Free Mind Games by Christine Amsden Page A

increasingly irrational torrents of anger washed over me. I wasn’t so helpless that I needed magic to reposition the furniture. I wanted to manhandle the furniture; I needed to take my frustration out on something before I lost it and did the unthinkable – cry in front of him .
    I didn’t think for a minute that he was being gallant. No, he was showing off. Look at me, and look what I can do! You can’t keep me out of your house, or your life.
    “You know what?” I said. “I do have some things to say to you, Mr. I-can-do-whatever-I-want-and-you-can’t-stop-me! You slammed the door in my face. Do you remember doing that? I was on your porch, naively thinking everything between us was great. And what might have given me that impression?”
    “Cassie–”
    “Let me see,” I said. Then I forced my voice into a falsetto whine. “Oh Cassie, I’ve been in love with you since the first grade!”
    Evan took a step backwards as if I’d struck him. Which I had done, I thought as I reveled in the pink slap mark still smarting his cheek. “Cassie, there are things you don’t understand.”
    “You think so, do you? Well, maybe there are things you don’t understand, like the definition of love. And I don’t mean to get all philosophical on you, I’m just talking basics here.”
    “Cassie, I came here to tell you the truth.” He did not look me in the eyes.
    “Oh yeah? Well, maybe I don’t want to hear it anymore. Maybe I don’t care.” It wasn’t true, the part of me that was more hurt than angry tried to say. I did want to know. Isn’t that what I needed for closure?
    Maybe, said the part of me that was more angry than hurt, but I couldn’t let him know I still cared. That would give him way too much power over me. He already had too much.
    “You care,” Evan said, gently. “I know you better than that.”
    I thought I’d known him, too. “I’m going out with Matthew Blair.”
    “You’re… what ?” Evan crossed the room to me. Though I scurried backwards, he easily caught me between himself and the sofa.
    “Not that it’s any of your business,” I said. “But I just wanted you to know I’ve moved on.”
    “He’s a mind mage.”
    “I know what he is.”
    Evan pulled himself back just far enough to stare into my face, as if looking for signs of warping. I stared back, mutinously.
    “See any pink?” I asked. A pink tinge to the whites of the eyes indicated someone was under the influence of a love potion.
    “Matthew’s too good for that,” Evan said. “He’d be more subtle. More sinister. Are you in love with him?”
    “If I were, I wouldn’t tell you.” I wasn’t, either. I mean, I liked the guy, but we hardly knew one another. I found him fascinating and charming and maybe, just maybe, the thing I needed right now.
    “Cassie, this is serious. You can’t trust him.”
    “What do you think he’ll do? Use an intoxicating kiss and the honor of a debt to make me think I’m in love with him, and then slam the door in my face?”
    Evan took another step backwards. It left me enough room to breathe, although my treacherous body missed his heat.
    “Cassie, I-I’m sorry. I-thought. I was hoping… I went to your father because I didn’t want it to be about the debt. I had to know you loved me.”
    I rarely saw Evan lose his composure. The sight should have thrilled me, all things considered, but it didn’t.
    “Just go away,” I said. “You’ve done enough.”
    “Matthew’s wanted you for a while, you know, because of what I told you before. Because you’ve got a powerful family, and will probably have powerful children, but have no power of your own.”
    A chill ran down my spine at the reminder. I had forgotten. How had I forgotten?
    “You’re beginning to see,” Evan said. “Fight it, Cassie.”
    I shook my head.
    “He thinks you’re burned out or repressed,” Evan continued.
    “And you? What do you think?” I’d asked before, but I couldn’t remember his