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hungry any more. “I’m sorry. That must’ve been hard.”

“At times.” He took a bite of his sandwich and chewed quietly. From across the room, May’s high-pitched, chipmunk-like giggle broke the silence.

“That’s some laugh,” Christian said, smiling again. His eyes returned to normal, the sadness pushed back to wherever he kept it hidden. But sadness like that never leaves you.

I grinned. “It’s contagious.”

“So what about you? What does your dad do?”

The fly returned. I frowned as it completed an aerial swoop toward my half-eaten burger. Without warning, Christian’s hand shot through the air like a missile. He caught the fly between his thumb and forefinger.

My heart skipped a beat. “That was fast!”

He wrapped the fly in a napkin with as much delicacy as he had unwrapped his chicken sandwich. “Not really. My dad is faster.”

“Do you two catch flies often?” I mused.

“When the fish aren’t biting. Whoever catches the most wins a prize.”

“Have you ever won?”

“Not once, but I’m getting close.”

“What’s the prize?”

“I’m lucky if it’s a bag of chips.”

“Your life sucks.”

He laughed, nodding. “I know, right?”

We continued talking. I could tell he was trying to get to know me, but he didn't know that I’d practically written the rules of the dodging-personal-questions game. Every time he asked one, I countered back, sending the conversation into a different direction.

I was really racking up the points, until he asked, again, “So where did you grow up? I don’t think you answered me.”

I reacted quickly. “Yes, I did. Remember? The sky?”

“Wait, what?” He looked totally confused. “You grew up in the sky?”

I laughed. “No, you were talking about your trip to Mexico over the summer and how a bad storm ruined it. Did you guys have to come home early?”

“Yeah, we got stuck at the airport.”

I leaned back in my seat and smiled as Christian told me all about his nightmare at the airport.

“You two seem to be having fun,” May said, approaching our table with Adam in tow. She turned to me. “You about done?”

“Yup. The burger was amazing. Good choice.”

From the door, Mike called to Christian, “When you’re done with freak-girl, I’ll be outside.”

Christian’s eyes darted to mine. “Sorry. He’s a jerk.”

“It’s not a big deal. Really.” I gathered our garbage with Christian’s help. My breath caught when his hand brushed mine and a line of heat raced through me. I couldn’t tell if it was the good kind or the kind meant to warn me of danger.

“Still, he didn’t have to be rude,” he said. “I’ll say something to him.”

I stood up, holding the tray. “Please don’t. I really don’t care.”

I moved to empty the garbage, but Christian took the tray from me. “I’ll get that.”

“Let’s go, Llona,” May called from the door. “I have to stop by the library before next period.”

“I’m coming.” I glanced one more time at Christian. With one clean jerk of his arm, all the garbage fell into the trash bin. He was different from the other students. But good different or bad different?

Outside, we moved to our separate cars.

“See you around,” he called. He flashed me the kind of smile that probably made most girls swoon. For me, however, it made my wall of stones taller.

Christian was a new kid who had taken an interest in me on the same day I found a dead mouse in my bag, one with a nearly severed head no less. A coincidence?

The wrong answer could get me killed.

Chapter 5

When the day finally ended I couldn’t wait to get home, but when I walked through the front door of our house, I almost turned back. Everything was a wreck—the same as it had been that morning. I marched back to Jake’s bedroom and cracked open the door. Jake was asleep, lying diagonal across the bed, wearing the same clothes he’d had on yesterday and maybe even the day before.

White static from the television projected ghostly images into the cluttered room. Jake’s clothes carpeted the floor, probably both clean and dirty ones. I closed the door hard and walked back to my bedroom.

Jake’s spirit had died the day we buried my dad. In a way, my dad, his older brother by ten years, had been like a father to him. From what I’d been told, their mother (and my grand-mother, whom I’d never met) had worked as a waitress in a Vegas casino. She worked hard but played hard, too. She played men as often as she played slot machines. My dad and Jake didn’t share the same father, but you’d never have known it, as close as they were.

My father and mother married when they were both twenty, and they had me shortly after. I was five when Jake moved in with us on his fourteenth birthday. To me, Jake had always been an older brother, not an uncle.

When my mother died shortly after, it was Jake who was there for me. He practically raised me while my father was off trying to avenge her death. So when my dad died, it only seemed right to choose Jake to be my guardian.

The only other option was my aunt Sophie, my mom’s sister. She had offered, but she also wanted me to move back east to attend Lucent Academy, where she served on the board. I wasn’t ready for that. Attending Lucent would’ve been like an announcement to the world, and maybe myself, that I was different. No, I chose to stay with Jake. Jake was safe, depressed, but still safe.

I closed my bedroom door and cranked the music. Because I hadn’t heard a thing in trig class, I opened my book and began to read over the lesson, which looked like it was written in hieroglyphics. I hated math, but I had to get a good grade. I’d been left with plenty of money, but I didn’t want to spend a dime of it on college. I figured if there were people out there who’d give me money for an education, then I was going to try and get it.

I rolled onto my stomach thinking a different position would help me retain more information. My gaze moved to the inexplicable hair rising on my arm. Weird. My heart began to pound. I tried to swallow, but it got stuck in my throat as if I was trying to jam an orange down my trachea.

Instinctively, I looked toward my window. I couldn’t see anything beyond the darkness, but all my Auran senses told me I was being watched. Stop it! I closed my eyes and shook my head. No one is out there. But to be sure, I stood and peered outside.

There was just enough light from the half-moon that I could see the previous owner’s metal swing set. One of the three swings swayed back and forth as if someone had just jumped from it. I gripped the windowsill, my pulse racing wildly out of control, as I scanned my backyard.

I focused on the line of trees where the grass ended. Darkness smothered the forest there so completely the world appeared to end. I tried to tear my gaze away from the never-ending black, but something drew my attention to it, forced me to look, wanted me to see. I could feel its desire building creating a pressure change in the air.

My skin cooled, and I stopped breathing.

Open your window.

I didn’t hear the words, but I felt them all around me. Soothing me. Whispering past my skin. Warming my flesh. The room began to spin slowly, rhythmically, and I licked my lips as I moved to obey the seductive command.

My window slid open with ease. A gentle wind blew past me, lifting my hair.

From within the darkness, a pair of eyes appeared glowing a sickly yellow. Cold fear replaced the warmth. The emotion was so sudden, Light appeared beneath my palms and sprayed out the window with such force I stumbled back.

In the next erratic beat of my heart, a bobcat leapt from the darkness and bounded across my lawn. I placed my hand to my stomach and gasped for breath. What the hell just happened?

My mind replayed the events of the last two minutes. A bobcat could’ve made the swing move. The glowing eyes had to have belonged to the animal too. But what about the strange feeling? The words I’d heard… but I hadn’t heard them. I’d more like thought them in some weird sort of trance.

I paced and shook out my hands. My hands! I stopped and stared at my open palms. I’d gotten so scared, they’d produced light. Shot it outward even.

Maybe this was another change that happened to Auras as they got older. I mean, I knew Auras could produce Light but at what age did that happen? Maybe the strange sensation I’d just experienced was part of that too.

When a cool breeze blew through the open window, I slammed it

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