Suddenly, she felt all that strength propelling forward. She was moving toward the door faster than she’d ever moved before, faster than was humanly possible. As she looked back, she saw herself standing still, grounded, stuck, eyes closed—had she left her physical body behind? The grating noise of grinding metal gears pierced the air. The steel hinges shattered, flying off the doorframe. The door shuddered, then collapsed outward, falling flat with a loud, dull whomp.
Teddy came back to herself, shocked, out of breath, sweating, limbs like sandbags. She dragged herself through the opening and landed on the other side. For a long moment, time seemed to stop. Teddy lay there, too stunned to move, let alone come to terms with what had just happened. Her fellow recruits, Alphas and Misfits both, gaped at her. Clint stared, Boyd looked shocked, and even the meditative Dunn was leaning so far backward he was practically falling over.
A siren blared the end of the exam.
They’d made it. Teddy looked at Kate.
Kate shook herself as though waking from a dream and then punched her fist in the air and whooped.
“I don’t know what you recruits are celebrating,” Boyd said, her tone desert-dry. “But the rules clearly stated you needed to open the door with a key. You didn’t do that.”
If Teddy had retained any energy, she would have cried. She fell to her knees, dropped her head.
“You fail,” Boyd continued. “Both of you.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
TEDDY TRIED TO IGNORE HER headache as she considered how to make her case. She paced her room, going over the speech she’d deliver to Clint. She knew it would do no good to let loose what she was really feeling—that if anyone should be leaving campus, it was the universally despised Sergeant Rosemary Boyd. As far as Teddy was concerned, she and Kate had not only met the requirements of Whitfield’s midyear exam but exceeded them. She’d be damned if she was going to let Boyd send her home on some manufactured technicality. Especially when there had been some sort of foul play. But she couldn’t say that, of course, because it could get Molly in trouble, too. And there’d been so much chaos after she’d exited the warehouse, she wasn’t even sure what had happened to Molly. Teddy refused to pack. If she packed, she was giving in, giving up.
As soon as she made that decision, the door opened: Kate. “Clint wants to see us in his office,” she said.
“Kate, I—” Teddy began.
“What happened in there, Cannon?” Kate said.
“Molly attacked me. I think she was under some kind of mental influence. She stole our key.”
Kate looked at her, incredulous. “Molly? Girl with arms the size of swizzle sticks? You’re saying she got the better of you?”
“I think someone made her do it.”
Kate tightened her ponytail. “Boyd’s a military type. Excuses aren’t going to work. Trust me. And no one is going to believe that Molly was influenced. Not one person in our class has that kind of power.” Kate paused, considering. “And if you tell them that Molly sabotaged you, they’ll expel her, too. Do you want that to happen? If this whole mess wasn’t her fault, either?”
Teddy didn’t even need to think. “No,” she said.
“Then we focus on what we did right. They can’t argue with the facts. We got through that door on time. Got it?”
Teddy nodded, impressed by Kate’s plan.
The two walked to Fort McDowell in silence. Kate knocked twice on the door before opening.
“Clint,” Teddy began, again wanting to explain herself, but he held up one hand to stop her.
“Wait until the others arrive.” With that curt dismissal, he returned his attention to the paperwork that cluttered his desk. Teddy didn’t want to wait. He’d been asking her to wait for months. Wait to learn how to control her power. Wait to learn about her parents. Wait to find out more about the theft. She was tired of waiting.
As if he could sense her growing restlessness, Clint sent her a pleading look. “Just be patient for a little longer.”
Teddy amped up her wall’s power. She didn’t want him in her head. Not now. “You’re not going to even acknowledge what happened back there?” she asked. Before Clint could answer, Professor Dunn and Sergeant Boyd entered. Clint greeted everyone and stated the purpose of their meeting. Kate spoke first, relaying her version of events, reciting word for word the psychic messages she’d sent Teddy. No conflict there. Yes, they’d had stressful moments when their connection had been broken, but she’d followed the rules as explained by Boyd.
Then it was Teddy’s turn. The only hiccup came when Clint pressed her: “You’re certain the key wasn’t there?” As he questioned her, she felt his presence at the edge of her mind. She sent a small surge to her defenses; it was all she could manage.
“I’m certain,” she said. “The key wasn’t there.” He didn’t push further.
Clint and Dunn agreed that though it had been through unconventional means, Kate and Teddy had completed the requirements of the course. But to satisfy Boyd, who stridently maintained that rules had been broken and explicit instructions had not been followed, Clint suggested Teddy and Kate retake the exam—this time following the rules to the letter.
“We’ve never allowed this before,” Boyd protested. “I don’t like the precedent.”
“We’ve never had a first-year recruit telekinetically force open a door before, either,” Clint countered.
The only downfall to the proposed solution was that they’d have to remain on campus over the holidays in order to retake the test, which was scheduled a few days before Christmas; Teddy assumed Boyd had nothing better to do.
“If you’d rather go home permanently,” Boyd said, “that can be arranged.”
Teddy gritted her teeth, hoping the ghost of Christmas past would keep Ebenezer Boyd awake for a month. She would have to explain to her parents that she had to work over the vacation. They’d be disappointed, but they’d understand. They
