Free The Beholder by Ivan Amberlake Page B

mouth.
    “Are they safe?” she asked, and Jason listened hard.
    “Course they are. They’re with me. It took longer than I expected to transport ’em, but we’ll be at the Hall soon. Tell Jason they’re okay.” Some kind of commotion interrupted the speaker, then he said, “Um, sorry, Emily. I gotta go.”
    “Tyler? Tyler! ” Emily screamed. Her shrill voice bounced off the walls and replicated in thousands of echoes, but the line was already dead.
    Jason closed his eyes, feeling sick with guilt. How could he have gotten his friends into this kind of danger?
    “Don’t blame yourself for this,” Emily admonished. She softly touched his bleeding lip with a gentle fingertip. “Even I didn’t expect Pariah to make such a move.”
    “I should have called them.”
    “You came to save me, to rescue me from Pariah.”
    What kind of a friend am I to forget about Debbie and Matt? he thought grimly.
    “You are a good friend. Faithful and loyal,” Emily assured him.
    Jason recoiled. “Wait. Are you reading my mind?”
    “Um, not exactly,” Emily said, looking away. She shrugged, and glanced apologetically at him. “I can’t help it. You wedged some of your thoughts into mine.”
    An awkward pause hung between them before she whispered, “Thank you for helping me.”
    “Helping?” Jason raised his eyebrows. “I didn’t do anything.”
    “You distracted Pariah from me.”
    “How?”
    Her chuckle was soft and lacked any hint of humor. “You’ll see very soon.”
    Jason’s eyes narrowed. “Tell me something. Was it you who made me see all those dreams?”
    “Me? No, never!” Emily said, shaking her head. She lowered her eyes and the agitation in her expression softened to sadness. “Only the last one with the mirror.”
    Jason knew he should be patient. After all, she kept promising him that he’d find out soon enough. But it had gone too far. He was so tense and confused he was afraid his head was going to explode. “But how is all this happening?” he demanded. “And what about the flying, the lightning, and you disappearing in one spot and reappearing in another? What’s going on?”
    She smiled and tilted her head slightly, looking sympathetic. “I think you should know why you see these visions in the first place.” Then she grimaced. “I can’t help seeing bits of them when I’m close to you. They’re not cool, are they?”
    Jason didn’t know how to act around a mind reader. He knew Emily wanted to help, but he didn’t want her to know all of his thoughts. Especially the ones that made him feel unsettled and awkward, the one focused on how gorgeous and irresistible she was. Her enigmatic presence made him feel strong and … different. As if something had lain dormant within him. Whatever had been sleeping was now wide awake.
    He kept his answer brief, wishing she weren’t inside his head. “Not really.”
    “Sorry, but I had no choice,” she said, rubbing her temples. “The meeting with the enemy was unavoidable. The Energy willed it, so I fused our minds to let you see me running into your office, then into the restroom with a mirror. And of course that’s where I had that nice little conversation with him.”
    Jason smiled a humorless smile. “That’s what you call it? A nice little conversation?”
    “It could have been so much worse, believe me. The most important thing for me to do was to show you where to find me,” Emily added. “Pariah was after me, and he also sent eight Legates on their way to you.”
    “Legates?”
    “Assassins in the Sight doing special service to Pariah,” Emily clarified. “Eight of them were ordered to capture you. My only chance was to lure you out of your friend’s house.” She sighed, looking resigned. “You have to understand something, Jason. Our kind has to make rash decisions, sometimes on the spur of the moment. Soon you’ll understand that the ends justify the means.”
    “Your kind?”
    This time her smile was warm and