Read Online Struck by Jennifer Bosworth - Free Book Online Page B

fingers through them if I chose to. They boiled and grew and spread .
    I felt the charge building .
    Inside the clouds .
    Inside me .
    Opposite charges, needing to connect .
    I got to my feet and held my hands up to the sky, willing the lightning to come to me .
    “Mia. Mia, look at me.”
    I tore my eyes from the massing storm and saw him. Jeremy. Standing near the edge of the roof, shaking his head .
    “It doesn’t have to be like this,” he said .
    “But it does,” I told him. “This is who I am. This is what I’m supposed to do.”
    “You can change it.” He looked so sad it made my heart ache .
    But I turned my face back to the storm, still reaching up .
    Light pulsed in the clouds, but it wasn’t white. It was red. Light the color of blood .
    Thunder pummeled my heart .
    I —
    —opened my eyes. Flat on my back. Blinking up into a ring of faces. Mr. Kale, and Katrina, Quentin, and Parker—
    “Parker?” I sat up so fast my forehead smacked against my brother’s.
    “ Ow ,” Parker and I said together, rubbing our heads. The bump must have jarred something into place, though, because I remembered what had happened right before things went black and I dreamed …
    Dreamed of the Tower. And lightning. And Jeremy.
    “Are you okay?” Parker asked me. “Did you hit your head?”
    I prodded my skull. No sore spots, except where Parker’s forehead knocked mine. I looked around for Jeremy. “Where did he go?” I asked.
    No one got a chance to answer. Just then Schiz burst back into the room and bent over, panting. “He was too fast,” Schiz wheezed. “I couldn’t … couldn’t …”
    “Couldn’t get your atrophied limbs moving faster than a trot without giving yourself a heart attack?” Katrina said. “I would have had more chance of catching him, and I’m wearing three-inch heels.”
    “Jeremy ran away?” I asked, still foggy.
    “Stayed long enough to catch you before you hit the ground,” Katrina said. “What a gentleman.” She turned back to Schiz. “Did you at least get a read on him before he left you in the dust?”
    “No!” Schiz pounded his fist on one of the desks, and it clattered over on its side.
    “Calm down, Mr. Buckley,” Mr. Kale said, his voice so low it rumbled, reminding me of thunder, of the dream. My heart continued to vibrate in my chest.
    “Don’t tell me to calm down! He could have been a spy for them ! Just because he wasn’t wearing white—”
    “Mr. Buckley!” Kale said sharply, staring him down. Theair felt suddenly prickly as some unspoken communication seemed to pass between them. It wasn’t my imagination. I could feel the static in the air, the way I could feel the electric energy in an approaching storm.
    Schiz folded his arms across his chest. “Okay, I’m cool. See? I just can’t believe he got away.”
    “I can,” Katrina said. “Ever heard of a treadmill?”
    “Screw you.”
    “Careful, or I’ll ask Uncle Kale to fix you so you can’t talk back to me.”
    “And I’ll say no,” Mr. Kale told her stiffly.
    “It’s my fault,” Quentin said. “I should have gone after him, too. I got distracted.” Quentin nodded at Parker. “Didn’t expect to see you here, man.”
    Parker shook his head, confused. “I still don’t know what I’m doing here.”
    Katrina turned to me with her hands on her hips. “What did he say to you?” she demanded. I was still on the floor, so she towered over me.
    I assumed she was talking about Jeremy. “N-nothing,” I stammered. “He said he wanted to talk to me.” And that you were dangerous .
    “Are you sure?” Katrina narrowed her eyes.
    “Why would I lie? I don’t even know him. Never seen him before in my life.” But there was something familiar about him, wasn’t there?
    “Good. Stay away from him,” Katrina said. “Don’t have anything to do with him.”
    Funny, he said the same thing about you .
    “Katrina, give her some room.” Mr. Kale nudged her aside. “Can you stand, Miss