Finding Sky by Joss Stirling Page B

breathless.
    ‘I dunno. The National Enquirer maybe. Oprah. A congressional committee.’ His expression was wry.
    ‘Er, no, no and definitely not,’ I laughed, counting them off on my fingers.
    ‘OK then.’ He smiled and brushed a tendril of hair off my brow. There was a quivering intensity to him, as though he was holding himself in check, afraid to let go of the reins. A little nervous, I groped for one of my usual distancing techniques, trying to recast this encounter as one of my comic strip imaginings, but found that I couldn’t. He made me stay right here and now, completely in focus. The colours—his hair, eyes, clothes—weren’t brash, but subtle, sparkling, multi-toned. High definition had switched on in my head.
    ‘Savants: I’m one. All my family are, but I’ve got a heavy dose being the seventh son. My mom’s a seventh child too.’
    ‘And that makes it worse?’
    I could count every single lash framing his spectacular eyes.
    ‘Yeah, there’s a multiplier effect. Savants have this gift; it’s like an extra shift in a car, makes us go a little bit faster and further than normal people.’
    ‘Right. OK.’
    He rubbed his hand gently in circles on my knee, calming me. ‘It means we can talk telepathically to each other. With people who don’t have the savant gene , they would feel an impression, an impulse, not hear the voice. That’s what I thought would happen when I spoke to you on the soccer pitch. I was pretty surprised when you understood me—blown away, in fact.’
    ‘Because?’
    ‘Because it meant that you are a telepath too. And when a soulfinder speaks telepathically to her partner, it’s like all the lights coming on in a building. You lit me up like Vegas.’
    ‘I see.’ I didn’t want to believe any of this but I remembered hearing his voice telling me to float when I’d fallen out of the raft. But it had to be a coincidence—I wouldn’t allow it to be anything else.
    He rested his head against mine. I made a subtle move to retreat but he curled his fingers around my nape, holding me gently to him. ‘No, you don’t. Not yet. There’s more.’
    The warmth of his hand seeped through to relax my tense neck muscles. ‘I thought there might be.’
    ‘When’s your birthday?’
    What possible relevance did that have? ‘Um … first of March. Why?’
    He shook his head. ‘That’s not right.’
    ‘It’s the day of my adoption.’
    ‘Ah, I see. That’s why.’ He flicked his fingers lightly over the curve of my shoulder then let his hand drop to cover mine which I’d clasped on my lap. We stayed like that in silence for a while. I sensed a shadow—a presence in my mind.
    ‘Yeah, that’s me,’ he said. ‘I’m just checking.’
    I shook my head. ‘No, I’m imagining this.’
    He gave a long-suffering sigh. ‘I’m just checking my facts. I can’t make a mistake about something like a soulfinder.’ He moved away, the sense of him being with me receding, leaving me lonely. ‘I understand now. You’ve come from a dark place, haven’t you?’
    What could I say to that?
    ‘You don’t know who your biological parents are?’
    ‘No.’ My nerves returned, coiling horribly inside me like maggots swarming out of a rotten apple. He was finding out too much. Letting people close hurt—this had to stop.
    ‘So you never knew that you had a gift.’
    ‘Well, that’s because I don’t. I’m ordinary. No extra shifts in here.’ I tapped my head.
    ‘Not that you’ve found. But they’re there. You see, Sky, when a savant is born, his or her counterpart also arrives about the same time somewhere on the earth. It could be next door, or maybe thousands of miles away.’ He linked his fingers with mine. ‘You have half our gifts, I the other. Together we make a whole. Together we are much more powerful.’
    I rolled my eyes. ‘It sounds sweet, a nice fairy tale, but it can’t possibly be true.’
    ‘Not sweet. Think about it: the chances of meeting your other