Free Fire and Ice by Michele Barrow-Belisle Page A

at me. Part of me was relieved, but at the same time I didn’t know what to make of his non-reaction.
    â€œOkay, so I tell you I can heal people, and you have nothing to say to that?”
    â€œWhat do you want me to say?” He shrugged lightly, taking my lemonade cup and setting it on the desk next to me. I still had the paper bag I was breathing into clutched in my other hand. “You’re not the first empathic healer on this planet. Doubt you’ll be the last.”
    â€œAlright… then while I’m confessing my strange habits, I might as well tell you I will probably throw up before I go on stage. And as for the passing out, I do that a lot.”
    â€œSo you’re a healer… who faints at the sight of blood,” he said slowly. “Very Gone With the Wind .”
    â€œHa ha.”
    â€œSeriously, I can see you playing Scarlet in a musical one day. You’ve already got the whole procrastination thing down.”
    â€œI’m sorry, when did mocking the dizzy and nauseated become acceptable?”
    He chuckled. “It’s interesting someone with such versatile gifts should be worried about something as immaterial as performing on stage.”
    â€œIronic, I know.” I inhaled into the bag warding off another wave of dizziness.
    â€œYou can control your voice if you choose to, Lorelei. No one else has power over your gifts.”
    â€œOkay, now you sound like your dad. And it’s not just the performance. It’s… well, it’s complicated.” My eyes shot up, as I slowly lowered the paper bag. “How did you know that — about not being in control of my voice?”
    He smiled uncomfortably, as though he’d said more than he wanted to say.
    â€œYou could say I sort of see things.”
    I waited for further explanation but he didn’t offer any.
    â€œIf I’m spilling all of my secrets you could at least share one or two of yours,” I urged.
    Adrius laughed. “Somehow, I get the feeling you haven’t come close to revealing all your secrets,” he said, his mouth quirking at the corners.
    I stared at him then looked down at my hands. “When you first meet someone, do you tell them all of your secrets?” I fiddled with the bag then set it aside. I wanted to tell him more. Tell him everything. But how could I? Even someone as open-minded as he was would have his limits. And I’m pretty sure that limit might be a confession my gifts came from a dark Faerie. At first sight it might appear I got the better end of that deal. I didn’t. And I’ve spent my entire life trying to erase the night completely. My father’s been gone for as long as I can remember, and I still can’t fully control my voice. There’s one thing I can tell you about faeries, if they actually exist… they can’t be trusted.
    But tonight was going to be different. It had to be. I couldn’t risk losing it on stage in front of Adrius, not to mention the talent scout from Juilliard. This was my chance to prove the voices in my head wrong. There was something I could do and do well. The last note of Defying Gravity from the musical Wicked rang out and I fought off another wave of nausea. He had such nice shoes. It would be a shame to throw up all over them.
    There was a creaking that caught our attention and then a camera flashed from behind the door. I couldn’t see who it was, but I was pretty sure what happened. Brianne had sent someone to take a picture of my finest moment — green-faced, sprawled on a desk, hyperventilating. The perfect shot to show the entire school what a loser I was. What was her plan? Put it in the yearbook, post it online, slip it into the end of year slide show at graduation? It would take about a day for the news to circulate school, the average for after-hour gossip to make the rounds. I sighed. Truthfully, I was still too queasy to care.
    Adrius scanned the hallway but