“That’s an invasion of privacy. Why would you want to do that?” Aside from the obvious voyeuristic reasons, of course.
“I’m not going to do it to everyone,” Micah defended. “In the case of reading a Skotadi, it could be beneficial.”
Well, I supposed in that sense it was okay. He made a good point. Still, it made me nervous. I would have to make sure to hold back my thoughts and emotions around him. That was going to be hard, considering I had a hard enough time biting my tongue most of the time.
And I was in a house with Nathan…and Alec. Yeah, I was going to have to concentrate hard on blocking Micah.
“What else are you practicing?” I asked.
“Other than mind reading? My dream communication has gotten better, don’t you think?”
I nodded as I replayed his words in my head. “You’ve been practicing that?”
He nodded enthusiastically. “The first dream we shared, I barely saw anything. Now, we can actually talk, and your face almost came into focus last night. Of course, it’s easier since I know what you look like now, so I’m not sure how much of that is from getting better at it, and how much is from knowing you.”
I shifted uncomfortably in my seat. Discussing the dreams still made me uncomfortable, even with the only other person who understood them. Yet, he seemed to have no problem bringing them up.
“What else?” I asked to get him off the dream subject.
“Uh, well, I suck at element manipulation, so I’ve got to work on that a lot more,” he said. “Healing diamond injury I was getting decent—”
“Whoa, wait,” I interrupted. “Did you say diamond injury? That can be healed?”
“That’s something the Kala had been working on with me for months, before I left,” he elaborated. “There are a few on the base who are very good earth manipulators, who claimed that certain elements have healing abilities, but they were coming up short when they tried to capitalize on it. They had me try it, since I’m so much more pureblooded than they are, gave me the elements to use, and it worked…sort of. I’ve been working on improving. It’s exhausting, honestly.”
“How could you practice? Who would you practice on?”
“Well, we kidnapped Skotadi,” Micah said.
“That’s kind of disturbing.” Even if they were technically evil, and were probably doing far worse to the Kala in that warehouse.
It was pretty great though, too. Micah’s ability to heal diamond injury could be a vital tool in the war and swing the favor to the Kala’s side once and for all. This kid really was it.
I really, really hope I don’t kill him.
Micah reached inside his shirt and withdrew a necklace with a small glass vial on the chain. “I carry the compounds with me. Just in case. Fortunately, Gabby and Richie haven’t given me a reason to use them.”
“Good to know we all have that extra security,” I said lightly.
“Yeah, well, I’m not that good at it, so don’t go getting careless with diamond,” he said. “So, do you want me to read your specialties, or not? I promise not to read your mind, so long as you don’t scream your thoughts at me.”
“Okay, okay.” I extended my arms, placing my hands in his once again.
“Close your eyes,” he said gently, like I’d expect a therapist to talk to a patient about to be hypnotized. “Relax, and let’s do this.”
No sooner than I did as he instructed, I heard the patio door open and close behind me, followed by Callie’s voice.
“Do what?”
My eyes snapped open and I saw Micah peering over my head. I knew, just knew, that Nathan was with Callie. I could feel his presence in the room. Realizing too late that my hands were still in Micah’s, I snatched them out of his grip.
“I’m trying to read Kris’s specialties,” Micah said, his tone marked by a hint of defensiveness that I suspected wasn’t directed at Callie, but rather Nathan.
I only hoped it hadn’t looked as bad as I feared—Micah and me sitting cross-legged across from each other on the couch, holding hands.
Why hasn’t Nathan said anything yet?
I itched to turn around, but his heavy footsteps stopped me. I glanced up from under my eyelashes as he came to a stop beside me. His arms were folded over his chest in that way that always made him look so intimidating, the sleeves of his t-shirt tight on his arms. It and his hair were both slightly damp with sweat, and I couldn’t help but be jealous of Callie for getting to spend the last hour with him.
I would have much rather been the one to make him sweat than been stuck sitting on the couch with Micah. Especially after seeing the way Nathan was looking at Micah, with that hint of jealousy he usually reserved for Alec.
“How good are you?” Nathan finally asked Micah.
“At reading specialties? Pretty good.” Micah’s chin jutted forward in challenge. “I just got done telling Kris what specialties I’ve been working on, and now we’d like to see what she needs to be focused on.”
It was pretty obvious from his tone what Micah was trying to do. Get rid of Nathan.
Nathan had to have sensed it, but pretended not to. “If you can do that, you should be able to read minds, right?”
Micah shrugged noncommittally. “I’m working on it.”
During the silence that followed, I glanced at Callie. From the tight-lipped smile on her face, I gathered that she saw what I saw. Boys puffing their chests out at each other. I flashed her a grin, but covered it quickly when Nathan took a step closer.
“Try reading my specialties,” he said. “Let’s see how good you are before you read Kris’s.”
He sat on the edge of the coffee table, facing Micah. As Micah grudgingly turned toward him, Nathan’s eyes flicked to mine briefly, a hint of amusement gleaming in them, and I couldn’t help but wonder what he was up to.
Surely he wasn’t simply testing Micah’s abilities.
Micah took a hold of Nathan’s outstretched hands and repeated what he had told me earlier. Except this time, there was a coldness in his tone. “Close your eyes, relax, free your mind.”
Callie and I watched silently as they both dropped their heads, eyes closed. After a few seconds, Micah’s lips curled into a tight smile and he lifted his head to look at Nathan. A moment later, Nathan’s eyes opened and the two stared at each other as if some silent conversation was taking place between the two of them. From the smug look on Nathan’s face, I was now sure this had been his intent all along. Not for Micah to read his specialties, but for Micah to read his mind.
And I desperately wanted to know what Micah saw. Because I was sure it had something to do with me.
Micah gave a barely discernible nod, shifted, moving past whatever had just transpired between the two of them, and lowered his head once again, eyes closed. Nathan grinned to himself before he, too, dropped his head.
When Micah spoke again, his words were clipped. “You’re obviously a fighter. I could tell that without reading you, but I can feel a heavy concentration of Ares’s bloodline in you. Much more than that of your other bloodlines.” Micah hesitated as if to read more before he continued, “Nature, craft…” Micah dropped Nathan’s hands as he said the last words confidently, “and intelligence. How’s that?”
Nathan stood without an answer and retreated to Callie’s side.
Callie looked between Nathan, Micah, and me curiously. “Well? Was he right?”
I resisted the urge to laugh, but couldn’t hold back a smile. “Yeah, Callie. He was right.” I caught Nathan’s eyes briefly before I turned to Micah. “My turn now?”
Before Micah had a chance to take my hands, the sliding glass door opened and shut again, and I heard Alec approach.
“What in the hell are you guys doing?” he called.
Micah rolled his head with a heavy sigh. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“Micah’s reading specialties,” I volunteered cheerily.
“Oh, cool,” Alec said and bounded past me to sit
on the coffee table where Nathan had sat moments before. “I’ve always wanted to be read. Can you read my future, too? You do palm readings? Have tarot cards?”
“Just give me your hands,” Micah said and instructed Alec on what to do. After a moment, he said, “Medium to the dead, fighter, charmer, and fire manipulation. Strongest to weakest.”
Alec made a face like he might have been impressed and started to pull away, but Micah clamped down on his hands, preventing him from standing. Micah’s brow furrowed, his lips tight, as he continued to read something from Alec.
What that was, I thought we all wanted to know. Especially Alec.
“Dude, what are you doing?” Alec asked.
Micah shook his head rapidly to silence Alec.
Alec glanced at me, whispered, “He’s not gay, is he?”
I choked back a laugh and shook my head. Not that I actually knew for sure, but there was something about Micah that screamed straight. Especially when he looked at me the way he did sometimes.
When Micah finally spoke again, his voice was soft and wary, almost confused, and it came out sounding like a question. “You’re surging.”
Alec snatched his hands out of Micah’s grip. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Micah shook his head like he didn’t know how to answer that question. “The evil in you…” he started hesitantly. “It’s surging, fighting to break free.”
Alec stood quickly. The look in his eyes when he looked down at Micah was that of pure hatred—the perfect face of evil. “That’s enough reading for the day.”
Alec muttered under his breath as he went to stand on the other side of Callie, and suddenly I was nervous. What if Micah saw the evil surging in me, too?
And what did that mean exactly? For Alec? For me?
I didn’t want to know my specialties anymore, but it was too late to back out now, especially when everyone was watching me, waiting. It was out of my control anyway when Micah turned to me, took my hands, and repeated the same process.
“Let me guess,” Alec said drily, “Medium, fighter, charmer, and fire.”
I opened my eyes just in time to see Micah nod his head. “Yes, but they’re much stronger, more pure than yours.”
I supposed that made sense. Alex and I had both been created by Hades’ four demigods. I should have expected us to share the same specialties. And Alec had told me that they had done something different with me to make me stronger than him. We just didn’t know what exactly that was.
“There’s something else there,” Micah mulled, more to himself than to any of us. “I can’t get a good read on it…”
Micah grimaced and my heart jumped into my throat as I waited to hear what he saw. Was it what made me different from Alec? Or was I surging?
He eventually opened his eyes and dropped my hands, having given up. Or so it seemed. He sat across from me and stared, like he was trying to read it through my eyes, by peering right into my soul.
“What is it?” I asked softly.
Micah shook his head. “I’m not sure.”
Just like the day before, I got the impression that there was something he wasn’t being completely forthcoming about. He had the same look on his face, and even if I didn’t know him well enough yet to know what his facial expressions meant, I was starting to think that this particular one meant he was hiding something.
And I had to find out what that was.
CHAPTER 6
Gabby and Richie returned from a recon mission of the warehouse later, and informed us that the Skotadi were going about business as usual despite the absence of several of their guys. Maybe they didn’t care that they had lost a few, but I suspected that their lack of reaction was because there were so many of them that they hadn’t actually noticed. Either way, since they were still there, and didn’t seem to know we were around, we were free to start planning a small attack on them. If there were really that many of them, hopefully we would at least thin their numbers.
The next morning, Nathan went with Richie to the nearest town to obtain more weapons and ammunition. Alec was working with Callie on some self-defense moves in the yard. That left Micah and I alone on the porch, under Gabby’s ever-watchful eyes. We were supposed to be working on developing my specialties, but I had so much on my mind that my specialties were the least of my concerns.
“Hey, Micah?”
He looked up from the book in his lap.
“The other day,” I started hesitantly. “What did you mean when you said you sensed the evil surging in Alec?”
Last night, I had tried to talk to Alec about what Micah had said and what I thought I’d seen in his eyes, but he’d avoided my questions with perfect, practiced charm. I’d ended up blushing and wondering what had happened to my ability to have a conversation with a boy without fanning myself like a hormone-crazed middle-schooler.
But then, Alec wasn’t just any boy. He had talent. And he knew it. I should have been glad it hadn’t been worse.
Micah shrugged. “Just what I said. It’s rising up in him, getting stronger, threatening to overcome him.”
I suppressed a shudder. Was that I what I had to look forward to? And what about poor Alec? I hated to think about what he was going through already. Could he feel it surging? Did he know what was happening to him? He hadn’t seemed bothered last night. At least not about that.
“Is that what you saw in me?” I asked Micah timidly, unsure if I really wanted to hear the answer.
“No,” he said quickly.
“What do you think it was?”
“I’m not sure. It felt similar to what I feel when I read another prophet, but that doesn’t make any sense.”
“Why not?” It was interesting that he thought it might be something related to prophesy, especially after I had already suspected that I might have some ability in that specialty. But I didn’t understand why he thought it didn’t make sense.
“The prophet bloodline isn’t associated with Hades,” he answered simply. “You really can’t be a prophet. Seeing as how we can share dreams, you must have something giving you that ability. That must be what I’m seeing, but I just can’t pick up on what exactly it is.”
The way he was talking made me nervous. Something unknown? Something brewing inside of me that I didn’t know about? That no one knew about? Yeah, I didn’t like the sounds of that.
“I also know that you didn’t want the others to know about the dreams,” Micah added with a trace of a smile on his face, “so I didn’t say anything,”
My jaw dropped. “You read my mind?”
He chuckled. “I wasn’t trying to. I can’t help it that you’ve been practically yelling that to me since you’ve been here.”
There was an awkward silence as Micah stared at me, like he was trying to determine why I didn’t want the others to know about the dreams, and I started to wonder if he was trying to read my mind again.
“Stop it,” I scolded.
“I’m not doing anything,” he said. “I’m just trying to figure it out. Figure you out, without reading your mind.”
He gave me that look again—the one like he knew me on a level I wasn’t aware of—and I jumped up to interrupt the awkwardness that it produced. I paced to the porch railing and took a moment to watch Alec drop Callie to the ground with a leg sweep before I turned to Micah again.
“What else could it have been? What else could enable me to share dreams, if not a prophet bloodline?”
Micah nodded thoughtfully as he digested my question, but didn’t answer right away. “There are a few reports of hybrids sharing dreams over the years,” he eventually said. “Theories vary from false reports, to Incantation, to soul—”
“Incantation?”
“It’s the use of spells,” Micah explained. “Kind of like what modern day witchcraft is compared to. The reports on it are scattered, too. No one’s really figured out its role in our world. Most don’t believe it exists.”
I paused before a
sking, “Do you?”
Micah squinted at me, as if he were looking at me for the answer. “I don’t know yet.”
I’d hoped to hear something encouraging, something that would make me feel better, but once again I was left with the empty void of ignorance. I didn’t know what was going on with me, and the one person who knew more about the inner workings of this hybrid world than anyone else was the master at hidden messages in his words.
The more I talked to Micah, the more uneasy I became. I had set out to get answers from him, and somehow ended up with more questions. And I was left wondering again what he was keeping from me.
I couldn’t quiet the annoying voice in my head that suggested I might not want to know. So long as his secrets didn’t hurt anyone I cared about. I’d have a hard time not killing him if that happened.
Since I didn’t want to talk to Micah anymore, and he seemed to realize that without me saying so, he gave me some of his books to read in my spare time. After we went our separate ways, I worked on defensive fighting moves with Alec and Callie for about an hour, showered, then retreated to my room for a little peace and quiet. Feeling guilty, I picked up one of Micah’s books, thinking I should at least attempt to get something out of it.
It was boring as hell and my chin dropped to my chest about half way down the second page. I didn’t even fight it, and let the book slide off my lap, forgotten, as the peacefulness of sleep pulled me.
I was bolted awake some time later by excited voices in the living room, and hurried down the hall to see what was going on. I used my hands to smooth down the still damp ragweed that had formed on the back of my head while I was asleep, not that I managed to fool anyone.
“Ah, there she is,” Alec sang. “Sleeping Beauty.”
I flashed him a shy smile and turned to Nathan, who was conferring with Richie and Gabby nearby. “What’s going on?”
Gabby fixed me with a steely glare while Richie looked at Nathan to answer me, as if my evil would seep out and infect him if he acknowledged me.
Sacrificed (The Ignited Series) Page 5