Betrayed (24 page)

I nodded, shifting from foot to foot. None of them looked ready to leave, and I hated an audience when I retrieved the Kris Dagger, even powerful ones like the Cardinals.

Moira stopped beside me, reached out, and stroked my hair near my temple. Her touch was hot, and I tried not to pul back. “Did you know he taught al of us? That those were the days when the Academy was in Xenith, not here?” Before I could answer, she glanced over at Hsia and Janel e.

“Remember how he used to pit us against each other?”

Aunt Janel e chuckled. “We’d always lose to you, my dearest Moira.”

“Because you were his favorite,” Hsia added with a pout.

Moira shrugged. “I had more to prove, didn’t I? See you later, girls.” She tossed her streaked I? See you later, girls.” She tossed her streaked black hair and teleported.

I resisted the urge to touch the area of my scalp where she stroked my hair. From the moment we met, she was fascinated by my unusual hair.

Since I inherited it from my father, I often wondered if she knew his identity before we did or was merely fascinated by the multi-red colors.

“Why is she so hot?” I blurted out then blushed when Hsia and Janel e chuckled.

“Does that mean we’re not hot?” Hsia teased, patting the side of her bun, a teasing smile on her lips.

I covered my burning cheeks, mortified beyond words. “Of course you al look great, you know, for your age.”

“Our age? How old do you think we are?” Hsia asked with mock anger, hand on her hip.

“Uh-mm, uh…I don’t know. Old?”

They bursted out laughing and right then, I decided not to say another word. Maybe I should leave and come back when they were gone.

“Quit teasing the child, Hsia.” Aunt Janel e put an arm around my shoulder. “What did you mean by
hot
?”

Not wanting to return to the embarrassing subject, I mumbled, “It’s nothing.”

“You know that Moira being part Nosferatu releases potent pheromones that make people act the way they do around her. Isn’t that so, Hsia?” She glanced over her shoulder.

“Yes.” Hsia removed her hunting coat and draped it over her arm. “Even my Emmanuel acts like an idiot around her.”

“So what did you mean,
Luminitsa?
” Aunt Janel e asked.

I scrunched my face. “She gives off heat.

Don’t you feel it?”

Janel e shook her head. A quick glance at Hsia found her looking perplexed, too.

My cheeks warmed with embarrassment as I struggled for words. “You know, like a furnace. I feel it whenever she’s close to me. When she touches me, I expect my skin to blister, yet it doesn’t.” The two Guardians looked at each other as realization dawned. Aunt Janel e squeezed my shoulder. “As an empath, you’re detecting the pheromones differently than the rest of us.” I blinked. “Even you?”

“Oh, yes. Gives a new meaning to irresistible, doesn’t she?” She grinned.

“Grampa can resist her,” I added quickly to reassure her. “He finds others’ reaction to her amusing, so he must be just like me.” Janel e saw through my eager explanation and chuckled softly. “You’re a sweetheart. Get your dagger. I’l walk you to the pit.”

“I’l head on home,” Cardinal Hsia said, then teleported in a burst of blinding light.

Grabbing the sheath from my closet, I went back to the main weapons room to find Aunt Janel e waiting by the door. She watched as I commanded the dagger from its resting place into the sheath.

Feeling self-conscious, I gave her a weak smile.

“Does it stil hurt when you bond?” she asked as we left the room.

“A little.” An understatement, but I didn’t want to discuss the dagger. I’d rather hear how she felt about Grampa. “Where’s Grampa?”

“I’m not sure. Around.” She looped her arm around mine as we started toward the Academy.

“How’s the search for your medium coming along?”

“How’s the search for your medium coming along?”

“Not so good,” I replied. She smel ed of the sea and cinnamon with a hint of lavender. “I know Grampa is convinced Valafar didn’t send me presents, but I’m hoping he did.”

“Oh sweetie.” Aunt Janel e paused, forcing me to stop too. “I know you never knew your mother, but it breaks my heart to see Valafar manipulate you like this.”

“No, Aunt Janel e. This is not about Mom.

Valafar said he wrote his phone number and stuck it inside one of the presents. We plan to cal and force him to use the medium. Then I can study the psi energies and locate who it is.” I almost blurted out the other things Valafar said. They were lies, so no point in mentioning them.

“We?” she asked, frowning. She tugged my arm and continued to lead me toward the Academy.

“The trainees are helping. We’re searching for the presents in case someone signed for them but forgot to drop them off.”

She blinked. “Oh. And the person who signed for them might just be the guide we’re searching for.

Bril iant.” A frowned crossed her pixie features.

“Make sure someone asks the women who clean our houses. They might have signed for them and forgot to mention it.”

Good thinking. “Thanks, Aunt Janel e. We hadn’t thought of them.”

She smiled. “I’m happy to help, dear. If you need anything else, just let me know.” We stopped outside the double doors of the Academy. “Go on.

Don’t keep Haziel waiting. Your grandfather and I are making dinner tonight, so work up an appetite.” She kissed my cheek then teleported.

Grinning, I entered the Academy’s rotunda.

Talking to Aunt Janel e felt nice. She and Grampa must have gone shopping together if she was making dinner tonight. When I was little and she’d visit us, they’d do that—shop together and cook.

Maybe I didn’t need to play cupid after al .

Halfway across the foyer, I noticed Celeste through the glass wal s of the Academy’s main office. Bran wasn’t with her, which was strange. My watch said three-fifty-seven, which meant I had less than three minutes to get to the pit, but I couldn’t ignore the dejected look on her face. Or the way she sat on her hands and tapped her feet, her gaze on the principal’s door. The others students were already in their classes.

I changed directions, opened the main office door and peeked inside. “Hey.”

Celeste gave me a shaky smile but didn’t respond verbal y.

“Where’s Bran?”

“He had to leave.” Her voice dropped, and her gaze kept darting to the principal’s closed door.

Not again. “Leave? For where?”

“I don’t know.” She shrugged, stil not paying me much attention.

I fol owed her glance and frowned. “Are you here alone?”

She blew out air. “No. Grampa…your grandfather brought me. He’s in there now. What are you doing here anyway? Other than gril ing me, that is.”

I bit back a smile. That was the Celeste I knew—testy when nervous. “I’m on my way to the pit.

I’d better go. Haziel is probably pacing, looking at the clock and plotting my demise.” My attempt at humor didn’t seem to improve Celeste’s mood. “See you later.”

She gave me another weak smile. Bran had been wil ing to escort Celeste to her new school, yet now he was gone. That didn’t make sense, unless he left to see his brother.
Or to search for the List,
a tiny voice added. I hoped not, especial y after our discussion.

Crossing the rotunda, I took off along the hal way next to the library entrance, passed the first door to my right, paused and retraced my steps to watch. About seven students stood by a medium-sized pool, their attention on the teacher who had his hand extended toward the water. The clear liquid rose from the middle of the pool and shot toward the ceiling. The students laughed. I couldn’t wait to see them react to Bran’s ability. He could do a lot more cool stuff with water.

The next classroom was rectangular and long.

A dozen heavy-duty punching bags chained to the ceiling dangled on one end. A bunch of male students and one girl took turns thrusting their hands forward, palm out, as they tried to move them. Not even a sway. The air trainees had a long way to go.

I was about to take off when a blonde appeared in my line of vision. Not just any blonde—

appeared in my line of vision. Not just any blonde—

Kim. The students moved to give her room. Flashing a smile, she said something and back-handed the air. Several bags went flying, looped, and came back down. But when she braced herself, legs slightly apart and arms moving in circles to create an air vortex, al twelve bags did three-sixty loops. They made a whooshing sound audible through the door.

The students cheered.

What was I going to show the psi students on Friday? I hadn’t even thought about it until now. It had to be something spectacular. I frowned, shaking my head. No, I’d just be myself. Yeah, right. Clumsy teleporting wouldn’t earn me Brownie points. Neither would anecdotes about how I created a giant hole in the ceiling when I started learning telekinesis.

I looked at my watch and groaned.

***

“You are late,” Haziel barked when I entered the room.

Since I didn’t have an excuse for my tardiness, I kept my mouth shut. Instead, I squinted against the blazing strobe lights from the ceiling and searched for him. He wasn’t alone in the middle of the room. I didn’t recognize the woman with him, but with the influx of new teachers and students at the Academy, that was no surprise. He beckoned me forward with a gnarled finger.

I closed the door behind me and entered the pit, a dome-shaped indoor arena with a high ceiling and a circular floor dominated by the painting of the six-sided Cardinal Guardian star. The tiered seating was steeper than most of those in human stadiums and grouped in private boxes. The glass panels made no sense the first time I saw them, but I later learned they shielded spectators from stray energy bal s or weapons during a tournament. We were yet to have intramural games since the Academy opened, but I couldn’t wait to watch students test their fighting techniques and powers.

A clapping drew me out of my daydream, and I hurried to where Haziel stood glowering, a satchel in his hand. The woman he’d been talking with had long teleported.

“Where is your focus?” he snapped. “You
do
not
daydream in my class. You
do not
come in late.” I bowed, hands pressed together. “I’m sorry for my tardiness, Master Haziel.”

He humphed. “Warm up time.”

Was that a chal enge I heard in his voice? I looked up. Throwing knives floated from his satchel. I hated this type of warm-up. It was torture in disguise, but I didn’t dare complain. He had a right to chew me up and spit me out for being late.

He rotated his finger in the air, sending the blades across the arena. Ninja stars fol owed from the bag, their polished surface catching and reflecting the light from the ceiling before they disappeared into the gloomy areas of the arena.

I peered at them and blew out air. They floated like birds of prey waiting for a kil . Me.

Message to self. Don’t piss off master trainer.

Haziel teleported and appeared in the judges’

box to my right. Unlike the others, it had a bar with assorted drinks. He poured himself a glass of water and stretched out in his chair like he was about to watch his favorite TV program while my stomach churned.

Let me know when you are ready,
he telepathed, his voice devoid of emotion.

Bite me, I wanted to retort. I might hate Leather Face because of the way he pushed me, but I respected him. Not only was he as old as, I don’t know, death, he’d trained many Cardinal Guardians before me, including Grampa. I was sure it frustrated him I wasn’t a perfect student, but I tried.

Closing my eyes, I took deep breaths like Mrs. D taught me. Haziel didn’t think much of
pranayama,
but the breathing exercises helped clear my thoughts. I focused on my surrounding.

Every object had energy, some dul , others bright.

Cal it potential energy or aura, it didn’t matter.

Cardinal Psi Guardians had the ability to see them.

Most of the time, I just ignored them. In this confined space, they smothered my psyche.

I opened my eyes, locked my gaze with Haziel’s and nodded,
I’m ready.

Go.

The change in the air flow warned me a knife approached from my right. I raised my right hand, fingers together and straight as though blocking a kung-fu attack. The knife flipped, changed direction and flew back into the gloom. Another came from my left. I reversed it with a kick. Ducking to the side, one sailed by my nose, missing me by mil imeters. As I stared at it in horror, it slowed to a stop, whipped stared at it in horror, it slowed to a stop, whipped around and torpedoed toward me again.

Mind over matter…mind over matter….

I repeated Haziel’s famous expression like a litany and held my own.
Kick…slice…whip around…

block…double kick….

The trainer stayed behind the glass panel and continued to control the knives and the ninja stars like a puppet master. Part of me wanted to tel him I was warmed up already. Sweat formed on my forehead and dripped down. It rol ed off my eyelid, blurring my vision, but I couldn’t afford to stop and wipe my face. Not when he hurled the knives faster, then two at a time.

I picked up speed.
Block…left…right…

double-handed thrust…split kick….
My chest bursting, heart pounding, I held my own until dizziness washed over me. I raised my arms and projected my need.
Freeze.

Everything went stil . I bent, hands on knees, panting to regain my breath as I peered at Haziel. He didn’t move from behind the glass. I glanced at the weapons, al at various positions in the air. I removed my jacket, wiped my face with it and threw it aside. Nodding, I signaled to Haziel I was ready.

Quit using your arms and legs to block the
attacks. It is a deplorable human habit.

Eyes round, I stared at him in horror. “What?” I yel ed.

You have it in you to control anything with
your mind, Lil.