Page 17 of The Mist of Stars

Worried, I open the door and step outside. The wind has kicked up, and clouds are covering the sky. A storm is definitely heading our way.

Alex and my dad are standing by the porch railing. Their backs are turned toward me, and they’re staring out at the road.

I step up beside them. “What’re you guys doing out here?”

Alex angles his body toward me and rests his arm on the railing. His gaze sweeps up and down my body. “Did you find the mark?”

“Nope.” I give a dubious glance between the two of them. “What were you guys talking about?”

My father doesn’t even glance in my direction. “About the storm heading our way.”

Alex presses me with an intense but indecipherable look then pushes away from the railing. “Can I talk to you alone for a moment?”

“Sure.” Something is off, but I can’t figure out what.

The moment we step foot in the living room, Alex says, “I think something is wrong with your dad.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m pretty sure he had some sort of vision while we were waiting for you to come out of your room.”

“That’s not possible. Foreseers can’t see visions without a crystal ball,” I point out. “And my father doesn’t keep one in the house.”

“There’ve been a few foreseers throughout history who have been able to see visions without crystals, and I think your dad just did that.” He slips his hands into his back pockets. “One minute, we were sitting there, talking about classes, and the next thing I know, he’s zoned out. Once he came out of it, he had this panicked look on his face, and then he told me that he wanted to talk to me outside. He started saying all this stuff about protecting you and being prepared for the worst.”

I rewind over what he said. “If he had that kind of power, he would’ve said something already.” Right?

The thing is that my father doesn’t tell me much about the foreseer world.

“I’ll keep an eye on h?—”

I startle as thunder grumbles from outside.

Silence skips by.

“So, no mark?” Alex asks, retrieving his phone from his pocket.

I shake my head. “Nope. Maybe it was you who channeled the power.”

“It wasn’t.” He sounds so certain, and I’m unsure why. He reads a message on his phone then puts it back in his pocket. “I think we should be careful around Professor G. until we figure out what’s happening. I have to return to the school for practice, but I can have Aislin bring you your bag. That way, you can look through the book, and if you find anything interesting in it, will you let me know?”

I mull this over, mainly because it feels like we’re forming some sort of detective partnership, and I don’t like the idea of having that with him. However, since we both went into the vision together, it feels like I might be stuck with him until we can figure this out.

“I would never marry you,” I say. “That vision was wrong.”

He sinks his teeth into his bottom lip. “Noted.”

Why does it feel like he doesn’t believe me?

I lean against the back of the sofa. “That aside, I’ll let you know what I find out. And thanks for having Aislin bring me my stuff.”

His lips kick up into a half-smirk. “See? That wasn’t so hard.”

I give him a blank stare. “Don’t push your luck.”

He chuckles, his green eyes crinkling around the corners.

He leaves not too long after that.