Deception So Dark

by Clara Kensie

  After a few seconds, when my hands stopped shaking and my heart resumed beating, I called Tristan.

  “Tessa? Are you okay?” His voice was rough with worry.

  “Yeah.” I tried to laugh, but it came out sounding like a sob. “You didn’t call to warn me about him.”

  “When you didn’t answer last time, I called him instead,” he said. “But this time my warning was, I don’t know, faded. Weak. I didn’t think it was a real premonition. Especially when I saw it was Nathan with you.”

  He sighed, and I could almost feel his anguish through the phone. “He texted this morning that he would look out for you. That he was excited to meet you.”

  “I guess you misinterpreted that text,” I said. “You didn’t tell me that his father was one of the agents who…” The end of that sentence was too awful to say out loud.

  “I didn’t want you to feel guilty around him, like you did with Melanie. He told me he would tell you himself. So you would see it doesn’t matter.”

  “It does matter, Tristan. It matters a lot.” The Nightmare Eyes glared down on me.

  “What he did to you, what he said to you just now, it’s not like him. I don’t know why he would do that.”

  I knew why. The Nightmare Eyes knew why too.

  “In the cafeteria,” Tristan started, then paused. He drew a breath before continuing. “Did that note really say what I think it said? Killers’ Spawn?”

  Hot shame flooded my senses. Those words sounded especially heinous coming from him. “Yeah.”

  “Why didn’t you answer my call? I would have told you not to open it.”

  “That’s why I didn’t answer. I wanted to see what it said. Telling me not to read the note wasn’t going to erase the words on it.”

  “But I could have fixed things. I can’t protect you if you don’t answer my call,” he said. “I knew I shouldn’t have left you. I’m too far away. Maybe that’s why my premonition was so weak. I’m coming home.”

  “Tristan, no. I won’t let you quit school just so you can sit around and wait for warning premonitions about me.”

  “But—”

  “I’m fine, Tristan. I’m over it already.” He wanted me to say yes, please come home. He wanted me to say I needed him. But he already lost his job at the APR because of me, he gave up his girlfriend for me, and now he lost his best friend because of me. I couldn’t let him give up college for me too.

  “I have to get to my next class.” I made my voice sound perky and hoped he didn’t hear it crack. “So do you. See you tonight I love you bye.” I hung up before he could protest.

  “Stupid Lab Brats,” Ember said as we entered the Connellys’ house after school.

  “It’s not your fault,” I muttered. “You didn’t know.” She seemed as hurt as I was.

  Mac and Aria greeted us cheerfully, barking and yipping, but their tails stopped wagging and they started whimpering as they picked up on Ember’s distress. She sank to her knees and buried her head in Mac’s fur, then picked up Aria and gave her a kiss. Lyric slunk from behind the sofa and rubbed Ember’s legs, mewling. She scratched behind his ears, the tightness in her shoulders loosening.

  “Tessa needs to feel better too,” she told the animals. They obediently turned to me, and I obediently petted them as Ember snapped leashes to the dogs’ collars.

  She was right: I did need to feel better, and petting the animals helped.

  “Come with me,” she said, handing me Mac’s leash.

  Before we even had a chance to warm up, we headed back outside to take the dogs for a walk. Mac pulled me along behind him, and Aria pranced on her little paws next to Ember. “Did they say things to you about your parents, right to your face?” Ember asked.

  “Yeah.”

  “Me too. They said you shouldn’t be allowed at our school, that you shouldn’t be allowed to live in our town. I had no idea they were going to be like that, Tessa. I’m sorry.”

  “Thanks.” Maybe it was a bad idea for me to go to Lilybrook High. Just like the scars on my stomach reminded me of my parents’ crimes, my mere presence at that school reminded everyone else. Going to Lilybrook High was like throwing myself into a pit of vengeful lions.

  “Winter Milbourne is the one who told everyone who your parents are,” Ember said, her breath coming out in little clouds. “Did you meet her today?”

  “Not officially.” With my free hand I touched the Killers’ Spawn note in my pocket and lifted the fog, just a tiny bit. There she was, the telepathic auburn-haired girl, writing the note in geometry class as she sat right in front of me, then having a Lab Brat named Lucy teleport the note onto my tray as I passed them in the cafeteria.

  “Her dad is the head warden at the Underground,” Ember said. “That’s probably how she found out about your parents so fast.”

  Ah. My mother gave the warden a heart attack with her psychokinesis, during her failed escape attempt. Thanks to the quick action of Tristan and the guards, he survived, but it explained Winter’s animosity toward me.

  Was there anyone in Lilybrook whom my parents hadn’t hurt in some way?

  “Winter is also Nathan’s girlfriend,” Ember said. “When she started saying all those things about you, I thought he would help me stop her. But he was even worse than she was.”

  “Yeah.” My arm still ached where he’d grabbed it. “Tristan’s really upset about that.”

  We halted when Mac stopped to sniff a tree trunk. “What I don’t get is, Nathan’s a really good guy,” Ember said. “He’s like the most charitable person on the planet. When he was a kid, he started a blood drive in honor of his dad. He has a coat drive every fall, and he volunteers at a food pantry every week.”

  “You know what’s ironic?” I sighed. “My mother depended on coat drives and food pantries to survive when she was a kid.” She’d grown up impoverished, friendless, and abused by her stepfather. “Then as an adult, she murdered the father of someone who volunteers at places like that.”

  Ember shifted uncomfortably at the mention of my mother. Above me, the Nightmare Eyes glared and glowered, and my blood burned, burned, burned. I unzipped my coat and breathed in the cold January air, but I still burned.

  Mac finished sniffing the tree and pulled us onward. “Nathan’s a safeguard, like his dad was. He’s also clairvoyant, like his mom.” Ember said. “Tristan and Nathan always planned on being investigators together. Partners.”

  We walked a block before she spoke again. “Probably not anymore, though.”

  ❀

  Like a shadow, the Nightmare Eyes hovered high in the guest room as I read my history textbook and waited for Tristan to get home from college. Ember had to leave for her volunteer job at the animal shelter, but she sent Mac, Aria, and Lyric to keep me company, and now they sprawled on my bed, leaving me only a small corner of it. Mac kept his head on my lap. I didn’t mind. I liked having them there. The animals didn’t care that I was Killers’ Spawn.

  I jumped when Dennis and Deirdre knocked on my door frame. “Ember called to tell us what happened today,” Deirdre said. “Honey, I’m so sorry. Nathan’s mother is one of my friends. I’ll talk to her.”

  Dennis pushed his glasses up his nose. “The school has a zero-tolerance policy for bullying. I’m going to report him and Winter Milbourne. They’ll be suspended.”

  “Please don’t.” Getting Nathan and Winter suspended would only give them another reason to hate me. “It was no big deal. Nathan is Tristan’s best friend, so he can’t be that bad. He’ll come around.” I forced my lips into a smile. “He needs to do that blood drive. Suspending him will do more harm than good.”

  Dennis and Deirdre reluctantly agreed not to report them, but made me promise to tell them if it happened again.

  When they left, I raised the fog to numb myself and got lost in it. Until someone grabbed me, slid his hand behind my head, caressed my cheek with his thumb, and pressed his warm lips to mine.

  Tristan.

 
; I wrapped my arms around his neck. He shooed the animals away and I shooed the fog away, then he fell into the bed on top of me.

  “This was the longest we’ve been apart in weeks,” he said, nuzzling my neck. “And the farthest.”

  “I missed you.”

  “I’m sorry about Nathan,” he said. “And about that note. I’ll fix everything.”

  “Please don’t talk about that while you’re kissing me,” I replied, then took his face between my palms and looked into his eyes. Big, blue, beautiful eyes, filled with love. The complete opposite of the Nightmare Eyes. I crushed my lips back onto his.

  “Kids!” Deirdre called from downstairs. “Dinner! I picked up sweet and sour chicken!”

  Was someone calling us? Deirdre, maybe? If she was, I couldn’t hear her. Tristan was here with me again, and he loved me.

  ❀

  Later that evening, Tristan sat at his desk to write a paper for his criminal justice class while I curled up on his bed to read The Scarlet Letter for American Lit. His computer dinged—an email.

  He gave a little triumphant fist pump. “It’s from the APR,” he announced. “The board accepted my request to work with Brinda Lakhani to find your brother and sister. We have a meeting with her tomorrow at five.”

  “Who’s Brinda Lakhani?” I asked.

  He gave me a grin, lighting up from the inside out—first his eyes, then his smile. “Brinda Lakhani is going to tell us where to find your brother and sister.”

  Late the next afternoon, with Tristan on one side and Dennis on my other, I hurried down the white-pebbled path to the Agency for Psionic Research. The first time I’d entered this building, I’d been dragged in by John Kellan. Handcuffed, blindfolded, gagged. Terrified.

  No one had to drag me this time, and terror had been replaced with hope. Brinda Lakhani. Whoever she was, she was here at the APR, she was going to help me find my siblings, and I loved her already. Tristan told me to bring along Jillian’s ballet shoe and Logan’s sheet music, something I would have done anyway. I carried them with me everywhere.

  We rushed past the snow-dusted wooden sign that falsely identified the facility as the Northern Wisconsin Science Laboratory, and into the unassuming, industrial brick structure. In the lobby, the security guards greeted Dennis and Tristan warmly. “Thought you retired, Mr. Connelly,” a hefty guard with rectangular glasses joked to Dennis. “But you still come in almost every day.”

  Tristan chuckled, and Dennis grinned. “Deirdre would prefer if I stayed home,” he said, “but retirement doesn’t agree with me.” Dennis had retired as executive director last year because the stressful job was bad for his heart, which had been weak ever since my mother tried to kill him by giving him a heart attack.

  Before shame could swell up inside me, Dennis placed a gentle hand on my shoulder. The guard looked at me with unease as he buzzed open the security door to let us through.

  It was almost five o’clock, and most of the APR employees were leaving for the day. As we passed them in the hall, some raised their eyebrows in surprise, or maybe disapproval, at the sight of me.

  Did they all know I was Killers’ Spawn?

  In response to one dark-haired woman’s apprehensive glance, Tristan brought my hand to his lips and kissed it.

  “While you’re here,” Dennis said, “do you want to visit your parents? The warden told me that your mother’s been asking for you.”

  My heart squeezed into a tiny ball. “No.”

  “Absolutely not,” Tristan said at the same time.

  “She’s been neutralized,” Dennis said. “It’s safe. It might do you some good to see her.”

  “I’m not ready.” I would never be ready. The woman I remembered as my mother didn’t really exist. The real woman was a liar. A thief. A killer. I wanted nothing to do with her.

  Tristan stopped suddenly and gripped my hand. Everything grew silent. Coming from the boardroom was a woman with a wide jaw, dressed impeccably in pressed slacks and white shirt, and a gold badge that read Executive Director. Following her was a man with a red beard.

  John Kellan.

  My lungs wouldn’t inflate. My heart wouldn’t beat. Kellan had kidnapped me. He hit me, he chased me down and drove me far away, locked me up in a dark cell, and put a gun to my head.

  The woman shook his hand and returned to the boardroom, but Kellan stayed, turning to me with a bored blink. Hanging from a lanyard around his neck was a new red badge that boasted Lead Investigator.

  Stiffly, Tristan pushed me behind him.

  But I wasn’t running away anymore. I wasn’t hiding anymore. I stepped out from behind Tristan and forced myself to meet Kellan’s grimy blue eyes. He was telepathic, so I smothered my fear with fog. “You sent a security guard to search my house in Twelve Lakes,” I said, slowly, to keep my voice from shaking. “You didn’t even care enough to go there yourself.”

  “I’m understaffed,” Kellan said with a shrug. “Believe it or not, Miss Carson, I want to find the targets as much as you do. I don’t like loose ends.”

  “Jillian and Logan aren’t targets. They aren’t loose ends.” I no longer had to pretend that I wasn’t afraid, because I wasn’t. I was angry. “They’re my brother and sister. And if you find them, you need to take me with you to get them.”

  One corner of his lip curled up in amusement. “Why would I do that?”

  “Because you’ll bring them here by force. If I’m there too, they’ll know it’s okay to come.” Then I added, “And I need to make sure you don’t hurt them.”

  I hoped my words would shame him, but he only snickered.

  Dennis, however, rubbed his chin. “She makes a good point. They won’t trust anyone but her. Take her with you once you know where they are.”

  At that moment, Nathan Gallagher came out of the boardroom, his dreadlocks long and loose. I stiffened, instantly on guard. Kellan clapped him on the back like a proud parent. “I just brought Nathan on as a junior investigator,” he said.

  “Thanks again, sir. It’s a huge honor.” Nathan smiled, but when he turned to us, that smile turned into a sneer. “Kellan used to have a different junior investigator,” he said, “but that traitor fell in love with his target and almost ruined the mission.”

  Tristan cringed, clearly hurt. “I don’t regret a thing,” he said, pulling me into his arms. “And I know you don’t mean what you said to Tessa at school. And that note? Come on, buddy. You’re better than that.”

  A vision pushed into me, a vision of a young Tristan and Nathan, right here in this hallway, both wearing yellow Lilybrook Middle School T-shirts as they taped blood drive flyers to the wall. Tristan nodding in earnest agreement as Nathan said through clenched teeth, “Yeah, but even if the Kitteridge Killers are captured, they’ll just be sent to the Underground. They get to live, but my dad will still be dead. How is that fair?”

  I shoved the vision into the fog, but the guilt remained.

  A man in a black APR jacket and red scarf came rushing around the corner, glancing at his watch. He was in a hurry, but stopped when he saw us. In his early twenties, he had the same blond hair as Nathan, but cut conservatively. Same straight nose, too, but eyes of tawny brown instead of hard steel.

  He frowned at Nathan. “Did you apologize like I told you to?” he said.

  “You can’t tell me what to do, Cole,” Nathan said. “You’re my brother, not my father.” He cut a glance to me. “We don’t have a father.”

  Dennis stepped between us. “Cole, hello,” he said, his cheery tone an attempt to thaw the icy tension. “How are things in the Lab?”

  “Good,” Cole said. “We tried to test a potential recruit today. A pyrokinetic. But the guy was so nervous that he couldn’t set a single fire. It took me all afternoon to calm him down enough to make a few sparks on his fingertips.” As Dennis chuckled, Cole turned to me. “You’re Tessa Carson.”

  On guard, I nodded. He seemed nice, and Dennis liked him, but he was Nathan’s brother.
My parents had murdered his father.

  “My brother has some…issues with you,” he said, placing his hand on my shoulder, “and he feels very angry and hostile right now. But he won’t bother you again. Got it, Nathan?” He glanced at his watch again. “It’s late. Mom’s waiting for us. Go wait for me in the car.”

  Muttering something under his breath, Nathan stormed away. Dennis shook his head at him, then pulled Kellan aside. The two telepathic men began a silent conversation—an angry one, judging by their tense postures and jabbing fingers.

  Tristan watched Nathan leave. “I don’t get it,” he said. “I thought he’d understand.”

  Cole mirrored Tristan’s bewildered and disappointed expression, and sighed.

  My heart broke for Tristan. I destroyed his lifelong friendship with his best friend. And now, I was also the source of disagreement between two brothers. My siblings and I had our squabbles, but we never had such bitter animosity for each other. My presence in Lilybrook had caused the rift between Nathan and Cole.

  “Don’t feel guilty, Tessa,” Cole said.

  How did he know I was feeling guilty?

  He smiled. “And now you’re surprised. And confused.”

  “Um, yeah,” I said. “Are you telepathic?” Telepathy seemed to be the most common psionic ability around here.

  “No mind reading for me,” Cole said. “I’m an empathic clairvoyant. I can feel the emotions of others. I’ll do my best to keep Nathan away until his feelings toward you are more compassionate.”

  Maybe that was why Cole didn’t hate me—he was feeling my emotions, not his own. If he wasn’t an empath, he’d probably hate me as much as Nathan and Kellan did.

  Cole zipped up his jacket and rushed off. Dennis, still deep in his argument with Kellan, waved us away, so Tristan and I went to see Brinda Lakhani without him.