Ethon (The Other Worlds Series Book 2) (18 page)

Will didn’t have to be told twice. He darted after Olinia, quickly overtaking her, and began leading the way with her behind him. They were heading back the way they had come – back to the car. What had just happened? Since when could Olinia start an earthquake?

He tossed a look over his shoulder and noticed that most of the throng had dispersed, running away like he and Olinia were doing. Some though had pulled out their phones to record the commotion. Hopefully none of them got Olinia starting it. At least no one appeared to be following him and Olinia.

Panting heavily, they reached Olinia’s car and dove inside. “Go, go, go!” She shouted, staring out the back window.

Will shoved the keys into the ignition and shifted the clutch into reverse. “When did you learn to do that?”

“I had no choice,” she gasped in for air, ignoring his question, “I wasn’t about to go with Porter to DS.”

“That was Porter?” Will blurted, peeling out of the parking lot. He wasn’t sure why she felt like she’d have to go anywhere with that guy.

“We’ve got to go get Legann,” she exclaimed. “They know he’s my brother.”

Will stared at her. “Who knows?”

“DS.” She met his gaze. “They’re after the gifted.”

:  :  :  :  :

Zedgry yawned as he trudged through the gate off his airplane. For the past ten or so hours, he had endured security, crowds, tight spaces, airline food, and boredom. It was only one in the afternoon, but Zedgry was already exhausted. He was starting to wonder if Ethon travel was actually any better than that of the Other Worlds. True, a horse wore him out after sitting on it all day, but it didn’t generally make him itch to punch the next person to annoy him. A horse just made him sore.

“Now for the easy part.” Trenton smiled as he moved alongside Zedgry, a small duffel bag in hand.

“It really feels great to walk again,” Zedgry grumbled.

Trenton chuckled. “Did you tell your sister we’re here?”

“Not yet.”

Zedgry knew that Trenton was referring to silent communication. Over the past few days, he and Olinia had been reaching out to the other’s mind. It was simple enough now that they were in the same realm and not subject to Vrenyx shields.

Releasing a sigh, Zedgry ventured into the familiar space of his sister’s mind. There were no mental barriers for him to bypass. They kept their inner connection open at all times.

Nia?

Not a good time to chat, Zedge.

What’s going on?
  Zedgry frowned.
We just arrived.

I’ve got to go.

Suddenly she was gone, the connection lost. Zedgry turned to Trenton. “Something’s wrong.”

“What do you mean?”

“Olinia closed our connection,” he whispered. “I think she’s in trouble.”

The elderly man watched him intently. “Well, we’re not too far from the house. We’ll sort things.” He extended his mobile phone to Zedgry. “Try to ring Will.”

“Alright.” Anxiety crept over Zedgry as he accepted the phone. What sort of trouble could his twin possibly get into in Ethon?

11

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Legann was more anxious than usual for his classes to finish. It was causing him to pay even less attention to his Ethon studies than normal. It was hard to focus, knowing that the brother he had never met would arrive within the hour. His thoughts kept drifting to questions about what his brother was like.

It didn’t help that he was more than just a little excited to return to the Other Worlds. He would be going home within the next twenty-four hours. It was both alarming and invigorating. It’d been basically two years since he’d last been in the Other Worlds. As he and Olinia had discussed before, at the moment, he felt more like an Ethon than an Other Worlder. Yet, he still wanted to go home.

His mixed emotions kept him up for much of the night before. Not wanting to wait around the rest of the morning and afternoon with the same feelings, Legann had decided to go to school for one last day as a distraction. He was regretting that decision now though. School was not working as a distraction, and, unfortunately, Legann was only halfway through his classes for the day. There were still several hours of school ahead of him, and Legann was no longer able to skim by unnoticed.

When Legann spouted his tragic life story the week before, he became the favored gossip topic of the entire student body, as well as half the school’s faculty. He had the growing suspicion that some of the teachers he passed in the hall eyed him with a thousand unasked questions. Once again, Legann wished he had his sister’s gift of hearing human minds.

The worst part about his newfound fame was that it was all done supposedly behind his back. Legann only knew everyone was talking about him from little snippets of conversation he managed to overhear wherever he went. Oddly enough though, no one had confronted him about his dark past. Instead, they all preferred to gawk at him from a distance. Even Lillie, who Legann had assumed to be a new friend, was avoiding him, returning to her lonely place on the outskirts of society. She didn’t care to be seen with the school’s spectacle.

Legann sighed and continued to doodle on his notebook. At the front of the class, Mr. Erik Phillips, was explaining what a polygraph was used for in criminal cases. It seemed like a stretch topic to Legann, since Phillips was supposed to be teaching American Government. True, the justice system was a part of government, but to Legann, spending an entire week on police departments seemed a little much. Legann guessed that Phillips was trying to bask in a life he wished he could trade his own for.

Unfortunately for Phillips, Legann wasn’t really in the mood to indulge his teacher’s career regrets. Instead, he purposely ignored the monologue up front and focused all his attention on his drawing. He must have fallen into some sort of stupor, though, because in what seemed like just a few seconds, his teacher was calling his name irritably.

“Legann?”

“Yes?” He raised his eyes from his desk and blinked. Phillips was no longer alone at the front. A uniformed policeman was standing beside Phillips, rigging something together next to an empty chair. The chair was what worried Legann. It was centered in the front of the class for all eyes to witness.

“Since you seem so disinterested in what I’ve been saying, perhaps being our first volunteer would spark your curiosity,” Phillips smirked.

Dread spread through Legann’s insides as he stared at Phillips. The smug look on his face didn’t flatter his pale almost translucent skin and orange hair. Nor did it make the mustache that matched his hair look any less ridiculous.

“Volunteer for what?” Legann asked slowly.

The class snickered at his question, but Legann cared very little about what they thought. Phillips snorted. “To show the class how a polygraph works in person.”

Legann grimaced. So that was it. Phillips wanted him to be put into a lie detector so the whole class could learn the truth of his past. “I’d rather not.”

Phillips seemed to be expecting this answer. “Class participation is thirty percent of your grade.”

“Then I guess I’ll fail,” Legann retorted. What did he care? He’d be ditching Ethon long before summer.

“I’d rather not have you retake my class in summer school, Mr. Reien,” Phillips shot back. “Come be our first volunteer. I promise it’s quite painless.”

Perfect.
Legann felt slightly ill, but stood anyway and made his way to the front, taking a seat in the chair with an audience. Bolting to the door didn’t really seem like a logical option.

As the cop began to hook him up to the machine, Legann’s eyes caught with Hillary’s. She was in the second row on the left side of the class, facing Legann. The rest of the students were watching him with grins on their faces, excited for something entertaining to occur in Phillips’s otherwise boring class. Hillary wasn’t smiling – she looked concerned. The look surprised Legann. Why would she worry about him?

“Alright, let’s begin.” Phillips’ voice pulled Legann’s gaze away from Hillary. “Officer Jansen, let me know when he’s ready for questions.”

“Go ahead,” the cop murmured.

“Excellent,” Phillips beamed. “Now, class, we’ll begin with some simple questions so you can watch the monitor to see which is a lie and which is truth.”

Legann strained his neck to see the monitor that the officer was showing the class, but it was too far forward on the desk for him to get a good view. This might have been done on purpose though so that he wouldn’t be able to observe the outcome of his own words.

Phillips turned to Legann. “Tell us, what is your name?”

“Legann Reien.”

“Great.” Phillips pointed at the monitor. “See? This is what a truth looks like. Now, Legann, answer incorrectly on this next question so we can see the difference. What color eyes do you have?”

Legann rolled his eyes and lied, “My eyes are blue.”

“Splendid.” Phillips grinned.

“Am I done?” Legann tried his luck.

“Of course not,” Phillips blustered. “We’ve only just begun.” He returned his attention to the class. “What shall we ask him next?”

A blonde girl, named Rachel Dante, in the first row raised her hand. When Phillips gestured for her to speak, she said, “Did your parents really die the day you were born?”

Legann winced inwardly. It had begun. He didn’t like this one bit. “Yes, they did. But I don’t think I should have to answer questions like that,” he replied coldly.

“No, you don’t,” Phillips assured. “Let’s keep the questions light. Legann can pick which questions he wants to answer the truth to and we can see if we can figure out if he’s lying.”

A pimple-faced sophomore boy in the middle of the classroom that Legann couldn’t remember the name of raised his hand next. “Where did you grow up?”

This was keeping it light? Legann decided to lie on this one. “I was raised on the moon.”

A couple students giggled as another hand shot up. “Have you ever killed someone?” A familiar voice asked.

Legann whirled to Hillary. Once again their eyes locked. It was almost as if she were challenging him not to answer. Did she know something about him? For a brief moment Legann panicked. He had in fact killed before. That was the outcome of participating in a war. But Hillary would have had no way to know that about him. She was most likely just trying to make him uncomfortable in an attempt to get back at him for yelling at her in the cafeteria. Well, he wasn’t about to be caught in her game.

He winked at her. “Not with my bare hands.”

A knock sounded on the classroom’s door, causing everyone to turn. A middle-aged woman who Legann recognized to be the school’s office receptionist opened the door, a flustered look on her face.

Phillips blinked. “Can we help you?”

The woman appeared startled to find Legann attached to a machine, but said, “Principal Harney would like to see Legann Reien.”

It was the summoning Legann had been half-anticipating since his outbreak in the cafeteria. Mrs. Eliza J. Harney was his high school’s principal. News of his episode had surely reached her ears by now.

Releasing his breath in a rush, Legann glanced up at Phillips for instruction. “Yes, yes, you must go. Get your things.”

 Once freed from the polygraph, Legann retrieved his notebook from his desk. For the hundredth time that week he had the feeling of many eyes on his back as he stepped through the room to the door and waiting receptionist. He noticed Hillary was watching him with that concerned look again as he left.

When he and the receptionist were out in the hallway alone, passing between rows of lockers, Legann asked, “Why does Mrs. Harney want to see me?”

“I’m not sure, dear.”

She was a bad liar. Legann didn’t need to read minds to know she wasn’t telling him the truth. An eerie feeling was forming in the pit of his stomach. In the Other Worlds, it had signaled something was wrong, but now it most likely meant that Legann was dreading his upcoming conversation with Harney. Would it be too late to take off now? He doubted the receptionist would be able to catch him if he ran out the school’s door.

A second later though, Legann’s escort pushed open the door to the registration office and held it for Legann to walk inside. “Wait here, please,” she said politely, gesturing toward the three colorful plastic chairs against the right wall.

It was too late to run. Legann reluctantly obeyed as she disappeared around a corner, off to Harney’s office. He frowned as he took in the tiny lobby. It was painted a dull blue and consisted of the receptionist’s desk across from where Legann sat, and four smaller offices located behind that, hidden by the wall Legann’s messenger had walked behind. Legann had viewed the back offices only once before when he’d registered for classes with Olinia and Trenton over a year ago.

One office belonged to a guidance councilor, one to the Vice-Principal, Mr. Charles Kong, one to Mrs. Harney, and the last was used as a computer room for all student registration. Each office was painted a different pastel color. His least favorite, though, was the soft pink of Harney’s office.

“You can come with me now.”

Legann turned in surprise. He’d been staring out the long window across from the door he had entered through. His escort was back, standing beside her desk. Taking a deep breath, he followed her to the pink office.

That feeling was growing stronger inside of him, spreading into his limbs. As he finished the short walk to Harney, the door opened, revealing her short, round form behind her desk.

She had a forced smile on her face as she said to the receptionist, “Thank you, Mary.” Then to Legann, she waved a hand for him to enter. “Come on in, Mr. Reien. Please, have a seat.”

As Legann lowered himself into the square, stuffed chair facing Harney’s birch desk, he heard the door shut behind him. “So, Mr. Reien, do you know why I brought you here?” Harney asked.

He had his suspicions, but he wasn’t about to voice them. He shook his head, feigning innocence. “No.”

She gazed at him through her narrow, dull blue eyes and flattened her already thin lips in a look that told him she clearly didn’t believe him. “I have been informed of your recent incident. I am concerned about your home life.”

“My home life is just fine.” But he spat out the words too quickly. Harney was frowning at him.

“If this is true, you won’t mind answering some questions then.”

He grimaced. “Right.”

“Excellent.” She gestured toward the back of the room, and Legann turned.

Two burly men stood on either side of a thin, very beautiful, blonde woman with sea green eyes. She held a leather briefcase in her lap, sitting on another stuffed chair. Legann was shocked to find anyone else in the room. The door must have hid them when he first entered.

The woman stood and moved to the edge of Harney’s desk, while the men remained where they were. She offered her hand to Legann and in a crisp British accent she said, “Hello, Legann. I am a state social worker. Mrs. Harney asked me to come.”

Legann shook her soft hand briefly. She looked like she was in her early twenties, perhaps even younger. How would someone so young be a social worker? Legann furrowed his eyebrows and murmured, “Nice to meet you.”

She leaned onto the edge of the desk and dropped her briefcase beside her. “Legann, you do not live with your parents, do you?”

“No,” he replied. “My sister is my legal guardian.”

“I see. Where are your parents?”

“Dead.”

“I am sorry to hear that. How did they die?”

He clenched his fist at his side. “I was too young to remember it.”

“Hmm.” She opened her briefcase and began rummaging through it. “What if I told you that I know exactly how your parents were killed?”

“I’d say it’s rather unlikely that you do,” he retorted.

She looked up and gave him a tight smile. “You are special, Legann. But did you know that there are many other special children, just like you?”

Legann frowned at the mention of him being a child. He was seventeen. In his realm, he would be an adult. He felt like rolling his eyes, but her words confused him. What did she mean by special? She couldn’t possibly be talking about his gifts. Did she mean that others had had their parents murdered too?