The Guardian (The Gifted Book 1) (13 page)

23
Found

Rhea arrived at her creative writing class early. She turned off the overhead lights and headed straight for her favorite window seat. One by one her classmates showed up. Normally she would have ignored their conversations but today's topic was something she couldn't ignore. The rumor was Professor Campbell had had to take an emergency leave.

The conversations around the room jumped from speculating
about why he had had to leave to guessing who would be his replacement. The qualities and qualifications of each member of the faculty were assessed, as the students tried to ascertain who would walk into the room. Rhea chose not to participate in the gossiping but did choose to take a regular seat next to the windows, just in case the next professor would have an issue with her sitting on the window sill.

Five minutes before the class was to start, a young man entered the room and sat on the edge of the old wood
en desk. He didn't look like an English professor. He looked like an athlete who had just stepped off the playing field, taken a towel to his hair, and thrown on some clothes. Her first thought was he must be a teaching assistant.

"So, if you haven't heard already, Professor Campbell had a family emergency and won't be able to finish his courses this semester. Don't worry; I understand all will be okay. I just can't say what it is." Randell gave the group one of his goofy grins and a shrug. "My name is Professor Randell Young
, but I prefer you call me Randell. And if you haven't guessed, I will be helping Professor Campbell finish out the semester. Now that you know who I am, I would like to know who you are, starting with you." Randell pointed to the first student by the door.

Introductions were brief.
The students each said their name and their program of study. Rhea watched Randell as he acknowledged each student with a smile. His focus was undivided, if not intense, on each student as each said his or her name. When it was Rhea's turn, she watched him turn his gaze to her.

A feeling of familiarity hit her
, but not your typical I've-seen-you-before feeling. Something deep inside her recognized something about him. A nervous ripple pulsed through her, causing chill bumps to cover her arms.

Randell's body tensed and his smile falter
ed ever so slightly. His heart started to race. Had he seen what he thought? Was this her?

Rhea hesitated, glancing around the room,
at everything but at him. She could feel everyone looking at her. What would they think if she wouldn't look him in the eye? She reprimanded herself,
get a grip, Rhea
. She took a deep breath and proceeded: "Rhea Canton, graduating senior, poli-sci major." Rhea locked eyes with Randell for a second and then turned her head towards the window.

Randell saw her discomfort and quickly turned back to the class. "Okay, let's get started."
He proceeded to discuss the topic Professor Campbell had assigned, glancing around the room at the students but seldom looking at Rhea.

His thoughts were divided between the young lady by the window and the talking points he was to cover. Her initial reaction pr
eyed on his mind. She'd been guarded, almost reluctant to say her name or look at him.

Questions distracted him. Was this her? What had caused her aura to flare? How did she make the blue in her aura disappear?

The more he thought about her reaction, the more he felt he understood. She must have sensed something from him. Was she gifted? Was she a tracker? Why would a tracker be in hiding? Was Rhea Canton her real name?

All this time, he and Daen had been focused on finding her
, and not once had they considered the idea she might not want to be found. All these years, she could have been right in front of them and they would not have known, simply because she didn't want them to know. If that was the case, she was doing a good job. Her aura looked like any other aura from this world, except when her emotions flared. And today they had.

~~~

Rhea missed a lot of the class discussion, her mind wandering to that funny feeling she'd gotten every time she looked at Randell, as if she knew him. And to make matters worse, he seemed to know her. She'd wracked her brain for most of the class, trying to remember having met him before, but nothing came of it. Now she was behind in the discussion and couldn't participate.

Something someone said caused Rhea to think of her parents. Her parents, that's it. He
must know her parents. Maybe he'd seen a picture of her taken with them at one of many faculty events she'd attended over the years. Yes. That was it. Rhea felt a little relief knowing that she could fake a yeah-I-remember-you exchange if he were to bring it up.

Relief was short
-lived when she tried to reconcile the strange connection she felt. Maybe they had met and she simply didn't remember. She supposed that was possible. Yes. That's what it was. They must have met briefly at one of her parents' academic events. Relief kicked back in.

Her mind returned to the class discussion
, and she was even more lost now than she had been before. She was in a quandary; she couldn't participate because she didn't know what had already been said. She just wanted to leave.

Rhea glanced at the entrance to the classroom. An unfortunate aspect of sitting next to the windows in this particular classroom was not being able to leave the room quickly. She would have to wait behind the other students as they filed out before she could make her escape.

Her mind ran with questions. Would he stop her and ask her about her parents? Would he ask her why she was a poli-sci major versus physics or math? Was she making way too much of this? Yes.

She mumbled under her breath. "Chill
, Rhea."

~~~

Randell called a break about fifty minutes into the class. As the students left the room, he pulled the stack of papers Professor Campbell had given him from his courier bag. Trying to appear casual, he flipped through the ungraded papers to find Rhea's. What could she have written about? Would she say anything that would give her away? Unlikely. The assignment had been to take an excerpt from a popular story and rewrite it from a different point of view.

He quickly scanned her paper. She'd chosen an excerpt from
The Lord of the Rings
, the scene where Frodo volunteered to be the ring bearer. He wondered why she chose that book or that scene. Was it a random selection, or did she connect with it personally? Had she once volunteered for something important and therefore now had to hide in another world?

The sounds of the students returning after
the break brought him into the present. Randell mentally berated himself for letting his imagination get the best of him. He couldn't let himself jump to conclusions.

Before restarting, he scanned the room to see if everyone had returned. When he saw Rhea's empty seat, his chest tightened and panic started to set in. Had she left? 

He continued to scan the room and found her. She had changed seats and was now sitting next to the exit. That simple move distracted him. Why had she done that? Did she sense something from him? Was she positioning herself to escape?

Randell shook off his paranoia and restarted class. "For the second part of class, we're going to do a free writing exercise. For the next
fifteen minutes, you may write whatever comes to mind on one or more of the following topics." He turned to write on the white board.

Magic

Murder

Other worlds

Spies

Moon

"I'll collect your work before you leave. You won't be graded on grammar or even the logical flow of what you write. I'll be looking for your ability to write whatever comes into your mind. This exercise will help me understand you and your style so that I might better grade the assignments that have been left to me. There are many writing styles, and I want to be fair."

One of the student
s raised his hand and spoke before being called upon. "Will we be getting our papers back next class?"

"That's my goal." Randell placed his hand on the stack in front of him. "I just got your last paper. Professor Campbell left a rubric for me to use when grading them."

Another student chimed in. "Do you have our previous assignments? We haven't gotten them back."

"I wasn't given any previous work. I'll check on them and give you an update next class as well." Randell glanced around the room. "Any more questions?" He waited
, but the room was quiet. "Okay, as you can see, the topics are quite broad, so hopefully you can come up with something. Remember to be consistent with point of view." He looked at his watch. "Please begin."

Randell hoped that his idea for an impromptu writing session would get her to reveal something about herself
, but now that he knew there was another assignment he could review, he was feeling more confident that he would find something about her that would either confirm she was Luxatran or give him reason to talk to her.

~~~

Rhea sat frozen, staring at the words on the board. She wondered what she could write about on such short notice. Her life's ambition wasn't to be a writer. This was just supposed to be a fun elective. Her imagination didn't work on demand.

Given the words Randell had written on the board, the only thing that came to mind was the world in the shadows and Grennal. Some of her dreams came to mind as well. Yes, her dreams. She would write about a dream where she didn't wake
up screaming.

The room was large and circular. The ceiling rose three stories high and ended in a dome. The walls were filled with rows of fogged windows tightly spaced, stacked floor to ceiling. Each row was divided by a narrow walkway protruding from the wall. In the center of the room was a large, highly polished table. It wasn't geometrically shaped but instead reflected the shape of nature, like a lake or pond.

She walked slowly around the room, peering into the windows
, trying to see through the fog. As she got closer she could see the fog moving, swirling about randomly. When her face was inches from a window, she realized it wasn't a window; there wasn't any glass.

She started to step away from the window, not understanding what she was seeing, but stopped. A tingling sensation ran down her spine, as if someone
had run a cube of ice down her back. The fog started to turn light blue, and she felt welcomed and loved.

Rhea hadn't gotten very far when time was called. She'd wanted her dream to seem somewhat coherent, but dreams seldom do. Small piles of eraser dust covered her desk, reflecting her need to repeatedly adjust what she was writing. She passed her writing forward with everyone else.

The discussion for the next
thirty minutes focused on what it was like to write under pressure, to let your thoughts flow without the desire to censor.

All she could think about was she had one more writing class and then finals. When class was over, Rhea left the classroom quickly, hoping to avoid any interest he might have in talking, now or later.

~~~

Randell watched Rhea jump from her chair and practically race from the room when he dismissed class. He wondered if it was something he
’d said or done. He'd made a point, after the initial introduction, of not looking at her directly. He hadn't wanted to spook her, but maybe it was too late.

A twinge of panic pulsed through him. What if she didn't come back? As quick
ly as the panic came, it left. Of course she would come back. There was one more class and finals.

He heard a knock on the door as he was pushing the writing samples and ungraded papers into his courier bag. He glanced up to see Daen leaning against the door frame, his arms folded across his chest. "You ready?"

"Hey. I didn't know you were going to meet me today."

Daen stepped into the classroom. "I needed to stretch my legs so I decided to run to campus."

"Shut the door, will ya?" Randell sat in the instructor's chair.

Daen raised
an eyebrow as he closed the door. "What's up?"

"I think I met her."

Daen's head whipped to the closed door as he scanned his memories of the students he'd seen leaving the building. Daen's jaw tensed. "You let her leave?"

"Yes, but I know who she is and she'll be back. We need to plan our first meeting with her. I'm afraid I almost gave myself away when I saw her aura flare. It lasted a couple seconds and then was gone."

With an edge of excitement, Daen asked, "What's her name?"

"Rhea Canton."

Daen's eyebrows drew together. "Doesn't sound like a Luxatran name."

Randell said, "Maybe she changed it. Daen, she seemed guarded
, and that got me thinking ..."

Daen interrupted. "She doesn't want to be found." It was like Daen could read Randell's mind.

"Exactly. You should have seen her. At first she sat by the window, but after the break she moved close to the door and then she bolted when I dismissed class."