The Hunt - Megan Shepherd Page 0,74
to his black shirt hanging on her frame. “Yes.” He handed her one of Makayla’s matching dresses, then glanced at the bedroom, where the blanket was twisted in knots. “You slept?”
“A little.” She ducked back into the bedroom to change into the dress.
“Good,” he called. “Your mind needs substantial rest after what you did to Roshian. Ideally, we would slow the training sessions, but time is of the essence. The Gauntlet module has already crossed into Kindred territory. It will be here in three days.”
She came back into the main room, smoothing out the dress. “Then we should start focusing on mind reading. That’s the only way I’ll be able to take over the testers’ minds. I’ve been practicing on my own and I can get glimmers of ideas, but nothing very substantial.” She tugged on the hem of her dress when he didn’t answer. “You haven’t changed your mind about helping us, have you?”
He finished untying the knots and kicked off his boots. “No. I haven’t.” He ran a weary hand over his face. “But I also promised to keep you safe. From the delegates, yes, but also from your own mind. It may be possible to cheat the Gauntlet, but one cannot cheat the limitations of one’s own body.” He went into the bedroom. She heard the sounds of drawers opening, clothes being swapped. She nudged his boot with her toe. Traces of dirt clung to the grooves in the bottom. She imagined Roshian’s body ripening in the sun.
Her stomach started to turn, as Cassian appeared in the doorway, as immaculate as always. With one look at her face, he said, “I made you a promise and this time I will die before I break it. Now, close your eyes.”
“Why?”
“I only know the parts of your plan that I could read from Leon’s scattered thoughts. Let me read the rest from your own mind, so I know how to help you.”
She paused, still hesitant to trust him, but then closed her eyes. He rested his hands on her shoulders. She could hear him breathing steadily above the hum of the panel. And there was that familiar probing sensation in her mind that almost tickled. She could feel him scrolling through each part of the plan. Finding and freeing Anya. Learning how to control minds from her, so Cora could stand in front of the testers and make them move like puppets at her command. Leon and Bonebreak, even the safe room for Nok and Rolf.
He dropped his hands. Deep worry was etched into his face.
“What’s wrong?” she asked. “Is it more training? Something else I need to learn?”
He shook his head. “Something I must learn. If I am to help you run the Gauntlet your own way, I must understand your methodology.”
She blinked in surprise. “You . . . want to learn to cheat?”
“It is the only way I can help your plan succeed.”
Cora glanced toward the bedroom door, hesitantly. “Hold on.” She went back to his bedroom and took out the deck of cards she’d found earlier in his drawer, shuffling it carefully as she returned. “My cellmate at Bay Pines taught me how, over the months we roomed together. I can explain the basics. The first thing is to forget what you’re trying to cheat at, and focus on who. I can’t make these cards be anything other than what they are. But I can manipulate you. I can read your face and your tells—assuming you’re uncloaked—and learn what is important to you, so that I can exploit that.”
He leaned closer. “And what is important to me?”
Her cheeks started to warm. She focused on shuffling the cards.
“Let’s say, for argument’s sake, your particular weakness was pretty girls. Then while I was shuffling the cards, I’d play with my hair, give you a smile, do anything to keep you from looking too closely at how I was dealing the cards. If I happened to slip an ace under the table so I could play it later, you wouldn’t notice because you’d be too distracted.”
He looked at the card in her hand. “The Kindred are not distracted by pretty girls.”
She lazily spun her finger around her hair. “Are you sure?” She reached out to hide the ace in her dress, but his hand snapped over hers. “That isn’t fair,” she breathed. “I told you what I was planning to do.”
“One does not normally announce when one intends to cheat?”
“Not as a rule, no.”
“So, to summarize. Step one: learn