by Jo Holloway
As soon as he started to speak, a band tightened around her ribs. Cara’s heart thudded against the constraint. She gasped.
A Pyx? Here? Her desire to flee was overwhelmed as her brain screeched to a halt and she tried to register what he meant. Was Jenyx saying he thought Olivia—this very human girl in front of her—was a pyxis? She didn’t get a chance to ask.
All around her, nothing changed. The hushed conversations and bustling noises continued. The faint hum of the lights and the air conditioning muffled voices, and soft footsteps shuffled about. The only thing that changed was the feeling deep inside of her. That . . . and Olivia.
As Jenyx had spoken, Olivia had begun to react. Her hands curled in on themselves again, and she rocked back in the chair. Her head was half turned toward the door now, as though she might leap up to run in spite of her condition. Her slippered feet began to turn in as her legs tensed. Cara worried the girl was picking up on her own sudden, intense feelings. Either that or she had startled Olivia when she’d gasped. She wanted to reach out to reassure the girl, but her body refused to move again.
Olivia was obviously in distress. She needed help. Cara’s brain was still frozen, and the death grip around her heart practically stopped it from beating. Before she could force her legs to move, to stand from her crouched position to find a staff member to help, Olivia’s entire body jerked. She kicked out with both legs at once, and her arms flew back behind her head.
One foot caught Cara square in the shoulder, sending her sprawling over backward. Her hip hit the floor with a jab of pain just as Olivia’s other slipper flew past her face.
Ow.
The fall had the benefit of releasing her body from whatever hold the awful feeling had put on it. With a swoop in her stomach at how horribly wrong this was going, she rolled onto her knees to reach for Olivia’s discarded slipper.
“Sorry, Oli—Libby.” She caught herself as she crawled along the floor and reached under the chair across from Olivia’s. “Everything’s fine. Let me get your slipper, okay?”
Moving slowly so she wouldn’t startle the girl again, she began to turn back around. Before she could, a voice spoke from above her.
“Are you hurt?”
The sound of his clear, smooth voice made a spot in the middle of her chest do a weird little flip. It cut right through her with perfect clarity and brought every nerve ending to life so her skin prickled with electricity. Her head turned to look up at the person behind her.
He reached out a hand. From her position on the floor below him, his head was silhouetted against the fluorescent light above. He was mostly a dark outline. She could barely make out his features, but she didn’t need to.
That voice . . .
Until this moment, she’d wondered if her memory of that night had been real. The way his hair was styled made his head look elongated against the bright light above, brighter than the moonlight had been when she’d seen the same silhouette last year. She could practically hear the shouts and laughter ringing amongst the trees, echoing through the dark woods at the Skai run. She could smell the fresh forest air here in the middle of the hospital. All the magic of that night last fall raced through her, right down to the shock at what was happening and the light-headedness.
Rhys Whalton was here to visit his sister.
Rhys Whalton: really bad guy—the guy from the diner—and the same guy who had saved her when she’d tripped at the Skai run last year.
Rhys was the guy she had secretly looked for and listened for at school for the rest of the year but had never found. She hadn’t imagined him after all.
She took his hand, trembling a little, and he helped her up. As she stood, his expression changed subtly from general concern to something more difficult to read.
"Cardboard," he said, sounding amused.
"What?" she asked.
"At the Skai run. You had cardboard shin guards."
"Oh. Um . . . yeah, that was me." The weird little flip happened again. He remembered.
"And are you okay this time too? Sorry if my sister got agitated. She usually only does that with me." He let go of her arm where he had steadied her as she stood. The arm kept tingling.
"I'm fine again," she replied. She met his eyes.
In her nightmare, they’d been the blue-grey her uncle had described when talking about Elizabeth Whalton. Wes had described Rhys’s eyes in the alley as a cold grey. Neither could be further from the eyes looking back at her now.
They held as much warmth as the summer day outside. She practically felt the sun on her shoulders like it radiated from them, warming her in their glow. His soft scent, like freshly cut oranges, drifted over her to tease her senses with more memories of summer heat. His eyes held hers until it seemed like their locked gazes were all that held her upright. A gold limbal ring surrounded the edge of his deep, swirling grey irises. In those eyes, she was safely wrapped in a warm, fuzzy blanket in a thunderstorm, watching lightning crash all around. She could lose herself in those eyes . . .
They blinked.
She reeled and looked away.
She should probably think something sarcastic now. Wasn’t that what she normally did? What was wrong with her? She usually didn’t have so much trouble breathing, either.
Slowly, rational thought returned when he looked past her to check on his sister. A jagged breath made its way to her lungs.
Get a grip! You are not the girl who falls for the bad boy. You are not a cliché, Cara Ransome.
There. That was the kind of thinking she needed. She resisted the urge to nod to herself. She sensed Jenyx wanting to say something.
Although her dog was beside her and behind her line of sight, she knew the green gleam had passed across his eyes. She didn’t need to see it. Even if she hadn't felt it when Jenyx took over, she would have known by the change in the face in front of her and the way Rhys’s whole body tensed.
She risked another look into the grey eyes. They had turned stony. Now she saw the coldness Wes had described.
His nostrils flared, and his body stiffened. He erupted.
“Get that THING away from my SISTER!” The entire room froze. All the faces had turned to the sound of Rhys’s booming shout. “Are you insane?”
She staggered back a step. Jenner was by her side in an instant, whining even with Jenyx mostly in control. But she didn’t need a defender. Rhys whirled away from her to check on his sister as several hospital staff members hustled over.
“Her!” He pointed. “Get her and that creature out of here. I never want to see them near my sister again. Am I clear?”
His voice had none of the smooth tone to it now. It was hoarse with emotion and ragged with anger. She recoiled another step, and another. She turned and ran. She flew by doors along the corridor, several of them opening as patients came out to check on the noisy shouting. The nursing desk was a blur, as she barely paused to retrieve her phone. She crashed out through the double doors at the end, only slowing when they slammed closed behind her. Jenner had followed, and she bent to pick up his leash.
People waiting for the elevator stared at her abrupt appearance. She couldn’t stand it. She flung herself through the exit door to the stairs. Eleven floors up, they were deserted. She ran right into the railing, letting it hit her across the stomach. The air whooshed out of her in a rush.
For a moment, Cara simply stared down the eleven-story drop through the middle of the stairwell. The sight blurred into an Escher painting in front of her, with no end and no beginning, no up and no down, no meaning whatsoever.
“Child, please, sit down,” Jenyx begged.
Jerky movements of her chest brought some air back into her lungs, and she leaned back from the abyss. Another ragged breath let her stand up long enough to take a step back and slide down to a seated position against the wall. Something was wrong with her face. She lifted her fingers to her cheeks. Moisture streamed down them. She hadn’t even noticed the tears come. Her whole body felt numb
except for the pain it took to breathe.
What was wrong with her? She hugged her knees, pressed her lower back into the cold concrete wall, and struggled to stop the tears and regulate her breathing. Jenner leaned against her. By the time she started to gain some control, emptiness settled in her. The only thing left was something beyond her reach.
Longing like this had struck her out of the blue exactly one other time in her life. She had been standing in a frozen moment of time under that cougar on the hiking trail. When all the things she would never get to do had flashed through her mind, it had filled her with the same sense she felt now.
Fortunately, that hadn't been the end for her, and the feeling had passed once she was safe. She had completely forgotten the hollowness. But she wasn’t dying now. What had she lost aside from the chance to find out more about Olivia? She raised her head from between her knees and scowled.
This better not be about him.
Why would her body betray her like this? She wasn’t supposed to react to him or his anger this way. She shouldn’t be reacting to him at all. He was a bad person. That was all. What right did he have to yell at her, anyway? Anger was better. She could deal with anger. She stood up and started down eleven flights of stairs, stomping each one of them into their rightful place as she went.
By the time she reached the bottom, her shins hurt but her brain had re-engaged. She remembered this whole thing was really about Olivia. That was what she needed to focus on. Olivia was a pyxis—something that should never happen. And for some reason, Cara was drawn to her. She wanted to do something about it, in spite of Olivia’s brother.
CHAPTER 12
Not Him Again
AS SOON AS SHE GOT outside, she pulled out her phone. She paused to close her eyes for a moment and lifted her face to the streaming sunshine, feeling its warmth wash over her tear-streaked face. One hand rubbed the last of the salty trails away while the other clicked her phone on. She typed her message to the group chat with Wes and Jory while she stalked away with Jenner at her side.
Where are you guys?
Need to meet up. Now.
She walked and waited. Finally, an endless whole minute later, a reply came back.
(Jory M.) My place.
(Wes V.) We can meet you somewhere.
No. Jory’s is closest.
Be there in 20.
Jenyx waited until she and Jenner were clear from the busy block of the hospital and had turned down a side street before he spoke.
“Cara, I am so sorry for the betrayal you must feel.”
Her hands rubbed her arms, and her face twitched. “Betrayal?”
“Among other strong emotions, I expect. My kind are not supposed to harm others in the way Olivia has been harmed. It is unforgiveable.”
Her hands dropped. Relief weakened her knees. He hadn’t been talking about her reaction to Rhys. She quickened her stride, eager to get to Jory’s house to be with people who would support her.
“Are you sure she’s a pyxis?” Cara asked.
“Quite sure. I sensed a Pyx in that room, although it was faint. There is more.” He hesitated. “I have been watching you for years, child. You have always been perceptive, but now I see you reacting to things I do not see, and reacting to my own state as well. For some time now, I have suspected you sense us. I believe that ability is growing in you.” Jenner’s face looked up at her as they walked.
“I sense you? What do you mean? I see the green gleams and see pyxides normal people don’t, but that’s all normal Pyxsee stuff, isn’t it?”
“That is, yes. But you are doing more than those things. You have begun to experience emotional responses, something even other Pyx do not do with each other. You have very strong feelings about young Olivia, do you not?”
A ghost of the sensation she got around Olivia Whalton passed through her, making her shiver. She walked in silence, thinking, struggling to understand her own feelings, until they turned into Jory’s neighborhood.
“I feel awful around her. I guess because she’s so close to my age and looks so lost. I feel trapped and desperate and foggy whenever I think about it.”
“I am certain you do relate to her on that level as well, but you only truly feel those things when you are with her. The rest are memories of the feelings, though still powerful, I am sure,” he said kindly. “I suspect the sensations come from the Pyx within her. Your exceptionally vulnerable state may have been amplified by the desperation of the Pyx.”
Jenner bumped her leg with his head to remind her to turn up Jory’s street. She’d almost walked right by it in a daze.
“You think I’m feeling what a Pyx feels? Like some sort of empathy? Is that normal for Pyxsees?” Cara stopped to step around a lamppost she almost crashed into in her distracted state.
“I have never heard of it,” Jenyx replied.
Her breath hitched. Her face pinched as she bit the inside of her lip. Now she wasn’t just a Pyxsee but some sort of magical unicorn empath Pyxsee? What next? What else could there be to make her weird and different? She gazed at the arched stone entryway and really wanted to talk to Wes.
Jory opened the door for her with a grin. Wes came around the corner behind him as Jory waved an arm to invite her in.
“Cara. I’m glad you’re here. We have something to tell you!” Jory’s smile lit up his face with excitement, but her eyes were fixed on Wes.
She crossed the entryway in short quick strides, already tucking her head to fit against his shoulder as she wrapped her arms around him.
“Cara? What’s wrong?” Jory reached out a hand as she blew right by him.
Wes tensed in confusion for a second, and then wrapped his arms across her back to envelop her in a safe hug in return. His soft shirt and smooth shoulder were warm and comforting on her face, and she breathed deeply against him to collect her feelings. She didn’t mean to have this reaction in front of them, but the revelation from Jenyx on top of the roller coaster of emotions over the past hour was more than she could handle alone. Her only Pyxsee friend was who she needed right now.
Wes shrugged a little under her arms. He was obviously having a silent conversation with Jory over her head. He took a half step back but held her shoulders and squinted down into her face with concern written across his dark features.
“Cara, what’s going on?” Jory’s voice behind her sounded a little hurt, and she turned around to give him a hug too.
She wasn’t quite ready to speak yet, but Jory had said something about news. “You first,” she croaked.
They moved into the nearest room where they could sit comfortably on the long sofa in Jory’s living room. Wes looked to Jenner to see if Jenyx would fill in the blanks for him, but the dog simply flopped down on the rug with a sigh. A rush of warmth flowed through her toward Jenyx for keeping her private moments private, even from them. The feelings from the Pyx might have enhanced her vulnerability, but she’d been the one to open herself up to the hurt in the first place, and she hadn’t decided how much to share yet.
“What’s your news?” Cara asked, her voice starting to sound normal again.
“Uh, well, I’m not sure if now’s the right time anymore . . .” Jory’s bright-blue eyes searched her face.
“No, please, distract me.” She smiled at him.
“Okay, then. Happy to.” His eyes twinkled as his grin crept back.
Wes cleared his throat and shot his best friend a look. “We had an idea.”
“You should go to the ball,” Jory blurted. “I mean, the gala.”
“You want me to go to a gala? The one with my uncle? You lost me. How does this help us?” She’d been planning to tell her mom and uncle she would go, but she wasn’t sure why Wes or Jory would care about it.
“The Whaltons,” Jory said. “They’re the biggest donors and they’re going. You’ll be able to talk to Rhys. He doesn’t know you yet. You’re the only one of us he hasn’t seen before, so you could try to chat him up and see what
you can find out.”
She flinched at the mention of his name and bent forward with a groan. She stared at the floor, chewing the inside of her lip as he finished speaking. Wes reached for her from his perch on the coffee table and grasped her arm like he was a bit worried she might fall right over. It was a possibility.
“Um, that’s not exactly true. It’s definitely not true anymore,” she whispered.
She glanced to Jory and then turned and held Wes’s brown eyes and sighed. With a deep breath through her nose, she got ready to tell them.
She started by telling them about seeing Rhys once before in the diner and recognizing him, though not by name, in the alley. They were glad to finally understand why she froze that day. Intensity bloomed on their faces as she told them about the first part of the hospital visit with Jenner. When she got to Olivia, she hesitated at the name.
“The girl I visited today with Jenner—I saw her once the other day when I was there with my mom. I recognized her at the time, but I didn’t place her until I saw the photo on your phone, Wes. She’s Olivia Whalton.”
Jory sucked in a breath. “That explains your freaky reaction to the picture,” he said.
Wes was giving him an expectant look with his eyebrows raised.
“Yeah, I know . . . pay you later,” Jory whispered. He sighed and rolled his eyes in response to Cara’s curious look. “We had a bet . . . about whether there was a bee. I lost.”
Wes had already moved on. “Olivia Whalton has been in the hospital this whole time.” His eyes drifted to the window.
Cara continued the story, explaining how everything had gone horribly wrong when the girl kicked her over. She held up a hand at Jory’s expression, wanting to keep talking now that she was on a roll. Bruises on her shoulder and hip were the least of her wounds from today. Talking was helping with some of the others, but she hadn’t mentioned the overwhelming feelings and the Pyx yet. She also skimmed over the moment when Rhys picked her up from the floor.