Finding Sky (12 page)

‘I told you, I can’t tell people too much about the future. I might change it to be what none of us want if I do that.’

‘So I take it mine doesn’t look good?’

‘Sky, please, I don’t know. Don’t you think I’d act if I knew what would help? All I know is I want you to be safe.’

It was so frustrating. These hints and half-spoken warnings were driving me crazy. Being a savant must really stink.

‘Yeah, it does.’

‘You’re doing it again: reading my mind! Stop it. It’s mine—private.’ I folded my arms across my chest and moved away from him.

‘I seem to be always apologizing to you, but I really am sorry. I can read you more clearly than I can other people—it kind of leaks out of you into my head.’

‘And that’s supposed to make me feel better?’ My voice had a hysterical note.

‘No, it’s an explanation. You could learn to build shields, you know.’

‘What?’

‘Basic savant training. Living in a family of them, you soon learn to start shielding.’

‘But I’m not a savant.’

‘You are. And I think deep down you know it too.’

I fisted my hands in my hair. ‘Stop it. I don’t want to hear this.’
You’re bad. Bad. Always making everyone unhappy
. ‘No I’m not!’ I wasn’t talking to him any longer, but the whispers in my head.

‘Sky.’ Zed tugged at my fists, pulling them away from my temples and drawing me towards him. His hands took up their slow caress again, running through the length of my hair, letting it fall back on my shoulders. ‘You’re beautiful. The furthest thing from bad that I’ve ever met.’

‘What do you see—what do you know about where I came from?’ I asked in a small voice. ‘You’ve given hints. You know stuff about me that I don’t.’

I could hear a sigh rumble in his chest. ‘Nothing clear. Telling the past is more Uriel’s gift than mine.’

I gave a shuddering laugh. ‘Don’t take this the wrong way but I hope I don’t meet him.’

He swayed with me in his arms for the moment. It was like dancing without music, falling into the same rhythm.

‘You want to know why I didn’t call you?’

I nodded.

‘I couldn’t. We were on lockdown. I’ve got some more bad news.’

‘What? Worse than some maniac being out to murder your family? I needed to know that you were all right. I needed to know
you
were all right.’

‘Victor put us on code red. It means we can’t communicate outside the immediate family.’

I couldn’t help wondering where that put me in his order of priorities. He’d claimed I was his soulfinder after all.

‘We don’t know who might be listening in to our calls. I should’ve found a way to get a message to you but I was afraid to use telepathy.’

‘Why?’

‘That’s the bad news. We think they’ve got a savant on the assassin team. They shouldn’t have been able to get so close to us. Dad’s gift is to sense danger. He should have known they were out there unless they were shielded by a powerful savant. You can listen in on telepathy just as you can with speech if you have the gift. I didn’t want anything I did to tip them off about you.’

‘So it’s not just your family who can do telepathy?’

‘No, there are a number of us we know about—and I guess many that we don’t. You can turn a gift to evil as easily as choose to use it for good. The temptation is there, particularly for those who don’t have the balance of a soulfinder.’ He rubbed his chin against my hair. ‘You’re my balance, Sky. I was already slipping before I met you. I can’t tell you what it means to me that you saved me from that grey existence.’

‘You were slipping?’

‘Yeah, big time. I’m not a nice person without you. It was becoming pretty tempting to use my gift to get my way, no matter how unfair or what the cost to other people was.’ He grimaced, uncomfortable with what he was revealing about himself. ‘You’ve given me enough hope now to hold on until you’re ready to unlock your gift. Once that’s done, there’s no chance I’ll ever return to what I was.’

‘But you’re not safe yet?’ I hadn’t realized I was holding him back. If something went wrong and he lost his balance, it would be my fault, wouldn’t it, for not being brave enough to examine what was inside me? ‘What should I do?’

He shook his head. ‘Nothing. You need time. I’m more worried about getting this right for you than I am about me.’

‘But I worry about you.’

‘Thanks, but let’s give you the space you need and deal with what we have to so we can keep you safe.’

Savant assassins—could this really be happening? The bullets had been genuine enough—I didn’t doubt them. ‘You think this savant has turned bad?’

‘Yeah, he was working with the shooter. He might still be listening in—we just don’t know. Telepathy over a distance is harder to channel to just the right person. We haven’t come up against this before. We should have anticipated this.’

I sensed he was being hard on himself, frustrated that he didn’t have all the answers for me. ‘Why should you have done? You’ve only just got dragged in to this through the witness thing. When the trial’s over, won’t the threat pass?’

‘Not exactly.’ He looked a bit guilty for a moment, alerting me to the fact he hadn’t been completely straight with me.

‘Not exactly!’

‘We aren’t just witnesses—we’re investigators. It’s not just the latest trial—my family have combined their gifts to put away hundreds over the years. It’s what we do.’

‘So that means you have more enemies?’

‘If they knew that we were behind their conviction—but they are not supposed to find out. Our information is used to steer the authorities to find evidence that will hold up in court. Our place isn’t on the witness stand but behind the scenes.’

The full impact of what he was telling me took a while to set in. They were like a secret weapon for the law enforcers, up against evil day after day. ‘How do you do it?’

He shut his eyes briefly. ‘We work together—we see what happened.’

‘You see it? See all that awful stuff—the killings—the crimes?’

‘If we ignored what happened, that’d be worse. We’d share part of the guilt if we didn’t act to stop crimes when we can.’

‘But you suffer for it, don’t you?’

He shrugged. ‘What’s that compared to the good we can do?’

I realized then that the Benedicts were brave and dedicated, putting aside their own ambitions to use their savant skills. They could be off seeking their soulfinders, but instead they risked everything to help victims of crime. But it also meant they would never be normal, never free to emerge from the shadows, stuck reliving the ugly scenes caused by the most vicious criminals. They had chosen the more difficult path; I didn’t have it in me to be so noble. My life had been lived too much in shadows. I couldn’t go back there—not even for Zed.

‘I’m scared, Zed.’

‘I don’t think there’s any threat to you as long as we aren’t seen together out of school. I haven’t even told my family about you. The only way I can think to protect you is by keeping my distance. If the rogue savant knew you were my soulfinder, it would put you in the centre of the target.’

‘That’s not what I meant. I’m scared you’re going to get hurt.’

‘We’ve got it under control now.’

‘But you’re going to have to keep hiding, aren’t you?’

‘I don’t want to think about that.’

‘Can I help? Is there some way I can make this easier for you?’

He shook his head. ‘It would mean you releasing your gift and, as I said, I don’t think that would be a good idea yet.’

‘Releasing my gift? What does that mean? You savants speak in riddles.’

He laughed. ‘Us savants, you mean. And if your gift were free, then you’d light up like I do when you’re with me.’

I nestled closer to him, running my fingers over his chest, feeling as if I was leaving lines of fire behind. His heart picked up its beat. ‘I already feel pretty sparkly.’

He kissed my hair, a gesture so tender it brought tears to my eyes. ‘That’s good—but you’d better stop doing that or we’ll both be in trouble.’ He caught my fingers in his hand, pressing them to his shirt.

‘Zed, is this all real?’

‘Yeah, it is. Your gift’s just waiting for you to reach for it.’

‘I’m afraid to do that.’

He rested his chin on the top of my head. ‘I know. And I can wait—as long as you need. Come, sit on my lap for a moment.’

He led me over to the drum kit and sat on the stool.

‘You want me to sit on your lap there? I’ll fall off.’

‘Not if you sit facing me.’

I laughed but it sounded kinda sad. ‘This is crazy.’

‘Maybe. But I’m going to enjoy it.’

I sat on his lap so I could rest my head on his chest, arms wrapped around him.

‘You hold on now, you hear?’

‘Uh-huh.’

He took the drumsticks and began to play the percussion part for the song we had first performed together as the jazz band. I hummed along.

‘We could really do with the piano but I don’t want you to move,’ he said softly in my ear.

‘We can imagine it.’

The beat was slow and hypnotic. Calming. I closed my eyes, listening as he began crooning the words to ‘Hallelujah’. He had a nice voice—a tenor, pitch perfect.

‘You just gonna sit there or sing with me?’ he asked.

‘I’m just gonna sit.’

‘What’s wrong with your voice?’

‘I don’t sing. Never have—not for a long time.’

‘There’s only me here. I won’t laugh.’

All my life, singing had been a no-go area. I didn’t want to bring that into this lovely moment. ‘I’ll just listen.’

‘OK. But I’ll get you singing yet.’

 

The weeks that followed were frustrating for both of us. Only able to sneak a few moments alone at school, we could never just be together. We had to be careful not to be labelled a couple by other students in case word got out to whoever was after Zed’s family. This led to guilt as I had to lie to my closest friends about what was going on. And there was still Zed’s premonition to worry about—he was angry because he couldn’t stick to my side to keep me safe and I was getting jumpy any time I was out after dark. The whole situation added up to major stress for us both. Two threats too many.

‘Something happen between you and Zed, Sky?’ asked Tina one afternoon as we helped decorate the form room for Hallowe’en.

I hung a row of pumpkin lights over the whiteboard. ‘No.’

‘You seemed on the point of something until he gave you that black eye. Was there more to that than you said?’

Yeah, just a bit. ‘Like what?’

She shrugged, looking uncomfortable. ‘He didn’t hit you or anything?’

‘No!’

‘Just that the Benedicts are a little strange. No one really gets to know them. We talk about them, of course, but no one from school’s dated them that I’ve heard about. Who knows what secrets they’re hiding up there?’

I decided to fight fire with fire. ‘You mean like their mad granny locked in the cellar? Or the voodoo dolls hanging by their necks over the corpses of their victims?’

She looked shamefaced now. ‘I wasn’t thinking that.’

‘Zed does not beat up his girlfriends.’

She pounced. ‘So you are his girlfriend?’

Oops. ‘Not really. Just a friend.’

‘Must admit I’m relieved to hear that.’ Tina stretched out some cobweb material over the notice board. ‘Did you know that Nelson went a round with him about what he did to you?’

‘He didn’t!’

‘Yeah, in the guys’ changing room after basketball practice.’

‘I told him it was my fault, not Zed’s!’

‘Nelson has this protective streak a mile wide. You must have noticed. I think it’s his version of his grandmother’s desire to keep tabs on us all.’

‘Did anyone get hurt?’

‘No. Coach broke it up. Put them both in detention. Zed’s on the watch list again for suspension.’

‘I didn’t want this.’

‘What? Boys fighting over you? You should be flattered.’

‘They’re idiots.’

‘Yeah, they’re boys. Goes with the territory.’

I crossed my fingers. ‘Look, Zed and me, we like each other, but it’s not going to go any further.’ At least, not until we’d sorted out the death threat.

‘OK, I hear you. You’re safe.’ But I could tell she wasn’t convinced. ‘So, you want to come Trick-or-Treating with us?’

‘Isn’t that for little kids?’

‘Doesn’t stop us big ones having a party. We get dressed up, enjoy the show on the streets then go hang out back at someone’s house. My mom said we can go to mine this year.’

‘What kind of dressed up?’

‘Any kind of fancy dress. Witch, ghoul, voodoo-doll-hanging-over-the-corpse-of-a-dead-granny-from-the-cellar—that kind of stuff.’

‘Sounds fun.’

To my embarrassment, Simon was really into the idea of making a Hallowe’en costume. He often used materials in his art and got a bit carried away when I made the mistake of telling him about Trick-or-Treating. He constructed a skeleton suit for me out of material that glowed spectre-like in white light and a really convincing skull head mask. He made a costume for himself and Sally too.

‘You’re not thinking of coming with me?’ I asked in horror as he displayed the masks in the kitchen on Hallowe’en morning.

‘Of course.’ His tone was deadpan but I caught the laughter in his eyes. ‘Just what a teenager wants: her parents tagging along to a friend’s party on her first evening out after grounding.’

‘Tell me he’s lying!’ I appealed to Sally.

‘Of course, he is. We were just reading up on the American customs at Hallowe’en and understand that it is our duty as fine upstanding citizens of Wrickenridge to man the door in as scary a fashion as possible and spread tooth decay among the younger part of the population.’

‘You’re going to hand out candy dressed like that?’

‘Yep.’ Simon tapped his skull mask affectionately.

‘I’m glad I won’t be home.’

My friends met up outside the grocery store at seven, forming a gaggle of witches, ghosts, and zombies. The atmosphere was perfect: dark, moonless, and there was even a mist to add to the ghoulish theme. Zoe had dressed in a fantastic vampire outfit with red-lined cape and white fangs. Tina chose the warlock look, pointy hat and long cape, face painted with silver stars. Nelson came as a zombie—a no-brainer (ha ha) for him. I felt a bit self-conscious in my figure-hugging skeleton suit.

Nelson rapped on the top of my plaster skull. ‘Knock, knock, who’s there?’

‘It’s me—Sky.’

‘It’s me, Sky who?’

‘Shut up, Nelson.’

He laughed. ‘You look great. Where did you get the suit? Did you hire it?’

I took off the mask. ‘No, Simon made it.’

‘Awesome.’

‘He and Sally are sitting at home in similar outfits.’

He playfully began dragging me in the direction of my house. ‘No way? We’ll have to go up there.’

I jabbed him in the ribs. ‘If you suggest that to the others, I will personally pull your dead brain out of your ears and feed it to your fellow zombies.’

‘Ouch! Good visual threat—I like it.’

I was feeling a bit cold in my costume. ‘Can we get moving, Tina?’

‘Yeah, let’s.’

Tina handed round pumpkin-shaped lanterns on the end of poles and we processed through the streets enjoying the show. Little children paraded past with their parents, dressed in a bizarre selection of costumes. The spooky theme seemed to have got diluted somewhere along the way because it was perfectly acceptable to wear your favourite princess costume if you were a kindergarten girl, or come dressed as Spider-Man if you were a boy. The emphasis was definitely on ‘treat’ rather than ‘trick’. I saw a couple of older kids fighting each other with water pistols, but most were too busy racking up a sugar high to cause any damage to houses where they got no answer.

As we neared Tina’s house, a werewolf emerged from the mist to join our group, complete with full face mask sprouting hair from ears, and a pair of shaggy paws. On any other night, this would be a cause for alarm; on Hallowe’en no one batted an eyelid.

The werewolf slipped through the crowd and sidled up to me. Bending down, he growled in my ear.

‘Zed?’ I yelped.

‘Ssh. I don’t want people to know I’m here. And don’t, you know,
think
to me, in case someone’s listening.’

I started to giggle, absurdly glad that he had sneaked out to see me. ‘Ah, Wolfman, you are a master of disguise, fooling the bad guys with your cunning.’

‘I blend, don’t I? I knew you’d be out after dark, so here I am.’

I really didn’t need a reminder of the real horror haunting us on this night of pretend terrors, but I did feel happier now he was beside me.

A shaggy paw insinuated itself around my waist. ‘I’m not sure I approve of this costume of yours. Couldn’t you put a cloak on or something?’

‘I feel really cold. Simon didn’t think of this when he made it for me.’

He shrugged out of his coat and slipped it over my shoulders. ‘Your
dad
made this? Are we talking about the same guy who wants to lock you away until you’re thirty? Has he had a personality change since I last saw him?’

‘It’s artistic. He wasn’t thinking about how his daughter looks—just getting the right shape. He and Sally are at home in identical outfits.’

He chuckled softly.

‘So, did you tell your parents you were going out?’ I asked.

‘No, they still think we need to circle the wagons back home. I’m tinkering with the bike in the garage. Xav’s covering for me.’

‘How are they going to react?’

He frowned. ‘I can’t see—it’s hard with family. There are so many possibilities in a house of savants that I think the future gets fuzzy, like interference on a cellphone. And it’s weird: I’ve noticed that the closer I get to you, the less I see about you.’

‘Does that mean I could beat you at cards now?’

‘Probably. But I might not be able to help you out with your goal-keeping either, so there’s a drawback.’

‘That’s fine by me. It’s not nice knowing you see so much all the time. Makes me feel, I dunno,
caged
by the future.’

‘Yeah, I prefer it this way. It feels more normal.’

We reached Tina’s house. She’d really gone to town: carved pumpkins grinned in every window and the porch was festooned with spiders, bats, and snakes. Her mum opened the door dressed as a witch, with massive false eyelashes and crimson nails. I could see Tina’s older brothers out the back, forking garden trimmings on to a bonfire.

‘Let’s go in and stay for a while, then slip away,’ suggested Zed. ‘I really want to be alone with you for an hour or so. It’s killing me having to steal all these moments at school, always worrying someone’s going to walk in on us.’

‘OK, but I can’t bail out too early.’

‘I’ll keep away from you in there. If anyone recognizes me beneath the costume, they won’t think anything of it. Tina did invite me.’

The party gathered in the kitchen. Tina’s mum had a huge cauldron full of popcorn for us to eat and green jelly which we had to feed each other blindfold. Not possible when wearing a skull mask so I took this off and joined in. Zed hung back, keeping his werewolf gear on.

I drew Nelson as my jelly feeder with Tina shouting instructions. Inevitably he got more on me than in my mouth.

‘Yuck. I’m going to need a shower now!’ I squawked as the spoon hit my neck and jelly fell on my chest.

‘Apple bobbing!’ suggested Tina. ‘That should help.’

I proved useless at getting my apple. Zoe was the best.

‘It’s her big mouth,’ explained Tina, ducking as Zoe flicked water at her.

I had to be home at midnight, so if I wanted to spend some time with Zed, I needed to make my excuses at ten thirty.

‘You OK getting back?’ Tina asked, shuffling the songs on the iPod to start the dancing.

‘Yes, I’ve got a lift arranged.’

‘OK. See you tomorrow.’

‘Thanks for the party. It was brilliant.’

She laughed. ‘I love it when you speak Brit, Sky.
It was bril
liant
,’ she mimicked. Cackling with laughter, she swooped on Nelson and hauled him into the middle of the kitchen to dance.

I emerged on to the porch to find Zed waiting for me.

‘Ready?’ he asked.

‘Uh-huh. Where are we going?’

‘Let’s head up to your place. There’s a coffee bar on Main Street that should be open.’

‘Is that safe?’

‘Should be. We’ll go to one of the booths at the back. As much as I appreciate the value of blending, I don’t want to sit with this mask on all night.’

I held out the skull. ‘Should I put this back on? I feel really stupid wearing it.’

‘You might want to think that people can see who’s wearing the skeleton suit if you don’t.’

‘Good point.’ I put it back on then couldn’t help laughing at us. ‘This is our second date, right?’

‘See, I told you I’d come up with something better.’ He laced his fingers in mine: hairy claws to skele-bones.

The coffee bar was busy with parents taking a warming break after traipsing round after their hyper kids all evening. We had to wait for the back booth to come free.

‘What’ll you have?’ Zed asked.

‘Hot chocolate with all the trimmings.’

He carried over a tall glass brimming with cream and marshmallows, a chocolate stirring stick on the side. He’d chosen black coffee for himself.

‘You don’t know what you’re missing.’ I sighed with ecstasy as I took a hit of gooey marshmallow mixed with chocolate syrup.

‘I think I’m probably getting as much pleasure watching you.’ He sipped his coffee. ‘I know it’s a cheap date—sorry about that.’

‘Yeah, you know me: I’m sitting here calculating how much you spent. Next time I’m expecting caviar at a five star restaurant.’

‘I can stretch to a burger at the diner if you’re hungry.’

I tugged a paw off. ‘Don’t be daft. My treat next time. Let’s keep this equal.’

He stroked the back of my hand, sending a host of tingles dancing down my spine. ‘I don’t mind splitting the bill, but I kinda prefer buying for my date. I don’t think I’d like it if you paid for me.’

I laughed. ‘You grew up with cavemen, right?’

‘You’ve met my dad and my brothers. I rest my case.’

We walked back through the now much quieter streets. The snow-capped mountains gleamed in the moonlight, the stars flecks of white in the black sky, so distant but acutely bright.

‘Makes me feel very small,’ I said, imagining all the miles between us and the nearest of them.

‘I hate to break it to you, Sky, but you are small.’

I batted him in the stomach and he obligingly let out an ‘oof’ of air, though I doubted I’d done any injury to him. ‘Look, I was having a moment here—one of those “isn’t the universe mind-blowing?” things. Have some respect.’