He snorts. “I don’t know. Go ask your mommy.”
“My mother doesn’t listen to me.”
A shadow falls over the table, and then Saint appears. “Room for one more?”
Poppy’s face immediately turns five shades redder, which reminds me of the day she vehemently denied having a crush on him. I can’t fault her if she does. With his dark-green eyes and chiseled face, Saint is hot. Not Cross-level hot, but—
“What are you doing here?”
I blink. For a second, I thought I heard Cross’s voice. I guess I have him on the brain.
“It’s late.”
No. It’s happening again.
The new, perplexing ability I forgot about until this very moment.
Because thatisCross.
“I hope you don’t mind. I just wanted to see how you’re doing.”
My body runs cold.
Andthat…was Lyddie.
Chapter 34
I don’t know what this is, but I don’t like it.
I feel like a child again, uncertain and afraid, unable to understand the powers I was suddenly manifesting. If Uncle Jim hadn’t been there to guide and train me, I wouldn’t be able to shield myself from people reading my thoughts. I wouldn’t be able to open a path into someone’s mind and readtheirthoughts. I wouldn’t be able to filter. Listen to the thoughts that matter and not the chatter that doesn’t.
But this power is different. It doesn’t require filtering. It doesn’t seem to involve opening a path, and my shield certainly isn’t stopping it from occurring.
Whatisit? It feels like I’m listening in on a radio transmission.
“We haven’t talked since the Jubilee.”
Her voice scrapes along my spine like shards of glass. I thought we were friends, Lyddie and I. That’s on me. You can’t be friends with someone who hates you.
I was naïve.
And stupid.
And reckless.
But I’m trying to learn from my mistakes now. To change, to be smarter. I can’t let my emotions cloud me, and so as much as Lyddie’s voice makes me want to rip her throat out with my bare hands, I force myself to take a breath and listen.
“About her, I mean.”Lyddie pauses.“If it makes you feel better, she fooled me, too.”
I don’t know if the transmission cuts out or if Cross just isn’t responding, but it’s several seconds before Lyddie speaks again.
“Look, you don’t have to tell me if you were together. Roe thinks you were. But regardless, I know you liked her. You shortlisted her for Elite. You must have seen promise in her, at least as a soldier. You shouldn’t feel stupid about that.”
“Do you?”
Cross’s voice, his deep raspy tone, is like a knife to the heart.
I can still hear that voice begging me to run away with him. Every day I wonder if I made a mistake saying no.
