Jason ignored her and moved swiftly down the driveway toward a huge house, built in the style of an Italian villa. It was a triple-storied monstrosity, wealth having skidded right past taste. The front door was immense—wooden with a rounded arch, set with iron bolts and a set of ringed doorknockers.
Jason stopped and looked at her expectantly.
“What?” she asked.
“Open it.”
Self-consciously and with more than a little suspicion, Allyra pushed on the door but found it very much locked. Jason let out a quick huff of amusement. “What do you think you’re doing?” he asked.
“You said open it,” Allyra replied defensively, feeling particularly stupid for imagining such a colossal house would be left unsecured.
“I meant for you to use your Gift.”
Allyra stared at the door and then back at Jason. “How?”
“Seriously—so uneducated.”
It was the same accusation he’d thrown at her during the Elemental Trials, but this time, the bite was gone, leaving his voice light and teasing.
Jason pointed to the lock. “This is just a classic cylinder pin-tumbler lock. Normally a key would be required to line up the tumblers—the operative word being normally. But luckily, we have you, and you are anything but a Norm. As small as that keyhole is—it is still filled with Air. Reach in, line up the tumblers, and open it.”
He made it sound so simple. The concept was easy enough to grasp, but whether she could put it into practice was an altogether separate question. When it came to her Gift, she’d always excelled at pure power, but opening the lock called for precision and delicacy.
Allyra closed her eyes, and the world melted into a tapestry of interwoven threads. Ignoring the others, she grasped the thin yellow threads that formed the keyhole, and following them, she formed a picture of the key that would fit into the keyhole. She pushed and twisted tentatively, sending her own energy through the threads until there was enough to push the tumblers into place. The lock turned with an audible click, and the wooden door opened without resistance.
The triumphant smile was quickly wiped from her face when an incessant, electronic squeal filled the air. Her eyes widened. “I hope you know the alarm code.”
Jason walked over to the alarm keypad, his steps leisurely. “When are you going to learn? Gifted means you don’t need anything quite so mundane as a security code.”
He fell silent and put his hand against the alarm panel, his brows creased in concentration. A few seconds later, the squeal fell silent, and Allyra’s heart retreated from her throat. The blinking red light turned to green, and Jason shot her a grin. “Well, Gifted and a basic understanding of electronics.”
She shook her head disbelievingly. “This is ridiculous—what do they teach you at the Great Colleges? Thievery 101—Introduction to Burglary?”
“Well, that’s not strictly on the curriculum—it’s just a little something I picked up along the way.”
“In your years of living dangerously, I suppose?” she asked caustically.
“So, considering a career change yet? You and I would make out like outlaws.”
Allyra laughed. “Like Bonnie and Clyde?”
Jason shrugged. “Sure, but without the death by a thousand bullets.”
Allyra shook her head again, still disbelieving over just how easily they’d broken in. “I don’t think I’m ever going to bother locking a door again—seems like a distinct waste of time with Gifted people running around.”
“This is a Norm house with Norm security. The Gifted have better ways of protecting against their own kind.”
“Warding.”
Jason nodded. “Yes, that and much more intricate things besides.”
He led the way down some stairs and said with a glance over his shoulder, “Come on.”
“Where are we going?”
“To find the booze. I promised you a drink, didn’t I?”
Allyra followed him down the stairs and into a cellar, but her proper upbringing meant that she couldn’t shake the gnawing feeling of guilt currently taking up residence in her stomach. “This is all sorts of wrong,” she muttered.
“Wrong?” Jason asked, not bothering to look up. He was studiously sorting through various bottles of liquor—picking them up, reading the label, and setting them back down.
“You know—against the law?”
Finally looking up, Jason gave her another signature look of exasperation. “When are you going learn—we’re Gifted, Norm laws don’t apply to us.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean? Stealing is stealing, whether we’re Gifted or not.”
“Yes, but Norm laws can’t do anything to stop us.” A distinctly wicked grin spread across Jason’s face. “The Norms are just lucky they generally don’t have anything worth stealing.”
“That is the most entitled thing I’ve ever heard,” Allyra spat out, not bothering to hide the disgust in her voice.
For a long moment, Jason stared at her, his eyes burning into hers in a battle of wills. Then suddenly he grabbed her hand, his fingers biting into her wrist, jerking her into another dark room. He pulled open a cupboard door, behind which a safe was hidden. The electronic lock took no time at all for him to crack, and he reached in and pulled something out.
It took a long, sluggish second for her mind to process what he was holding. A gun. Pointed directly at her. Before she could speak, he’d stepped closer to her, twirling the gun in his hand until it was pointed back at him. Taking her hands in his, he wrapped her fingers around the gun and pushed its muzzle into his chest.
“Pull the trigger,” he said with quiet intensity.
Everything happened so quickly Allyra struggled to wrap her mind around the fact that she was holding a gun and somehow Jason was asking her to kill him. She shook her head. “No…”
“Pull the damn trigger,” he said, more forcefully.
She shook her head again and his jaw hardened.
“Fine,” he said, “I’ll do
