After dinner, Riley finally agreed to Veil herself to catch up on sleep, and she slept until midnight. Ordinarily she would have joined Gabe as soon as she woke up, but she had too much on her mind to do that.
Will is Ghost.
Loving her was one thing, but to lie at the foot of her bed pretending to be a dog, for years? His devotion was breathtaking. He shed his humanity and lived his life as an animal to be close to her. She was shocked that Jack had allowed it.
No wonder he always knew so much about me! Riley had blamed Jack — had even hated him at times — for telling Will all her private thoughts and feelings. Jack had probably never said a thing. Will had seen what was going on in her life for himself. She glowed as brightly as she’d ever glowed thinking about how she’d been walking around naked in front of Will every night for years without knowing he was there.
And he hadn’t just been watching her, he’d been watching over her. He’d been keeping her safe, even with his rejections.
He loves me more than life itself. And I love him.
Throughout the night, Riley had to force herself to remember that he was under the thumb of powerful men who were using him to terrorize and kill. It shouldn’t matter to her whether he was being coerced or not because the result was the same either way: pain and death for innocent people.
But it did matter.
I wouldn’t date a murderer. Or a rapist, or a torturer, or a gang member. And I wouldn’t date someone who lied to me during the day and cheated on me at night. No one would. And Will has done every bit of that.
If he’d left that life behind, maybe I’d put it behind me, too… okay, let’s be honest: I’m SURE I would, too. But he hasn’t. He’d still do any or all of those things if someone at Terrapin commanded him. And I can’t deal with that. Even though he’s being coerced — even though he’s doing it for me — I can’t deal. I know that, and I’m not ashamed to say it. So what’s wrong with me that I also can’t say ‘he’s the wrong guy for me’ and move on?
From her bedroom, she heard Gabe chuckle at something Alley said, and Riley blushed again, this time with guilt. Obsessing over Will wasn’t fair to Gabe at all.
Gabe is the right choice...
* * *
After breakfast and hot cocoa, she walked down to the pavilion with Gabe, Xander, Katrina and Darren to train for an hour. As promised, Xander was enlisting their roommates in the search for Riley’s other power, for which she was extremely grateful. “This would take forever on my own,” she said sheepishly. “I’m way too slow.”
“Glad to help,” Katrina said. “It’s been a long time since I went power hunting. It’s fun! You never know what sort of coolness will turn up.”
Darren nodded. “Let’s hope it’s something useful, though, and not, like, making daisies wither or some shit.”
Riley chuckled and blew into her hands. It was a drizzly gray morning… the sort of cold and miserable day that made her wish that either the sun would come out and warm her up, or that it would get a little colder and snow.
Xander’s face was as miserable as the weather. Riley was helping his dreams as much as she could, but his grief over losing Pash was immutable.
He briefly explained to the others the sort of tests that he and Riley had been doing over the last few months. Once he’d brought them up to speed, he said, “Riley, I want to begin today with Darren’s darts. He will attack you, and you’re going to try to shield yourself.”
“Wait... can’t he kill people with his darts?”
“Only when I’m pissed off and there's a ton of them.” Darren grinned. “Don’t piss me off and you’ll be fine.”
Gabe rolled his eyes. “It will feel like you’re getting a shot, right before the needle goes into your skin.”
“Oh. Good. I guess.”
She walked to the other end of the pavilion and made herself a Veiled turtle. “I’m ready. Go ahead.”
Darren’s brow furrowed. After a moment, Riley felt something like a pinprick against her right arm. It wasn’t painful, but it was irritating and distracting. She tried to force the sensation to get off her body. No luck.
“I can’t do it,” she informed Xander. “My guess is that’s because his dart is not a physical object.”
Darren turned toward Xander, too. The second he stopped looking at Riley, she stopped feeling the sensation.
“Try again,” Xander said. “This time, imagine that it’s a physical dart, Riley. See if that makes any difference.”
They did as he instructed, Darren hitting her left arm that time instead. Again, no luck.
Riley rubbed her arms. “This stings! Can we test with something else, please?”
“Like what?” Xander asked.
“I don’t know. Feathers?”
Darren laughed. “Here, I’ll see if I can go lighter.” He grinned at her and hit both arms at the same time.
Jerk! Get out of my shell!
Darren went sailing backward and smacked into one of the poles that held up the pavilion. He stumbled forward, then fell to the ground. Katrina raced to his side.
“What the hell was that?” he asked.
Riley swallowed. “I think it was me.”
Everyone gaped at her.
Shaking, Riley pointed her hand at Xander’s notebook and again thought, Get out of my shell! It whizzed through the air and flew out into the parking lot.
Xander took a few steps toward the notebook, then stopped. He stared at it, and then back at Riley. “You did that?”
“Yes. I forced it out of my shell. Darren, too,” she replied. “With my mind.”
“You’re telekinetic, Riley!” Katrina said, grinning, as she helped Darren to his feet.
“Can you bring the notebook back again?” Gabe asked excitedly, looking from Riley to the notebook.
She tried, and failed, to retrieve it with her mind. “No. Maybe if I move closer?”
Once the notebook was within her shell again, Riley could move it. She was able to drag it across the floor until it was back at her feet. She couldn’t figure out how to lift it up toward her hand, though.
“You may need practice,” Xander told her. “Or anger… you didn’t look happy with Darren when you threw him across the floor.”
“That’s my fault,” Darren admitted. “I hit both her arms at the same time.”
“Damn it, Darren!” Gabe glared at his brother. “I told you to be gentle. No wonder she threw you. I wish I could have done it for her.”
“Trust me, she had her revenge.” Darren grinned at Riley and rubbed the back of his head. “Nice hit!”
“Do you think this is my other power?” Riley asked.
“I don’t,” Katrina answered. “It looks like it only works inside of your shell. I think this is you being in control of your turtle, of your personal space. As big as you are, though, you have a lot of personal space. This will look like a power to other Miyala. And it’s great self-defense for you.”
“Do you think she could stop bullets?” Darren asked Xander, a giddy look on his face.
“No way.” Riley shook her head. “I had to decide to throw something out of my shell. A bullet moves like a thousand times faster than I can react.”
Xander nodded. “We should test with foam bullets to rule it out, but realistically, I don’t see it happening. Riley’s turtle reflexes won’t be any match for projectiles.”
“Still,” Gabe grinned, “you can probably force people within fifteen feet of you to get away. That’ll help keep you safe. Between that and your invisibility, you should be able to defend yourself against almost anyone.”
“When you’re awake,” Katrina pointed out.
“I wonder if I can expel things while I’m invisible?” Riley mused. She motioned to Darren.
“What, me again?”
“Yes, you again. I’ll be gentle this time. Unless you piss me off,” she amended.
Darren and Gabe both chuckled.
“Here goes!” Riley made herself and Darren invisible.
“Whoa... it looks like water!”
“Okay. I’m going to try to push you out like last time. Brace yourself.”
Darren leaned forward and frowned.
Nothing. No matter how hard she tried, Riley couldn’t push Darren out of her shell while she was invisible.
A few seconds later, Katrina, Gabe and Xander joined them.
“I take it this isn’t working,” Xander said.
“No. When I’m invisible, I can’t force him out. Maybe I can expel things or hide, but I can’t do both at the same time?”
“Or maybe you have no effect on invisible things,” Gabe suggested.
—Control me and yourself, not them—
Riley frowned. If this is about me being in control of my turtle, and controlling our shared personal space, then maybe I'm different, maybe the space IS me…
She took a deep breath, then exhaled, and made herself visible.
But everyone else remained invisible.
“Yes! That’s how it works.” Riley made herself invisible again, then forced everyone other than herself gently out of her turtle. Xander, Darren, Gabe and Katrina all slid backwards until they were outside of her shell’s boundary and visible again. Then Riley made herself visible, too.
“Katrina’s right,” Riley explained to her astonished friends. “I’m not in control of things inside my shell. I’m in control of the space itself.” She looked around at all of them and grinned. “I wasn’t able to move Darren directly because I can’t control him. But I can use the space inside my shell to push him out because that’s controlling me. And that’s what I did with all of you. I might be able to stop a bullet if I knew one was coming, just by deciding that the space shouldn’t let a bullet in.”
“Then this is a big deal,” Xander said. “In theory, you could protect yourself and anyone near you from most attacks.” He grabbed his notebook and frowned deeper as he began making notes. “With practice, who knows? You may be able to fire projectiles by expelling them, even if you find that you can’t defend against them when they’re fired at you. And Riley… if this is an animal size thing, then Reed might be able to do it as well.”
The five of them brainstormed about potential specifics and tests, but Riley needed more control and more information before anything they'd thought of would be useful. She was tasked with practicing two hours a day. “A week from now, the five of us will meet again.” Xander frowned down at his notes. “We’ll see what you’ve managed to come up with on your own, and we’ll go from there.”
Riley nodded.
“I’ll help you,” Gabe promised her, yawning.
“The day sleeper needs a nap,” she murmured.
As he pulled her into his arms, Riley thought, Alley would be napping now, too. I haven’t seen her OR her dreams since she went to stay at Andrew’s. And Alley’s so social… this can’t be a good silence. “Has anyone heard from Alley in the last few days? It’s not like her to be so quiet.”
“I got a text from her this morning about some things she needs on our next grocery run,” Katrina said. “I can text her if you want, but if she’s not asleep, I’m sure her hands are full with those kids.”
“No, don’t bother her. You’re right. I was just curious.”
Comments (7)
See all