Free The Veil by Cory Putman Oakes Page A

conversation troubled me quite a bit more than the thought that I was becoming a crazy person.
    And that was before it had ever crossed my mind I might be having that conversation with Lucas.
    I sneaked a glance over at him. I’d always thought he looked a bit older than seventeen, but he was still not nearly old enough to be a licensed psychiatrist. What could he possibly do to help me? Why did Gran think he would be able to answer all of my questions?
    Then again, when had Gran ever been wrong about anything?
    I took a deep breath and told him about everything weird that had happened to me over the past two days, holding nothing back. I started with the silver frog at Sully’s, and he listened patiently as I worked my way through the cougar incident in precalc and the strange fortress with the flying things in Ghirardelli Square. I’d just begun to describe the bonfire to him when he held up his hand.
    “Enough,” he said. “You’ve convinced me.”
    “Of what?” I asked. “My lack of sanity?”
    He chuckled. “You’re quite sane, I assure you. I just needed to know you were seeing the things I
thought
you were seeing—that no one actually
was
slipping you magic mushrooms.”
    “You thought that was a real possibility?”
    “You brought it up,” he pointed out.
    “Hmmmm.” I couldn’t think of anything to say to that, but when I played back the last few things he had said, something else occurred to me. “What do you mean, ‘the things I thought you were seeing’? Did you see those things too?” I heard a note of hope enter my voice just then. Maybe I wasn’t the only crazy one. I could probably handle being nuts, as long as I was nuts in the same way he was.
    “Some of them, yes,” he answered. “I saw the cougar jump through the cheerleader’s Hula-Hoop, and I saw the flames rise out of the bonfire. You’re not crazy, Addy. The things you’ve been seeing are real; you’re just not seeing all of it yet.”
    “‘All of it’?” I quoted. “What ‘it’ are you talking about?”
    “I can show you.” He pulled his legs back from the edge and folded them cross-legged, just like mine, as he turned toward me. “At least, I think I can.”
    I turned until we were facing one another, sitting about two feet apart.
    The slightly wavering lights up here, combined with the glow of the city below, lit up the flecks of yellow in his eyes and made them look greener than ever. It was odd that even at a moment like this, I could be distracted by his extraordinary looks, but for a good minute or so I could think of nothing except how strong the line of his jaw looked, how his hair looked just messy enough to be uncaring but at the same time so perfect, how his hands—
    “Let’s try something,” he said suddenly, startling me out of my infatuation-induced stupor. I was going to have to see about getting some professional help.
    “Try what?” I blinked.
    “It’s called Lifting the Veil,” he said. “Close your eyes.”
    “I thought the point was for me to see things,” I argued.
    “Humor me.”
    I closed my eyes. I heard him start to speak again, then hesitate.
    “Um,” he said finally. “Will it make you nervous if I ask you to think about the view from up here?”
    “I’m not sure,” I answered slowly. “Do I have to think about the view looking down?” I shivered involuntarily.
    “No, I want you to think about the view looking out. Will that be okay?”
    “I think so.”
    “Fine. Do it then. In as much detail as you can.”
    I sat silently for a minute, trying to build the picture in my head. To the far right was the city, with the triangle-shaped building dead center and all the windows in the surrounding skyscrapers lit up. Moving left, I came to the bridge, with two enormous red pillars and the cables stretched between them, dipping down to almost touch the deck in the center. Underneath the bridge was the dark water of the bay with maybe a few boats. Alcatraz would be just