Darkling by Mima Sabolic Page A

our training sessions and what his duties were in the compound. Simona’s face flashed in front of my eyes—was she his girlfriend? I guessed that if she was, she would know that he was working with me, and there wouldn’t have been a need for those unpleasant questions of hers. So maybe she wasn’t—unfortunately for her. With long blonde hair and nice clothes, she was very pretty. Her pale face was soft and tender; however, her eyes reflected a vicious restlessness. She was a bit shorter than I, but delicate, with a bigger chest. A nicely packaged witch.
    At breakfast, I saw some of my colleagues. They occupied two tables and I sat down next to Julia and Blake.
    “Well, good morning. You don’t look as terrible as usual for this time of day.” Tibor was just Mr. Hilarious.
    “I accepted my torture and my torturer.”
    “How did it go last night?” Julia shoved me lightly.
    “Okay.” Which was the truth, more or less.
    “I heard you made a mess there.”
    Everybody looked at Lyndon, then at me, waiting for an answer.
    “An incident occurred, but everything’s fine now.”
    I didn’t want to elaborate. What was this girl’s problem? And how could she possibly know what had happened the night before? I planted my gaze into my cereal bowl. It was easy to ignore their eager looks. I just gave them the same evasive treatment they’d given me before when I asked about Lyndon.
    “So, would you guys mind if Blake and I asked for all of our psych tests?” I didn’t bother with the overture.
    “I asked for them last year. But they refused, saying it was the invasion of privacy. Nika thinks that if we had your approval, they’d hand them over,” Blake added, with more finesse.
    “Is that for your little project?” Lyndon asked.
    “Yes.”
    They looked at each other probably wondering about what was in each other’s tests.
    “There’s also the option of stealing them . . . without your consent, I mean.” I challenged them, feeling the atmosphere change. All eyes were on me, which made me chuckle. And Blake’s clearly didn’t like my threatening them.
    “I thought I’d never see this: a lamb turning into a wolf.”
    Everybody laughed. However, there was something to Tibor’s remark—I was tired of feeling fear. I at least wanted to get to the point where fear was irrelevant, where I’d be in control of my own mind. Little by little I was beginning to believe more in my abilities while being less frightened by the abilities of others.
    “Of course, all of the tests, as well as what we find, will be available to all of you. You are welcome to see our tests, too, just to prove our motives.” Blake returned to diplomacy, but their previous laughter had told me where we stood.
    “I’m okay with you having my tests,” Lyndon said to him.
    “Things I hide are not in there.” Tibor grinned.
    “Of course you have my approval.” Julia smiled, and Max agreed with her.
    “I’d like it that you inform us about your progress,” he added.
    “Great. Tibor, could you talk to Gustavo about this when you have a chance?” Blake’s question surprised me. I still hadn’t met Gustavo and had wanted to take this opportunity to do so. I’d rarely seen him, and never in human company. Then it occurred to me that Tibor and he had been here for longest time, so he probably knew him best.
    “See, it wasn’t that hard,” I whispered to Blake, and he poked my leg under the table.
    “Very subtle,” he commented.
     
    Later that day I had afternoon classes, so I took some time to stretch out on the couch and catch up with some reading. This time I would not disappoint Mr. Matthews. Chapter One seemed a good way to go.
    While reading, I discovered the answer to my question about the concept of active and inactive Elders. There were five Elders, a Pentarchy. I had wrongly imagined that they were all men.
    The very first of his race was Sango, which, in the African dialect of his point of origin, meant “God of