I let the pressure drop and Riley sighs as he must see the regular Olivia again. “Yeah. Work on sounding different, and you're all set. How did you do that? And by the way, I'm glad you didn't do that while I was driving or we would have crashed.”
I doubt that, with the new, super confident Riley. “All I did different was that I caught the two of you off guard. You weren't expecting me to try that on you, so I think that's why it worked. And I bet that's what Dad did, too. I saw who he was when he revealed it to me and I knew what to look for.”
I'm over the moon. After the meeting and having this breakthrough, and all without losing control and hurting someone, I'm getting more confident that we just might survive this and go on with our lives, with or without Dad. We just might wow that council, and I just might have an edge against them. But first, I must master changing my looks and my voice, and that means controlling minds that have centuries of defenses against people like me.
We're still not done. I open the door to the car and step out into the rain, which is calming down. “Come on. I'll practice keeping up the redhead look. Just give me a signal when it's not working, like a thumbs-down or something. And as I'm doing that, I'll try to convince you that the sky is green or something. If I can do that, we might have a chance.”
“I agree,” Riley says.
The three of us get out of the car and overlook the steep beach that leads down to the lake. Riley and Lily go to stand on the sand and look at the water while I pace behind them, thinking of which voice I can use to make them think I'm someone else. Dad did it and that means so can I.
But I struggle for a bit and my mind gets cloudy while I search the trees. No one's out here with us, and Riley and Lily sidestep closer to hold out the cold. I eye them and focus on sneaking up from behind, and popping in front of them as Angry Redhead and shouting at them for a public display of affection. Except they're not attracted to each other and had better not be. Riley and Lily would never date, would they?
I shake my head, but my thoughts keep gravitating to that, and a sick feeling fills my stomach and squeezes at my insides. Riley and Lily?
Lily reaches up and puts her hand on Riley's back.
And I explode.
“Get your hand off him!” I shout, my thoughts turning to nothing but breaking the two up. I circle them, still projecting my angry redhead image, and their eyes pop open in shock as I stand there, hands on my hips. My heart thumps as adrenaline pumps through my body. Every muscle tenses. I imagine backhanding Lily. Shoving Riley.
“Olivia?” he asks, eyes widening.
I push Lily back. She goes down on her back and grunts.
Then I reach out with my control.
Lily's eyes widen as she tries to get up, but I do the job for her, forcing her to rise to my eye level. She sways on her feet, eyes going glassy, but that does nothing to stop my quaking and my hunger. I want to throw her in the lake. No. I want to bite her and drain her. Lily's blood smells like cinnamon. Like breakfast.
Come here.
Lily slowly walks closer, breathing heavily. Some part of her knows she's doomed, but that will only make this better.
“Olivia!” Riley shouts.
He jumps between us, breaking us apart with his arms, and then he faces not me in anger, but the woods.
I snap out of the rage and Lily screams, backpedaling. Riley keeps his hand on my shoulder and keeps looking into the trees, and as the pressure in my skull dissipates, I follow his gaze.
Someone is out there.
And that someone is crashing through the trees, image blurry. Another Nightside. They're using the same image trick as I am. They’re spying on us and they just saw me lose it.
I’ve never had anger like that before. Ever.
“You!” I shout, and as I give chase, the spy vanishes into the trees, blending into the shadows. I blink, but the blur remains, masking our attacker.
“They're gone,” Riley says, re-clamping his hand on my shoulder. “Stop. We’ll never catch them. Who did this to us?”
I stop and face the dark woods, barely able to breathe. “Someone was watching us. I lost...I lost control. Shit, I suddenly wanted to kill Lily!”
“I know it wasn’t you,” Riley says, pulling me close. “If I find who did this, I’ll kill them myself!”
I let my head rest on Riley’s chest as Lily backs away. Tears come, but I blink them into oblivion. “I thought you and Lily were together and I know you're not, and then I had so much jealousy and rage that I wanted to attack her.” I whirl out of Riley’s embrace. “I thought I was getting control over this, and I'm sorry. I don't deserve either of you.” And now someone saw this and is going to report back to the other Nightsides.
“Olivia? Did you hear what I said?” He jumps in front of me just as I glimpse Lily, standing against the car. But Riley doesn't narrow his eyes at me. “Someone messed with you. We have to go over there and see if we can find out who that was. Don't beat yourself up. Something weird happened. Lily and I never got within ten feet of each other. You must have seen something that isn’t real.”
“What’s going on?” Lily asks, reaching for her ankle. She hasn’t parted with her weapons.
I hiccup as it sinks in. Not
