The 13th: Destiny Awaits by Ela Lond Read Free Book Online

Mandy said.
    “What time?” Ethan propped his arm on the table.
    “I wanted to introduce you. I always thought since you are so alike you would get along well. But she said she wasn’t interested in making new friends,” Mandy answered.
    Alike? In Kate's opinion, aside from their special abilities, they didn't have anything in common. She opened her mouth to tell that to Mandy.
    “It would be weird if she was, with the way she is keeping her old friend at arm’s length,” Tyler said, cutting Kate off.
    “I was only concerned about you and --”
    “And my position. I know. But if you haven't noticed, my position was never threatened because I hung out with you.”
    Yes, it had been. “Yeah, right. Have you forgotten Sandra?” Kate asked. “Just remember what happened when she started those rumours about us. Even some of your teammates left the table when you sat down in the cafeteria.”
    “It only lasted a week and it was their girlfriends that made them do that.”
    He didn't know it, but during that week when she had visited him, she had found him crying into the pillow. The incident had not been that innocent, not for him, no matter how hard he pretended otherwise. “Yes, but what if it had escalated?”
    “What if, what if,” Tyler almost spat out.
    “Aren't you the basketball team's star player?” Ethan spoke up. “You guys are never picked on.”
    “Nor are the prettiest boys in school.” Kate glanced sideways at Ethan. “I heard that your popularity is on the rise.”
    “What are you talking about?” Ethan's brows lifted.
    “I heard the girls talking about your after-school secret identity. They have been admiring you. And this, now, when Mandy doesn’t want to be popular anymore.”
    Ethan didn’t give the sarcastic retort Kate had expected; instead his hand slid over the table, over the books and textbooks. He wrapped his fingers around Mandy's. “I have always been a bad brother, haven’t I, Mandy?”
    Mandy squeezed his hand. “Don't be silly.”
    Kate stared at their hands, then she lifted her eyes and glanced over the faces behind the table. She knew about Mandy being bullied while they lived in Japan, and she knew about Tyler's mishap with Sandra. Burdens, they all had their burdens, some heavy, some light, and no matter what their weight, they all left scars. Her gaze stopped on Ethan's profile. Where were his scars? Did he even have any?
     
    #
     
    Kate's fingers touched the black stone hanging from its silver chain, absently gazing through the living room window. Ethan had just demanded she get rid of the gift her mother had given her for her fifteenth birthday, a few days before she... Splashes of colours started to dance before the window, their features sharper than the ones she had seen a few days before.
    She swallowed and rubbed her temples. There was something wrong with her. Despite the techniques Ethan taught her to calm herself down quickly, these last two days she had become agitated at the smallest incidents. Just last night, when she was watching Animal Planet, she found herself crying over an abandoned doggy, a little thing with a disproportionate body and slightly grotesque face, who, after being tossed into the garbage, had found a new home. His story reminded her of the Ugly Duckling, who wandered around until he found his place. Sometimes she too felt like an ugly duckling -- minus the wandering.
    “The pendant, please.” Ethan stretched out his hand.
    Kate's hand wrapped tighter around the stone.
    “I will give it back to you, I promise.”
    Her mother had warned her to never take it off.
    “Trust me, please.”
    Could she? Kate's fingers loosened around the stone. She did want the ghosts to stop bothering her, and with what she had learned from Ethan, she didn't need the comfort of her closet anymore or the help of the charms to keep them at bay. Well, most of the time. But there was a price to pay: the loss of the charms and going against her mother's