“Let me guess.” I turned to Mr. Linton. “You’re only acting as principal for my sake. It’s not your usual gig, right?”
“I have some experience in the area, but that’s correct. I manipulated myself into the position to look out for you.” Which meant some of the other things they’d said in front of Hayden might not be true either.
I blew out a breath. “Are there really guys after me or is that a lie too?”
“You’re in danger, like we said.” He knitted his fingers together. “There are others who look for people like us to join ranks with them. More power in their hands is dangerous. We’re merely hoping to keep you out of their reach long enough to arm you. With some training and the right information, you can make better choices.”
I mulled that over. Bad guys looking for others with magical powers to help them take over the world. Right. Did they expect me to believe that crap?
“You look doubtful, Tessa. Need another demo?” Fawn asked.
I nodded.
She reached into an inside jacket pocket for a business card. “Here. Hold your palm out.”
I did and she placed the card in my hand.
“No strings attached to it, right?” she asked.
I shook my head.
“You sure?” A smile tugged at Fawn’s mouth.
I closed my hand over the card then opened it again. “Positive.”
The card rose about an inch above my hand, twirled then slowly descended.
“Whoa.” I set the card on the table, my eyes fixed on it.
“See my hands?” Mr. Linton raised his arms. “Watch her, too, because the lights are about to go off.”
Her hands shot up as the lights dimmed.
The hairs on the back of my neck stood. It had to be a setup. “How do I know a third person isn’t here working the lights?”
Fawn sighed. “Stand up and check your chair for cables. It’s going for a ride.”
To make certain the chair wasn’t connected to anything, I ran my hands around it.
“Step aside.” She motioned me away.
As I backed up, the chair flew into the air and floated along the ceiling. Then it returned to hover over me.
I stared at the chair, slack-jawed, as it wafted down like a mere speck of dust. Then I checked for wire again.
“You’ll be able to do it too, you know.” Fawn held out her hand for the card.
I returned the card that had twirled over my palm moments ago. Maybe they were right. I’d always thought telekinesis and telepathy were impossible. I could see now that they weren’t. Maybe I was wrong about me too. Could I do what she did?
My veins hummed in anticipation.
“Okaaay. So, you can see my thoughts, in 3D and everything, huh?” They probably got a nice visual when I checked out Hayden’s butt earlier. My cheeks warmed.
“He’s attracted to you too, you know.” Fawn mashed her lips together as though Hayden’s visuals caused her mental pain.
I couldn’t blame her for being disgusted by whatever pictures she’d plucked from Hayden’s head. But they had to have picked my brain too. I swallowed as another swell of heat rushed into my cheeks.
Mr. Linton smiled. “By the visual that Hayden conjured of you, Fawn, Tessa probably shouldn’t read much into it.”
I could’ve figured that out for myself.
“Don’t remind me.” She whipped out a deck of cards and handed them to me. “Make sure it’s a real deck. I’ll show you some simple things you can do.”
Four different suits whooshed past my eyes as I fanned the cards. Just like the deck I’d played with at home. I handed them back.
Fawn shuffled a few rounds, then laid a card face down, keeping her fingertips over it so the card stayed put. “The way to bring out your power is not to think, which is the opposite of what we’re taught from birth. I’m going to ask you a question and you’re going to tell me the first thing that pops into your head. The very first thing. No thinking allowed. Got it?”
I nodded.
“This card, is it a red suit or black?”
“Black.”
She grinned and turned the card over, revealing a two of clubs.
My stomach did a little flip.
“This next one is a face card. Which one?”
A picture jumped in my head and certainty filled me. “King. It’s a king of diamonds.”
“Very good. Do you want to see?”
I reached over and turned the card. King of diamonds. If this were a scam, how could they know ahead of time what I’d think in order to put that card there?
They couldn’t.
Chills skated up my spine.
“Quick.” She snapped her fingers. “What color is the pen in my pocket?”
“Silver.” I couldn’t imagine where the images came from. She asked the questions and a picture magically appeared. Weird.
Fawn fished in her jacket pocket, bringing out a silver pen. She held it out in ta-da form, then searched her pocket again for a thin stack of photos. “Very good. What color car do I drive?”
I wiped my sweaty hands on my jeans and inhaled slowly. “Red. A Porsche.”
She held out a picture of her standing in front of a red Porsche.
A thrill ran through me. But... “Maybe I didn’t really see any of that for myself. Maybe I only saw the images from you.”
Fawn chuckled. “In which case, you’re still mind reading. Either way proves you have abilities. You’re a witch, Tessa.”
A witch. My breath hitched.
“Is that enough?” Mr. Linton asked me. “Or do you need more?”
“I guess we should move on.” I released a nervous giggle. “And if a TV crew springs up and I find out it’s a joke, I’ll deal. What’s next?”
“Let’s get any questions out of the way.” He leaned back in his chair. “Then we’ll see if we can draw out your special talent. What would you like to know?”
My mind flooded with a million questions at once. “Why are some people witches and some aren’t? Is it hereditary?”
“No one knows for sure.” She casually lifted her shoulder. “Science hasn’t been very helpful. Some believe that the mind and spirit are separate from the body. That the body comes into existence at conception but the spirit is already around. We bring our native abilities as spiritual beings to our earthly existence.”
I grinned. “I like that.”
Fawn returned my smile. “Me, too.”
“You said the only error a Detector can make is to miss something that’s actually there. How is that possible? If it’s there, why wouldn’t you sense it?”
Mr. Linton folded his arms over his chest. “We lead different lives. We all feel joy and we all suffer. Scientists know extreme stress affects memory, physical health, etc. It muddies the waters. We see these gifts more often in children that don’t come from broken homes, who haven’t been abused. Our searches usually come up empty at orphanages.”
“I don’t get it. You mean the more screwed up they are, the harder it is to detect anything in them?”
“Exactly,” he said. “Usually orphans have been through some kind of ordeal — abuse, death of their parents. The energy is different. They’re too mucked up by their demons or whatever you want to call them. Now and then we find someone later in their life who has escaped their past, re-invented themselves, risen above the things that haunted them. It happens.”
“Not often though.” Fawn studied me. “As decades pass, the percentage of sorcerers in the population decreases. We’ve theorized that the more dependent people become on technology, the less they rely on themselves.”
I inhaled and exhaled deeply. “So I’m a sorceress. A witch.”
Fawn nodded. “Of course.”
“Those surveillance photos…” I’d been about to ask if they knew who took them, because I figured they had to know. Since Hayden wasn’t present, they’d probably be more open about it. But a vision invaded my head of my home in the dark, our driveway and the curb. A little farther down the street, a red Porsche. Fawn. I tried to pick more images from her and Mr. Linton, but it was as if I’d been blocked. Alarm bells dinged in my head. “Why did you take the pictures and pass them off as someone else’s work? Is there really someone watching me?”