Pete shook Eva hard, and his Terra strength meant she was flung around like a rag doll in his hands. But before Jamie could intervene, Eva had shoved Pete into the wall.
“I seem to have hit a soft spot,” Eva said, but the bite in her voice was gone. She seemed almost reluctant to carry on, her eyes locked with Pete’s. “Scared that Jamie will finally notice the longing glances you throw his way?” Eva whispered softly.
Pete’s hazel eyes turned to anguish, and he stilled for a moment, frozen like a statue. Without a glance at any of them, he strode briskly from the room, slamming the door behind him.
Gemma stood, utterly shocked, and Jamie turned to Eva, shooting her an accusing stare. She shrugged carelessly. “Truth and trust—that’s what you wanted, isn’t it?”
Chapter 14 – Allyra
The words on the page seemed to blur into a single smudgy inkblot. Allyra rubbed her hand across her tired eyes and tried to focus. The reality was that she’d been trying to read the same sentence for the last half an hour, and if questioned, she feared she’d be unable to repeat said sentence.
It was a horrible waste of time.
She was exhausted. Allyra slammed the book shut. It was all very well trying to do research on the Living Weapons, but in truth, she had no idea what she was really looking for. It was like searching for some fabled creature of legend with nothing to lead her but a raw and painful belief in its existence.
All she had to show for two hours spent poring over a pile of old and dusty books were paper cuts and sore eyes. The only mention she’d managed to find about the Living Weapons was in the journal of a History Master of the Atmospheric College from the turn of the twentieth century. Her heart had skipped as she read about the weapons of legend, said to have been carried by the original Five themselves. With trembling fingers, she had traced the spidery writing on the page, desperate to find out more. But with every word she read, it had become more and more obvious that this particular History Master could at best be described as a conspiracy theorist, and really, that was just being polite. He had firmly believed in the existence of the Living Weapons, which was a good thing, but then, he had also believed that they weren’t weapons at all but rather keys in disguise.
The more she’d read, the more it seemed to be the barely coherent ramblings of a madman. Dispersed amongst the mentions of the Living Weapons were copious references to out-of-body experiences and secretive organizations plotting to take over the world. The History Master had lived in a time before UFOs, but Allyra thought that he had missed his true calling in being an alien hunter.
The end of the journal had revealed that the History Master had been sent on sabbatical. Which sounded like the politically correct way of saying send the crazy professor away where he can rant and rave without disturbing the peace.
Allyra sighed.
Why did everything have to be quite so difficult?
* * *
The Training Room was significantly emptier the next morning with ten pairs having been eliminated from the competition. It seemed almost as if the remaining pairs couldn’t bear to live with the resulting space and sought to fill it with as much noise and mayhem as possible.
Allyra walked through the chaos, side-stepping lightly out of the way of some exuberant jostling. Everyone’s personalities seemed to have expanded since the First Final, and surviving it seemed to have given everyone a boost of confidence. Not that any of them really needed it—the competitors of The Five Finals weren’t exactly overflowing with humility to begin with.
She scanned the room and quickly found Chi deep in conversation with Henri. It looked like Henri was doing all the talking while Chi listened patiently and nodded at appropriate intervals.
The results of the First Final hadn’t really thrown up many surprises. François and Xolani, the Elemental College Fifths had finished first. In fact, the Fifths from all the Colleges had survived the First Final with the obvious exception of Don and Clara. Chi, with his no-nonsense approach to fear had finished second. Henri and Adriana had struggled a little but had still finished well within the top ten. Allyra and Jason had scraped through by the skin of their teeth, finishing fourteenth, beating out only one other pair, the Thirds from the Atmospheric College, Kimi and Kyle.
Pushing through the crowd, Allyra made her way toward Chi and Henri and slipped into the seat next to Chi, returning the bright smile he gave her in greeting. “What’s with all the noise?” Allyra asked.
Henri grinned, “Everyone’s trying to prove that the First Final didn’t affect them. Apparently, forced bravado is the only way they know how. Just ignore them. Eventually, they’ll all realize that nobody cares, then they’ll quiet down.”
Allyra glanced around the room again. “Where’s Adriana?” she asked.
Henri’s ever ready smile faded, and without its light, Allyra noticed the shadows under her eyes, dark enough to make her skin appear bruised. Henri looked as if she hadn’t slept in a few days.
“Are you all right?” Allyra pressed again. “Is Adriana all right?”
Henri nodded with a tight smile. “We’re okay. Adriana is here somewhere. She just wants to be alone. The First Final wasn’t easy, and Adi thinks that I see her fears as weaknesses. What she doesn’t understand is that all I see when I look at her is the strength inside.”
Allyra reached across Chi and gave Henri’s hand a quick squeeze. She understood Adriana’s wish to keep her distance. It seemed
