We are the Catalyst by Tash McAdam

Author:Tash McAdam [McAdam, Tash]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: NineStar Press, LGBT, cliffhanger, espionage, spies, military, young adult
Publisher: NineStar Press, LLC
Published: 2019-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

E17

I feel him before I wake up, in my dream I was flying, no chopper or pack, just me in my standard cotton outfit, blending with the gray skies, soaring wildly above the plains below the Western mountains. The wind is tugging at my clothes, I can hear the flapping fabric and the rushing wind. My eyes are streaming, I’m cold, and the world is rushing under me. I’m so free, I can’t contain the joy filling my body. I open my mouth and yell into the freezing air, a triumphant sound tearing from my throat.

Then an insidious, slithering feeling invades my peaceful mind and I plummet. Losing my concentration, the scrabbling at my thoughts, tendrils trying to snake through my barriers almost yanks me downward. I plunge toward the unforgiving mountainside. I wake up screaming, slamming my protection up as hard as I can. Driving the intruder out.

Smash is by my side instantly, shushing me with a hand on my back and a soft soothing projection, not invasive, but washing over me, respecting my borders. The comfort seeps through my distress, and I calm slowly, though reinforce myself once again before I can relax. With detached interest, I notice the ragged half moon shapes purpled on my palms, where I have clenched my fists too tightly. I uncurl my stiff hands—my knuckles are white, like I’ve been clenching them for hours.

I shakily sign to Smash that I’m okay, and she drops back, squatting on her heels and with concern crinkling her forehead. Her soft eyes are worried, like she cares about me. I find my voice. It’s dry and rough, a stranger speaking through my mouth.

“A nightmare. I’m all right, really. Sorry.”

She quirks a lopsided grin at me and nods, accepting it, tucking her rich brown hair behind one ear. “Okay, kiddo. Well, take a minute to sort yourself out, get your kicks on and come outside. We’ve got company.”

No shit. I can sense him lurking outside, pushing at my mental walls, looking for a way through my surface thoughts. He probably arrived this early to catch me sleeping, trying to snake through my barriers. Yanking me out of the sky, out of my dreams.

Icarus.

I take as long to dress as I can, trying to organize my thoughts, compartmentalize, as I always do. Shove away the dangerous parts of me, cover them with the mundane. When I screw up the courage to step through the plastic divider, it’s still a shock. I knew where he was standing, what he was doing. I’m so aware of him. More than I have ever been, more aware of him than of targets I’ve trailed for weeks, touching their things, learning them. Icarus… he’s in me, knowledge of him. His presence, his essence. I’m tied to it and it terrifies me.

He’s leaning haphazardly on a table, hip and hand resting on the surface, exactly as I knew he would be. White-blond hair tied off his face, chiseled and sharp as I remember it.

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