Walking Among Humans

Chapter 19 - Part 1

Mona

Ben is waiting for me when I walk out of my room. It has always amazed me how good he looks in a suit.

I cross the room and straighten his tie.

"You still have time to back out, you know."

He takes my hands and pulls me closer to him. "Not a chance. I'm never letting you out of my sight again."

I smile up at him. "Aren't you scared?"

"Not really. I should probably be running for the hills after almost dying. But this..." He wraps his arms around my waist and squeezes me. "This just feels right."

I don't know if it's what he said or being so close to him that gives me a warm fuzzy feeling inside.

"Can I tell you something?"

"You can tell me anything, you know that."

"I'm scared."

"You have nothing to fear. Abaddon is-"

I don't let him finish. "No, I mean about the review."

"Don't worry. You'll be fine. Just answer their questions."

"But what if they ask how I knew it was her?"

"Tell them the truth."

I shake my head. "If they find out I was reading people's minds without their consent, I could get into a lot of trouble."

He takes a step back and looks down at me. "You'll get in more trouble if you try to hide it."

I know he's right, but I also know my friends will be angry with me for invading their privacy. "What if the others find out what I did?"

He laughs. "What's the worst that can happen? Everyone knows you're a telepath, and a strong one at that. Your friends also know how hard you are trying to control it. How can they possibly hold it against you that your control slipped after so many hours of concentrating?"

Lucy joins us in the living room. She looks worried. "What if I say the wrong thing?"

I wonder if I sounded like that a few minutes before. "Don't worry, I'm going up first so they'll probably just ask you a few basic follow-up questions."

"I wish we didn't have to be separated before the review."

"They want to make sure we don't compare our versions and make it seem worse than it is."

Ben looks at his watch. "We need to get you two downstairs."

On the way downstairs Lucy is in the mood to talk. "So how did Ben's review go?"

I haven't had a chance to talk to her about what's going on yet. Everything happened so fast that I've barely had time to process it all myself. I still can't believe some of the stuff that has happened in the last week.

"He's being granted early graduation and he's already been given his assignment."

"Wow! That's great." Lucy's smile fades into a frown. "But that means he'll be leaving."

I figured she would know that he wasn't leaving because of how happy we both are, but apparently that subtlety was lost on her.

"Nah, they've assigned him to me."

Her smile returns. "That's amazing. I always knew you two would end up together."

"It's not like that. He's my guardian."