Read Online Storm of Visions by Christina Dodd - Free Book Online

Italian’s chest, said, “All right ,” and moving like a dancer, she leaped into the circle.
    In that second, Aaron fell in love. Whoever she was, she was built, she was blond, she was graceful, and she had a radiance that reminded him of Zusane at her best.
    Zusane’s mask of beauty cracked with disappointment. For the first time, her voice lost its husky warmth. “At last. Our seventh member has arrived. She could have been on time. She could be dedicated. She could be organized. She could wear something more respectful of this momentous event. She could occasionally clean her room.”
    The girl glanced around at the Chosen in the circle. She rolled her eyes, and with a gesture at Zusane, she mouthed, Sorry .
    With a shrill edge, Zusane continued. “She could at least do as well as the Wilder boy and attend college when her mother pulls every string to get her admitted to Harvard even though her grades weren’t good enough to—” Zusane stopped and gathered her composure.
    The girl waved at the others, one of those tiny, embarrassed waves. “Hi, everybody. I’m Zusane’s daughter, Jacqueline.”
    So Zusane was a mother, Jacqueline’s mother, and no matter how glamorous Zusane appeared, she was just like any other mother—frustrated as hell with her rebellious daughter.
    Beside him, Charisma waved back at Jacqueline, and pointed. “Aleksandr Wilder. Isabelle Mason. Samuel Faa. Aaron Eagle. Tyler Settles.” With another little wave, she said, “I’m Charisma.”
    Zusane glared, and her voice swelled majestically. “Are we done ?”
    “Yes. Sorry.” Charisma’s voice squeaked.
    “Mother. Don’t be rude,” Jacqueline said.
    But Charisma sounded unrepentant when she murmured to Aaron, “But Zusane can’t be her real mother. It’s not possible if she’s one of the Abandoned Ones.”
    “Maybe she’s like Aleksandr—an experiment the directors are trying,” Aaron replied.
    “Hm. Maybe.” Charisma indicated the guy who’d carried Zusane’s daughter to the site. “Look at him .”
    He remained immobile where the girl had left him, staring blindly, waiting.
    Charisma shook her bracelets at him. “He’s involved with Jacqueline.”
    “Obviously.” Aaron didn’t need singing rocks to see that.
    “He’s not gifted, because he knows we’re in here, but he can’t see us,” Charisma said.
    “Right.” This was one weird situation Aaron had gotten himself into.
    Taking Jacqueline’s left wrist in her hand, Zusane turned her palm up and looked at it. She expressed her disgust eloquently, Aaron thought, although he didn’t understand a word of the language she was speaking.
    Jacqueline wore fingerless gloves in a leather that almost matched her skin tone.
    “So it’s come to this,” Zusane said. “You contain your power behind a shield.”
    “A glove is hardly a shield.” Quickly Jacqueline added, “And I don’t have any power.”
    Zusane smiled triumphantly. “Then take it off.”
    “Fine.” Jacqueline stripped away her glove.
    “Look.” Zusane held Jacqueline’s palm up to Jacqueline’s face. “The most powerful sign, one not seen since the first two Abandoned Ones.”
    In an undertone, Charisma explained, “The mark on her hand must be a stylized eye, done in black lines.”
    Aaron craned his neck, but couldn’t see the mark.
    “The bad twin,” Jacqueline said to Zusane. “Remember, Mother. She was the bad twin.”
    Zusane rolled on, ignoring her daughter’s fierce objection. “You push your gift aside, deny it, claim that you can’t take my place!”
    “I can’t!” Jacqueline leaned closer to Zusane and sniffed. “Have you been smoking?”
    “Certainly not!”
    “Hanging around in a cigar bar again?”
    “No.”
    Jacqueline sniffed the air around her. “Can you smell that?”
    “You are trying to distract me.”
    “No, I’m not. Something’s burning,” Jacqueline said with assurance.
    “I don’t care if something’s burning. I only care about what