The Hunt - Megan Shepherd Page 0,53

if Earth were gone, they would not have to deal with the future of humanity. Only with the handful of humans they currently have in captivity, such as yourself. Easily controllable—so they assume.”

Her heart pounded. It was incredible what even this small sliver of hope could do to her morale. She pinched her eyebrows together and concentrated again on the dice. It was easiest if she let her mind probe the dice first, until she could wrap her thoughts around one as easily as if it were her own fingers moving them. She set her sights on the closest die, urging it into a wobble, then a spiral, and lifting it shakily, inch by inch, with the force of her mind until it hovered six inches. As hard as she concentrated, she couldn’t get it to rise any higher.

“Mind reading,” a voice whispered in her ear. “The three little mice cheat with cheese, not with crumbs.”

Distracted, Cora let the die fall.

Anya was trying to communicate with her again, but as before, the words only came in nonsensical pieces that she could barely stitch together. Mind reading? Cheese? She had to get Anya out of the Temple soon, so they could speak face-to-face.

Cassian frowned. “If your head is hurting, we should stop for the day.”

She glanced at him cautiously. His face was calm—he hadn’t heard Anya’s voice.

“No, it isn’t the training,” Cora covered quickly. “I just didn’t sleep well.” That, at least, was true—tossing all night worrying about Lucky. “I . . . had bad dreams. They were about the girl you took me to see in the Temple menagerie. The dangerous one. Anya, wasn’t that her name? I dreamed she had escaped and she came here and . . . and killed all of us. I can’t get it out of my mind. Could we go to see her again, just so I can reassure myself? I’m sure it would make my head hurt a lot less.”

Cassian’s face remained a frustratingly impassive mask, even uncloaked. “That is impossible.”

“I don’t see what the problem is,” she pressed. “You took me there before.”

He removed a small metal tag from his pocket. “When we use these temporary removal passes to get humans out of their enclosures, the activity is logged. It is not worth the risk of the Council seeing the log and growing even more suspicious than they already are. Wait until after the Gauntlet. If you win, you can see her whenever you like.”

His voice was curt as he reset the dice.

She leaned forward. “I need to go now. Before the Gauntlet. Surely there must be some other way we could get there, without using the passes. There has to be a service entrance or something. The Council would never have to know.”

“No.”

“But there must be a backstage area, right? Some other way to reach her?” Cora realized her voice was growing a little desperate, as Cassian stopped arranging the dice. His head turned slowly. Even uncloaked, his eyes were dark.

“Why are you so concerned with Anya?”

“Like I said,” she replied, treading carefully, “because of the nightmare.”

He studied her for a long time. He was uncloaked, so he couldn’t possibly see into her mind, and yet she wondered if her plan to cheat was written all over her face. She grabbed a die and gave an exaggerated sigh. “Forget it. But I’m tired of dice and cards. Can’t we work on something that isn’t telekinesis?” She tapped the die anxiously against the table. “The Gauntlet might test me on mind reading too, and we haven’t even started.”

Cassian kept his eyes on her. She could feel him trying to unravel whatever was going on in her head. His fingers toyed with the die, just as hers did. It read 6. He turned it again: 3. For a second, she wondered what it would be like to read his mind. Control it, even. What would she have him do? Bow down to her. Sing and dance on command. Or maybe—just maybe—place his bare palm over hers again, so she could feel that flush of raw electricity.

She felt her face burning, and looked away.

“There is a logical progression to these training modules,” he said measuredly. “First you master nudging the dice. Then levitate them. Then we move on to mind reading. This process is how we will prove your higher intelligence: through measurable, documentable results. Unless you have other reasons for wanting to skip ahead?”

She bit the inside of her cheek. “No. Of course