Terran Times Second Wave # 10 - Liberty Read Online Free PDF Page B

permission.
    Her arm tingled again and she flexed her hand. It felt like the nerves were being rerouted. The sensation ran up her arm and across her chest. Each minute she stood there, another wave lapped across her tissue under her skin. She could feel a change coursing through her and she began to wonder what precisely was in that shot.
    When lunch was called, Rajon tightened his arm around her and got to his feet. Without a word, he walked her through the crowd and out through the main doors. The gathering parted easily for them and Libby fought her blush as she was directed through the courtiers and out into the hallway.
    She sighed and looked up at the man steering her around. “I thought you were willing to let me choose the time.”
    “I am, but they need to know where you stand and that is next to me. Protocol be damned.”
    Libby blinked and their escort joined and surrounded them as they walked through the unsecure areas of the palace. “Why are you bucking protocol, Your Grace?”
    “Because it vexes me. I want you at my side whenever I can have you there, and that means you will be there. They must get used to it.”
    She heard the absolute demand in his voice. He really meant that Libby would have to get used to it but that was subtext.
    They walked until they entered a heavily fortified garden. Their escort scattered, but they were still nearby in case the duke should call.
    “Why is it that you insist on having me around for meals?”
    He shrugged and grinned. “I enjoy watching your enjoyment and discovery of our foods. It is a pleasure I am keeping for my own eyes only.”
    Libby wasn’t sure how to respond to that, so she sat and waited for the food to arrive.
    Luncheon was made of salads, delicate fish and lighter-than-air pastries. If he wanted to watch her eat, this was definitely the stuff to get the job done.
    “How many dead did you see?”
    She paused with a beverage halfway to her lips. “Two for certain and the others were negotiable.”
    He narrowed his eyes. “How could you tell?”
    “When I see them, they are cloaked in auras that determine their chance of survival.”
    “And the colour of the aura?”
    “It gives me their chances of survival.”
    “What is your current range?”
    She smiled at him, realizing that there was a difference between her contact range and the sensing of incoming death.
    “About a thousand kilometers, though the instructors at the moon base said that I could expand my range through practice.”
    “How are you to practice?”
    Libby shrugged with her hands open. “I have to let it in.”
    He gave her a concerned look, “Does it hurt? Your hands clenched and your body tensed.”
    “That is the side effect of having images of death playing in your mind without warning, like someone starting an entertainment vid without notice at full volume. All you can do is watch and tell those who will listen what you have seen. Death will take its toll no matter what you will and all you can do is watch and hope that those you love are not in its path.”
    She ate her meal with good appetite. Seeing death always made her hungry.
    Rajon nodded and ate his meal in silence.
    When they were both finished, he turned to her and asked, “Have those you loved been in its path?”
    She nodded and gave him a calm and sober look. “All talents wake in energy or trauma. Mine was no different.”
    His eyes were alight with curiosity.
    “It was my cousin. I saw her aura glowing red and thought it was funny. When the car sped through the intersection and struck her, the red made sense. I screamed and someone called an ambulance. I held her hand through the ride to the hospital and watched the red aura fade to black. She died in the hospital in the same position I saw in my mind. She was on white sheets, and she had a slight smile on her lips as she walked into the darkness without me.”
    Libby wiped away tears as she always did when talking about Alberta. “Her parents arrived