Ellucid (Ellucid #1) ★

Fifteen

Emery's and my stony silence continues the next morning, all through breakfast. I sit with Ryan and he sits at a table diagonal to ours with Adrienne and Carolina, casting those amber eyes my way every few minutes. Neither of us says a word, and when I finish eating I leave without looking back.

Ryan acts uneasy all morning, picking at her hash-browns as I rant to her about Emery. When we're back in our room to brush our teeth, I turn to her and ask, "What's wrong?"

She rinses her toothbrush in the sink before dropping it into its holder. "I had a really bad dream last night. I guess it's sticking with me."

I've always wondered about Ryan's dreams. Ever since she told me about her power of premonition the day of the procedure, I'm curious to know what snippets of the future she receives. It's the power I'm most jealous of—it doesn't seem like it could be tampered with, and I could use it to know if Asher and I will make up or if I'll get out of this mess alive.

"What was the dream about?" I ask.

I follow her as she sits on the side of her bed, drawing her legs close and wrapping her arms around her knees. Curled up like that, it's almost like she's disappearing back into her dream as she murmurs, "I didn't see anything. I rarely do. I just catch fragments and emotions. I can feel what the people in the dream are feeling."

"Who was in the dream?"

Her eyes are glassy, and she sways a little. "You were. Asher was, too. It felt...wrong. There was screaming. It was so loud. And the feeling ran cold through my blood...the kind of betrayal that rips out your heart."

She falls silent, her head tucked into her knees. When I think about what she just said, it's not hard to imagine it happening in real life. Already, Asher has become capable of shooting a gun and turning over to the dark side. What's stopping him from betraying me again?

"Was Asher the one responsible for the betrayal?" I ask her, just to make sure. It's getting smaller every day, but there's still a part of me that thinks I'm looking at this all wrong, and Asher's not as bad as everyone believes.

"I don't know. It would make sense, though. The only other people in the dream were from headquarters. And Asher is betraying you by joining that side."

Suddenly I don't want to talk about this anymore. The concept of Asher being on a "side" bothers me. It feels like there's a ravine between us, and as hard as I try to jump it, I keep plummeting down the gap. We're pushing apart more every day, and I know that I can't hold us together for much longer.

I check my phone and see that I have five minutes to be in Marisa's testing room. "I have to go," I say, standing. "I want to talk about this more later."

I don't really, but I do want to figure out what else Ryan knows. Maybe if I can predict the future, I can do something to stop it from happening.

As I walk to the testing room, I try not to think about everything going wrong, but it's difficult when I pass Emery and he gives me a hostile look that's becoming his trademark. Goosebumps run up and down my arms as I catch my nail on the groove of the door and pull it open.

Marisa is already inside, sorting through an assortment of guns and knives on the table beside her. My stomach clenches when I look at them, all shiny and polished and ready to kill.

"Good, you're here," she says, picking up what I think is a pistol. I notice several targets on the wall on the other side of the room. "I'm just going to have you shoot and we'll see how your aim is."