Ooh, I was so mad at him. Mad as hell. But I didn’t have any right to be. We were both single, and we’d been broken up now for almost half a year. It was clear his attention was elsewhere. So, fine. He could walk his fine ass away. I could date other people, too.
Not like you want to, Oberi whispered.
I huffed and stomped toward my seat. Kallie and I plopped down, and nobody talked.
Well, this is awkward, Oberi commented. Rishi gave a yowl.
I was about to break the silence, until a high-pitched ringing hit my ears. It was painful— like some sort of alarm going off in the distance. It made my eardrums ache.
“Do you guys hear that?” Marcus asked, cringing.
“Ugh, it’s horrible,” Kallie said, covering her ears.
Charlie’s countenance was grim, like the ringing bothered him at his core. “Whatisit?”
Rishi meowed, unbothered, and Alette remained tucked under Kallie’s hair.
Oberi, on the other hand, bobbed her head, shaking out her mane.It’s quite awful, she commented.
Despite the irritating ringing, we could still hear each other and the other noises in the room. The sound of Professor Jaymin’s shoes tapped on the stairs.
“Act normal,” I told them. Everyone straightened up and became passive, though that obnoxious ringing didn’t go away.
The door opened, and once it did, a wave of nausea so strong nearly knocked me out of my chair. Marcus gagged, and Kallie put a hand over her nose. Charlie sank in his seat. Jaymin walked into the room, looking bright and peppy as ever.
“Good morning,” she sang. “I hope all of you are having a pleasant day.”
I caught on. All of us felt sick, and we’d all been fine before we’d walked into the counseling session. That was, until Jaymin got here. Something was off.
I studied the area, looking for something new. The buzzing was coming from Jaymin. Nothing looked out of the ordinary on her person, but I wasn’t fooled by first appearances.
I studied Jaymin’s clothing as she sat across from me. There was a small, pronounced lump in her jacket pocket, like one a stone would make. Just looking at it made my stomach churn.
What if that’s the crystal we need?I thought.The kind Charlie learned about in the news articles from the library that they used to experiment on people here at the Institute.
Charlie started next to me, and it nearly made me jump. His expression looked… confused, but held a hint of confirmation.
Had he heard me? I wasn’t sure. Could Charlie and I communicate telepathically, like Oberi could with us?
I didn’t see why we couldn’t. We shared feelings all the time. It shouldn’t be that hard to share thoughts, too. Why not try it out?
Left corner pocket on Jaymin’s jacket,I thought. Charlie nodded subtly, like he got the message. I could sense he was trying to say something back to me, but our bond wasn’t strong enough for him to reach out to me.
Maybe it would be easier for us to communicate telepathically, if he wasn’t screwing someone else.
Charlie’s entire face flushed, and his jawline hardened. Oh, shit, he’ddefinitelyheard that one, and it’d pissed him off. Oops. I needed to monitor my thoughts around this guy.
I mean, I was the talker between us, so it wasn’t odd that I could speak to him and he couldn’t reply back.
Ava, pay attention,Oberi snapped.Jaymin’s talking.
I snapped myself out of it. Jaymin was rattling on about something— usually, our sessions were full of racist talk about the Elves that we all tried to block out, but this time, whatever she was doing seemed important.
“How do we feel today?” Jaymin asked. She glanced from one face to the other, waiting for someone to admit guilt.
I got the game. She was using the crystal to try and weaken students, get them to snap. We couldn’t fall for it. If we admitted we didn’t feel well, it’d tip her off to what we were.
Jaymin looked fine. Maybe she had some kind of protection from it. She blinked at us, waiting for our answer.
