Free Seers by Kristine Bowe Page B

to the highway. Despite the time and Patrick’s reminder of school, no one seems in a real hurry to get on the road. Frances leans against my truck.
    “I’m glad you came today,” she says. “You made coming to the city more fun.”
    She has the cutest little face, which houses the smartest, sharpest eyes.
    “I’m glad I came, too. I had to experience Patrick’s wonderment for myself,” I respond playfully. Patrick eats it up and gives me a light punch in the arm. Daisy laughs and pushes Patrick back in mock defense of me. Eri and Luke are watching with amused but serious looks on their faces. Eri reaches for the door handle.
    “We really have to go,” she says. “We all have things to do when we get home.”
    “Yes. And we all need to prepare for tomorrow,” Luke adds.
    No one questions his statement. Everyone just refocuses and begins to pile into their respective cars. No one wonders exactly what he means by what he said. Am I the only one?
    He means homework,
right
? We need to prepare for tomorrow by doing our homework,
right
? Why does he have the power to make me feel like a ping-pong ball, so light and easy to send flying in one direction and another? I watch him watch me as he pulls away. Everyone else waves, smiles, beeps. He watches.
    And apparently he prepares for the next day.
Okay. I guess I will, too.

Chapter

    As I unlock my front door, I can’t believe how glad I am to be alone. I fumble around a little before my fingers find the switch and the front light goes on. The soft glow is enough to light almost the entire apartment, which is hardly a feat, considering how small it is. My apartment is above a storefront and warehouse Tobias owns. The deli occupies the front downstairs, and Tobias occupies the back. He transformed the warehouse into three small rooms: a workroom to house his computers and research equipment; a conference room where he meets with local and visiting Seers; and a third massive space I have never been in. Tobias presents information on a need-to-know basis, so I guess when I need to know, I’ll be shown that room.
    My apartment is nondescript in decorating style since I haven’t decided what my style is. And since I don’t have heirlooms or family photos, it’s kind of plain, but I like it. Its grays and browns, hardwood and creams. Neutral and calm. And tonight? Quiet. And protecting me, allowing me to go into my own head and hit replay on a day full of sideways glances and loaded statements that I need to think through and figure out.
    I close the door behind me, don’t bother to turn any other lights on, and cross the living room to a club chair I set under the window in the eat-in area of the kitchen. It made more sense to have a comfy chair in this space than a dining table. Who’s coming to dine with me? No one. So instead, I do my homework, eat, write in my journal, everything, in this chair under the window. If I could sleep in a curled position, I’d never leave it.
    I plop down, ease my feet out of my shoes, and pull my knees to my chest. As I gaze out the window at the city lights and at the way the skyline attacks the blackened canvas dwarfing the stars, I think about the power it takes to illuminate the city. And then I think about my kind of power. Power of the mind. I am good at overthinking. Analyzing. Knowing more about a person than he knows about himself. I use facial cues, hand gestures, sighs, the raising of a brow … anything. I am used to being ridiculously good at it. Better than regular people. Better than every other Seer.
    I realized how good I am on my first mission for Tobias. The missing-girl mission.
    When Tobias gave me the background information for the mission, he said that the aunt was guarded and that no other Seer had been able to penetrate a layer to gain access to the desired information: where the child was, why, and who was responsible.
    When a being is guarded, it means that for some reason, he or she is able to keep a Seer