Untrained Eye

by Jody Klaire

“Samson, calm—”

  “Don’t Samson me nothing. I ain’t got no class remember. I don’t mean a thing. I’m unavailable.” I turned and stomped toward the stairs. “Better hope you find the little runt first.”

  “What?” Renee’s footfalls hurried behind as I stormed downstairs. “Why are you talking like this?”

  “If I find him, I’ll wring his scrawny neck.” I knew why Jessie had all those bruises now.

  Renee grabbed for my arm. I yanked it free. My sole focus was on the exit.

  “Will you listen to yourself?” She grabbed my arm again.

  I pulled free again.

  “You’re not being logical.”

  “Logical?” Uh, oh. My voice rose in pitch. “You think I’m just gonna stand there and let you throw everything I shared with you back in my face?” I tapped my chest. “Things so deep in here.” I felt tears brimming. “You think that’s a logical thing to do, professor?”

  Renee flinched.

  “You hurt me. You couldn’t give a crap about it neither. Thinking I’m even gonna listen to you . . .” I ripped open the door. “That ain’t logic.”

  I slammed the door behind me and winced as the glass cracked, shattered, and crashed to the floor behind me.

  Oops.

  “Miss Samson!” Ryan’s voice set my heart pumping. I sprinted right, toward the dorms.

  “Did you find him?”

  Ryan nodded, leading me into the dorms. “Kevin, he locked him in the boiler room, cranked up the heat. Jed got there.” He was panting so hard that I stopped him. “Miroslav’s okay.”

  I tapped his pocket and he pulled out his asthma pump. Same as Jessie, they both had it bad.

  “Where is he?” I asked when Ryan looked calmer.

  “He’s cooling off.” He turned and led me up three flights of stairs.

  “But?”

  “Kevin ran.” Ryan hurried along the corridor and stopped outside a door. “Jed took off after him. He’s on the roof.”

  He opened the door and Miroslav lay on his bed with an ice pack on him. He even managed a weak wave.

  “Anyone see?”

  Ryan shook his head. If anyone did see or anything happened to the supposed genius, I doubted I could say a word to Harrison that would stop Jed being sold. Her warning had been clear.

  I picked up a book from Miroslav’s side table, ripped out a page, and jotted out a note. “He after your book?”

  Miroslav nodded.

  “You tell him anything?”

  He shook his head.

  “Take on plenty of water.” I turned to Ryan. “Get this to Locks. Don’t stop for nobody ’til you get to her. Then fetch the girls to help Miroslav, got it?”

  Ryan nodded. “What about the others?”

  Ty and Ian were in the dining hall. “If you see them after you tell Locks, bring them too. Go.”

  Ryan sped off and I looked at Miroslav. “You gonna be okay?”

  He smiled a weak smile. “Thanks to Jed.”

  “Jessie know the code to your room?”

  He nodded.

  “I’ll lock you in.” I left him and hurried up another two sets of stairs. I looked up at the window leading to the fire escape and groaned.

  “Let’s hope it holds me,” I mumbled and squeezed my frame out onto the ledge.

  I FOUND JED bearing down on Kevin as he scrambled over the roof tiles. I could feel Jed’s temper simmering from way back. His red mist had blocked out all sense and if he got his hands on Kevin, it wouldn’t be pretty. Even me calling didn’t break his focus.

  One thing about my upbringing that was useful was that I’d spent a lot of time fixing up roofs. It helped me make quick work of getting to Jed whose high-tops were sliding underneath him.

  “Jed, stop. You kept Miroslav safe. It’s my job to deal with him now.” I knew it wouldn’t be long before the buzzer sounded for the change of class.

  If they saw Jed and Kevin up here and anything happened to Kevin at all, Jed would stand no chance.

  “Jed, please. You need to protect Miroslav. He’s alone.”

  Jed’s shoulders shook. His fists clenched and unclenched then I felt him breathing in and out.

  “You’re a hero, you’re the good guy here.” I gripped him by the shoulders. “Stay that way.”

  His anger calmed but his sole focus was on Kevin. “You touch him again and I’ll—”

  “Jed, shift.”

  His shoulders relaxed with my gentle tone and he turned. “He hurt him. He was trying to kill him.”

  “I know.”

  He met my eyes. His filled with the frustration, the anger and the pent up helplessness of a prisoner, a slave, and a lost teenage boy. I knew the place he inhabited. I’d lived there for so long. I’d been him.

  “I’ll keep him safe.”

  Jed nodded. Faith twinkled out from him and he glanced around as if realizing he was at a great height.

  “Careful on the way back in.”

  Jed was cautious in his attempt to clamber down onto the fire escape. He looked shaken. I’d have to talk to him, help him somehow. He needed me to show him. I wanted to.

  As he disappeared inside, I breathed a sigh of relief. One student safe and sound, one to go.

  I turned to Kevin. He eyed me in a way that my reputation deserved. Fear, wariness, suspicion. Guess my cover was working.

  The buzzer sounded.

  “Kevin, you need to take my hand. It’s not safe.” I reached out, hoping he would listen. The wind buffeted me about as I tried to keep my balance.

  Kevin, a weedy kid with red hair, shook his head. “You said you’d deal with me.” His beady eyes tracked over my arms as he swayed in the wind.

  “Well, it’s either me or the deputy principal. You want to explain to him why you attacked someone?” I moved closer.

  He stepped back.

  The wind whipped around us. He was too near the edge. His foot slid but he rescued it in time. We were five floors up on a baking roof, trying to keep upright in vicious blasts of wind.

  I glanced down. There was a small row of stonework around the roof edge.

  “I need the notes!” Kevin’s eyes were wild, panicked. “They won’t accept me if I don’t have them.”

  Kids poured out of the buildings below. I heard someone call out. Kevin must have too as he turned and wobbled. His foot slid again. He scrambled to keep his balance.

  “Look at the drop. Kevin, we need to get you down. We can talk about this. There’s another way.” I didn’t know about him but the sun was so hot that I had sweat dribbling off the tip of my nose.

  My hands weren’t much better.

  “You’ll tell them if I come with you.” Desperation pulsed from his every movement.

  I edged closer. My sneaker squeaked as it slid under my weight. Kevin backed up again. A blast of wind hit us. His eyes widened. His foot went from under him.

  I threw myself forward. Clattered across the tiles. One hand reached to catch hold of Kevin’s flailing arm. My other hand trailed behind with the hope I could catch the stone to stop myself.

  I caught his wrist.

  I dropped over the side.

  My clammy hand gripped the stone edging.

  We smashed into the wall. My breath pounded out of me. I felt the stone shift under the weight. We hung there, five floors up and I prayed I could hold on.

  What was it with me and dangling from ledges anyhow?

  Kevin gripped onto me.

  “Stop squirming will you.” My hand was slippery enough as it was.

  His gaze trailed up my arm. A nasty thought process rumbled on behind his eyes and I glared at him. “If you’re that dumb to think clambering up me is a good idea, you ain’t much for brains.”

  He flinched. Yeah, he weren’t a genius by a long shot. “I’ll drop you if you don’t quit wriggling.”

  “You’ll tell them . . . you’ll lie and say I hurt him.”

  Lie? Was this kid delusional? He had guilt
covering him right to his weedy fingertips.

  “I ain’t planning on telling nobody nothin’.” If I was gonna get either of us down, I was gonna have to reach him on his own level. “Kid, I don’t care what your issue is.”

  “You won’t tell?” His greedy eyes filled with hope. I didn’t like this kid one bit but he was better than body parts.

  “Here’s the catch. If I see you round my kids again, if anybody so much as looks at them, I’m gonna think it was you.” I smiled at him, hoping it was enough to freak him out. “You heard about my temper?”

  He scowled up at me even though fear glinted from him.

  “You don’t want to see me mad, do you?” My fingers were so clammy that they slid on the stone.

  It stung as the corner of it dug into the bends of my fingertips. My heart hammered with the effort of holding us both there.

  Kevin wriggled. My fingers slid. The stone wobbled.

  “She’s scarier than she looks,” Frei said from above me. I’d never been so happy to hear someone in my life.

  “Good to know you think so highly of me,” I grunted.

  She dropped down next to me on a rope. Kevin kicked at the wall as if trying to yank me free. My fingers slipped.

  Uh oh.

  I dropped. Frei caught my wrist. Her rope pinged tight like an elastic band sending us both clattering into the wall. She met my eyes. “I’ve got you. Can you reach out for the sill?”

  I scrabbled around, searching for it with my feet and gripping onto a still wriggling Kevin as my clammy hand slid. I reached the ledge with my toes and lowered my weight on it. Frei climbed down my back and fastened the rope around my waist, giving it a tug to make sure.

  I didn’t dare move.

  “The rope will hold you.” Her voice was gentle but I was pinning myself to the wall, frozen. Panic thumped through me so hard that I could see flashes in my eyes. I offered a grimace rather than a smile as Kevin squirmed again. Why would he do that? Why would he want to fall? “Quit wrigglin’.”

  Frei rappelled down to him and fixed him up a rope harness. “Let go of her. I’ll lower you down.”

  Kevin glared up with a nasty glint in his eyes. He yanked at me. My feet slid.

  “Try it again and I’ll cut your rope myself.” Frei sneered at him. Her tone was so icy that he let go of my hand. The rope went taut and he hung there.

  Frei lowered him down into the crowd and a waiting Jäger.

  “He’s something else,” I muttered as I tested the rope and peeled myself off the window. I was gonna feel that for a good while. My body shook so bad that my teeth clattered together. I closed my eyes, trying not to hyperventilate.

  “It happens to some of them.” Frei smiled at me. She held out her hand to help me walk down the wall slow and steady. “Either way, your heroics definitely earned you more cookie ice cream.”

  That perked me right up. “Sounds great but you’re the one who just rescued me.” My ribs hurt, my hand hurt, my hip pulsed with pain as we climbed down to the ground. I shut my eyes with the relief. Solid ground. Nice, firm, solid ground. “Thanks.”

  Frei nudged me as she took off my rope. “Bitte.”

  I cocked my head.

  “Bitte.” She smiled. “You’re welcome.”

  “Bitte,” I repeated. I decided I’d try and figure out how to say something back to her. There was bound to be a German book in the library some place.

  Jäger strode over. “Good work.”

  Frei ducked out of his way, hanging her head.

  He didn’t even register Frei was there. His eyes on me, his hand on my shoulder. “Do you know why the boy was up there?”

  “Kid was hollering about something. I didn’t listen too much. Considering he’s a genius, he’s stupid.” I shot a glare at the slimy brat. “I’d say he’s lost it.”

  Jäger eyed Kevin. I could see him considering my words. “Hmm.” He sighed. “Well, pressure can get to the best of them. I’ll keep him under observation.”

  The way Kevin paled, I wondered what observation meant. “Good thing to keep an eye on the precious things, huh?”

  Jäger smiled at me. Then he stroked my cheek with the pad of his thumb.

  I fought the urge to recoil.

  He must have thought I liked it as he did it again. “Nice to know I can count on you.”

  Oh, did I not like the tone of his voice. All the hairs on my body felt they were bidding to escape and I tried not to shudder. Instead I forced a smile and gripped my side. “Should take a shower. Kids make me itch.”

  Jäger laughed, squeezed my cheek and turned. He gripped Kevin by the scruff and dragged him along through the gathered crowd of staff and students. They scuttled out of the way.

  My ribs twinged. Frei took my arm and led me away from the scene. I could feel Renee watching me as we headed past her building but I didn’t bother looking her way.

  “Guess healing is out of the question?” I asked as Frei led me out of the quadrant and to our villa.

  “I would think so, judging by the inability to heal other people.” Frei let us inside, took me over to the sofa, and pulled up my top. Her cold fingers made me twinge as she felt over my throbbing rib cage.

  “At least bruising.” She frowned. “It’s going to take a while to heal.”

  “Great. I guess Kevin fared a lot better.” I wasn’t griping that he wasn’t hurt. I knew that he hadn’t learned from it though. Nope. He was nasty. Nasty to the core.

  “It happens to some of them,” Frei whispered, fetching some ice. “Survival.”

  I held the ice pack as she wrapped it in a towel and she caught sight of my wince. “Show me your hands.”

  I sighed, held them out, and watched as she examined my torn paws. “I knew you’d be there.”

  “Good.” She didn’t look up but smiled.

  That was all she needed to say. I got her. She cared enough that one word told me she’d back me up every time. It was nice that she cared and wasn’t afraid to show it.

  RENEE STARED OUT of her bedroom window in a daze. She didn’t know what to do, but she had to do something. Aeron had been so hurt and so angry, with good reason. Renee had felt every blast of it. Felt it like it was her own pain.

  Something was going on with Kevin but what did it have to do with Miroslav? Why did Aeron’s demeanor change the minute she found out?

  She’d been watching Kevin as a POI but Aeron had been the one who saved him today. Now Kevin was in observation and she couldn’t get in there herself.

  Miranda was secluding herself more and more and that strange mist was spreading. Renee bit her lip. Aeron had Frei to back her up and she’d been there to help.

  Renee needed to concentrate on keeping Miranda safe and that would mean getting through to her. She didn’t talk to anyone. She’d fired attitude when Renee had asked if she was okay.

  Renee pulled open the top drawer of her dresser. She needed answers from someone. Someone who had been in the academy for a while.

  She fished out the vial from the back and slid it into her pocket. She knew who she could lure into giving her answers.

  Chapter 30

  IT TAKES A lot to get me misty-eyed. I hadn’t had the easiest of nights with a sore set of ribs and stinging hands. When I crawled out of bed the next day, I was glad to realize that it was a rest day.

  When I got downstairs, which took a while as I dressed so slow, Frei had cooked up waffles and greeted me with a warm smile.

  “Maybe we could try healing?” she asked after rechecking my ribs. I’d battered them a few times in the last couple of years but this time was by far the most painful.

  “Not sure I want to try it.”

  She dropped my t-shirt and glanced up at me. “Why?”

  I sighed. “Want the short version or long and boring?”

  She flashed a grin. “Hit me with it, Lorelei.” She tapped the stool and made me sit for breakfast. “Renee said that you experience syncope.”

&nbs
p; “Syncope?”

  “You pass out.” She placed the waffles in front of me with an orange juice. “You nearly drowned in basic training.”

  I could get used to the service. Renee used to make me food. I ignored the pang of hurt. Better not to think about it. “And you messed up your hair.”

  She folded her arms. “I was irritated. I was unaware of the problem.”

  “And you messed up your hair.”

  She waved it off. “I don’t know much about healing.”

  Neither did I. Washing other folks’ pain away was one thing. I relived the event that hurt them, passed out, nearly drowned, froze, and then got on with my day.

  I hadn’t attempted to solely heal myself ever. Twice I guess it could have happened. Once, in Serenity, I’d been bleeding in a shower but survived. Renee had been convinced it had been some kind of healing.

  Frei’s mention of the CIG boot camp was the other. I’d been crawling through a submerged concrete tunnel. Frei had been there but by the time she dragged me out, I’d needed to be resuscitated. I hadn’t told Renee that I’d spent a week in the medical block after it.

  Neither time had I thought about healing, it just happened. I took showers every day and nothing happened so I didn’t think that worked. I washed like everybody else, hands, face, and nothing.

  Nan had said that I could heal myself back in Oppidum but did that count now? Although my burdens had been dimmed, it seemed they were still there apart from healing. Getting hot hands signified I could heal somebody and that hadn’t happened. I guessed that it meant I couldn’t heal either.

  “I ain’t ever tried to fix myself before.”

  “Why don’t we try it?” She leaned on the counter to focus on me.

  “You saw what happened.”

  “So we’ll need water.” She was too keen on this idea for my liking. “Any water?”

  “Normally running when I’m washing away other people’s pain.” I stared down at my waffles, it hurt too much to breathe let alone eat. “In Serenity, it was a shower but it had stopped. I sat in a puddle of blood and water.”

  “The tunnels are in a man-made ditch. We’ll aim for still water.” She was trying to catch my eyes but I was focusing real hard on my delicious waffles. “What about temperature?”