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  At the whistle they moved in and began again. Patli attacked with a ferocity that drove Eren back a few steps. Eren moved and blocked calmly, waiting for the opening she needed. She started to realize the reason for Patli’s near desperation. Eren’s skill level had surpassed Patli’s, not by much, but it definitely had.

  Patli’s spear slipped through her stunned defenses and glanced off her chest as Eren spun away. The judges called the point.

  Eren used the moment behind her yellow line to refocus and calm herself. One more mistake like that would blow this for her. All she had to do was maintain her control and she had this. Taking a deep breath, she released her worries and brought all her focus in on this one moment. Her power hummed beneath her skin, tickling slightly.

  Kicks and spear strikes flew at Eren in rapid succession as Patli advanced. But each one was a little too rushed, a little too sloppy, and Eren had no problem blocking. As she blocked Patli’s latest thrust, Eren wove her own spear around Patli’s and whipped it up and out. Patli’s spear went flying and she grabbed onto Eren’s, trying to yank it from her grasp. Eren let her pull it, but hung on as she kicked herself up into the air and over Patli’s head. Like she had figured, Patli didn’t let go. Pouring a bit of power through the spear, Eren flung Patli over her and to the ground. With an easy pull, Eren freed her spear from Patli’s hands and thrust it at her, stopping less than an inch above her heart.

  “Match point!” the judges yelled, one voice echoing after another.

  A collective gasp resounded from the crowd in the bleachers. Their shock sank into Eren. It took her a moment to withdraw her spear and step back. When she did, she offered Patli a hand up. Dark eyes wide, Patli stared at it for a second before taking it and letting Eren pull her to her feet.

  Though she knew the outcome, Eren was still astounded when the judge came forward and raised her hand high. Only six voices cheered, but that was okay. Those six were the only ones that really mattered to Eren. Following them, she found Aiden’s adoring gaze and basked in the smile he gave her. The pride on the faces of her family and friends brought tears to her eyes.

  There was another face Eren searched for as she left the ring. The crowd was starting to file out the exits, making it difficult to find anyone in the turmoil. Eren’s maestro and Caitlin congratulated her and patted her on the back, but she hardly heard them. She smiled and thanked them, all the while searching.

  Finally, she saw Bridget, standing off to the side of the crowd that was making its way out the door. Her glossy pink lips were pushed out in a ridiculous looking pout and her arms were crossed. She somehow managed to look furious and frightened at the same time as she glared at Eren from beneath her short blond hair. Eren smiled at her and didn’t try to hold back the satisfied look that was spreading across her face.

  “You’re next,” she said.

  Though she said it at a conversational volume and the gym was buzzing with commotion, she knew Bridget understood her. Fear swallowed Bridget’s eyes before she spun and hurried into the crowd. Eren threw her head back and laughed. After she defeated Bridget, no one would dare threaten her Society.

  “We should never forget that we are

  part of the Earth. Abusing it, or her creatures,

  is to go against our very nature.”

  ~from Life In A Society.

  Chapter 28

  Head buzzing with thoughts of battle and the world as they knew it ending, Eren couldn’t sleep. She really had to stop listening to grandfather’s stories before bed. Tossing her legs over the edge of the mattress, she sat up and stared out the big round window that overlooked the town center.

  It was one thing to spar in a tournament, but she didn’t think she could ever actually hurt someone, let alone kill them. A long sigh slid from her. There would be no sleep tonight.

  The sanctuary of her rooftop terrace called to her. She stood and put on a silk robe that was covered in a pattern of cherry blossoms—a Christmas gift from Aunt Sylvia. It wasn’t so much to keep the chill off as it was to cover her cotton shorts and plain white tank top. The chance of Aiden seeing her would be slim, but even with a slim chance she wanted to make sure she wasn’t parading around in boring sleepwear. He’d been patrolling her roof at least once a week that she knew of.

  Going around the floorboards that creaked, she made her way across the room to the roof access ladder. The memory of the intruder that had left an energy trail across her roof only a few months ago flashed through her mind. There was no way she was going to let Bridget’s games keep her a prisoner in her own house. The girl was no match for her, and chances were, neither was anyone she sent to spy on Eren. Pulse quickening with each rung, she crept up and slowly pushed open the hatch.

  This was her home and she was powerful enough to defend herself if need be. It sounded good in her head, but her inner bravado failed to slow the rapid rhythm of her heart. Hands shaking, she climbed out onto the roof and paused to scan it for energy trails. The faint green glow of the plants around the roof’s edge peeking out from a layer of frost was the only energy around. Eren’s shoulders relaxed as she let out the breath she’d been holding.

  The end of the breath turned into a harrumph. Some fearless Rector she was turning out to be.

  Ignoring her unease, she walked to the edge of the roof where her grandfather’s telescope was. The terracotta tiles beneath her feet were freezing, forcing her to push energy down to keep from feeling it. It was a minor amount of energy, and easy now that she knew how to do it. Such a thing made her wonder about a channeler’s energy and what it may be able to do. All her grandfather talked of was battle and yet she knew she was capable of so much more.

  Lowering her eye to the telescope, she looked at the stars he had been studying last. He had told her he believed there was more out there, maybe even other worlds where their kind didn’t live in secret. Lights of hundreds of stars fought for her attention. She longed for those planets, places where there may be no war and channelers lived freely in the open. But she feared such things were fairytales and their lure couldn’t sustain her hope for more than a few heartbeats.

  The weight of a pair of eyes with an intense energy behind them, settled on the back of Eren’s neck. Her skin crawled with the insidious feel of it, calling up her power. Without turning, she reached out with her power to touch the energy, attempting to identify it. It was like stepping into black ink, or tar, unnerving, sticky, and eerily familiar. There was only one person she knew with energy like that. Her heart stopped then sped up as if trying to make up for the interruption.

  It was Luke’s.

  Eren froze, unable to even draw a breath. Only her mind could move and the direction it was going made her anxiety worse. He was supposed to be in Romania. How could this happen? The sight of the telescope blurred as her vision started to go white. Then she realized she could jump from the roof and probably get away. She was faster than him, after all. But that would leave the lunatic here with her grandfather sleeping in the house below, oblivious, vulnerable.

  No. She couldn’t let another person she loved get hurt, no matter what it cost her. The thought broke her paralysis and she turned. Her eyes were drawn by the feel of that energy like a light in the darkness. It was coming from something that stood on the roof of the building next to hers. Though the feel of the energy was definitely Luke’s, the yellow eyes and slanted pupils were not. Air slid from her lungs, taking tension along with it. An animal controlled by Luke she was pretty sure she could face. Pushing away from the telescope, she walked toward the middle of her roof.

  “You get a good eye full, Luke because that’s all you’ll get. You’ll never touch me again,” she said.

  Whether or not he could hear her through the creature didn’t matter. Confronting him felt good either way. The creature ran forward, leaped from the neighboring roof, and landed on Eren’s. Light from her grandfather’s solar lamps pooled around it, revealing a tawny brown coat covering the muscular frame
of a cougar. Her heart hammered against her breastbone and her feet refused to move. A bird or even a raccoon she could have handled, but this was too much.

  There was no way it could have made that jump without the power of a channeler to help it. Could Luke do such a thing all the way from Romania? And if he could, what else could he do? Or worse, what if he wasn’t in Romania?

  Yellow eyes filled with an intelligence that could only be human stared at her as the cougar approached, claws clicking on the tiles. That stare pinned her like a butterfly to a collector’s board. Tears welled up in her eyes as she struggled in vain to move. This close up the cat was huge, nearly eye level with her. But it wasn’t the cougar she feared so much; it was the boy behind its eyes.

  Only a few feet separated them and still Eren couldn’t move. Power rose up from her core, called by her anxiety, seeking a way out. Focus was a slippery thing that she couldn’t grasp while under the scrutinizing gaze of the beast/boy. Blue mist started to surround her arms and hands and tainted her vision.

  Something off to her right creaked and the cougar’s head snapped in that direction. Eren’s grandfather shot from the roof access hatch, landing between her and the cougar. An aura of yellow and blue power glowed around his fists.

  “Get away from her!” As he bellowed, he pointed a hand at the cougar and his energy snapped at it like a whip.

  It roared at him but stepped back from the lash of his power. Fangs exposed in a snarl, it attempted to sidestep around him. The intense, almost hungry look it gave Eren made her tremble.

  “Don’t make me hurt this cat, boy. I will if I have to,” Zolin said, raising his glowing hands.

  Eren’s breath caught as she realized he was talking to Luke. Those yellow eyes snapped from her grandfather back to her. The look of dark delight within the slitted pupils was all Luke’s. Snarl morphing into a macabre grin, the cougar turned and bound across the rooftop. Without a moment’s hesitation, it leaped over the wall and disappeared. Concern for the creature gripped Eren and propelled her to the roof’s edge. It wasn’t the poor animal’s fault that Luke was controlling it and she hated the idea of it getting hurt because of her.

  The cougar was jogging down the street without so much as a limp. In only moments it was across the expanse of the dimly lit sidewalk and slipped into the shadows beyond the solar street lamps. Stepping back from the ledge, Eren turned to her grandfather.

  “How could it survive that jump? It’s just a cougar,” she asked.

  Eyes wide, Zolin strode over and grabbed Eren by the arms. Turning her, he put himself between her and the roof’s edge.

  “Are you hurt?”

  The concern in his voice stirred the fear that had settled into the pit of her stomach. Her throat tightened and she couldn’t swallow the lump in it, so she shook her head.

  “Don’t worry about the cougar. It’s protected by Luke’s power.” His eyes narrowed as his gaze shifted to her.

  She squirmed, resisting the urge to pull free and turn away.

  “How long has this been going on?” His gaze was so intense that she flinched back from it.

  “What do you mean?”

  “How long has Luke been watching you?” The tone of his voice made her shiver and suddenly the night air was so cold she no longer wanted to be out in it. Pulling her silk robe closed only made the chill worse, and turned her stomach. Oh God, Luke has seen her wearing this.

  “A while, I don’t know,” she whispered.

  Wrapping an arm around her shoulders, Zolin started to lead her to the roof access hatch. “Stars girl, why didn’t you tell anyone?”

  Eren hung her head, watching her toes melt little circles on the frosty rooftop tiles with each step. “Until tonight I wasn’t sure it was him, I thought it was a girl from school. And I thought if I told anyone that I thought it was Luke I’d sound paranoid.”

  Even now, knowing it had been him watching her all along, she felt a flush of shame. All this fight training wasn’t really about the tournament, or even Bridget, Eren wanted to feel safe from people like Luke. She wanted to know she could protect her Society from him. No, she had to know she could.

  Stopping at the access hatch, her grandfather looked at her. “I want you to be able to tell me anything, Eren, no matter how you might think it sounds. Please promise me that from now on you will.” Deep lines of concern between his brows made him look older than normal.

  “I promise, Grandfather. But, that doesn’t mean he’s close to here does it?” As she spoke the words, Eren started to shake, both afraid to hear the answer and afraid not to.

  He gave her shoulders a squeeze. “No, my dear. I spoke to Stefan just today and we talked about Luke and Elisabeth. Luke is in Romania.”

  Not willing to say she thought he was wrong, she raised an eyebrow instead.

  “Powerful Rectors who have mastered the skill of controlling animals can both control and empower them from such a distance. But he can’t hurt you if you fight back, I believe you are more powerful than he is,” Zolin said.

  With a monumental effort she was able to make herself stop shaking and put on a brave face. At least, she hoped it looked brave.

  “Then I will fight back,” she said, pleased that her voice was steady.

  Zolin kissed the top of her head and she stepped onto the first rung of the ladder.

  “That’s my girl. Don’t you worry. I’m going to call Stefan right now and he’ll get a handle on that boy,” his voice drifted to her as she descended.

  She wanted to take comfort in his words but it was hard. If six thousand miles between them wasn’t enough to keep Luke from Eren, she doubted the word of the boy’s own grandfather would do much good.

  “Rectors have to make tough choices and

  even tougher sacrifices for the sake of their Society.”

  ~from Life in a Society

  Chapter 29

  Such intense heat rolled off Aiden that Eren had to step back to avoid getting burned. Rocks gave way beneath her foot and she heard a splash as one tumbled into the river behind her. He hardly noticed as she struggled to regain her footing and barely managed. The green and gold glow of furious energy in his eyes seemed to have blinded him.

  “I’ll kill him,” he growled.

  She wanted to touch him, to calm him down, but his rigid stance, coupled with his furious tone, made her realize that would be a very bad idea. Rage radiated off him along with the heat, leaving no doubt in her mind that if Luke were here right now, Aiden would kill him. Despite the furnace before her, that thought sent a chill through her so powerful that she shivered. If she could have backed up any farther, she would have. The only time she had seen him like this was last year when he’d found out that Luke had attacked her.

  The constant pull of Aiden’s power changed. Standing beside him felt like being in the eye of a hurricane where one misstep would throw her into the storm. Eren drew in a deep breath of stifling air.

  “He’s still in Romania, he can’t touch me.”

  Aiden’s furious gaze fell upon her and the heat of it took her breath away. “Are you sure?”

  Swallowing hard, she nodded. Green energy flecked with gold started to leak from Aiden’s clenched fists as his upper lip curled back from his teeth. Disappointment mixed with the rage in his eyes.

  The pressure of his power pushed her back and her foot found no purchase, leaving her falling. A gasp tore from her and she braced herself for submersion into the cold river. But she scarcely fell a foot before Aiden’s arms whipped out and plucked her from mid-air. He clutched her to his chest so tightly that she couldn’t catch her breath. But being immersed in his wonderful pine and aftershave scent instead of the cold water was so much better.

  Through all his heat and angry energy, she felt something else, something almost hidden; his fear. He was shaking and it wasn’t from the need to channel. Knowing he cared so much hurt, but in a wonderful way. It also sparked her fury. Of all people, she hated that Luke cou
ld make him feel this way. She pulled back enough to look into his eyes and touch his cheek, wishing she could wipe the pain away.

  “It’s alright. It’s just Luke being a jerk, nothing more.”

  Aiden ground his teeth. “I don’t even want his eyes on you,”

  Eren shuddered. “Neither do I.”

  His eyes widened, lighting up. “Maybe they don’t have to be. There’s this thing I can do that other channelers can’t. Maybe you can do it too.”

  The world swam a bit as her stomach dropped. She struggled to keep her expression neutral. Having another strange ability that no other channeler did was the last thing she wanted. It ate at her that she couldn’t even be normal among her own kind. One more ability would tip the scale even closer to the legendary warrior her grandfather thought she was. But she had to know.

  “What is it?”

  The excitement on Aiden’s face made her worry. “I can force another channeler’s power out of animals so they can’t control them.”

  That didn’t sound so bad. “What, you mean?”

  Grin widening, he nodded. “Animal control. If you can push other channelers out like I can, then that means Luke won’t be able to spy on you.”

  A shiver traveled across Eren, raising bumps along her arms as a thought occurred to her. “That’d be great, but how did you figure out how to do that?”

  Looking away, he let go of her and stepped back farther onto the rocky river bank. His energy withdrew as well, leaving her feeling cut off and exposed.

  “Virgil and Luke used to spy on me using animals. No matter where I went, I couldn’t get away from them.” His voice was so hollow and void of emotion that it sent a chill through Eren.