Ashley's Choice: Companion Novel to The Essences Saga (On Hold)

Chapter 4

"Ah, so you've met Adam," Phil said. "Good. We were afraid things wouldn't go so well with that."

Min bristled. "I don't like it."

Phil cocked his black eyebrow at her. (A visual of Phil: think of a tall polished ebony statue of Michelangelo's David, but with that graceful African King persona...all regal and majestic and oddly comforting.)

"Why?"

Min glared. "Of all the choices..."

"What's wrong with Adam?" Belle asked. "I work with him on a regular basis, and he's got a good consciousness. And of all the Essences available and willing, he understands the minds of teenagers more than most. He'll fit in perfectly at Ashley's school."

I grimaced.

Min said, "He'll stick out like a sore thumb."

"Thank you, Min," Adam said with sarcasm.

"You're welcome," she returned sweetly.

"Maybe we should get to the matter at hand," Phil suggested, sitting grandly in Min's reading chair. "The Watchers."

Min sighed. "Fine. What do you know?"

"Nothing," Belle said with disdain. "That's the problem. We know they are planning something, but we can't exactly get someone in their meetings to find out what."

"Why not?"

"Because of all the humans, they are the ones who really know about us," Belle explained, like she was talking to a child. Min huffed. I giggled at that.

"Then don't phase completely," she said.

"We've tried," Phil explained. "We don't know how they are doing it, but the Watchers have discovered a way to block our presence."

Something tickled the back of my mind. I grasped at it before it could scurry away. "Adam can read my mind," I blurted out.

All eyes turned toward me. You see, the thing about Essences is that they can "read" a person's soul...their emotions and feelings, and get a concept of what they are thinking, but they can't actually read minds. It was odd to me that Adam could. He did this morning in the girl's bathroom at school.

"Come again?" Min asked.

Adam shifted his eyes away from me with a small smile.

"Today, at school, he could hear what I was thinking."

"That's not possible."

Belle and Phil said nothing.

"But it happened," I insisted. It did, right?

Min looked at Adam. "Well?"

"Gibberish," he said lazily. "I can't read minds any more than you can."

Min darted a glance at me, confirmed what she saw on my face and turned back to him. "Ashley is anything but a liar."

Thank you, Min.

Adam sighed, and he looked oddly...normal. "I can't read minds, but what Belle said is true. I understand the thoughts and emotions...and souls...of a teenager better than most. I merely put two and two together."

Min stared at him for a long time. Finally, she let the subject drop, but I saw the calculating gleam in her eyes. Adam was lying. Or not telling the whole truth.

"The Watchers," Phil said to break the silence. A knock sounded on Min's door. All three Essences vanished with a whirling swish of sensation.

"Min?" Amber's voice carried through the wood barrier. "Is Ashley in there with you? I need to speak with her."