by Lee Davidson
“I’ll be fine,” I answer, but I could swear there’s a glint of doubt in her eyes.
“I’ll see you around, kid.”
I nod. “You’d better.”
Before the elevator doors close, she leans around them and sticks her tongue out at me.
“You’re so annoying!” I yell to her.
“Darn right,” she sings back before the doors slide together.
I walk into my room and drop my backpack on the counter. With a cup of coffee in hand, I settle onto the sofa and open the dark purple book to prepare for my first Elite assignment.
Epilogue
“Hey, Jonathan—got a minute?” Willow asks.
“Certainly.” Jonathan excuses himself from a pair of Satellites and walks with Willow to the edge of the field. “What’s up?”
“I wanted to talk to you about Tate.”
“Yes, how is she?”
“Doing better. She just enrolled for fall classes. Here’s the thing, though. She’s changed. A lot. It’s like she’s wiped her own memories, too.”
“Her memories are intact; she’s just moving on,” Jonathan assures. “We should all be happy about that.”
“And what about Grant? His memories weren’t filed away like ours. What if she erased them permanently?”
“We’ll cross that bridge when it becomes necessary. Please remember—Grant’s memory loss is essential, now more than ever. You know how difficult Elite assignments are. A distracted mind is inadmissible.”
Willow’s shoulders fall a little. “I know. Well, I’d better get back to Troy. Today we’re venturing to some jungle in South America,” she says with displeasure. “It’s totally his idea.”
The corners of Jonathan’s eyes crinkle when he laughs. “That sounds nice.”
“No, not nice! The humidity does nothing for my hair.” Willow twirls a dreadlock around her finger and uses as much drama as she can muster.
Jonathan’s laughter increases. “I’ll be around if you need me.”
Willow begins skipping away, but then stops. “Jonathan!” she yells across the field. When he turns, she shouts, “Grant and Tate—things are going to work out OK for them, right?”
Jonathan raises his hand in a silent farewell. Willow accepts his smile and wave as an answer and bounces through the courtyard doors.
To be continued…
Here’s a sneak peek at Elite: The Satellite Trilogy, Part II available soon!
Willow
1. It’s the name of the game
“You wanted to see me?” I try to keep the annoyance out of my voice because my candlelit dinner with Troy is being interrupted.
“Yes, thank you, Willow.” Jonathan stops a few feet from of the K hall in the grand marble lobby. “I need you back on assignment immediately.”
What? “What?”
“Tate Jacoby is steering off course again and we could use your help.”
Yeah, I bet. Things like this tend to happen when the natural order gets altered. “But you said…never mind. What’s her deal this time?” This girl’s going to be the death of me. Erasing all of Grant’s memories is one thing. Now she’s interrupting my husband time.
“Grant’s memory loss was a natural part of the process,” Jonathan says, using his unnerving mind reading ability—he can deny having this gift all day long, but I’m not buying it.
“We both know the way his memories were erased was not natural,” I mock.
“Despite how his memories were taken, losing them was necessary, especially now that—”
“Now that he’s an Elite. I get it.”
Jonathan ignores my sour attitude. “Being a Satellite yourself, you know distractions are dangerous in our work, more so as an Elite than ever before. He cannot keep the mortals requiring his assistance on course if his mind is elsewhere. Wouldn’t you agree?”
I hesitate before nodding, hating that Jonathan is right. Regular Satellite assignments are strenuous enough. The kid has no idea how torturous the road ahead is going to be. “Working towards to greater good,” I say with fake enthusiasm.
Jonathan smiles. “That’s the spirit. I would like you to accompany Liam on Tate’s assignment until we can get her moving forward again.”
I sigh. So much for my chicken marsala. “I’m guessing you need me to go now?”
Jonathan nods and squeezes my shoulder. “Thank you. You really are one of our best, you know.”
Dang it, this guy always knows flattery gets him everywhere. “Am I expected in training?”
“No, I think you can hold your own at this point. I’m here if you need anything. Good luck.”
Acknowledgments:
I am indebted to those who continue to sprint alongside me through this journey. First and foremost, to Dan: Thank you for concealing your sighs every time I carry my laptop to the dining room or back porch. No matter how absurd my ideas are, you always support me. For that, and many, many other reasons, I love you.
To Mom, Connie, Monica, Russ, Wendy, Joe, Lindsey, Anthony, and Jenny, who, even after muddling through the earliest drafts of this story, continued to root me on: Thank you for your feedback, and my apologies for the numerous typos. I am just an artist, after all.
Dawn, in the very early phases of this project, you said, “So what if no one ever reads it? Your boys will find it one day and be able to say, ‘My mom wrote that.’” Thank you. This has been the most encouragement anyone could have given me.
A great big thanks to my editor, Amy, for polishing—and I mean polishing!—this manuscript and offering excellent advice that did not include rewriting a new story. To Katie and my CreateSpace publishing team: Thank you for making this dream a reality for a girl who, just two years ago, knew very little about writing a novel and even less about publishing.
Last, but certainly not least, to Heather: No words can tell you how much I’ve appreciated you through this process. The number of books you read in a week is freakish, and for that, I am grateful! You’ve read more drafts of this book to count, discussed story ideas, characters, publishing, marketing, editing, book covers, etc., and still, by some miracle, you continue speaking to me. If that’s not a friend, I don’t know what is. I hope there’s a vacation in our future! Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you…
About the Author:
Lee Davidson received a bachelor of fine arts degree from Lindenwood University. She lives in Missouri with her husband and three sons. Her ‘on-the-clock’ time is spent as a graphic artist designing great big things. Satellite, Lee’s first novel, was selected as a quarterfinalist in the 2012 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest. For more information, visit www.LeeDavidson.net or like her on facebook: www.facebook.com/LeeDavidsonAuthor.
Table of Contents
1. I’m not going in there
2. Here come the little stunners
3. Use that great charm to make some friends, Casanova
4. You’re a stalker, is what you are!
5. You live in a sad world of denial, kid
6. If I’m right, you owe me dinner
7. It’s like a jolt of electricity, but worse
8. A punch in the face would be more subtle
9. You’re not going to hurl, are you?
10. You were destined for this
11. If I hear that one more time, I’m gonna hurl!
12. There’s a whole world happening around you
13. We’ll eventually fix that mind of yours
14. You weren’t meant to find out this way
15. You really are Captain Oblivious
16. It won’t stop hurting
17. I’m all about doing the impossible
18. She almost burned the house down
19. You guys look like you’re lost
20. Why couldn’t you have shut up like this months ago?