Athora’s head cocked even further. “Who is this Anakin—”
“Eugh, never mind,” Alex said, waving a frazzled hand dismissively while pacing back and forth. “My point is, we already have one megalomaniac to worry about, we don’t need—Flipping hell!” Alex cried out as she was hit with a terrifying realisation. “What if Aven learns about this guy? We’re already screwed, but we’d be even more screwed!” She threw her arms in the air and finished, quite hysterically, “That’d be, like, an unfixable amount of screwiness!”
Near on hyperventilating, Alex almost didn’t process the quiet chuckle she heard over her rapid breathing. But then an amused—and familiar—voice spoke up as its owner moved out of the darkness and stepped into the glow of the fire.
“I have to admit, Alex, I’ve never been called a megalomaniac before. But it’s always nice to know I have options.”
Stunned to silence at who she was seeing, not to mention, where, and, apparently, why, all Alex could do was stand there, frozen mid-step, and stare.
Athora broke into her silent shock, a touch of smugness in his otherwise bland tone as he said, “I believe you’re already acquainted.”
Son of a biscuit, Alex thought as she continued her wide-eyed staring.
“Alexandra Jennings,” Athora said, “I give you your new training partner.” He paused, before unnecessarily finishing, “Kaiden James.”
Thirteen
“Where the hell have you been?”
Those were the first words Alex managed to get past her frozen lips when she was able to string a thought together. Not, ‘How are you in this part of the Library?’ or, ‘Do you really have a gift that can do everything Athora said?’ or even, ‘Sorry I compared you to Darth Vader’. No, what popped out was a question about where he’d been for the last two weeks, as she hadn’t seen him at all since that first night back at the academy.
Before he could respond, a memory whispered across her mind that, until this moment, she’d never thought twice about, nor had she experienced any déjà vu when she’d first learned her cloaked instructor’s name. But now her recall was practically slapping her in the face.
‘You’re Master Athora’s talented protégé…’
Aven had spoken those words to Kaiden months ago at Sir Oswald’s manor. They hadn’t meant anything to Alex then, but now… a lot of things were beginning to make sense.
“Did he tell you about me?” Alex said, jerking a finger towards Athora, only to discover that he’d disappeared, granting her and Kaiden some privacy. “He seems to know everything about me—is he how you know I went back to the past? Is he how you’d heard about Aven taking over Meya before I’d told anyone?”
Kaiden’s posture was relaxed as he stood bathed in the firelight, but his eyes were alert as he focused on Alex, almost as if he were watching a wild animal and wasn’t sure how it would react to any sudden moves.
“He only confirmed what I already knew,” Kaiden said.
Alex’s eyes narrowed. “How could you possibly have known anything in order to have him confirm it?”
Kaiden moved a step closer, but when she backed away from him, he halted and raised his hands in a ‘take it easy’ gesture.
“Athora wasn’t exaggerating the scope of what I can do, Alex,” he said. “I only have to make contact with a gifted person for a second in order to take on their ability as my own.”
As Alex processed that, Kaiden continued, “Before Athora stepped in to help me learn how to control it, I had no choice about the gifts that transferred over to me. But thanks to him, I can now decide if I want to swipe someone’s gift or not, just as I can compartmentalise those I’ve taken on and no longer want to use.”
While fascinated, Alex said, “I presume you’re telling me this for a reason?”
“My sister, Jeera, she’s gifted with unfailing intuition,” Kaiden shared. Alex only had a moment to appreciate how handy that would be for the Warden before he continued, “Marcus Sparker is a strong mind reader—almost as strong as Signa Zu, who we’ve also had the displeasure of crossing paths with.”
Alex cringed at the memories.
“Headmaster Marselle has unparalleled wisdom with special insight into a person’s character and whether they are gifted—which is how he knows which students to recruit,” Kaiden said. “And Declan can tell when someone is being deceitful, whether it’s spoken lies or things left unsaid.”
Alex hadn’t known either Darrius’s or Declan’s gifts, but she couldn’t dwell on how interesting they were because Kaiden wasn’t finished.
“Declan was onto you from the moment you turned up to Combat that first day. And since his gift is one that I’ve adopted, both he and I have known you’ve been hiding something for well over a year now.”
Alex shuffled her feet, feeling strangely guilty.
“The others I mentioned, they’re only a few of the gifts that I’ve taken on and learned to control, but I’m sure you can see how intuition, mind-reading, wisdom, character insight and deceit detection are enough to help me form a reasonably clear picture about all that is Alexandra Jennings.”
Shuffling again, Alex said, “But, um, those things—or at least some of them—they wouldn’t work on me. Not with my gift.”
“And that has been beyond frustrating, let me tell you.” Kaiden offered a self-deprecating yet intrigued shake of his head. “You’re officially the only person whose gift I’ve never been able to acquire.”
Alex wasn’t sure if she was supposed to apologise or not. She decided against it, given the circumstances.
“When you first arrived from Freya—”
Alex jerked violently.
Kaiden changed his tone to one that was deliberately calming. “There’s no need to look so worried. I’ve known that much since the first time I saw you.”
“What?”
“Back then your gift hadn’t fully activated,” he said. “I was able to pick up some surface thoughts in those early days—nothing too deep, but enough to give away a couple of your secrets, like your otherworldly origins. And a few… other things.”
His eyes sparkled and Alex frantically tried to recall what kinds of thoughts she might have had. But it was impossible—she could have thought about anything.
… Including Kaiden.
Heat flooding her cheeks, Alex cleared her throat and tried to act unfazed. “If you read my mind and learned I was from Freya, why didn’t you say anything?”
“I figured you had your reasons for keeping it secret,” Kaiden answered. “And besides, we weren’t close, not back then.” A grin tugged at his mouth. “That, and it was hilarious watching you bumble your way through acting like you were from this world.”