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see relationships
kicked in. The line she saw connecting Ramsey to Lila was the same one she’d
seen between her own parents. But that made no sense. Lila didn’t have a te’sorthene .
    “She’s
my sister,” Lila said to Ramsey, interrupting Adelaide’s thoughts.
    He
pinned Adelaide with an unsmiling gaze. “We don’t know who she is right
now.”
    “Stop
it. Can’t you see you’re scaring her to death?” Ellie broke in, earning a glare
from Ramsey.
    “I’ll
be fine,” Lila assured him quietly.
    Adelaide’s
soft heart constricted. Why would he think she’d ever harm her own sister?
    Lila
turned back to her and took a step forward but stopped when Adelaide held up a
hand. “Wait. Am I dangerous?”
    Lila’s
mouth drooped, and her brow furrowed. “I don’t know,” she whispered.
    Adelaide
took a deep breath, and then another. “Don’t come any closer. Just… just…
please tell me what’s going on.”

Chapter 6
     
     
    Nate
stood in front of the fridge and stared blankly at its contents. With a
distracted sigh, he ran a hand through his sandy brown hair. Coming down to the
kitchen had really just been an excuse to do something… anything. He’d been
having a disturbing dream lately. One from which he woke feeling both
frustrated and guilty. And tonight had been no exception.
    Always
the dream involved Adelaide Jenner. He’d been delusional about her, duped into
thinking that she was his te’sorthene at one time. Man, what a fool!
    Talia,
his true te’sorthene , had shown him just how wrong he’d been. She’d
shown him how Adelaide, with her ability to see and manipulate relationships,
had forced him to believe in something that didn’t really exist. And Adelaide’s
sister, Lila, had screwed with his emotions to add to their deception.
    Adelaide
was, in a word, evil.
    They
all were – her and her entire family. They were like snakes, slithering on
their bellies and into his life. Taking over his entire being. At least now he
knew that none of it had been real. These days, his life with the Jenners and
the Pierces seemed like a blurry version of an old movie he had once watched.
All grey and washed out.
    But
this damn dream still left him shaken. In it, Adelaide stood facing him, tears
spilling from her eyes and streaming down her cheeks. There was so much
devastation in her expression that he wanted to look away. But he couldn’t. She
didn’t say anything, just reached out to him. Finally, he would summon the strength
to turn from her. And then he’d hear her sobbing. That’s when he’d wake up.
    He
would lie in bed, his heart dull with pain and guilt. And then he’d turn his
head and look at Talia sleeping beside him, looking so frail and sweet, and a
different guilt would swamp him. How the hell could he dream about Adelaide
when his true te’sorthene slept at his side?
    A
low rumble of murmured voices just outside in the hallway pulled him out his
thoughts. He softly shut the fridge and moved closer to the kitchen doorway.
Nate recognized his leader’s deep tones as he neared.
    Maddox.
Enigmatic and powerful. They all followed him with a blind loyalty that Nate
sometimes thought bordered on fanaticism, though nothing had shown him yet that
the sentiment was not deserved.
    “Of
course. I’m almost finished.”
    Nate
froze as he recognized Talia’s voice. What was she doing talking to Maddox?
Talia rarely came out of their room because her power restricted her too much.
She could feel every emotion of the people around her, only amplified. In fact,
if she got around too many people, it became downright debilitating. And he’d
never seen Maddox go anywhere near her.
    Probably
just bumped into him in the hallway, Nate thought. At a guess, she must’ve woken
up to find Nate gone and come looking for him.
    “How
deep in is he?” Maddox asked.
    “Completely,”
Talia replied.
    “But
could he handle prolonged exposure?”
    “I
believe so. We’d just need to set the stage