Where Foundlings Hide

Chapter 29

The next morning, I find Caleb outside my door, his eyebrows drawing together when he sees me scanning the empty corridor behind him.

After Haydn left me in the training room last night, I had returned to my room feeling wounded, my head filled with him, the pressure of his lips, his fingers closing around mine, his strong arms as he picked me up after the Khuulsu attack, his eyes when we first met.

When I finally fell asleep, Haydn invaded my dreams, saving me from my nightmares of Lana, taking away the pain of her death for the briefest moment, only to replace it with the disappointment of waking alone.

"You don't need a guard outside your door when I'm here." Caleb frowns.

"I know." I force a smile, but he looks unconvinced.

Two unfamiliar Smith soldiers guarded my door last night. I had crept into the lounge while it was still dark, opening the door a crack, foolishly expecting Haydn to be there. I was desperate to talk to him, to tell him why I had ended our kiss, but in the harsh light of day, I know that I can't. Roma warned me not to tell anyone that I can feel the emotions of others.

"Was Hay-"

Caleb's expression darkens as he reads the rest of the question forming in my mind.

"Never mind." I step back to allow him entry.

"Roma asked me to give you this," he hands me a tablet of glass, it's as thin as paper and barely bigger than the palm of my hand. "It's your training schedule."

"Training schedule?" I turn it over, examining the smooth, transparent surface.

Caleb rolls his eyes, but there is a hint of that familiar smirk around his lips. "Put your finger on it."

I press my index finger to the screen; a red light sweeps from top to bottom and then neat lines of blue text start to appear.

"I programmed it myself," he says. "It'll give you a new schedule every day."

My eyes skim over the tablet. This morning I have telepathy with Caleb, followed by fire divination with Meghan, the thought of having to test my resistance to the flames again making me shudder, then - my heart almost stops when I see his name - I have a whole afternoon of combat training with Haydn.

"Shall we get started?" Caleb says.

I place the tablet carefully on the arm of the sofa. "Is it even possible to learn telepathy?"

He shrugs. "You picked up telekinesis, didn't you?"

"Not exactly." I frown, thinking of how the power had burst from me, knocking Haydn unconscious. My stomach squirms uncomfortably at the memory of him lying on the ground.

"You just need to concentrate," he gives me a lopsided smile that would've made me melt last week. "We'll start easy. I'll say something in my head and you just need to listen for it."

"But how do I listen?"

"Here, this might help," Caleb takes my hands in his, making the back of my skull tingle with anticipation, then he places my fingers at his temples, stepping so close that we are inches apart. "Close your eyes."

I do as he says, but my head is full of his emotions, his longing and his disappointment. His skin is hot under my touch and I can feel the flutter of the pulse at his temple. It matches the beat of my heart. I am too distracted, I can't hear anything in Caleb's mind, maybe I never will. "This isn't helping." I sigh.

He holds my hands in place. "Just stay with it, what you're doing now – feeling my emotion – isn't that different to telepathy. Try to push through it, listen instead of feeling."