Preda's Voice (Guardians of Vaka Book 1) by Carolyn Gross Read Free Book Online Page B

be overheard. “I can’t believe what you’re saying. You know we can’t do anything without new orders.”
    Will took a deep breath to calm his nerves. “Our orders, Jim, are to watch over her. Plain and simple.”
    “Oh. That’s it.” Jim threw his hands up in the air dramatically. “I knew you shouldn’t have talked to her so much. I knew that was a bad idea. What did she say to you? Are you under her control?”
    “She hasn’t spoken a word to me,” he replied softly.
    “Wait. Really? How did the girl ever resist your charms?” Jim said with a sarcastic bite.
    Will quickly grabbed a phone and an unlabeled envelope from his locker, and looked around at all the faces turned toward them. He turned a meaningful glance on his friend and indicated they should leave before making more of a scene.
    “Where we gonna go, Will?” Jim asked.
    “We’re going back to the island until we get orders to do otherwise,” replied Will with determination, and he walked straight back toward the doors leading out of the building.
    Jim stood stock-still for a moment with his mouth hanging slightly open. “Will, you can’t go there without permission. You know that. How can we even afford to get there?” Jim was practically jogging to catch up as he wove in and out of the crowd of students.
    “Hey, Jim!” a girl called out as they were leaving.
    Jim turned just in time to see the kiss she was blowing in his direction. He growled as he struggled to keep up with a very determined Will.
    “You have to call him. You know that,” he said to Will as they pushed past the double doors and walked toward the parking lot. “People are going to be talking about us leaving in the middle of the day. It’s going to create a scene. Just think for a minute about what you’re doing.” Jim was practically begging now. “It isn’t going to help her if we draw attention to ourselves.”
    This last statement made Will stop walking. His shoulders slumped in defeat, and he stared for a minute at the gravel underneath his shoes.
    “Fine,” he conceded. “We finish the day, but then we call him. I’m leaving tonight regardless of his answer.”
    The rest of the day was a blur for Will. He went to his classes in a daze. He kept repeating the events of that morning in his head and the look on her face as she left the classroom. At lunch he sat alone. Why was Preda retrieved so early? he wondered. What could possibly have happened? Anxiety for the people he knew back home forced him to consider that it wasn’t something that had happened here to force their hands. The Soundless might have finally taken action.
    Jim kicked him in the leg as he sat down next to him at the lunch table, which interrupted Will from the dangerous line of thought. As usual three girls followed Jim to the otherwise empty table. One of them was Ashley Burke, an annoying blonde who liked to talk down to Preda. Will sighed and ran his hands through his hair.
    The look on Jim’s face was one of forced joviality. Will forced himself to take a cue from his friend, and with barely a trace of the emotion he felt roiling through him, he smiled. “Good afternoon, ladies. How are you on this fine day?”
    One of them—Will thought her name might be Kerri—started talking animatedly. “Oh, Will, you were there, weren’t you? We heard the cops came and took the mute girl to prison!”
    Another girl chimed in before he could reply. “No, Kerri. They took her away in a straitjacket. Ben Pearson said so.”
    Will clenched his jaw to keep from drawing attention to himself. Jim smoothly interceded. “Ladies, you know it wasn’t like that. It was just the school principal. Nothing major.”
    Jim took a bite of apple and winked at Will as if it was all just a big joke.
    “But that’s not what Silvia said.” Kerri wasn’t about to let it go.
    “She’s always following you around, Will,” Ashley Burke said too innocently. “What do you think happened to her?”
    She