Unravel Me: The Juliette Chronicles Book 2

truth,” I whisper back.
    He nods. Scratches a spot on his nose. Looks at me. “So can we be friends again?”
    “You want to be friends with me?” I blink hard against the stinging in my eyes. “You’re not afraid of me?”
    “Are you going to be mean to me?”
    “Never.”
    “Then why would I be afraid of you?”
    And I laugh, mostly because I don’t want to cry. I nod too many times. “Yes,” I say to him. “Let’s be friends again.”
    “Good,” he says, and gets to his feet. “Because I don’t want to eat lunch with those other kids anymore.”
    I stand up. Dust off the back of my suit. “Eat with us,” I tell him. “You can always sit at our table.”
    “Okay.” He nods. Looks away again. Tugs on his ear a little. “So did you know Adam is really sad all the time?” He turns his blue eyes on me.
    I can’t speak. Can’t speak at all.
    “Adam says he’s sad because of you.” James looks at me like he’s waiting for me to deny it. “Did you hurt him by accident too? He was in the medical wing, did you know that? He was sick.”
    And I think I’m going to fall apart, right there, but somehow I don’t. I can’t lie to him. “Yes,” I tell James. “I hurt him by accident, but now—n-now I stay away from him. So I can’t hurt him anymore.”
    “Then why’s he still so sad? If you’re not hurting him anymore?”
    I’m shaking my head, pressing my lips together because I don’t want to cry and I don’t know what to say. And James seems to understand.
    He throws his arms around me.
    Right around my waist. Hugs me and tells me not to cry because he believes me. He believes I only hurt Adam by accident. And the little boy, too. And then he says, “But be careful today, okay? And kick some ass, too.”
    I’m so stunned that it takes me a moment to realize that not only did he use a bad word, he just touched me for the very first time. I try to hold on for as long as I can without making things awkward between us, but I think my heart is still in a puddle somewhere on the floor.
    And that’s when I realize: everyone knows.
    James and I walk into the dining hall together and I can already tell that the stares are different now. Their faces are full of pride, strength, and acknowledgment when they look at me. No fear. No suspicion. I’ve officially become one of them. I will fight with them, for them, against the same enemy.
    I can see what’s in their eyes because I’m beginning to remember what it feels like.
    Hope.
    It’s like a drop of honey, a field of tulips blooming in the springtime. It’s fresh rain, a whispered promise, a cloudless sky, the perfect punctuation mark at the end of a sentence.
    And it’s the only thing in the world keeping me afloat.

THIRTY
    “This isn’t how we wanted it to happen,” Castle says to me, “but these things never usually go according to plan.” Adam and Kenji and I are being fitted for battle. We’re camped out in one of the larger training rooms with 5 others I’ve never met before. They’re in charge of weapons and armor. It’s incredible how every single person at Omega Point has a job. Everyone contributes. Everyone has a task.
    They all work together.
    “Now, we still don’t know yet exactly why or how you can do what you do, Ms. Ferrars, but I’m hoping that when the time comes, your Energy will present itself. These kinds of high-stress situations are perfect for provoking our abilities—in fact, seventy-eight percent of Point members reported initial discovery of their ability while in critical, high-risk circumstances.”
    Yup, I don’t say to him. That sounds about right.
    Castle takes something from one of the women in the room—Alia, I think is her name. “And you shouldn’t worry about a thing,” he says. “We’ll be right there in case something should happen.”
    I don’t point out that I never once said I was worried. Not out loud, anyway.
    “These are your new gloves,” Castle says, handing them to me. “Try them on.”
    These new gloves are shorter, softer: they stop precisely at my wrist and fasten with a snap-button. They feel thicker, a little heavier, but they fit my fingers perfectly. I curl my hand into a fist. Smile a little. “These are incredible,” I tell him. “Didn’t you say Winston designed them?”
    Castle’s face falls. “Yes,” he says quietly. “He finished them just yesterday.”
    Winston.
    His was the very first face I saw when I woke up at Omega Point. His crooked