Casters Book Two: Shadow Caster

Chapter Two

"You okay?" Vega snaps her fingers in front of my face, snapping me out of my trance and forcing me to look at her.

"She's probably brain dead," Dariyah snorts in amusement.

"I'm fine, just tired." I lie.

Nerissa eyes me but says nothing.

She's been distant from me since the whole election thing. I really don't know what she's been up to these days. Been way too busy with the task force and training, and catching up on school stuff.

Speaking of elections the student election is this upcoming week.

Vega is dreading it, she really doesn't want to be elected, but Lysander won't let her drop it. She still hasn't told me what he has on her.

"Ah, there you are," Dr. Ross walks over to us.

I see Vega and Dariyah stiffen next to me.

They still haven't talked to their mom once since she's moved here.

"Oh shoot, sorry. I spaced." I turn to Dr. Ross.

She shakes her head at me in disappointment. She's very strict on deadlines and meetings and such.

"Well don't keep me waiting all day," she snaps at me as I quickly dig into my bag.

"Here," I hand her the slip of paper which I was supposed to have into her by yesterday morning.

She snatches it out of my hand.

"You test me, Emery," she quickly walks off, her heels clicking all the way out.

She didn't even acknowledge her daughters. She's a shrew of a woman. Always grouchy and nitpicky. But I admit, she's a hell of a good therapist. We have weekly sessions.

"What was that about?" Darko asks.

"I had to fill out this form for her, nothing special." I lie again.

I guess these days I've been lying to my friends a lot. Not on purpose, but I'm not allowed to tell them more than half the things I'm dealing with. It's all classified stuff. I'll get in trouble if I tell anyone.

What I gave to Dr. Ross is actually very important. It's a permission form I had to sign. She wanted me to read the consent form forwards and backward and talk it over with Cyrene to make sure I understood fully what I was getting into.

With the form signed and turned in, I have officially given Dr. Ross permission to probe my mind and investigate the visions.

After the joint task force was formed Cyrene and I decided it was best to come clean about everything. Because even if one of the people on the council is involved, it would be hard to make a move with everyone watching and investigating now. So I told them everything.

Well, almost everything. I didn't tell them my working theory about the time caster involvement, because Gideon is one of my mentors now and the last thing I want is to give him a chance to rewind time again. If it is him, the jury is still out on that one.

But telling them all about the visions led to Dr. Ross coming up with the idea to investigate the visions and give her professional opinion on them. But the subject is very touchy and sensitive. Something like a Psy Caster getting into your head isn't taken lightly by either council. So I had to make sure I was fully aware of what I was getting into before I agreed.

Dr. Ross and I have a working relationship. The first thing I did when I saw her was blurt out that I was dating her daughter, she laughed at me and said she didn't care. Things have been strangely formal and normal between us since. She's been very professional with me but expects a lot from me. As Vega warned me, the woman is a perfectionist. She hounds me until I do what she wants the way she wants it. But overall, my experience with her isn't unpleasant at all. She's actually been quite helpful to me. Much to Vega's annoyance. I know she doesn't like that I see her mom on a regular basis.