“I will,” I say. That also makes sense. “Okay. Here we go. Again.”
* * * * *
I work on convincing Lily that I'm some angry redhead until lunchtime, and she keeps saying that I'm getting close. But close is not good enough.
“You were really blurry for a few seconds.”
“I blinked, and your hair looked short for a second. Like a pixie cut. But now you look like Olivia again.”
“You're at the edge of doing it.”
I'm getting hungry from expending so much energy by the time the brightest part of the sky has drifted overhead. I lean against the car and groan, and then Riley's there, patting me on the back.
“This is a new skill. Maybe you should try a fresh approach?” he asks. “Maybe you're trying too hard.”
“Dad knows how to do this,” I say. “And he left.”
Riley sighs. “I know. We need to find him. That might work faster with helping you to defend yourself at this rate.”
Dad left me to deal with this High Council stuff. Then I breathe out, sensing the power build in my chest. I'm verging into lash-out territory and if I cannot get control of myself, I'll take it out on Riley and Lily, who are just trying to help.
Maybe Dad didn't know about the High Council and the voting system that could determine our fates.
But I still need him just to tell me how to survive.
Or make him feel like shit for leaving...
“We should get to class,” I say, straightening so fast and almost pushing Riley off.
“Huh?” he asks.
I hope my look communicates my urge to get out of there and away from these thoughts. Because I'm nowhere near controlling them yet.
“We should get to class. Olivia might need to rest,” Lily says. “I'll get on looking for where her dad might be. Since I'm of age, I should have access to the Rivera database, and the tools they have to track people.”
I'm glad Lily's providing a distraction and a solution. “You can track people, like in crime shows?”
“Hunters embrace technology more than you think,” Lily says. “We're not all stuck in the Victorian era using old-fashioned crossbows and wooden stakes. We hunters get technology from the government. And I'm expected to help track your father. The others are looking for him, and Dominic, too.”
So Riley and I aren't alone in that. “Lily. Thanks.” I'm calming down. Maybe there's hope for me after all. “Let me know if you find anything.”
“I'll be on it after school,” Lily says. “You two can't come with me, for obvious reasons. I'll go to the hunter headquarters, and hope no one finds what I'm doing.”
* * * * *
Riley and I go to class and try to get through the rest of the day. We talk little about my new training, but as I sit through my lessons, not really absorbing anything the teachers are saying, I think about Dad's tricking of me. When I first saw him walking through town, in front of that restaurant Lily and I were at, over and over, he looked like some random guy named Ned. He caught me off guard, and I had no idea the guy was Dad.
Then I followed him like a moron.
What was different about that?
Was it the surprise element? I didn’t expect Ned to to be Dad in a million years. Lily and Riley expect to see me as Olivia. They know I'm trying to fool them, and maybe that's another barrier to this mind power working.
I look at Riley, who is taking notes beside me.
I've got to figure this out, and I might have to do it on my own. I can’t wait for Lily to track Dad.
Riley suggests that we sneak into the mansion after school, to spy on the other Nightsides. Because not only do we have to deal with my training and finding Dad, but we also have the joy of weeding out the Originator, or whoever murdered Edward and tried to pin the blame on Riley. That person will want to see Riley destroyed in the Convening.
We drive back to the mansion, and I call Mom on the way there and ask her how she's holding up. Riley drives in silence beside me, and the radio stays off.
“I'm holding up fine. How about you?” Mom's voice is sad, but she's oblivious to the horror Riley and I experienced late last night. She's got no idea about the Convening, so Dad probably didn't, either.
How can I throw this on her? Yeah, Riley and I might be dead in a month, and you might have to start your life over again. I can't do that to Mom, even though she's the parent and supposed to listen to me. Well, she is slightly responsible for this mess. All Mom wanted was to reunite with Dad, not for me to awaken my mutation.
But she knew it could happen.
“It's fine,” I leave.
“You've got a lot on your plate.”
No shit? “Riley's handling a lot, and we have the committee, so we don't have to deal with the business stuff.” I regret this call. I can't spill anything yet, and Mom's comfort feels like it's on the other side of a wall. A military bunker wall, as strong as the mental barriers those High Council Truebloods have.
And what can Mom do? She'll just worry herself to death if she knows they have thrown this nightmare on me.
“That's good,” Mom says. “They'll find your father. Something strange is going on, but I think he was trying to do the best he could for this town. Edward was in a good spot to smuggle the Beaumonts back into Moon's Peak, and he had his reasons. It's unfortunate, but this world isn't as black and white as people think.”
“No. It isn't,” I tell her as we drive up the hill that leads to the mansion. “I bet the Beaumonts told him they'd fix his livelihood and give him a bonus if
