Glitch

Her face was
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    Heather Anastasiu
    pale and she was staring at me, her eyes so wide they looked
    like they might pop out of her head. Then she turned and
    bolted from the room.
    I started to call after her, but another girl came in. I put
    my hands under the spout and pretended I’d been washing
    my hands. I stood there, my hands under the water longer
    than necessary to hide their trembling. Max was right. This
    was a huge risk. I hadn’t thought about what I’d do if Molla
    didn’t believe me, or if she was caught and reported me. I
    hoped she’d fl ushed the note I’d given her like I’d instructed,
    but then she’d run away. What if she’d run straight to the
    Regulators?
    I forced my back ramrod straight and walked out to the
    hallway. I made my face blank through the rest of the day,
    secretly terrifi ed that I’d jeopardized everything. I wanted
    to signal to Adrien, to let him know what had happened. I’d
    wanted so badly to help, to do something, but on my fi rst try
    I might have ruined Adrien’s entire mission.
    That night at home, I waited impatiently until I saw the
    ceiling tile shift. I let out the tense breath I’d been holding
    and whispered the Link release words.
    “I tried to talk to Molla,” I burst out in a vehement whis-
    per as soon as I saw the shadow of his torso coming down
    through the hole in the ceiling. I was sitting on my bed wait-
    ing for him and I got up on my knees to talk to him as he
    settled beside me. “But I think I did it wrong. She ran away!
    What if I made everything worse? What if I we’re all in dan-
    ger now?”
    “Zoe.” Adrien took my chaotically waving hands and
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    shook his head. “You did fi ne. You made fi rst contact. That’s
    cracking huge. It’ll make her more careful and hopefully
    she’ll be less afraid the next time we approach her.”
    “But—”
    “But nothing,” he said fi rmly. “Risks are part of every-
    thing we do. But we’re fi ne. We’re safe. Besides, with my
    Gift, I’m sure I’ll get a vision if we’re about to get cracked.
    Don’t worry about it.”
    “Do you always?” I asked anxiously. “Get visions before
    something happens?”
    I could see his thick lips curving up in the dim light from
    the night pod light by my bed. “How do ya think I lasted this
    long? It’s why the Rez sends me in on the long- term mis-
    sions. I can see danger coming before it shunts things up.”
    I sat a moment, taking in all he’d said. It was comforting
    to know we weren’t just barreling into a dangerous future
    completely blind. Still, it seemed too good to be true. “But
    do the visions always come true?”
    “It’s too soon to tell for some of them, but I think so.” He
    sat back against the wall and I could see the outline of his
    silhouetted face. “Most of them have been fulfi lled, but
    others haven’t happened— least I don’t think they have. I
    just know things will happen, not when or even how. I’m trying to hone it so I can get a clearer sense of timelines. It’s not
    perfect, but I’m getting better and better at it.” He smiled.
    I looked at him quizzically. “How can you hone it? My
    powers just seem to happen. ”
    He nodded. “It was like that for me at fi rst too. But I
    started to practice focusing the visions whenever I have them.
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    Heather Anastasiu
    Sure it’s cracking frustrating ’cause I have to wait for them— I
    can’t make them happen. But when they do, I try to slow
    them down, notice details— anything to get more control
    over it instead of it just crashing over me. The visions are
    getting more detailed too since I’ve been working on it.”
    He moved a little closer on the bed. “It’s one of the things
    I wanted to talk to you about. You should be practicing
    your telekinesis.”
    I shuddered, thinking about it. It seemed to take all of my
    energy not to use my power. It was volatile, unpredictable,
    like a caged monster underneath my skin. It felt like only a
    matter of time before it hurt someone, or got me caught. So
    I kept it locked up tight inside, hidden behind my mask
    with the rest of my emotions.
    “Think how much better it would be if you could call on
    it when you need it, like Max does with his,” Adrien said.
    “It just always seems so risky when he uses his power.”
    “It doesn’t have to be,” Adrien said, and I thought I de-
    tected some disapproval in his face. “Max takes a lot of risks,
    from what I’ve seen. But if