Read Online Tempest (#1 Destroyers Series) by Holly Hook - Free Book Online Page B

leaned against the lockers. It hurt to swallow over the lump
that had formed in her throat.
    That cruel voice invaded her head again. Didn’t that look a bit familiar?
    Gary’s guardian had also made a mysterious
wind kick up, only on purpose.
    Ice flowed through Janelle’s veins. No. She
wasn’t like that woman. Gary's guardian could roar words and who
knew what else.
    A strangled cry escaped her throat. Janelle
ran into a bathroom, glad that no one could see, and unrolled a
handful of paper towels to soak the water off her shirt. Another
little tingle shot through her body as she pressed the wet clothes
against her skin, but this one faded a second later.
    Something clicked.
    Ocean water. Somehow the ocean water had set
off her reaction—a reaction that could’ve hurt somebody. Tap water
had never done this. Neither had lake water. Nothing anything like
this had happened before she’d moved here.
    Janelle stared at her reflection. Blond
strands stood up everywhere from the windstorm and her eyes stared
back, huge. The girl in the mirror wasn't the calm, collected one
who had watched her house in Flint disappear behind her for the
last time. It might have been the light, but even the blue of her
eyes seemed to have deepened to an ominous gray. She was something
different, someone new.
    But who, exactly?
    She wanted to run home and let that new
person take over. Beg, scream, and cry until her dad moved them
back to Michigan.
    And do you think he will? He knows you’re not normal.
    "Shut up," she muttered. After splashing cold
water on her face, Janelle grabbed the edges of the basin with
trembling hands and stared down at the water swirling into the
drain. It sparkled like the vortex that Gary had appeared out of.
Like the ocean her father forbade her to go near this week.
    She let go and made her way to the office.
With a gentle nudge, she opened the door. It stayed on its hinges,
letting her breathe a sigh of relief. Nobody else needed to see her
freak powers.
    Mr. Deville leaned against an empty
workstation, chatting with a man that was probably the principal.
He turned to face her as she walked in.
    “I don’t feel the greatest. Is there anywhere
I can lie down for a while?” Janelle kept her gaze fixed on the
nearest desk. It was best not to look all freaked out in front of
these people.
    “Um…there’s a sick room right over there.”
Mr. Deville pointed to the back of the office. “If you feel like
you’ve got to go home by one-thirty or so, let someone know. Who
sent you?”
    “Mrs. Vanderson,” Janelle said in the lowest
voice she could. The way things were going, she’d start roaring her
sentences next.
    The sick room had a long examining table and
an ugly plastic plant in the corner. The paper crinkled as she sat
on the table. She kicked her feet, watching them go back and forth.
She had to think. There was no way her dad would move back to
Flint. Nobody who wanted to have a job and pay their bills did.
Maybe she could talk him into moving inland, as far from the ocean
as they could get. Her father could still go to his job, and she'd
never have to worry about having this weird reaction again. They'd
both win, provided he even wanted to listen to her. Or would he
just go hide in his study again, like he had that entire week?
    The reassuring father who'd driven them out
of Flint seemed to be gone, too. The fact settled in her like a
stone as she leaned against the wall, studying a crack near the
ceiling. Janelle watched, it seemed to open up a bit more and grow
larger.
    Phones rang outside the door and Mr. Deville
talked about coaching football—normal stuff—as she focused on her
breathing. The words blurred into the background until the door to
the office squeaked open.
    Mr. Deville went silent as if the President
had walked into the room.
    “Excuse me,” said Gary’s guardian. “I’m
looking for a student. I’m not sure what her last name is now, but
I know she must be going to a school