Moonless Night

Chapter 13

  "Stella healed the boy?" Myles asked, not skeptically but fascinated. "How exactly did she do it?"

  "That's not something I can explain," I said quietly, desperately trying to redirect from where the conversation was heading. "It just happened." Not only did it involve me explaining something beyond my understanding, the explanation would make me think about the healing I got from the man with emerald eyes. They did not need to see my visible reactions to that memory.

  "And what you to the boy after that just happened," Gabriel said in a low voice. "After you helped him, you did that. I like your reasons, but was that necessary? I'm not aware of how you did it, but that was kind of cruel, wouldn't you say?"

  "What," the Seventh said, still amidst his shock. "She did something else abnormal?"

  "Yeah," Gabriel sighed. "I'm starting to wonder if she's even human."

  My eyes drifted to the ceiling. No one's eyes were up there. And who were they to call me abnormal? They're the abnormal ones.

  "So what did she do?" Aliss asked, her excitement obvious in her voice.

  "When the boy wouldn't listen to her," Gabriel began, enjoying my torment. "She—What is that?"

  "Huh," Aliss said and went silent. I looked down from the ceiling to see her eyes unfocused. She was "seeing" something again.

  "What?" The Seventh stiffened as he heard her thoughts, I presumed. "Stella, your brother is on his way here."

  I blinked. "Here? How does he know I'm here? I didn't tell him."

  "Because you called him," Aliss said, ignoring the disapproving looks from the Kuran parents when they heard I hadn't told Evan where I was going.

  My eyebrows knitted at the familiar words. "I called him? I haven't been on my phone once since I got here."

  "It was when you cried out." The Seventh said out of nowhere.

  "What do you mean?" Myles asked. "She never cried out."

  "He meant emotionally," Kaspian muttered. "Right?"

  "Emotionally?" Myles repeated curiously.

  "From what I've felt from her," Kaspian said, staring at me with the same strange look from the other night. "She feels really—"

  "No," the Seventh interjected. "I meant mentally."

  Mentally? What did he mean I cried out mentally—oh. Oh. Crap. I called out to Evan again? How many times would I unconsciously do that? And how in the world did the Seventh know? I knew he could read minds, or see minds, whatever, but he seemed unaware of it the last time it happened. How did he know this time?

  "You mean she called out to her brother with her mind," Serena said, sounding as if it were the stupidest thing she'd ever heard. "You heard her?"

  The Seventh ran a hand through his dark hair, almost embarrassed. "Actually, no, I didn't hear her. This is just a theory."

  "If she really cried out," Aliss said, and undertone in her voice as if she were hinting something. "Wouldn't you have been able to hear her?"

  The Seventh crossed his arms and cleared his throat unnecessarily. "Well, uh, not quite, you see..."

  "Is there something's you're not telling us about Stella?" Aliss asked, eyes wide with innocent curiosity. You're kidding.