Finding Sky

Little ones? She was the smal est of the family by a long chalk.

‘Breakfast! Trace and Uriel—plates. Xav—knives and forks. Yves and Victor—you make the pancakes. Wil —get the maple syrup.’

‘What about Zed?’ grumbled Yves, getting out a mixing bowl.

Karla smiled at us. ‘He’s got his hands ful , comforting his girl, and is just where he should be.

Sit down, you two.’

Zed pul ed me into his lap in the breakfast nook and I sat back to enjoy the show. The most dangerous boys in Wrickenridge were completely different at home. Though Trace and Victor were grown men, they did not dare sass their mother and buckled down to the tasks with everyone else. Not having to hide their powers in front of me, I soon got used to seeing the Benedicts summon things they needed, floating it to hand. It was fascinating. I realized I could see them doing it. The power showed up to me as a white light, very faint, like a thread. I had to concentrate or I missed it. I wondered if I could do the same thing. I watched as Trace levitated an egg from the box and then, giving in to impulse, I imagined lassoing it with my own power. To my utter shock, the egg veered from his control and zoomed towards us. Zed made me duck just in time. The egg hit the wal behind us and slid to the floor.

‘Who did that?’ shrieked Karla in outrage. ‘Xav? I wil not have you throwing eggs at our guest!’

Xav looked most offended. ‘It wasn’t me. Why do you always think it’s my fault?’

‘Because it usual y is,’ said Wil drily, as he nudged Xav from behind, making him drop the cutlery on the table.

‘Who did it?’ Karla repeated, determined to get an answer.

‘Whoever it is wil have the rest of the eggs shoved down their neck,’ growled Zed, putting an arm protectively around my waist.

‘Who?’ repeated Karla, revealing that height was not needed to look scary.

‘Um … I think it was me,’ I confessed.

Zed’s jaw dropped. I discovered that astonishment was coloured glittering silver.

‘I was seeing you do stuff—and wondered if I could do it too. I lassoed the egg.’

Wil guffawed, making the cutlery dance into place with a wave of his hand. They bowed to me before arranging themselves neatly.

Saul took a seat at the table. ‘You saw? What does that mean?’

I could feel my cheeks go pink. I wished I could find a button to switch off my propensity to blush. ‘Um

… wel , moving things—that’s like a white line. I suppose I’m sensing energy or something.’

‘She sees emotions too, Dad,’ Zed added. ‘She can tel if you’re lying.’

‘Very useful.’ Victor looked at me with a calculation I wasn’t sure I liked. He was very low emotion compared to the others, or maybe he was just better at shielding.

I turned my eyes from him. ‘Healing is blue. When Mrs Benedict dipped into the future, she sort of faded a little. I’m not sure about the rest, but I think each power has its own identity.’

What about telepathy? asked Saul.

I flinched, stil not liking the feeling that someone else was in my head. ‘I can’t see that—at least, I don’t know what to look for.’

‘It takes the lowest energy of al the gifts when done close to the person you are communicating with. The signs might be too subtle to pick up.’

I rubbed my temples, remembering the pain of talking to Zed at a great distance. Where had I been when I’d done that? The warehouse?

Zed tugged me back against him. ‘Don’t think about it right now, Sky. I can tel it’s hurting you.’

‘Why can’t I remember?’

‘That’s what we’re going to find out,’ Saul said firmly. ‘But after breakfast.’

‘What about school?’ I knew Zed and Yves should have left already.

‘Family powwow—we get to skip classes.’ Yves gri

‘Like that day, back in September?’ I turned to Zed. ‘You missed a Friday.’

‘Oh that. Yeah. We were helping Trace hunt down the people who shot that family in the drugs deal.’

I remembered now how drained he’d been that Saturday when I’d met him at the ghost town on the hil side.

‘And these family powwows—you get to see what happened?’

‘Yeah, but we get results,’ said Trace, sitting down with his own plate. ‘We got the bas—’ he glanced at his mother’s frown, ‘son of a gun. He’s up for trial early next year.’

‘You mustn’t worry about us, Sky,’ Zed added, knowing my thoughts even though he didn’t have my gift for reading emotions. ‘It’s what we do.’

‘The family business,’ agreed Xav, tipping the maple syrup on to his pancake. ‘The Savant Net working as it should.’

‘And we’re proud of it,’ concluded Victor, tapping the empty space in front of him. ‘Where’s mine?’

A plate containing a freshly cooked pancake hovered in the air towards him. Zed clapped his hands over my eyes. ‘No lassoes.’

I laughed. ‘I promise—no more experiments with food.’

The mood turned sober after breakfast. Saul went out briefly to check his assistants had everything under control on the ski lift, then returned, shaking the snow off his boots.

‘We’re al set,’ he a

Zed led me into a space at the far end of the house which doubled as a games room. Trace and Victor moved the table te

‘We just want you to sit with Zed,’ Saul said, taking his place opposite me.

‘What are you going to do?’ I was already feeling nervous. What had I let myself in for?

‘We’re treating this like an investigation.’ Trace sat down at my right hand. ‘Which is appropriate because we believe something’s happened to you as a result of a crime.’

‘I do feel like I’ve been brain-mugged,’ I admitted.

‘Each of us is going to use our gift to read you—

nothing invasive, just a touch to sense which is the strongest lead.’ Trace flicked his eyes to Zed. ‘I’m go

I swivel ed to look up at Zed. ‘Is that true?’

‘Yeah, I’m like the screen to display the information. Compare the results. I can see what everyone else is seeing.’

‘And he doesn’t even need batteries,’ quipped Wil , slumping down on my other side.

They were making fun of it but I could now understand some of the darkness I’d seen in Zed, the strain of the evil he had been forced to witness. It wasn’t just his own insight but everyone’s that cha

The second son, Uriel, the post-grad student, nudged Wil aside.

‘Hi, Sky, we’ve not met properly yet. I’m the only sensible one in the family.’

‘I can see that.’

‘My gift is to read memories, anything to do with the past. I know you’re afraid I might blurt out your secrets, but you mustn’t worry: I can’t force you to show me the past, I can only open doors which you unlock.’

‘I understand.’ I drew strength from feeling the warmth of Zed’s chest against my back as I sat between his legs. ‘And if I want to keep the door closed?’

‘Then you do. But we think that you need to start building up a complete picture of everything that’s happened to you to understand what’s real and what you’ve imagined.’

I frowned. I didn’t like the sound of that.