by Anita Oh
Audrey narrowed her eyes at Eli. She wasn’t sure if it was possible, but she was beginning to suspect he was reading her mind.
“Yeah, it’s possible,” he said, pushing the coffee cup toward her. “Surely, after everything you’ve been through, you don’t have trouble believing something like that. It’s not exactly mind-reading. I can’t probe the depths of your consciousness or anything, only get an impression. A kind of snapshot. It’s more like one part telepathy, one part empathy, with a dash of reading body language, but I can stop if it makes you uncomfortable.”
Audrey shook her head. It was actually reassuring, being able to communicate without needing to spell everything out. It only added to that warm blanket feeling.
“Good,” he said. “Well, as for your questions, all I can say is that, as far as my ‘special skills’ go, the flip side of being able to read something like minds or feelings is that I can project the same sort of thing. I can give off a sort of aura that lets people think or feel a certain way about me.”
Audrey thought about that as she picked up the coffee cup and sipped at the coffee. It was lukewarm and bitter and the best thing she’d ever tasted. It made sense, what he’d said. He could intimidate the alpha into leaving her alone in the same way that the people earlier had felt as if he was their best friend. She wondered if that was why she’d come to trust him so completely in such a short time.
“Look, I’m no psychiatrist, but you probably trust me because I just saved your life. I’m a trustworthy guy like that. And you can’t discount my charming good looks.”
Audrey blushed and set the cup down.
“If it helps, I can’t use my powers in two different ways at the same time. I can’t give off an aura while I’m reading someone, and I’ve been too busy reading you to try.”
That did make Audrey feel better, but she still had a thousand questions. Before Eli could answer them, though, Beth came back with their fries, and Audrey was too distracted by her stomach to think of anything else.
“Look, I know you’re sick of running,” Eli said quietly when the fries were almost gone. “I know you’re sick of being alone.”
Audrey didn’t look at him. Suddenly, having someone read her feelings seemed a little invasive. If there were things she didn’t want to think about, she didn’t want anyone thinking them on her behalf, either.
She stared down at the last few fries, wondering if he’d mind if she ate them all. He nudged the plate toward her.
“They’ll start looking for you again soon,” he said, ducking his head to try to catch her eye. “But I know a place you might be safe. Where you’ll be protected.”
She picked up the fries and bit into them, chewing as she thought over what he’d said. It wasn’t as though she had a lot of alternatives. Go with Eli Gale, or keep running. If she kept running, it would only be a matter of time before they caught up with her, and her luck was bound to run out at some point. She wondered if Eli knew what they wanted with her, if he knew their plans.
“Oh, Audrey,” he said, and this time when he smiled at her, it was tinged with sadness. “That’s the one thing I can’t tell you.”
It didn’t make any difference. Even before he’d suggested it, Audrey knew she’d follow this guy anywhere. Even if she’d had some other place to run to, she felt like maybe she’d still always want to be by his side.
But she quickly pushed the thought of out of her head before he could catch it.
Chapter Three
After Eli decided he’d got his money’s worth out of the free coffee refills and had paid the bill, they got up to leave for the safe house. As she turned toward the door, Audrey spotted something outside the diner window that made her stop in her tracks. His hood was pulled up to cover his face, but his hands were curved into talons.
When she glanced over at Eli, he was still chatting with Beth and hadn’t noticed anything unusual. It was the chance Audrey needed.
Even if Eli did have powers, the alpha would be on his guard now. He wouldn’t be fooled a second time, and he’d be out for blood. Audrey didn’t even want to think what he’d do to Eli in revenge for what had happened. She couldn’t let Eli be in danger because of her.
Keeping calm so that Eli didn’t sense anything wrong, she turned and fled through the kitchen. The cook called out to her, saying she shouldn’t be there, but she didn’t stop. Hopefully, there was only one Follower, and he was just doing a general patrol. He hadn’t noticed her, and she could get away easily if there was only one. She hoped he was only there by chance. If they’d tracked her, they’d find Eli as well. The best thing to do was to lead them far away from him.
She burst out of the kitchen and into the alleyway behind the diner. After a quick look around, she headed down the alley rather than out onto the street, not wanting to risk the Follower spotting her. She needed them to see her but not until there was some distance between her and Eli.
The train station was just across the street. Eli would look for her there first, so she turned in the other direction. She’d let the Followers spot her when she got near the river, then hitch a ride on a boat. Boats were fast and hard to track, and they’d stop looking for her around here.
She pulled her hood up and put her head down as she left the alley, forcing herself to move at a regular pace and not break into a run.
She barely got two paces before she smacked into someone. She tried to dodge away, but they caught hold of her arm.
“Stop struggling,” said Eli. “I’m really going to have my hands full with you, aren’t I?” He took her by the shoulders and ducked his head to see her face underneath her hood. “You don’t need to worry about me. I can protect myself. Do you understand?”
She nodded but avoided his gaze. It wasn’t as if she wanted to run from him.
“I’ll take you to the safe house,” he said. “But only if that’s what you want. I won’t force you. Do you want to come with me?”
She nodded again, still not looking at him. More than anything, she wanted to be safe, but was it really fair if that meant putting other people in danger?
“Good,” he said. He stepped out onto the street to hail a cab, but he kept hold of her sleeve so she wouldn’t run off again, pulling her after him.
The driver did a double-take when Eli got into the cab but didn’t say anything. Audrey wondered if Eli was using his aura or if the guy just didn’t care that much.
They didn’t speak while they were in the cab, but Audrey could feel Eli’s eyes on her as she looked out the window. She tried to keep her mind blank, thinking of nothing more than the streets rushing by, the traffic, the people waiting at the bus stop. The farther they got without seeing anyone else from the cult, the more Audrey’s hands unclenched from where they were gripping the seat on either side of her. She let out a long breath as the cab crossed the river. It wasn’t really logical – she knew the Followers could track her there as easily as anywhere – but it felt as though she was putting up an invisible barrier behind her somehow, a shield.
The streets were wider and cleaner on this side of the river, lined with leafy trees. The houses were older, more grand. It seemed quiet, peaceful. The cab turned up a street where the houses got even fancier as they climbed the hill until the security fences around them rose too high to see over.
At the top of the hill, the cab pulled into a driveway that was barred by massive iron gates. Eli took a security pass from his pocket and handed it to the driver, who swiped it and drove through once the gates had opened. There was a man in a little booth on the other side, and Eli gave him a wave as they drove past.
The driveway wound through grounds that looked more like a city park than someone’s yard, gentle slopes of grass dotted with trees and flower beds. Old-fashioned streetlamps were spaced evenly along the drive, but they weren’t just for show — a high-tech security camera was fitted to each one, some of them moving to follow the path of the cab.
As they rounded a corner ov
er the crest of the hill, the safe house appeared. It looked like a fortress.
It was a long stone three storey building, with two larger sections jutting out at either end, both with gabled roofs. Running along the second storey were small arched windows with white high-security shutters. The third storey was lined with tiny square windows, too small for a person to squeeze through. There were no ground-floor windows at all. At the very top of the building was a white spire, lit up with a glowing light that reflected off the large pond at the front of the house.
Audrey couldn’t see how they’d get inside, as the pond reached right up to the foundations of the house, but as they approached, a small drawbridge lowered over the pond from one side of the driveway to the other. Even to Audrey, the place seemed secure.
Once they were out of the cab, Audrey stood in an alcove in the entranceway, opposite the heavy iron doors. They were carved with intricate patterns, and even with her ordinary human senses, she could feel the magic radiating off them. It wasn’t just technology keeping this place safe. Now that she thought to look for it, she could see the signs of magical warding all around the place. There had been similar symbols on the doors at the compound, but they were meant to keep her in, not to keep the bad guys out. The lampposts had magical warding as well, and she supposed the high stone fences around the property did too. Nobody could get to her in here.
After the drawbridge had risen behind them, Eli did a complicated sequence of actions to unlock the doors. Inside the safe house was much as Audrey had expected from the outside: stone floors covered in antique rugs, stone walls hung with paintings. There was a wide staircase on either side of the entrance, and a pair of massive fireplaces. Beyond the fireplaces was an archway, then doors off to either side, with a huge pair of double doors at the end.
“Welcome to Sparkling Gems Academy for Gifted Youth,” he said, heading toward the double doors. “It’s a sort of training ground for people like me.”
She thought he meant psychics, but he shook his head.
“No, not all of them have special abilities in that way. A lot do, but not all. Sparkling Gems is a talent agency, and a lot of the time people with supernatural abilities do really well in that type of field.”
That made sense to Audrey. She’d already seen how Eli’s aura could win over fans. Some of the shifters she knew were so graceful that their movements were almost hypnotic. She wondered what other types of supernatural abilities there were and how people used them for entertainment. She wondered if they were dangerous.
Eli pushed open the heavy double doors. “Everyone is in class at this time of day, so you can settle in undisturbed. Classes are upstairs on the second floor, and the dorm rooms are on the third floor. This floor is kitchens, dining room, that kind of thing. This is the living area.”
The living area was much less fancy than the entranceway. It looked more like a secondhand shop or a junk room, there was so much random furniture piled in. Armchairs, sofas and coffee tables were scattered haphazardly at one end of the room, arranged more or less around an ancient TV set. The TV was on, flickering a grainy picture, but there was no sound. At the other end was a massive wooden table with mismatched chairs. A bookshelf ran along the far wall, stacked not only with books but old board games and puzzles. Seeing the outside of the academy, Audrey had worried it would be too fancy for someone like her, but this room put her at ease. It was somewhere she could relax, be comfortable.
“There’s a lot of kids like you who find themselves in a pickle, so if we come across them, we bring them here where they’re safe. If they don’t want to stick around, we put them in temporary rooms until their situation improves and they go on their way. If they want to stay, they usually enroll at the Academy. It’s mostly a normal school, with extra classes for things like acting and dance and music. The kids with abilities have private lessons to work on those as well. The kids who do well get extra-credit lessons – some of them go our tour with groups like mine, or they take minor roles in movies we’re in. If they like it and do well, they’re offered a job with the agency when they graduate.
“Well, you’re probably too old to start at the Academy now. You’re what, seventeen? The president likes to start the training young. I mean, look here…” He walked over to the TV to turn up the volume. “These guys are about your age, and they’ve been around for years already. They graduated with the last batch, so they’ll probably bring out their first official song soon.”
Audrey moved closer to the TV to get a better look. Two guys and a girl were on the screen, performing a song in what looked like some sort of fairy wilderness, all twinkly lights and mist. In the corner was a sparkly pink logo that said GEM TV. The girl was Asian, dressed in a school uniform with a pink tartan skirt. Her hair was up in high pigtails tied with fluffy pink pom-poms that bounced around when she danced. She bounced a lot. Audrey couldn’t even imagine being so energetic.
The guy on the right was much taller than the other two. He moved with a casual elegance, as if it didn’t take any effort to be so cool. He had caramel skin, and his dark hair curled into the collar of his blue tartan jacket. Audrey thought that jacket would’ve looked like a dressing gown on anyone else, but this guy wore it with an air of majesty.
The guy in the middle definitely wasn’t human. He looked like an angel. Audrey moved a little closer to the TV. His golden hair glowed like a halo. It fell across his face to cover one eye, and he gave a penetrating stare from beneath it. Even though Audrey knew he was only looking into a camera, it felt as if he looked right at her, as if every word he sang was for her. He was barely taller than the girl but his presence filled the entire screen, and Audrey found it hard to look away from him.
He seemed to glow from within, like he was illuminated by moonbeams, his skin was so smooth and pale. His face was heart-shaped, and his lips were full and curved into a perfect bow. He’d have looked completely feminine except that his nose had a slight hook. That, and his body. He wore red tartan pants and a black t-shirt, tight enough to show off his lean, muscular frame. Every movement he made seemed calculated, perfectly weighted to have the maximum effect: the smooth, clean lines of his dancing, the hint of a smile as he stared at the camera.
Audrey was bewitched.
When the song ended, the camera zoomed in on the three of them. Audrey couldn’t help but move closer as well.
“I’m Koko,” the girl said in a heavy Japanese accent. “Written with the character for heart!” She made a heart with her hands and thrust it at the camera, tilting her head to the side and batting her eyes.
“I’m Pegasus, son of rock legend Huxley King,” said the tall guy. “But I’m here to rock you into a new world!”
“My name is Thomas Thorne,” the blond guy said in a soft, gentle voice. The sound of it somehow made Audrey feel like everything was going to be okay, like all her present worries would float away, so long as he was there. “And together, we are…”
“SUPERNOVA!” the three of them said at the same time.
Thomas Thorne moved closer to the camera until he completely filled the frame, blocking the other two out. He cupped his hands around the camera lens, making Audrey feel as if he were caressing her face.
“And we’re here to explode your world!” he said.
Then he smiled.
For a moment, Audrey really did feel as if the world had exploded. All the breath rushed from her body. It felt as if she’d been trapped in a dark room for her entire life and was seeing the sun for the first time, the brilliance of it blinding her. She couldn’t move or think. She didn’t even want to. She was trapped in his sunshine beam.
Eli clicked off the TV and Audrey jumped, feeling as if she’d been startled out of a dream. She’d completely forgotten where she was or that anyone else was there. She wondered what sort of magic that had been, that it could affect her even through the TV screen, and if it was similar to Eli’s aura.
“No,” Eli said, his voice sharp. “I�
�m nothing like Thorne. We couldn’t be more different.”
Something in his tone made Audrey ashamed to have been caught looking at Thorne. If Eli didn’t like him, he mustn’t be a good guy. She resolved never to get caught in his sunshine beam again. Eli’s smile was much nicer, anyway.
“Sorry,” Eli said. “I didn’t mean to snap at you.” He sighed.
Audrey shook her head. He must have a good reason for not liking Thorne. He didn’t have to explain himself to her.
“Come on,” he said. “I’ll show you your room.”
Chapter Four
Audrey couldn’t remember the last time she’d had a hot shower. An old couple had let her stay in their farmhouse in exchange for milking the cows, but that had been maybe a month ago, and the water hadn’t been that hot. It had been more like a tepid shower, and even that was amazing after so long washing herself in the sinks of public toilets. This was mind-blowing. The fresh, citrusy smell of the shampoo made her feel as if she were waking up after a long sleep. It seemed as if she were washing her old life away, that the grime swirling down the plug was all the fear and uncertainty of being on the run. It made her feel like a new person.
There was a box of stuff set out for new arrivals, with toiletries and clean clothes and towels. Everything was brand-new, still in the packaging. It had never been used and discarded. Audrey couldn’t believe how soft and luxurious the clothes felt, even though it was just a t-shirt and track pants. Her old clothes seemed like rags in comparison.
She wiped the steam off the mirror and stared at herself, hardly recognizing her reflection without all the dirt and fear. She tried to brush out the tangle of her hair but gave up when the comb snapped, and decided to just tuck it back under her ski cap. She couldn’t quite part with her army coat, either. It was like a part of her. And there were precious things in the pockets. If something happened and she couldn’t stay here, she’d need her stuff with her. Just because Eli was nice, didn’t mean this was all going to work out. It was better to be safe.