Free Entangled (Guardian Academy Book 2) by Jessica Sorensen Page B

memory, feeling what the person felt …
    I shudder, reliving the awfulness. God, I hope that doesn’t happen often.
    This is only the start, Alana … my grandpa’s voice appears again. The start of your gifts … the start of your curse …
    “ Curse ?” I ask aloud. “What curse?”
    Silence is my only answer.
    I audibly sigh. “Where are you? And where do you go when you grow quiet like that?”
    Nothing.
    I sigh again and rest my forehead against the cool glass. So I’m cursed with a gift, but what gift? And if this is only the start, does it mean I’m not only just a Guardian? What lies ahead for me?
    Maybe I can ask my parents.
    No!
    The word screams in my head, but I’m unsure if the thought was mine or my grandpa’s.
    I get the message loud and clear, though, feel the severity all the way to my bones. Whatever is happening to me, it isn’t a burden I need to put on my parents, at least until I find out more.
    By the time Jax climbs into the car, I’m sweaty, exhausted, and confused. Jax looks stressed out, too, his hair sticking up as if he raked his fingers through the strands at least a hundred times.
    “Ready?” he asks, slamming the door and turning the key in the ignition.
    The engine rumbles to life, and he shoves the shifter into reverse and backs out onto the road.
    I straighten in the seat and draw my seatbelt over my shoulder. “I think I’d be more ready if you told me where we are going.”
    “To see a friend of mine.” Once the car is on the road, he pushes the shifter into drive and moves forward in the opposite direction of the academy.
    I refuse to look at the field as we pass by it, afraid of what I might feel.
    “A friend who doesn’t live at the academy, I’m guessing.”
    “Nope. He lives a few towns over.” He steers the car around a Jeep partially blocking the road then presses on the gas and peels out, leaving the bloody massacre in our tracks. “I don’t want to take you back to the academy just yet, not until we find out more about what’s going on with you.”
    “And how do you plan on doing that? Because I have no clue what happened to me.”
    “Me, either, but this friend of mine knows way more than I do.”
    “Why? What is he?”
    His knuckles turn white as his grip on the wheel tightens. “I’d rather not tell you until I get there.”
    “Well, now you have to tell me or else I won’t go.”
    “And how do you plan on doing that? By jumping out of the moving car?”
    I shrug. “It wouldn’t be the first time.”
    He heaves a frustrated sigh. “Fine, I’ll tell you, but you can’t freak out.” He pauses, deliberating, and his frustration morphs into curiosity. “Have you really jumped out of a moving car before?”
    I hold up three fingers. “Three times, and I have a wicked scar on my thigh to prove it.” I lower my hand to my lap. “But don’t change the subject. Tell me what this guy we’re going to see is.”
    He taps his fingers against the top of the steering wheel, restless and uneasy. “He’s an Enchanter.”
    My fingers instantly seek the door handle as I seriously consider bailing, just jumping out of the car while it’s moving seventy miles an hour and letting the asphalt tear me apart.
    “Alana,” he warns. “Stop thinking like a Keeper. Just because Oliver is an Enchanter, it doesn’t make him a bad person.”
    “Yeah, but it does make him a person who can possess people’s minds.” I withdraw my hand from the door, but the idea of jumping out still sounds more appealing than lounging around with some dude who can turn me into his own personal puppet. Sure, their sorcerer blood makes them a walking magical dictionary, but I don’t know if I’m that desperate yet. “I’ve heard stories about Enchanters, terrible stories where they make people do horrible things.”
    “And there are some Enchanters who will use their power for that kind of purpose, but I’ve known Oliver since we were kids, and he’s a good guy.” He