"Good," said Luke as he munched on berries. "I hope she uses her imagination more often."
Hunter grabbed Lucy's hips and flipped her over, immobilizing her beneath his long, hard body. He leaned and mimicked her own whisper. "Always take the kill shot when you get the chance, otherwise you could end up on the bottom."
Before she could say something stupid, like the bottom didn't seem that bad either, he rolled off and helped her into a sitting position. Their hips and shoulders pressed together, and neither moved away.
He nudged her. "That was a good move."
"Watch your right hand. You pull it back right before you punch."
"Thanks."
"It's a small tell, but it's still there." She added in a whisper, "Kind of like my brother's leg."
"Really?" Hunter kept his face void of expression. "I didn't notice."
"You let him win," Lucy insisted. "Thank you. I haven't seen him that happy in a while."
Hunter brushed a stray hair from her face. "He'll be back to normal soon. You just have to be patient, no matter how badly you want to kick his ass."
She nodded and stifled a sigh of regret when he pulled his hand away from her face. "I know. I need to be more patient in everything, it appears. I just miss my old brother and want him back. But today really helped with that. Speaking of being patient, when are you going to tell me the truth?"
"Depends on what I'm telling you."
"How you jumped, when the lizard attacked me."
He smiled. "Ah, that. It's not really hard actually. You just bend your legs, flex, and push up."
She punched him in the shoulder. "You know what I mean."
An ocean breeze brushed against them, and Hunter looked out to the horizon with faraway eyes. "You two are not the first paranormals IPI's worked with. There's not many of us, though. As I said, I advanced through the ranks due to my natural talents, which I wish were more helpful right now. We need to find a way out of here." He stood up and held his hand out to Lucy.
She gripped it but didn't move to stand yet. "What's your para-power?"
He lifted her, then wagged his finger. "Keeping secrets." And with that totally unhelpful answer, he walked away.
Frustration burned in her, tempered only by the knowledge that she had her own secrets—like the sphere. Really, they hadn't even known each other that long. Maybe she was blowing their whole relationship out of proportion.
Luke sat under a tree and scowled at her. "If you can't share it with the whole class, you shouldn't be sharing at all."
Lucy rolled her eyes. "Grow up, Luke."
She walked back to their camp, sore from the sparring, but in a good way, and irritated at Hunter and herself. She stopped short when Hunter packed up his backpack and headed toward the forest.
"I'm going to go look for a way out. You two still need to rest. I'll be back late."
He was gone before Lucy could protest. Talk about mood swings!
She shot Luke a questioning glance, and he shrugged. "No idea. Maybe he just needed some alone time. But hey, at least that gives us a chance to hang."
And another mood swing. Luke looked entirely too happy to have Hunter gone.
***
Hanging involved all sorts of fun. They ate berries and found giant spongy mushrooms that made great trampolines. They laughed and talked about nothing important, and Lucy tried not to think about Mr. K or how she'd betrayed his trust by using her powers on him. Using Luke as a distraction helped.
As the sun set, they lay side-by-side on a mushroom and watched the sky turn dark.
Silence settled gently between them, but broke apart like ice when Luke sighed. "Hunter told me about the lizard, which I assume was giant from the claw marks on your back. He said he killed it. How?"
They'd avoided talking about Hunter all day. Lucy didn't want to reveal anything about his powers, but the number of secrets she had kept from her twin weighed on her. "With his sword. It's high-tech."
Luke pursed his lips. "Yeah, that's not normal. He's definitely not telling us something, Luce. I don't trust him."
This was exactly why she didn't want to talk about Hunter. Luke couldn't see straight when it came to him. She'd hoped the sparring match would have helped them bond. Guess not. "What is there to tell?"
Luke shrugged. "Who made that sword? Why does he have it? Why'd he get so tired after he brought you back?"
Lucy felt bad about that. Hunter's exhaustion was her fault, but she couldn't admit it to Luke. More secrets. More lies. "You'd be tired too if you fought that lizard. And the sword is probably some high-ranking IPI tech. Maybe he's like James Bond and has his own Q."
"Maybe. But he doesn't strike me as the James Bond type. And besides, we're on their top-priority mission right now, and I didn't get a fancy sword."
"Maybe they ran out." She didn't keep the bite from her response.
"Maybe they're hiding things from us, Luce."