Lost in Thought (14 page)

“Trust me, I haven’t minded.” He lowered his voice. “But…this isn’t discreet. We can talk about that later.”

Discreet. There it was again. I’d heard the term at least three times in only twenty-four hours. I lowered my voice too and said, “Okay, but explain ‘discreet’ to me first. I mean, I know what it
means
. But why does everyone keep saying it like it’s either a compliment or an order?”

He sipped coffee and glanced around briefly to ensure there was no one nearby. “Let’s just say it’s the Perceptum’s unofficial motto. Doing anything discreetly is akin to doing it well.”

“Okay, got it.” I would think through that more on my own. I also realized that if we weren’t talking about work here then he kind of wasn’t working. “But then…shouldn’t you be working right now? You won’t get in trouble, will you?”

He chuckled. “No. Unless you want to report me as slacking off.”

L O S T I N T H O U G H T | 103

“Not today, so far anyway, but who would I tell if I get annoyed with you? Headmaster Stewart?”

“For your purposes, that would probably suffice. As it is, she doesn’t need much encouragement to try to make my life difficult.”

“Why is that?” I asked. “She…doesn’t seem to like you very much.

Or your aunt.”

He sipped coffee and nodded. “Constance Stewart only likes people with money or who she thinks can help her advance her position, preferably both. For the most part, my aunt and I are neither. She thought I could be one of those people, and I probably could if I wanted to, but I’ve made it very clear I’m not interested in her games.

And my aunt…my aunt has something she wanted very much at one time, and she’s never forgiven her for taking it.”

“What is it?”

Carter smiled wanly. “Jeffrey Revell.”

I gasped in surprise and choked on the sip of coffee I’d just taken.

Well, well, well. I’d
never
have guessed that. Jeff Revell was an attractive man, it was true. He was taller even than Carter and broader too, with a muscular build and fair hair worn short, like a policeman’s. In fact, he’d always reminded me of someone in law enforcement or the armed services, with his straight posture and quiet, watchful gaze. He seemed to be the very definition of the strong, silent type. More than a few of my classmates, I was pretty sure, spent so much time at the bookstore because they secretly hoped Carter’s
uncle
would be working that night.

But Headmaster Stewart was so stiff and proper and overly self-sufficient. I couldn’t imagine her as anything but the woman she was today, but she must have had hopes and desires and a past, just like the rest of us. It had never crossed my mind that she was around the same age as Carter’s aunt and uncle.

104 | C A R A B E R T R A N D

When I could breathe again I said, “Wow. Uh, wasn’t expecting that answer.”

“I don’t think many people would, not unless they were at the Academy with the three of them when they were students,” he said, and he told me the story.

It wasn’t terribly sordid or anything, which was a tiny bit disappointing. In fact, it was pretty simple. Jeff and Dr. Stewart had actually dated briefly, before Jeff realized he couldn’t think of her as more than a friend and before Melinda came along. Dr. Stewart was heartbroken, but, Carter said, also knew what his uncle told her was unequivocally true. Afterwards, instead of making friends, she began in earnest her quest to become a powerful member of Sententia society, throwing all of her effort into ignoring Melinda and solidifying as many Sententia connections as she could.

“I’m fairly sure, though,” Carter finished, “that if my uncle went and confessed his undying love to the Headmaster, or, really, even his desire to have an illicit affair with her, she’d take him without a moment’s hesitation.”

Our breakfasts arrived then, steaming and buttery. Carter’s “usual”

was an enormous plate that contained, I was fairly certain, several eggs, at least two pancakes, home fries, more than two slices of toast, and some of every single breakfast meat on the menu. My eyes boggled just looking at it.

He noticed my stare and smiled, scooping up potatoes as he went.

“Jealous?”

I glanced at my plate, which was smaller by half than Carter’s yet full to the edges with eggs and toast, and said, “I thought my breakfast was huge; I don’t think I could eat that much all day!”

He snickered and then shrugged. “I run at least six miles a day Lainey, and I told you, I’m hungry. But take a bite of yours, and you’ll realize it’s so good that you’ll want my order too, next time we come.”

L O S T I N T H O U G H T | 105

I liked the sound of next time, and he was right: my greasy breakfast was exquisite and exactly what I wanted. We chewed in happy silence for a while, and I marveled at the amount of calories Carter was loading into his trim body. He certainly
looked
like he ran at least six miles a day, and moved a lot of boxes full of books too. His omnipres-ent plain t-shirt stretched over broad shoulders and exposed his muscular arms, obvious even doing something as simple as lifting his coffee cup. I realized I was staring and looked away hastily, though unfortunately not before Mercy arrived at the table to refill our coffee cups and caught me.

“He’s a handsome one, isn’t he, our Cartwright,” she said to me, with a wink and a hint of a smirk. Carter glanced away in pretend humility while taking another sip of his coffee, but I could see his broad grin.

“I’ve seen worse,” I admitted, praying I wasn’t blushing too furiously. Mercy laughed and patted my hand, maybe a little bit affectionately too, before leaving us alone again. Needing to change the subject, and not able to talk about what we
really
needed to talk about, I turned to the other topic on my mind. “I’m so depressed about next week,” I told Carter as I sopped up egg with my toast, explaining how my aunt had cancelled our visit to Boston for the holiday.

“Don’t be,” he told me, punctuated by a wicked grin. “We’re going shopping.”

“Sorry?” I mumbled, completely indelicately, around my mouthful of toast.

His grin widened, and I would swear to you the boy smiled way too often if it didn’t look so damn good on him. “We’re going shopping.

Antique shopping, actually. I thought you might like that, and there are plenty of places to check out nearby.”

106 | C A R A B E R T R A N D

“Well, I
would
like that. I haven’t been shopping or, really, anything since I got to the Academy, unless you count the bookstore and the coffee shop. But…why? It doesn’t strike me as something you’d do on break or, um, ever…” I trailed off, curious, but a little bit excited.

Maybe the week wouldn’t be so bad after all.

“I don’t know if I’d go so far as
ever
, but we need to…find a few things”—he eyed me meaningfully when he said this—“for you to…practice with. Antiques are probably our best options. Plus you already love them.”

It took me a minute to understand exactly what he was getting at, but then I heard Dr. Stewart’s voice echo in the back of my head as she’d said…
away from all those antiques you seem to love, burdened as they are
with their long histories.
“Oh,” I finally said. “Oh, okay. Well, hopefully it will still be fun. And I don’t pass out.”

“I won’t let that happen,” he assured me. I believed him.

hen we got back to campus, Carter suggested a walk, and led us through the Academy gates. We kept walking past the faculty quarters and straight onto a wide trail that quick-W ly disappeared between the trees. Students, I knew, were expressly forbidden on the trails unless they were with a chaperone. I stifled a giggle. I thought I might need all my fingers and toes to count the number of my classmates who’d love to have Carter “chaperone”

them into the woods.

Apparently he was reading my thoughts again, because when I glanced over, he was grinning at me. “This isn’t
exactly
allowed. For you anyway.”

“Well, I won’t turn you in for slacking this morning if you don’t rat on me for going into the woods unchaperoned, with a boy of unclear intentions.”

He stopped short, grabbing my hand, and pulled me so close to him I could feel the warmth of his body and smell his fresh, soapy scent. I’m pretty sure I stopped breathing. “I thought I made my intentions pretty clear yesterday, Lainey,” he said seriously, bending his head close to mine. I
definitely
stopped breathing.

108 | C A R A B E R T R A N D

But I wasn’t quite ready for that yet, and he didn’t move any closer without an invitation from me. We stood still for almost a full minute, me waiting for my lungs to restart, Carter breathing deeply, waiting for my permission. Finally I broke the intimate space and restarted our walk. He fell in step wordlessly beside me.

We walked along for a while without speaking. It wasn’t uncomfortable, not exactly, but was charged with tension of a different kind.

My brain, not to mention the rest of my body, was swimming with thoughts of Carter, of possibilities and fears, of kissing him or
not
kissing him, and wondering which I wanted to do. That finally got me on track, because though most of me was leaning—really strongly— toward the former, I still had some questions I needed answered.

“At…” I started, and my voice came out as an embarrassing squeak. I cleared my throat and tried again, before Carter had the chance to make fun of me. “At breakfast, you said something that made me curious, about Dr. Stewart, how she
knew
your Uncle Jeff was telling her the truth. Does that have something to do with her gift?”

“Perceptive,” he said. “I mean in the general sense; you’re very perceptive. And yes, that
is
her gift. Ever wonder why the kids are so terrified of her, beyond the obvious? It’s because they can’t lie to Headmaster Stewart. She’s
Vidi Veritas
, a lie detector. If she’s being lied to, she might not be able to tell you what the truth actually is, but she knows that whatever she’s hearing isn’t it. Though I hate to admit it, her gift is one of the things that makes her a great headmaster. She runs the school tightly and mostly fairly.”

Yikes. I was glad I’d never been anything but truthful with her. I was also suddenly jealous of her awesome ability compared to my crappy one. I’d have
loved
to know whether someone was telling the truth instead of whether they were going to die.

L O S T I N T H O U G H T | 109

“Uh, wow,” I blurted. “That’s…useful information. Do the students know about her gift, the Sententia students I mean?”

He laughed as he guided us onto a smaller side trail. “Oh yeah, they know. If they haven’t heard from relatives who’ve attended, they learn pretty quickly in their first meeting when she tests them. And then tells them if they passed or failed. The general students don’t know, not exactly, but you’ve seen how quickly word gets around campus. It’s not long before they’ve all heard not to lie to her, because somehow she
always
knows.”

“But no impetus,” I said. “She can’t force you.” He looked at me, a little surprised, and I shrugged. “Ms. Kim told me about it. She said it’s rare. So…what kind of gift would have that?”

“You tell me. Take a guess.”

We walked for a few paces while I thought about it. I really didn’t know much about Sententia, but I’d heard of ESP and other fictional, so I’d thought, mind powers before. I started with that. “Okay…what about, well, like telekinesis? Is that real? That would be a physical force.”

“It’s real,” he confirmed. “We call them Thought Movers,
Sententia
Permoveo
. That’s where our history starts, actually. They’re the earliest recorded abilities we’ve found. The most feared, too,” he added, almost as an afterthought. I didn’t have time to think about the strange tone in his voice before he went on. “But it’s
not
like you see in mov-ies. None of this ever is. Our gifts work quickly, almost in the blink of an eye.”

“But…if it’s so quick, then why is it so dangerous?”

“Even in short bursts being able to move objects with only Thought is plenty dangerous, believe me,” he said gravely. “And it’s more than moving objects. Thought Movers can…affect the
intentions
of things. Make them go from moving to not moving. Change direc-tions. Sometimes they can change
people’s
intentions too. They literally

110 | C A R A B E R T R A N D

have the ability to
move thoughts.
One moment you’re thinking one thing, and the next, a Thought Mover has moved your thoughts…somewhere else.”

I shivered. This
did
scare me. It was almost inconceivable that someone could have the ability to move an object with nothing but Thought. But to be able to, literally, change someone’s
mind…that
was impossible. Or it should have been.

I shivered again and realized we’d stopped moving. We were standing in the middle of the trail as I stared off into space, my brain whirling with possibilities. A breeze ruffled the fallen leaves around us and made the mostly bare trees sway overhead. I tugged my coat tighter and noticed that Carter was watching me, a small, concerned frown marring his otherwise beautiful face. His hair was a little windblown, making him look more boyish than usual, and his cheeks had a slight flush from the cold. I resisted the urge to reach up and smooth my fingers through his tousled waves.