move that worked out way too well. Plus, there was a part of me that needed to

come back, needed to see Kelsey one more time, needed to see her without fear

and resignation in her eyes. A solid lump of sorrow settled in my chest.

“It’ll get easier.”

I blinked my eyes open and turned to him with a frown. “What? Are you

reading my mind now?”

“Nope.” He lifted the arm over his eyes and captured my gaze. “Your energy.

The stronger the emotion, the clearer it comes through. Makes it hard to miss.”

I wasn’t sure I wanted him knowing how I felt, so I threw up every mental

block I could.

He gave me a faint grin. “And you just locked it all down.”

Wow, definitely disconcerting. “Have you been able to read me that well from the get-go?”

His grin disappeared. “No, most of the time, the energy signatures resemble

faint bands of color. The more we work together, the brighter yours become.”

I sat up and the last little pieces of ice rattled against my glass. I set it on the coffee table. “Delacourt was right to worry.”

Even lying down, he managed to shrug. “I’d rather not go looking for

trouble. We have enough things to stress about, without adding in something we

can’t change. Besides, Ellery’s signature is getting clearer too. I just wish I could get a glimpse at where he’s going.”

That reminded me of a question that had been spinning around in my head.

“You called Liza a pre-cog and Risia a seer. What’s the difference?”

He took my change of subject in stride. “It depends on an individual’s

psychic strength, but pre-cogs see one future, and can determine what will happen in the next hour or so, but the further out they go, the less accurate their

predications become. Seers see various futures, but those futures are fluid.

Why?”

“I’ve been trying to figure out how Ellery stays ahead of everyone. I thought

maybe it had to do with the ability he stole from Liza.”

“Maybe, but she was a mid-range psychic, which put her accuracy at about

forty percent.” He sat up slowly, his color a bit closer to normal. “I’d be more concerned if Ellery got his hands on Risia.”

“How come?”

“Risia’s accuracy is closer to seventy percent.”

I gave a low whistle. “Guess she’s not mid-range, then.”

He shook his head. “She compared being a seer to looking at wall full of

screens. If each screen started with the same action and the same players, it wouldn’t be long before each screen showed different scenarios. All it takes is one person to make one unexpected decision and everything changes. Seers have

to have an anchor that holds them to the present, or they’ll get lost watching those screens. She called it a Cassandra Spiral.”

The implications of his words sent a shiver of dread down my spine. It

sounded eerily similar to slipping too deep into the tides of the past. “That doesn’t sound good.”

He grimaced. “Yeah, not something I’d wish on anyone.”

I sat back with a loud sigh, and tapped my fingers absently on the chair’s armrest. Sorting through everything we had on Ellery to this point, I thought it

through out loud. “Okay, we know Ellery’s got the stolen information and he’s getting ready to sell it, probably to Hobbes. What does it get him?”

“The big two, money and power,” Kayden offered.

I nodded. “And payback. By selling this information, he not only keeps it out

of the government’s hands, but also from whoever hired him to steal it in the first

place.”

“He’s playing a dangerous game.”

“He doesn’t think so.”

“You reading minds now?”

I shook my head and got to my feet, needing to move as I kept sifting through the bits and pieces. “Basic profiling. Ellery is a psychopath, so he believes he’s in control and thrives on manipulation. Therefore, he’ll make sure

he holds the power, using it to force everyone else to move where he wants them. Money, power, manipulation,” I ticked off each trait. “Then there’s his need for payback. When we stopped the initial sale from going through, we stole

his control, so now he’s stealing it back.”

“By killing each of us and taking our abilities.” Kayden sat on the edge of the couch and watched me. “But each time he does, his personality fractures.”