as he struggled to focus. He sensed where she was in the school, and also felt the other Guardian near her. His knuckles laced with white and pink as he unknowingly crushed the steering wheel in his grip. The woman didn’t pose a threat to Grace. Even so, he had to fight himself to stay in the car.
That settled it; he was about to get on Grace’s really bad side. If she didn’t like him last night, he had no doubt she was going to hate him later.
Right before walking through the doors of the cafeteria, Grace saw someone—or something—that caught her attention. Whatever it was, it wasn’t human, despite its appearance. With the heel of her palms she rubbed her eyes, not caring about smudging her mascara, and thought she might be hallucinating. Immediately her heart quickened and an unfamiliar energy coursed through her veins, feeding her limbs the necessary adrenaline to get out of there. An urgent flight instinct overcame her and she prepared to run in the other direction, but froze as a realization hit her. The black roped hair falling from the crown of the non-human’s head was familiar. Grace watched as the being entered the girls’ restroom.
Limye? Great, the crazy woman found me, she babbled to herself. As if the last week wasn’t enough? Two things occurred to her, each equally as disturbing as the other. Limye wasn’t human. Oh my God! And what in the heck was she doing at her school? Grace felt the energy subsiding and stormed toward the bathroom. Lunch would have to wait. Limye might be crazy, but Grace was done feeling pushed around.
With students walking all around her, she stood staring at the bathroom door. Grace took in a large breath, just in case it was her last, and stiff-armed the door open. Limye was bent over the middle sink, pretending to check her eyeliner in the mirror. She was dressed in regular teenager attire—jeans, T-shirt, and sandals—but something was unusual. There was a soft halo of color surrounding Limye. That was definitely different. What was startling was how much clearer she looked. It was like Grace’s eyes got a pixel app download.
Grace looked to the bathroom stalls. They were the same boring, scratched-up, dull blue. The floor was the same small square white tile. Her gaze moved to the light above Limye, thinking maybe it was trick lighting. Nothing was different about that light compared to the others. Grace rubbed her eyes again and looked back to Limye. It didn’t change anything. Limye still appeared lit up in HD. Quentin’s words ricocheted through her mind: “You’ll start to notice things, hear things—your eyes will begin to open.”
Oh, heck no!
This was a simple case of the power of suggestion. That was it. Feeling better about what she was seeing, she stared at Limye again. “What are you doing here? Are you a new student?”
Limye’s gaze pierced Grace through the mirror. “Children these days, you don’t believe in anything unless it’s on YouTube.” The ropes of Limye’s hair swayed back and forth as she tilted her head, continuing to eye Grace. Then she turned her body around, crossed her arms over her chest, and leaned against the sink. “I told you at the bank who and what I am. Do you remember me telling you I am a new student at your school?”
At first, the weight of Limye’s stare made Grace want to shrink and hide, but her scolding tone lit a fire under her. She mirrored Limye’s stance, crossing her arms over her chest and cocking her hip to the side. “No, you didn’t tell me you were a student. You told me you were a kind of Guardian and that you wanted me to know I could call you if I needed. Did you get a call, because I don’t remember dialing your number?”
Limye didn’t say anything right away and for a heartbeat, Grace felt a twinge of fear crawl across her skin, raising goose bumps and hair in its path. The sound of laughter bounced off the stalls behind her. Limye was laughing so hard she doubled over. When she finally was able to catch her breath, she beamed at Grace. “I know I said it before, but I have no problem saying it again. They definitely chose well.”
Grace forgot, in the five minutes they were in the bathroom, that Limye and Quentin apparently drank from the same crazy Kool-aid. She didn’t know how many more cryptic