Chapter Twenty-Nine
The next morning, I find Caleb outside my door, his eyebrows drawing together when he sees me scanning the empty corridor behind him.
After Haydn left me in the training room last night, I had returned to my room feeling wounded, my head filled with him, the pressure of his lips, his fingers closing around mine, his strong arms as he picked me up after the Khuulsu attack, his eyes when we first met.
When I finally fell asleep, Haydn invaded my dreams, saving me from my nightmares of Lana, taking away the pain of her death for the briefest moment, only to replace it with the disappointment of waking alone.
“You don’t need a guard outside your door when I’m here.” Caleb frowns.
“I know.” I force a smile, but he looks unconvinced.
Two unfamiliar Smith soldiers guarded my door last night. I had crept into the lounge while it was still dark, opening the door a crack, foolishly expecting Haydn to be there. I was desperate to talk to him, to tell him why I had ended our kiss, but in the harsh light of day, I know that I can’t. Roma warned me not to tell anyone that I can feel the emotions of others.
“Was Hay-”
Caleb’s expression darkens as he reads the rest of the question forming in my mind.
“Never mind.” I step back to allow him entry.
“Roma asked me to give you this,” he hands me a tablet of glass, it’s as thin as paper and barely bigger than the palm of my hand. “It’s your training schedule.”
“Training schedule?” I turn it over, examining the smooth, transparent surface.
Caleb rolls his eyes, but there is a hint of that familiar smirk around his lips. “Put your finger on it.”
I press my index finger to the screen; a red light sweeps from top to bottom and then neat lines of blue text start to appear.
“I programmed it myself,” he says. “It’ll give you a new schedule every day.”
My eyes skim over the tablet. This morning I have telepathy with Caleb, followed by fire divination with Meghan, the thought of having to test my resistance to the flames again making me shudder, then - my heart almost stops when I see his name - I have a whole afternoon of combat training with Haydn.
“Shall we get started?” Caleb says.
I place the tablet carefully on the arm of the sofa. “Is it even possible to learn telepathy?”
He shrugs. “You picked up telekinesis, didn’t you?”
“Not exactly.” I frown, thinking of how the power had burst from me, knocking Haydn unconscious. My stomach squirms uncomfortably at the memory of him lying on the ground.
“You just need to concentrate,” he gives me a lopsided smile that would’ve made me melt last week. “We’ll start easy. I’ll say something in my head and you just need to listen for it.”
“But how do I listen?”
“Here, this might help,” Caleb takes my hands in his, making the back of my skull tingle with anticipation, then he places my fingers at his temples, stepping so close that we are inches apart. “Close your eyes.”
I do as he says, but my head is full of his emotions, his longing and his disappointment. His skin is hot under my touch and I can feel the flutter of the pulse at his temple. It matches the beat of my heart. I am too distracted, I can’t hear anything in Caleb’s mind, maybe I never will. “This isn’t helping.” I sigh.
He holds my hands in place. “Just stay with it, what you’re doing now – feeling my emotion – isn’t that different to telepathy. Try to push through it, listen instead of feeling.”
I try to concentrate, screwing my eyes shut as I try to ignore the tingling in my skull, but Caleb’s emotions are too strong and I’m distracted by something else, someone else, someone pushing his way into my mind, someone who I haven’t been able to stop thinking about since -
Caleb pulls away from me abruptly. “You kissed Haydn?”
“No…I… he kissed me.” I quickly pull the purple cloak in place.
“Don’t bother, I already heard it,” he says, glaring at me. “How could you do that? I thought we were-”
“That we were what?” I ask, more irritably than I intended. “You never made it clear what we were. Back home, you spent more time hanging around Molly than with me.”
“That’s not fair,” he says. “I was following orders.” His face is a mixture of anger and hurt.
“Do you care for him?”
I shake my head firmly. “No, I barely know him.” But my face flushes, the room suddenly hot and airless.
Caleb gives a snort of derision. “You’re lying.”
I concentrate on the purple cloak, holding it behind my eyes so Caleb can’t read my mind.
He takes a step towards me. “Just tell me. Do you care about him?”
I feel the purple cloak slipping and it’s suddenly very difficult to keep it in place.
I do care for Haydn, I wish he were here now. I need to talk to him.
I clutch at my head, battling to keep my thoughts hidden. “No. Caleb, stop.”
“And what about your feelings for me?” He says, his voice low.
The room starts to spin. It’s like there’s a tremor in my head. I-I was attracted to you, but…things are different now. You’re not the one I want.
“What are you doing to me? Please.” The image of Haydn flickers behind my eyes, the smell of the sun on his skin, the feel of his arms around me, the pain that burns through me when we touch, the butterflies that flutter in my stomach when he looks at me. “Stop it. STOP.” There are tears in my eyes, my head hurts so much it feels like my skull is about to crack in two. I can feel Caleb’s mind probing mine, reaching for my darkest secrets. “NO.”
Then, it’s like something exploded. The furniture in the lounge lifts into the air, hovering inches above the ground for a second before slamming back into place with a thud that makes the whole room shake. All of the windows shatter outwards, leaving just the skeletal remains of the frames. Caleb and I are blasted away from one another, landing heavily on the tiled floor at opposite sides of the room.
Caleb climbs unsteadily to his feet and rakes a hand through his hair as he surveys the damage. He starts towards me, and I think he might be saying something, yes, he’s pleading with me, but I can’t hear him because there is a ringing sound in my ears.
My lips tremble as I push myself up from the ground. Stay away from me. I think it loud and clear as I clamber out into the corridor and set off at a run.
He has the good sense not to follow, so once I’m outside I find a quiet spot under the shade of a tree, away from the prying minds of the rest of the Household.
I rest my head in my hands as the ringing sound fades. I can still feel Caleb’s influence, his power probing at the corners of my mind. I’m pretty sure Roma doesn’t allow the Vedmak’s to force each other to reveal their secrets, but this is my fault. I encouraged Caleb’s ‘knight in shining armour’ routine when I asked him to stay in my room.
A shadow falls over me and I look up to find Meghan standing over me, her wild, chestnut hair swept to one side and held in place with a thin, woven band. “Hello, Acacia. Ready for practice?”
I groan inwardly, while simultaneously trying to plaster a smile on my face. “Of course.”
She beams and drops down on to the ground in front me with her legs crossed. She places a lantern between us, the flame inside flickering a cool blue.
“This is from the Fire Oak,” she says. “We’re going to look for visions in the flames.” She opens the tiny door of the lantern and places a hand carefully inside, as though extracting a bird from its cage.
She cups the fire in her hands, and starts to blow delicately, making the flames grow. Then she places the palms of her hands over her eyes. Even though Meghan told me that this is how the Dryad’s look for visions, I still draw away from her in surprise. Seeing the act is much more horrifying than hearing about it.
When she finally wrenc
hes the flames away from her face, I am relieved to find that she still has eyebrows. “Now you try.”
I tentatively take Meghan’s hands, cringing as the blue fire prickles my skin.
“Carefully lift it to your face.” Meghan guides my hands until the fire bites at the tip of my nose. “Close your eyes.” I can still see the flicker of the flames through my eyelids. I take a breath and press my fingers to my face. It feels like the sting of nettles and all I can think of is the pain.
“What do you see?” Meghan asks.
“Fire,” I say, squeezing my eyes tightly shut. “Just fire.”
“And what colour is it?”
It’s like the flames have passed through my eyelids, a rainbow of colours leaping and swirling. “Lots of different colours.”
“That’s great, Acacia,” Meghan says. “The flames will start to form shapes for you to interpret.”
I watch the flicker of colour as the flames lick at my eyes, but the pain is intense, I can’t keep this up for much longer.
There are shapes of course, but they’re just indistinct squiggles created by the movement of the flames. When I can take no more, I pull my hands away from my face, savouring the cool relief of the breeze as it kisses my eyelids.
Meghan takes my hands in hers and I feel the flames leave my fingertips. When I open my eyes, they sting painfully in the light.
Meghan cups my face in her hands. “Your eyes may be sore for a while, that’s normal for your first time. The swelling should go down soon.”
“Swelling?” I groan, thinking of my session with Haydn this afternoon. The last thing I need is two great big puffy eyes.
Meghan closes the door on the lantern, the tiny blue flame now flickering innocently inside. “OK, what did you see?”
I don’t want to disappoint her so, “I saw…a person, maybe, but I couldn’t tell who it was.”
Meghan looks thoughtful. “What did they look like?”
“I’m not sure…they were tall, I think.” I feel my face flush.
She leans back on her hands and tips her head to look up at the branches of the trees. “Hmmm, I will look for a tall figure when I consult the flames this evening,” she smiles. “Our next session is not for a couple of days, but I want you to practice.” She hands the lantern to me before rising gracefully from the grass, her bronze sheath billowing in the breeze.
“Good day, Princess.”
I barely eat at lunchtime, my stomach pitching with nerves as I watch the clock. Thankfully, neither Caleb or Roma are around, so I don’t have to explain the devastation in my quarters. I wonder, briefly, how much trouble I’ll be in, but then I figure that Roma won’t be happy about what Caleb did either. This was his fault. My head still aches from the power he used to force me to share my thoughts, and I hate him for it.
When it’s time for my training session with Haydn, I walk along to the training room in a daze, both dying to see him and dreading it at the same time.
He barely looks at me when I walk into the room, busying himself instead with examining the blunt edges of the training swords.
His hair is wet, as though he has just showered, and it clings to his neck. He wears a long-sleeved t-shirt and I can see the muscles in his shoulders moving beneath the thin fabric. “Where’s your armour?”
My mouth is suddenly dry. “My what?”
“The armour Nicholas gave you yesterday, you need it for training.”
“Oh,” I hadn’t seen it since I passed out yesterday. “I’m sure I don’t need it, I can self-heal, remember?”
“Not if I accidentally pierce you through the heart.”
I think you already did. “Those swords are blunt,” I say. “Besides, I wasn’t wearing it last night.”
He looks at me then, his dark eyes smouldering. His face flushes a little and I don’t need to be a mind reader to know that he’s thinking of our kiss. His mouth forms a tight line as he kicks the lid of the weapons crate closed.
“I was hoping to move on from the training swords,” he says. “But since you’re not prepared…” He looks away from me, speaking instead to the space around us.
The sudden change in his mood is both startling and irritating. I snatch a sword out of his hand and take up my stance, my fingers trembling.
He strikes first, relentless in his attack, and I have to dart left and right to avoid him. The sudden burst of movement makes my head feel like it’s about to explode and it’s not long before I’m pressed against the wall.
He lowers his sword. “You’re not even trying.”
“I’m… I’m not feeling well.”
He ignores me. “Let’s go again.” This time he swipes at my knees, knocking me to the ground. He snatches the sword out of my hand and throws it to the floor with a clatter that echoes around the room. “If you’re not going to take this seriously, we’re done for today.”
I stare up at him open-mouthed. “I told you, I’m not feeling well.” I sit up and rest my head on my knees.
Haydn lets out a long sigh. “Here.”
I look up to find him holding out his hand. I take it without thinking, gasping as his emotion surges through me. He pulls me to my feet and I stumble a little, leaning into his chest for support. His expression softens. “Let’s call it a day.” He says quietly. He releases me and walks away, taking his time picking the swords up and dropping them back in the crate.
“I know you lost someone.” I don’t know why I chose to say it now, I just needed to say something to stop him from leaving.
“Stay out of my head,” he says without looking at me. “Just because you’re a Vedmak, it doesn’t give you the right to read my thoughts whenever you please.”
“I wasn’t; I can’t do that yet.”
He turns and glares at me, like he’s not sure if he believes me.
“So you’re not going to tell me?”
“Why would I tell you? I don’t know you.”
“Fine,” I say, my voice shaking. “Maybe Caleb was right; I should have another trainer.” I climb to my feet and start towards the door, my breath catching in my throat.
“The Foundlings are supposed to be equal representations of all the Households,” he calls after me. “But stubbornness and arrogance are definitely Vedmak qualities.”
I whirl around. “Oh, are you a Vedmak too?”
He looks like he just swallowed something sour.
“I’ve had enough of your mood swings – one moment you’re treating me with contempt and the next you’re kissing me, and now-”
“That was a mistake.” He says.
My stomach twists. “Then why did you do it?”
“Everyone is drawn to the Foundlings,” he shrugs. “We can’t help it.”
“So the only reason you kissed me is because I’m a Foundling?” It’s a low blow and I blink back the tears.
“There’s no other explanation for it.” He lifts his chin, but I see his jaw clench.
“You’re a liar.”
“You think I like you? You think I’m attracted to spoiled Vedmak Princesses who can’t stand on their own two feet?”
“You know nothing about me.”
“I know that you’re a Vedmak, born and bred, I know that you have everyone here running around after you, people risking their lives for you.”
My head is throbbing again, the blood pounding in my ears. I can feel heat gathering in my chest and in the palms of my hands, a power threatening to burst out of me. “Stop it.”
“Do you honestly think I could care for you after what your father did to our planet? To our people?”
“Stop.” My whole body is shaking.
“I feel nothing for you. I didn’t want to kiss you and the only reason it happened is because you’re a Foundling.”
“No I’m not,” I scream at him, my voice echoing around the room. “I’m not a Foundling.”
Where Foundlings Hide Page 29