• I stared at the picture; it was all I could do at the current moment. I could faintly hear Charlotte calling my name but I didn’t register it. It was there was background music.
    What was I going to do? Should I read it or skip this page altogether? Part of me wanted to read it, to find out what it said about me. Yet part of me didn’t want to know or for anyone else to know.
    “Tory Jordan!” Charlotte’s voice howled in my head, it was followed by a light tap to my cheek.
    I looked up to see Charlotte bending over the arm of my chair, she was invading my personal bubble.
    “You don’t look so good, you’re pale,” she told me, putting a hand on my forehead which I instantly shook off.
    “I’m fine,” I grunted, I made a quick decision to get the topic off of my paleness.
    I read the page out loud. “‘Fire will be the hardest to domesticate, the most powerful and the most treacherous. The head of the six powers, triumph fire and you will triumph them all. Yet, be cautious. Reasonable warning that fire will be the most unstable of them all’.”
    “Fire sounds dangerous,” Charlotte murmured.
    “Fire is dangerous Charlotte,” Amelia snapped at her.
    That much was obvious, fire is dangerous to anyone even me. I already knew that fire was dangerous, almost burning people and killing them wasn’t something people wanted to happen to them.
    “Where is she?”
    I looked up at the door, so did Amelia and Charlotte. The door opened a little then was pushed open all the way. I quickly shut the book and shoved it in the gap between the cushion and the arm.
    Felix was one of the two men standing in the door way, the other guy was about the same height but more or less the better dresser. Where Felix was in trackie pants and just a plain black shirt, the other was in dress pants and a white button down top.
    Felix was the one who had ask where I was, but then that was no surprise. Also no surprise that he was the one coming to find me. He hated me with a passion, the feeling was mutual though. He probably asked to come and get me.
    “What do you want Felix?” Amelia growled almost animal like, she had caught my action of hiding the book in the corner of her eye.
    He smiled slowly, it was that kind of smile that was cocky and ego boosting, the kind of smile you just wanted to wipe off their face. Before Amelia even asked, I knew what he wanted and that smile meant he thought he was getting it.
    “Our little guest here is needed in the conference room,” Felix snickered at Amelia.
    I’d understand if he talked that way to Charlotte and in that tone but talking like that to Amelia, his elder, was really inexcusable. I didn’t see why Amelia was letting him get away with it anyway.
    “For what?” Charlotte asked, tilting her head to the side curiously.
    “Nothing that a junior should concern themselves with,” he snickered at her. She shut her mouth and glared at him from where she sat.
    I stood, “I’ll go, just leave them alone alright?”
    “Nobel of you but the trainer has to come along with,” he grunted, not happy with the idea at all.
    “Felix, let’s go,” the man beside him finally said something.
    I moved to follow the quiet man, Amelia stood up behind me and followed after. Felix closed the line which left Charlotte by herself, Felix stayed behind me to make sure I didn’t run; which sounded like a good idea at the moment.
    “Lix, you heard anything about tech-boy?” the man in front said out loud.
    Felix grunted. “Yeah, he’s coming back alright, little twerp decided to finally come home.”
    Tech-boy? Did they mean Jamie? He was the only one that I knew that was a technopath. My body instantly lit up with excitement, the thought of seeing Jamie again was exciting enough to make me dance with joy. But I didn’t.
    Amelia asked the question I wanted to ask. “Jamie is coming back? When was that decided?”
    I could hear the sound of someone shaking their head. “He decided on his own.”
    “What? He can’t make that decision without consulting someone!” Amelia sounded outraged. Wasn’t she happy like I was?
    “Amelia, calm down. If wants to come back, he can come back alright?” Felix said, I wanted to turn around and look at the two so I could see their faces and the emotions they were giving off.
    We walked the hall to the big open front foyer that we came in from; it was huge and decorated with red and gold walls. Picture frames with the council members in them, including a family portrait of my mother, father and me as a baby. I tried to take no notice.
    I hated the eyes that were staring at me; it wasn’t as if I was a NightDust guy so they serious didn’t have to stare like they were at the moment. It was getting rather annoying.
    The guy, the one that had yet to speak his name, stopped at a set of double doors that went all the way to the ceiling. My new shoes, the shoes the kind doctor had given me, squeaked on the floor.
    “In her ladies,” the man said, stepping up to the doors. They automatically opened for him.
    I looked around the doorway and into the room; I instantly got the urge to run in the other direction. People were in there that I didn’t want to be, mainly Noah and Seth. Seth would defend me and that would be a little embarrassing then Noah, he would contradict me every step of the way.
    “Tory, what are you doing? Get in there,” Amelia whispered a hiss in my ear. She pushed me forward, despite my grinding feet on the ground.
    To put my eyes anywhere but them two, I turned my eyes to the holographic screen in the middle of the room. My feet went to cement, Amelia bumped into my still, frozen form.
    “Tory Jordan, what a surprise,” the head of the Drake agency’s face was impassive as he said my name.