by W. J. May
“What I mean is, we are about to be working together on a mission. That needs to be our primary focus. Whatever Carter has planned, there is a reason he wants the two of us working as partners. If the Queen of England requests the Privy Council's help, we don't say no.” He grinned at her, leaving her wondering if something was truly wrong with him. After that outburst, he turns all controlled and dimpled again? She loved his dimples, but at the moment they left her cold.
There he sat across from her, dimpled and back on track. “Carter would only hire the best for this mission. That says something about your skills and mine.”
“I never doubted my ability, or yours.” She pressed her lips tight and stared out the front window at the passing forest as it gave way to the buildings and surrounding walls of Guilder Boarding School.
“I just meant…” Devon's voice trailed off as he pulled into the front gates of Guilder. The mood inside the car shifted back to complete professionalism, as if Guilder and the Privy Council had some kind of hold on their personal feelings. It felt oddly combative to Rae, to maintain the cool, controlled façade. She wondered if Devon felt the same way underneath it all.
When Devon parked his car, Rae jumped out before he had a chance to cut the engine. “See you tomorrow in Carter's office.” She couldn't get away fast enough.
Devon got out, standing between his car and the open door. “Do you need a lift?”
She shook her head and turned to go. She paused and glanced back, her mother had taught her to be polite… her father had taught her to be tactical. “I'm just going back to Aumbry House. Thanks for the food, and for the clarification on where you and I stand.” She had meant to try and make the words sound grateful. Instead, she sounded sarcastic. She turned, cursed herself for missing the mark, and ran to her dorm room, using Jennifer's tatù, knowing Devon wouldn't be able to keep up with it.
Once safely inside Aumbry she raced up the stairs, thankful for the lateness of the evening. No students were around to stop her; they were all probably sleeping. Once inside her dorm room, she slid down against the door in a boneless puddle and let the tears fall.
Everyone seemed to have lost faith today. She lost the journal, Kraigan had escaped, Devon was out of reach and her mother might be alive, but no one seemed to believe it other than her. There was no denying it. Today had kicked her butt, hardcore.
She took a deep breath, trying to collect herself, while trying not to think about how the phrase sounded as if she had shattered into a million pieces, or about how that actually matched how she felt. She told herself tomorrow would be a fresh start. She would concentrate on her job, ignore Devon as much as possible, and on her own time, work to prove that her mother was still alive.
Right now, she needed to shower and go to bed.
She stood and walked over to her desk, tossing her phone on it. A small blue light flashed indicating a text message. As she shucked off her jeans, she checked who it was from.
Luke.
Heard there was a situation in Stoke. Word on the street is Kraigan's escaped. Wanted to make sure you were ok.
She wrinkled her nose at the smoky smell coming from her jeans and reached in to turn them inside out. A pinging noise sounded as something fell out of her pocket. She glanced down and around the floor but saw nothing. Her phone buzzed again.
Luke again. Are you all right? XKs know for definite that Kraigan's escaped. They think he left the country. Please reply.
Rae didn't want Luke to worry. She picked up her phone and sent him a reply that she was fine and appreciated his concern. She hesitated after she hit the send button. How much did he know about Kraigan? She believed his concern was genuine. She just wished she knew how much he knew.
After tossing her fire-smoked clothes into the garbage in the bathroom, she jumped in the shower. The hot water splashed on her face and she chose to focus on Luke instead of Devon. Luke was a decent guy. He knew about tatùs, about her past and did not pass judgment. He liked her, had not lied to her as far as she knew, and she was crazy not to give him the attention he deserved. Compared to Devon…that made her wonder. She hadn't yet actually compared them. He wasn't tatùed like Devon. She groaned. Devon. Nothing would ever happen between Devon and her. The sooner she accepted that, the better. Yet her heart played back their history in her mind anyway.
Had it been two years already since she had woken up with the fairy tatù? It seemed a lifetime ago that she had been an ordinary person, and yet the time seemed to have flown. The ink that covered her lower back was different from a tattoo, it gifted her with her supernatural power. Devon had a tatù, a fennec fox, which gave him heightened senses, super speed, and agility. Rae had her father's—and her mom's—tatù. The newly discovered fire ability came from her mother, the ability to mimic other tatùs came from her father, the one person in the world she had no issue with being dead. Her power was unique, even in their already exclusive and insular world. She could copy anyone's tatù. No one had been able to do that except her father, and Kraigan, her half-brother. He didn't have the super ability she did of being able to recall any tatù she had ever used. He had to steal an ability, and when he touched someone else with a tatù, he stole their ability till he touched another. Or can he? She had only just discovered her second ability. Given their history and genetics, she couldn't afford to discount the possibility that Kraigan also had a second skill that he'd kept hidden. Of course, at the same time, she knew nothing about his mother or her father's parents, so any speculation would be premature. Something else was far more important.
Kraigan wanted her dead. Nice guy. He had run, and she would have to be ready for his return.
The Privy Council wanted Rae because of her singular ability. So did the Xavier Knights, another black ops division for British Intelligence. Supposedly Kraigan worked for them, as did Luke, and he knew about Kraigan but didn't seem to be a fan. Rae turned the water hotter against her back. If Kraigan was a loose cannon she would never trust, how could she put any faith in the Xavier Knights or Luke? He might not be tatùed, but he apparently worked for the enemy.
Or maybe the Xavier Knights weren't bad. Maybe Kraigan had duped them into thinking he was the good guy, and she was the baddie. It didn't seem too impossible to make people think she was her father's daughter; many of her actions in the last few years could conceivably be misinterpreted. Even her Uncle Argyle, the man who had helped raise her since her parents’ deaths when she was six, seemed to have his doubts.
Now, that was another running theme in her life. People watching her, waiting for her to turn into a monster. From some of what Devon had said, they still were. What would it take to prove herself? Did she even want to prove herself? Could she possibly be fighting for the wrong side? Her mind spun with questions.
Enough! Rae jerked the shower handle to off and whipped a towel around her. She stomped back to her room and, still half wet, fought to put her pj's on. She flicked her finger to switch the lights off and jerked the covers back and then over her. She threw her head onto the pillow and shut her eyes tight.
Half an hour later Rae lay in her bed, hands behind her head, eyes staring at the ceiling, trying to get her brain to relax so she could fall asleep. At least the inner anger and frustration had dissolved. Now, the course of the entire day kept running over and over in her head. It played from beginning to end, hovering painfully over the moments in the car with Devon, before slipping forward to when she'd removed her burned jeans and heard a sound.
Her mother's key!
She shot into a sitting position and glanced at her desk. She'd left it in the pocket of her jeans. She burst out of her room to the bathroom to check in the bin. A strong smoke smell greeted her when she flung open the door and raced to the garbage can. Thankfully it hadn't been emptied; her jeans were still there. Just no key.
She checked the entire bin and sighed. Not there.
She retraced her steps. Maybe she had left it in Julian's car, or Carter's office,
or Devon's car when they had stopped. She had come into her dorm and jumped in the shower-
Wait! When she sent Luke a text, she'd stripped down. Something had fallen. It had to be the key!
She raced back to the room, flipped on the light using Molly's tatù and dropped to the floor. Checking under the bed with no success, she crawled over to the desk and tilted her head to check the area. She finally found it near the radiator, half hidden by dust and shadows. She grabbed it and stared at it.
The brass key had a number on the side, seventeen. Rae knew nothing about the key. Hand, not machine, had engraved the number. It was precious to her in a way her father's journal could never have been. The journal had been something hated as much as she had wanted to crack its secrets. This key, by comparison, was priceless to her. It could be, literally, the key to finding her mother alive somewhere in the world. She had to protect it, much better than she had the journal. At least no one knew it existed. That was something at least. She needed an excellent spot to hide it. She turned around, eyes scanning the room and everything in it, searching for inspiration. It didn't take long.
She went over to the little china cabinet of porcelain figurines and felt along the back. A small nail stuck out, and she leaned over to hang the key off the protruding metal. No one would look there, and if they did, they wouldn't realize it was anything special. With time, it could help her solve the puzzle of her mother's so-called death. She had no idea how it connected together, but she had no doubts she'd find out eventually.
She turned off the lights and went back to bed, snuggling deep into the sheets and, even though her brain refused to stop thinking, her body finally fell asleep from pure exhaustion.
She began dreaming, a reminiscence from her first year at Guilder somehow metamorphosed itself into a nightmare. The memory itself was a nightmare, just with the added twist that only dreams can provide.
A colossal man with an overgrown comb-over stood over her in a dark, round room where the shadows on the wall seemed as malicious as the hateful man looming above her. Rae lay stretched out on the floor, her arms and feet in shackles.
Lanford.
She pulled and twisted, trying to break free of the prison holding her. She was helpless. Lanford glared at her, his face rotting away from death and pure evil. He said nothing, but a recording echoed in the cold, stone room. Rae knew it was her father's voice. She shut her eyes and tried to ignore the words, but her hands were tied so she couldn't plug her ears or turn off the sound.
A lifespan is spent seeking success and happiness. People chase after dreams, careers, ambitions, faith, partners, and money; all in the hope of finding the success and contentment they so long for. The only place we need to search is within ourselves. Our inner powers will move us forward—we must show the world our tatùs. Our capabilities and potential are far greater than anything man has ever done, or will do. We are above mankind—above the law which rules over them…
“Turn it off,” she begged, her head twisting side to side. “I won't join you.”
A horrible laugh escaped Lanford's terrible mouth, his lips shaking, rotten teeth falling out.
One hit Rae in the face. She thrashed and kicked. “No!” she screamed as he leaned down, closer and closer to her.
“Rae! Rae! Wake up!”
Rae's hand broke free, and she shot a bolt of electricity at the evil leaning over her. The body hit the wall with an oomph. She sat up, her body covered in sweat, ready to throw another bolt of electricity.
The body scrambling to get up was much smaller than Lanford's… and more feminine.
“Rae! It's me, Molly!”
Rae flicked her finger at the switch by her door, and the lights blinked instantly on.
“Molly?”
Molly stood slowly, rubbing the back of her head. “I'm lucky you used electricity. You'd have nearly killed anyone else with the bolt you just sent through me.”
Rae blinked against the bright light, trying to clear the remnants of her dream away. “I was dreaming.”
“I know. You were screaming. I could hear you from my room.”
“How'd you get in?” Rae couldn't shake the caution warnings her body still felt from the nightmare.
“You left your door unlocked.” She yawned. “You okay?”
Rae laid back down. “Yeah. Stupid dream.”
“Do you want me to stay?”
Rae's eyes had closed; she smiled against her pillow. Molly was awesome. No friend could be truer, or more loyal. “I think I'm okay.” She could feel herself drifting back to sleep. The bad dream seeming silly now as she thought about her friend.
“Good.” Molly said something else, but Rae couldn't make out the words nor did she have the energy to ask Molls to repeat them. She did hear Molly say as she turned out the light, “Relax. Dreams don't mean anything.”
Chapter 4
Rae slept through her alarm and woke late. She pulled her hair into a ponytail, threw on black stretch pants and a tight fitting black shirt. She grabbed a zippered cotton jacket as she raced out the door, stopping in the bathroom to brush her teeth and throw on mascara. As she sped down Aumbry's staircase, she switched to Jennifer's leopard tatù and raced from Guilder to the main gates of the Privy Council's secret location. An average person running hard would have taken at least half an hour to get there. She made it in just under ten minutes with the leopard ink.
She skidded to a halt just outside the main gates and dropped her hands to her knees, expecting to be out of breath and gasping for air. She worried her heart would explode from the exertion she just put on it.
Nothing.
Not even winded.
She grinned and made a mental note to remember that for future reference. No wonder Jennifer always appeared calm and collected. Her tatù had serious pros.
She punched her code into the gate, impatiently slipping through as soon as it began to open. Rae knew that cameras hidden everywhere were watching her every move. As she passed the narrow road that led to the training facility, she glanced down it. The leaves on the trees had just been budding and now were full. Had spring happened that fast? It was like she had blinked and now nature had come to life. Little seedlings fell to the ground. With the breeze pushing through the treetops, they fell like floating feathers. It was picturesque to watch, and Rae suspected by later this afternoon rain would fall and change their flight to straight downward spirals. She paused a moment to watch, wanting to capture the beauty of the moment. Nature was more powerful and magical than anything a tatù could ever do.
A black car pulled in through the gates and passed her. The darkened windows hid the faces inside. She picked up her pace and followed it toward the large, old Tudor house that worked as the offices for the Privy Council. Or office. Rae had no clue if anyone else worked out of it. She only ever saw Carter there; it could even be where he lived for all she knew.
She took her sweet time making her way up the concrete stairs to the main door, curious to find out who would exit the car. Unfortunately, she reached the top of the steps without any signal that the occupant of the vehicle was in the mood to oblige her curiosity. Not wanting to make it obvious that she was stalling, she pulled open the door and stepped inside.
Several slightly raised voices floated out of Carter's open office door. She recognized Devon's, Carter's, and Jennifer's, but there was another male she did not know.
Instead of stepping into the middle of what didn't seem to be a pleasant conversation, she leaned against the doorframe, deciding to wait until someone noticed her and invited her in. She need not have bothered.
Devon looked up the moment she appeared, as if some inner sense had clued him in to her arrival. Carter, Jennifer and the boy she hadn't recognized continued to talk. He looked a few years older than Devon, with mousy brown hair and glasses. He spoke quietly and only seemed to add to the conversation when needed.
“Curtis, do you feel this will work?” Carter asked the boy.
> Curtis nodded. “I believe it will. I've created documentation and records to show their connection. I've falsified some reports and also incorporated video with the two of them together. It will appear completely legit. If the Queen's Guard or anyone looks into their history, it will show a connection.” He pushed his glasses up his long, narrow nose. “No one's going to prove otherwise.”
Jennifer flipped through the iPad Curtis set on the table. “These look real,” she murmured.
“Rae!” Carter called out and beckoned her into the room. “Let's get you caught up to speed.” He handed her a thick file and moved beside Jennifer, so the only vacant spot was beside Devon. Just where I do and don't want to be…fabulous.
“Sorry, I'm late.” Out of habit, she ran her fingers over her hair, checking for escaping frizzies.
Jennifer slid the tablet in front of her. “Curtis has set all this up.” She nodded at the boy to her right. “He's going to be your gopher.”
“Gopher?”
“She means go for this, gopher that.” Curtis chuckled. “Thanks, Jen.” He held his hand out to Rae. “Nice to meet you, Rae Kerrigan.” He smiled. Hm…a handshake…freely offered…either he forgot my ability or…
Rae had figured by now everyone knew that she copied tatùs by touch. There were people at Guilder who moved to the other side of the hallways when she walked down them to avoid accidentally touching her. In her world, to have someone offer a handshake was a big deal now. Rae leaned across Devon to return the handshake. She avoided eye contact with Devon and shook Curtis' long cool fingers. His tatù immediately zinged through her.
She blinked and watched him with interest as she dropped her head to the side. “Your ability is similar to Carter's.”
He nodded. “Slightly. Carter is able to see memories, like watching a video. His ability allows him to see things, with or without them knowing. I absorb memories through skin-to-skin contact as well, but differently.” He stroked his chin and watched her. “You have my ability now?”