingly accepted his explanation. Not for the first time, she was relieved that her gift allowed her to skip the ‘extensive training’ and simply reap the benefits of ultra-mind-protection.
“What about Sir Oswald’s party?” she asked. “What’s your excuse for the way that panned out? And did Darrius know about it beforehand?”
Hunter shook his head. “No, he did not. But leave that conversation to me.”
Alex almost wished she could be a fly on the wall for that discussion, since she was certain Darrius wasn’t going to be pleased that he’d invested so much effort in keeping Alex safe from Aven only to learn that one of his teachers actively sent her out to meet him, and unprepared at that. In fact, she wondered how the headmaster was able to justify allowing any of his students to go off on dangerous SAS trips away from the academy. But then again, if Hunter was supposedly trailing them wherever they went, it was likely Darrius trusted that the SAS teacher would keep them safe. Either that, or Hunter worked with the ‘better to ask forgiveness than seek permission’ attitude when it came to his classes. Alex had a feeling the latter was more likely.
“Tonight was the real test of your weekend,” Hunter went on to explain. “But remember, I warned you that would be the case.”
Alex thought back to the note addressed to her. “You told me it would be dangerous—more so for me than the others. Does that mean I’m right about you knowing that group was meeting tonight?”
“A while ago, Headmaster Marselle asked me to keep an eye on any unusual developments amongst the elite social circles,” Hunter said. “When Sir Oswald’s dinner party was first announced, I thought it might be a good idea to have an informant on the inside, just in case there was something underhanded going on. As a performer, Samson had the perfect cover. But when he went to audition for the role of entertainer, another mind reader happened to be visiting Sir Oswald at the same time, and Samson’s true intentions were discovered.”
“Signa?” Alex guessed.
“No. Someone else.”
Alex waited for him to offer a name, but he didn’t, so she pressed, “How many mind readers are out there?”
“I can count on one hand the number known to me,” he answered. “Or, at least those strong enough to be considered dangerous. Your Core Skills professor, for instance, doesn’t make the list, since her gift barely allows her to read surface thoughts. Signa Zu, on the other hand… His gift affords him tremendous leverage into the minds of those incapable of guarding against him—which is most people.”
Alex mulled over his words and then said quietly, “Signa couldn’t read Kaiden’s thoughts. And he had some difficulty with Jordan at first, but he managed in the end.”
“Are you asking a question or telling me something, Alex?”
“A bit of both,” she admitted. “Why did Signa have trouble reading them?”
“I only have theories,” Hunter told her. “You’ll have to ask your friends if you want accurate answers.”
She nodded in understanding and brought them back to their original topic. “So, Samson was discovered and apprehended, but then what? You decided to send an inexperienced group of teenagers to rescue him? Not your most brilliant plan, Hunter.”
“It worked, didn’t it?”
“It almost didn’t,” she argued.
“But it did, and even more perfectly than I could have imagined,” he said. “Without your involvement, the night would have remained just a dinner party. But with the mess you lot caused, you managed to confirm the identities of an undercover group of insurgents hiding in plain sight. Or a handful of them, at least. That’s quite a success story.”
“We almost died, Hunter,” Alex emphasised.
He looked at her steadily. “Aven wouldn’t have killed you.”
“He
would’ve killed the others!” she argued.
“No, Alex,” Hunter said quietly. “He would have Claimed them.”
Alex felt physically ill. “That’s a fate worse than death.”
“Something we can both agree on,” Hunter said solemnly.
“How do you know all this?” Alex whispered. “Did Darrius tell you about everything? About Aven and the gifted people who have disappeared? The people Darrius thinks are Claimed?”
Hunter averted his eyes and appeared to be considering his next words. There was a long moment of silence before he said, “Headmaster Marselle has spoken with me at length, but much of my knowledge comes from elsewhere.”
He didn’t explain further, and Alex knew she wouldn’t learn anything more by pressing him.
“Is there anything else you can tell me?” she asked. “Anything I need to know?”
“I think you already know much more than you should,” Hunter said with the barest hint of an approving smile. Then his face turned serious again. “One thing I’ll say is that I had a specific reason for sending you, in particular, to Sir Oswald’s party. You’re right that I thought Aven might be there tonight, and that my allowing you to go in unprepared may seem careless on my part. But listen to me when I say that at no stage were you or your classmates in any real danger, and if you had been, I would have stepped in and pulled you out immediately.”
Alex looked at him disbelievingly. “I’m sorry, but did you miss the part where Aven almost beheaded Kaiden? How could you possibly have known a sword would appear in my hands to save him when I still have no idea how that happened? Or what about when I almost suffocated from smoke inhalation? You didn’t step in then, did you? Or when—”
Hunter cut her off to ask, “I’ve told you about part of my gift before, do you remember?”
“Perception,” Alex answered, not sure where he was going with this. “You’re aware of where people are and what they’re doing.”
He nodded. “Yes. But I also know what they’re about to do.”
Alex raised her eyebrows as she digested that. “Are you saying you can see the future?” If that were true, she wondered how similar his gift was to D.C.’s.
“I only see flashes of the outcomes a few seconds before they unfold since the future is dependent upon our choices, but yes, effectively, when I use my gift to concentrate on a specific person, I can see what is about to happen around them. You are, of course, the exception, given your own gifting, but I was able to work around that while you were in the company of others. I could see your future through their eyes.”
Alex lingered on his words for a moment before she released an accepting sigh. “So you’re saying you knew we’d all make it out of there okay? And that’s why you didn’t intervene?”
“As I said, I can only perceive events within a short span of time, but I was watching closely, Alex. I knew you would save Kaiden. I knew you’d survive your fight with Aven. I knew you wouldn’t suffocate. If I’d seen anything causing a legitimate threat to your lives, I had a plan in motion to get you out. All of you.”
“And that plan was?”
“Irrelevant now, since it wasn’t necessary,” Hunter said.
Alex thought that was a copout response, but Hunter was nothing if not mysterious, so she was willing to let his non-answer slide and simply trust he was telling the truth.
“For the record, a little warning would be nice next time,” she said. “Or at least reassurance that you’ll be around to help if required.”
“My only justification is that you needed to see what you saw and hear what you heard,” Hunter said. “And as much as I wish it wasn’t the case, you needed to fight Aven like you did so you’d know exactly what you’re up against.”
Alex frowned at him. “I’ve gone head-to-head against Aven before. I didn’t need a repeat of that to remember how far out of my league I am when it comes to him.”
“You haven’t fought him physically before tonight,” he pointed out.
“I barely ‘fought’ him at all,” Alex argued. “I thought I was holding my own at first, but it turned out he was playing with me.”
“Which only shows that you have more to learn,” Hunter said. “You’ll find a way, Alex. And in the meantime, you’ll just have to apply yourself to your training.”
“Because I’m such a slacker?” she asked wryly.
Hunter smiled at her fully this time, and the expression softened his whole face, highlighting how handsome he was when he wasn’t looking all menacing-assassin-like. But he didn’t get the chance to confirm or deny her statement as the curtain was pulled open and Fletcher stepped into the small space.
“Time to get you fixed up,” the doctor said.
Hunter took that as his cue to leave her bedside, but when he reached the door, he said, “A slacker never would have made it through my first task, Alex, let alone the rest.”
She felt an unexpected rush of warmth from his words— and the tone of approval in them—before she resigned herself to letting Fletcher prod and poke away at her body. He checked her injuries for traces of poison and infection before he healed her cuts and eased her bruises—but not without causing her even more discomfort.
No pain, no gain, apparently.
“If I had my way, you’d be staying here overnight,” Fletcher said, handing her a vial of pain reliever.
Alex groaned at the thought, but when the doctor narrowed his eyes, she quickly wiped the grimace off her face and swallowed the contents of the vial.
“Fortunately for you, I don’t think there’s reason enough for me to keep you under observation when what you really need is a good night’s sleep,” he said.
“Does that mean I can go?”
He handed her a rehydration toffee, one of the few medicines she recognised, having studied them in her Med Sci class. “Only if you promise to suck on this until it’s finished and head straight to your dorm to rest.”
“Oooh, I love these,” Alex said, eagerly taking the candy-like medicine from him and popping it in her mouth. Within a few swirls of her tongue she began to feel her hunger and thirst disappear.
“Off you go, then,” Fletcher said, but when she jumped off the bed and made to leave, he stopped her and removed his lab coat, handing it over.
She looked from the coat back to him with a questioning look.
“It’s not curfew yet,” he explained. “This might help you avoid some curious glances. And it makes you look like you’ve come straight from a Chemistry lab rather than been attacked by a pack of wild animals.”
“Oh.” Alex pulled the coat over her shredded dress. “I guess you’re right. Thanks, Fletcher. I’ll bring it back tomorrow.”
“Just as long as you’re dropping it off and not coming as a patient,” he said. “No more injuries for a while, okay?”
“I’ll try my hardest.”
“You always do, Alex,” he told her with a disgruntled sigh. “You really need to try harder.”
She grinned at him and left the Ward, almost walking straight into Jordan who was waiting outside.
“What are you still doing here?” she asked.
“You didn’t think I’d leave without you?”
“Well… yeah,” she admitted. “That was kind of the point of getting Fletcher to let everyone else go. I’m not the only exhausted one.”
“But you are the only one who can barely stand without assistance,” he said. “And rightly so, considering everything you’ve been through over the past two days.”
“Jordan—”
“We’re not arguing about this,” he said as he wrapped his arm around her waist to help support her weight again. “I’m going to escort you to your room, with or without your permission.”
“Fine,” she huffed, grateful for his help but not wanting to say as much out loud. “But you have to promise to go straight to bed afterwards.”
“Sure thing, Mum,” he said, his voice dripping with false sincerity.
“In you go,” said Jordan, pulling the covers down so she could slide in under them.
Alex didn’t care that she was still fully clothed. Now that she was lying on her comfortable bed, she wasn’t going anywhere. But she did at least have the presence of mind to remove Fletcher’s coat and drape it over her bedside table.
Lying back with her eyes closed, Alex felt Jordan lean across to tuck her in. When he was done, he bent down and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead.
“Love you, Alex,” he whispered.
Her eyes snapped open and Jordan burst out laughing.
“Calm down,” he said between guffaws. “I don’t mean love-love. But you’re one of my closest friends—you’re my family. Of course I care about you.” His tone quieted as he admitted, “You really freaked me out tonight. I don’t know what I’d do if something happened to you.”
She was almost brought to tears by the emotion in his eyes. “Love you too, Jordan. In the same way. And I’m sorry I scared you.”
He reached out and squeezed her hand before a mischievous grin spread across his face. “Speaking of the ‘L’ word… What’s going on with you and Kaiden, huh?”
Jordan wiggled his eyebrows suggestively and Alex couldn’t stop the blush she felt spreading across her cheeks.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she mumbled, looking away.
He shook his head in amusement. “If that’s how you want to act, I can play along.”
She scowled at his knowing expression. “I’m under doctor’s orders to get some sleep—something that you’re interrupting.”
“Fine, be that way,” Jordan said, grinning. “I’ll see you in the morning. And don’t worry, this can be another one of our little secrets.”