Alex had to think about that before the answer came to her. “Major Tyson?”
“He’s a close friend who was willing to assist me in your training exercise,” Hunter confirmed. “He admitted to being impressed with your ability to remain calm under pressure. That’s high praise from someone of his ranking.”
“Why didn’t Signa pick up on his thoughts?” she asked, confused. “Or yours, if you were as close as you claim?”
“Upper-level military officers—and Wardens—have to undergo extensive training to protect their minds from intrusion,” Hunter said. “Signa couldn’t read Tyson’s thoughts because he wasn’t able to break through his mental barriers. As for me, I’ve undergone similar training to the same effect.”
Alex grudgingly accepted his explanation. Not for the first time, she was relieved that her gift allowed her to skip the ‘extensive training’ and simply reap the benefits of ultra-mind-protection.
“What about Sir Oswald’s party?” she asked. “What’s your excuse for the way that panned out? And did Darrius know about it beforehand?”
Hunter shook his head. “No, he did not. But leave that conversation to me.”
Alex almost wished she could be a fly on the wall for that discussion, since she was certain Darrius wasn’t going to be pleased that he’d invested so much effort in keeping Alex safe from Aven only to learn that one of his teachers actively sent her out to meet him, and unprepared at that. In fact, she wondered how the headmaster was able to justify allowing any of his students to go off on dangerous SAS trips away from the academy. But then again, if Hunter was supposedly trailing them wherever they went, it was likely Darrius trusted that the SAS teacher would keep them safe. Either that, or Hunter worked with the ‘better to ask forgiveness than seek permission’ attitude when it came to his classes. Alex had a feeling the latter was more likely.
“Tonight was the real test of your weekend,” Hunter went on to explain. “But remember, I warned you that would be the case.”
Alex thought back to the note addressed to her. “You told me it would be dangerous—more so for me than the others. Does that mean I’m right about you knowing that group was meeting tonight?”
“A while ago, Headmaster Marselle asked me to keep an eye on any unusual developments amongst the elite social circles,” Hunter said. “When Sir Oswald’s dinner party was first announced, I thought it might be a good idea to have an informant on the inside, just in case there was something underhanded going on. As a performer, Samson had the perfect cover. But when he went to audition for the role of entertainer, another mind reader happened to be visiting Sir Oswald at the same time, and Samson’s true intentions were discovered.”
“Signa?” Alex guessed.
“No. Someone else.”
Alex waited for him to offer a name, but he didn’t, so she pressed, “How many mind readers are out there?”
“I can count on one hand the number known to me,” he answered. “Or, at least those strong enough to be considered dangerous. Your Core Skills professor, for instance, doesn’t make the list, since her gift barely allows her to read surface thoughts. Signa Zu, on the other hand… His gift affords him tremendous leverage into the minds of those incapable of guarding against him—which is most people.”
Alex mulled over his words and then said quietly, “Signa couldn’t read Kaiden’s thoughts. And he had some difficulty with Jordan at first, but he managed in the end.”
“Are you asking a question or telling me something, Alex?”
“A bit of both,” she admitted. “Why did Signa have trouble reading them?”
“I only have theories,” Hunter told her. “You’ll have to ask your friends if you want accurate answers.”
She nodded in understanding and brought them back to their original topic. “So, Samson was discovered and apprehended, but then what? You decided to send an inexperienced group of teenagers to rescue him? Not your most brilliant plan, Hunter.”
“It worked, didn’t it?”
“It almost didn’t,” she argued.
“But it did, and even more perfectly than I could have imagined,” he said. “Without your involvement, the night would have remained just a dinner party. But with the mess you lot caused, you managed to confirm the identities of an undercover group of insurgents hiding in plain sight. Or a handful of them, at least. That’s quite a success story.”
“We almost died, Hunter,” Alex emphasised.
He looked at her steadily. “Aven wouldn’t have killed you.”
“He would’ve killed the others!” she argued.
“No, Alex,” Hunter said quietly. “He would have Claimed them.”
Alex felt physically ill. “That’s a fate worse than death.”
“Something we can both agree on,” Hunter said solemnly.
“How do you know all this?” Alex whispered. “Did Darrius tell you about everything? About Aven and the gifted people who have disappeared? The people Darrius thinks are Claimed?”
Hunter averted his eyes and appeared to be considering his next words. There was a long moment of silence before he said, “Headmaster Marselle has spoken with me at length, but much of my knowledge comes from elsewhere.”
He didn’t explain further, and Alex knew she wouldn’t learn anything more by pressing him.
“Is there anything else you can tell me?” she asked. “Anything I need to know?”
“I think you already know much more than you should,” Hunter said with the barest hint of an approving smile. Then his face turned serious again. “One thing I’ll say is that I had a specific reason for sending you, in particular, to Sir Oswald’s party. You’re right that I thought Aven might be there tonight, and that my allowing you to go in unprepared may seem careless on my part. But listen to me when I say that at no stage were you or your classmates in any real danger, and if you had been, I would have stepped in and pulled you out immediately.”
Alex looked at him disbelievingly. “I’m sorry, but did you miss the part where Aven almost beheaded Kaiden? How could you possibly have known a sword would appear in my hands to save him when I still have no idea how that happened? Or what about when I almost suffocated from smoke inhalation? You didn’t step in then, did you? Or when—”
Hunter cut her off to ask, “I’ve told you about part of my gift before, do you remember?”
“Perception,” Alex answered, not sure where he was going with this. “You’re aware of where people are and what they’re doing.”
He nodded. “Yes. But I also know what they’re about to do.”
Alex raised her eyebrows as she digested that. “Are you saying you can see the future?” If that were true, she wondered how similar his gift was to D.C.’s.