Finding Sky

‘What the—!’ Sean grabbed his head, blood dripping from his nose. ‘You little witch!’

‘Maria, do something!’ ordered Daniel Kel y as the ceiling panels began to fal into the room.

Maria thrust both palms towards me. It was like hitting a wal after freewheeling down a hil . I was thrown back in the chair, ending up on the floor, my attack cut off.

‘Our little savant has learned to use her powers, has she?’ With a wave of his hand, Daniel Kel y righted my chair. ‘But you don’t seriously think you can match the three of us, do you? No, I can see from your eyes that you don’t. You’re stil waiting for your cavalry to charge in and save you, but the bad news for you is that they won’t. This floor is locked down and they have no warrant. By the time they get one, the drama wil have relocated to the casino.’ He grabbed my head between his hands and squeezed.

‘Now sit back and relax. This won’t take long.’

The next thing I remember is walking out of the lift into the hotel lounge. A pianist sat at his instrument crooning a song about people needing people. But I didn’t need anyone. I wanted to shoot them, didn’t I?

I strol ed into the casino, gun tucked in the smal of my back under my shirt.

‘Hey, it’s Lady Luck!’ George Mitchel the Third swooped on me.

‘What you stil doing here, George?’ I asked him.

Was I supposed to kil him too? I felt a bead of sweat run down my face. I wiped it away.

‘Just saying goodbye to the tables. I swore to you I wouldn’t be back and I’m a man of my word.’

‘That’s good, George. You best get going.’

‘Yeah, I’m saddling up and heading out.’ He tipped his hat to me, then squinted at my face. ‘You don’t look so good, honey.’

‘I feel a bit strange.’

‘Go lie down. Take a load off. Can I get someone for you?’

I rubbed my forehead. I wanted someone. Zed. He was close.

‘Your parents?’

Artists. Art. Didn’t know you understood art. Old Masters. Layers. It was important but I couldn’t remember why. Images were flicking through my brain like wind stirring the leaves of one of my graphic novels, opening on random pages.

‘I’m OK. I’l go up to my room in a moment.’

‘You do that, honey. It was nice meeting you.’

‘And you, George.’

He turned his back, walking away with a wide-legged gait.

Shoot him.

No!

Take out the gun and shoot him.

My hand crept round to the gun in my waistband, fingers curling round the butt, drawing it clear. Then someone screamed—Maria Kel y rushed for the security guard and pointed at me.

‘She’s got a gun!’ she shrieked.

I looked down at my hand. So I did. I was supposed to run and fire the thing at random.

Do it.

Old Masters. False memories. Scrape away.

The security guard hit the alarm. I stood irresolute in the middle of the casino as gamblers dived for cover. A slot machine paid out a win to an empty stool.

‘Sheesh, honey, you don’t want to fire that thing!’

cal ed George from the safety of the other side of a pinbal table.

My brain was screaming at me to act. I couldn’t stop myself—I raised the muzzle to the ceiling and squeezed the trigger. The recoil was incredible, jarring my wrist. A chandelier shattered. How could I have done that? I was trapped in a nightmare with my body and brain no longer under my control.

That’s it—now target the people.

No, this was wrong. I hated guns. I stared down at the big black thing in my hand as if it was a cancerous growth, wanting to drop it but my mind shouted at me to start firing.

Then, scrambled from the upper floors of the hotel, the FBI made it into the casino, pushing hotel security aside. I must have looked odd, standing in the middle of an empty floor, surrounded by spil ed cards and chips, a ticking roulette wheel, but making no effort to defend myself.

‘Drop the gun, Sky!’ cal ed Victor. ‘You don’t want to do this. This isn’t you.’

I tried to shake it loose but my fingers wouldn’t uncurl, my brain over-riding the command.

Turn the gun on yourself. Say you’ll kill yourself ifthey come any closer. Daniel Kel y’s words brought the muzzle under my ear.

‘Don’t come any closer,’ I said in a shaky voice.

There was a scream to my left. Security guards were restraining my parents as they tried to reach me.

‘Sky, what are you doing?’ Sal y cried, her face drained of colour.

‘Come on, love, put the gun down. You need help.

No one’s been harmed—we’l get you help,’ Simon said desperately.

Somehow their words didn’t penetrate. More powerful were the whisperings that I should end it al , punish the Benedicts for using me.

‘Stay back—no one come any closer!’ My finger tightened on the trigger. There seemed no other way.

Then Zed stepped out from behind Victor, shaking his brother off when he attempted to stop him.

‘She won’t shoot me,’ he said calmly, though his lights were flickering red with anger.

Was he angry with me? I hadn’t done anything, had I?

No, he’s not angry with me. With someone else.

The Kel ys.

Zed came towards me. ‘Second time I step in front of a gun for you, Sky. We’ve real y got to stop meeting like this.’

He was making fun of me? I was threatening to kil myself and he cracked a joke? This wasn’t the script.

People were supposed to run in terror—I was supposed to die in a hail of bul ets.

‘You shouldn’t be here, Zed.’ Thirsting for something that made sense in this madness, I drank in the sight of him—broad shoulders, the strong lines of his face, the deep blue-green eyes.

‘Sky, you have to understand that now I’ve found you, I’m not going away. Deep down you don’t want me to either. Soulfinders don’t hurt each other. We can’t because it would be like harming yourself.’

‘Soulfinder?’ What was I doing? The internal compulsion to pul the trigger melted like frost in the sun. This al felt wrong because it wasn’t my script.

My destiny stood in front of me, loving me enough to risk me shooting him. Soulfinder. The Kel ys hadn’t known that I had a power they could not defeat; I’d already been found—I’d managed to protect that secret when they’d destroyed al my other defences.

Recognition of my soulfinder punched through the suffocating false layers with a strength not even a skil ed savant could counter.

It al became clear. My fingers loosened on the gun butt and I let it drop to the floor.

I gave a shaky shrug.

‘Um … what can I say? Sorry?’

Zed rushed the last few yards and grabbed me in a hug. ‘Those Kel ys got you again?’

I buried my head in his chest. ‘Yeah, they did. I was supposed to punish you by either doing myself in or getting gu

‘Clever—but they can’t beat my girl.’

‘They almost did.’

‘No!’ Daniel Kel y stormed into the casino flanked by Maria and Sean, hungry for a consolation prize as the main one eluded him. ‘I’m pressing charges against this girl. She threatened my guests with a gun—shot at my property—disrupted play. Arrest her.’

My parents reached my side seconds before the Kel ys.

‘What’s going on, Sky?’ Simon looked ready to punch Mr Kel y.

‘Sal y, Simon, meet Daniel Kel y and family.’ I waved at them. ‘They’re responsible for my kidnapping last time and tried to brainwash me this afternoon into going on a shooting spree down here.’

‘The girl is mad. She’s already spent a month in a mental facility. She is total y unreliable.’ Daniel Kel y got out his BlackBerry, speed-dial ing his legal team.

‘She needs to be locked up for the safety of the general public.’

Victor scooped up the gun with a handkerchief and tucked it in an evidence bag.