Free Twell and the Rebellion by Kate O'Leary Page A

He’d
apologized after all. But now, hearing him laugh it off so lightly,
the anger bubbled up, swift and sudden. Whirling back around I
concentrated on his fine features and enjoyed the sight of them
contorting in shock as I shoved him hard with my mind. The force
knocked him to the ground, where he lay winded and
gasping.
    “ Now we’re even.” The
vengefulness in my tone shocked both of us, and Avin stayed on the
ground, holding my furious gaze for a long moment. Although I knew
he wasn’t trying to use his powers, I still felt looking into his
eyes would be putting myself in danger. What type of danger I
didn’t know, but I shivered regardless.
    “ I can’t do this,” I said
more subdued. “Not yet anyway.” Tearing my eyes from his, I stalked
away before he could say another word.
    My unease lingered until I
entered the hall. I was heading for the meal line, suddenly
ravenous, when I sensed Jonaz behind me. My stomach flipped, my
tension replaced by a flutter of excitement as his hand lightly
brushed the back of my arm. I trembled at his touch, but it was
fleeting. We were in the middle of the meal quarters and it was
swarming with officers, the absolute worst location to take our PDA
any further.
    “How was your first day?”
His eyes roved over my face, then down my body, looking for signs
of injury. I was thoroughly disappointed I had no cuts or wounds he
could run his hands over and heal.
    “ It was tough,” I
admitted. “I’m very average in my skill set.”
    “ Believe me, Twell, you
are not average… in any way.” Jonaz gazed at me
appreciatively.
    My gaze dropped shyly to the
floor, as my cheeks warmed from his attention. “How was your
training?”
    The warmth in Jonaz’s eyes
drained away and my stomach clenched with sudden nerves.
    “ Our training was…
necessary.” His tone was grim as his eyes flitted far across the
room, away from me. It didn’t take a genius to understand he didn’t
want to discuss it, or freak me out, but I wondered if I was
selfish for not really wanting to know. I told myself it was out of
respect for his feelings that I was willing to let it go. For
now.
    We selected our
sustenance, vials of energy juice and high protein food. It wasn’t
even remotely tasty, but it did provide the nutrients we needed.
The sight of Sazika and Mira reserving seats for us made me feel
happier than I had all day and I finally relaxed as I caught up on
my friend’s training.
    Sazika was grinning from ear to
ear. She’d done well which didn’t surprise me because she was
nimble and quick thinking. I didn’t worry about her as much as I
used to. Mira had also excelled, reporting that although she wasn’t
the strongest of her kind, she was up there at the top of the
ranking and determined to beat her own record.
    I never worried about Mira
because she was as tough and fast as she was aggressive. At first
I’d thought her aggression was simply due to a crappy personality,
but now I knew it stemmed from the death of half her family in the
first war. I didn’t blame her for channelling her anger into her
power. Sure enough she was sitting there looking as smug and
unruffled as ever. The only difference was that now she gave me a
slightly lopsided smile (which I still found odd on her normally
snooty face), when several moons ago it would have been a full,
‘ if looks could kill I’d be
writhing on the floor ,’ death
glare.
    I met a few other cadets as we
ate, chatting with a couple that were matched. The guy’s name was
Dallein. He had curly shoulder-length, brown hair, and his eyes
were as grey as the deepest lakes on Como. He was a healer like
Jonaz, but after chatting with him for a while, I couldn’t help but
notice he seemed troubled. His match, Kaelin, had long, thick black
hair and eyes that slanted up in an alluring way. She also looked
one hundred percent miserable. Sitting on the opposite side of the
table to Dallein, she appeared to be avoiding eye contact with