Page 15

"Do you get feelings from your nightmares that are comparable to the feelings that you get from me?" Viggo sheepishly asked.

I patted his cheek, startling him. "No. You are a whole different kind of trouble and uneasy feeling, Little Prince de Babineaux," I teased, causing him to blush. "I'm not sure how to explain it, how to explain you, but I have this feeling you are somehow going to hurt me. More so than the bruises and dislocated shoulder I received earlier today," I admitted. "However you hurt me, or why you have to, you have your reasons and I have to accept whatever they are."

I really shouldn't have said that part out loud.

"You are presenting as a Sibyl now?" he asked in disbelief.

"A what?" I asked, dumbfounded.

That was not the response I thought he'd have to my admission, and the truth was, I was a bit torn on that.

Viggo's full brows pulled together, trying to translate from French to English, I think. "A Sibyl is a Seer of sorts that senses, but instead of focusing on what they are trying to see, or using a totem or article as a focus, the visions of a Sibyl are uncontrollable and tied to the soul and heart. Those visions are not visions in the normal sense; they are called Precognitions. Sibyls have precognitions tied to those that their soul is tied to, but they are not by choice. They are caused by a flooding of emotions that will snap their mind back and forth between the precognition and reality," he tried to explain, his French accent so thick it was hard to follow.

That was nothing I had ever heard of before, and it sounded completely insane.

"Are you messing with me because I stole your dinner and bit you?" I asked, suspicious, before scraping the last pieces of his pasta into my mouth.

Viggo shook his head. "I would never do you the dishonor," he promised. "Sibyl are exceptionally rare, thus they are not a lesson that would be taught in any schooling. From what I know, Sibyls are only females, and only one every century or so present, if ever."

Huh, that is interesting and not at all helpful for a Sentinel to be.

"Perhaps the evil dude won't like me now because of that," I mumbled with my mouth full.

Viggo shook his head. "No, he would not know what you are. There is no way to track, test, identify, or create a Sibyl. Only they know if they are one or not, and that is solely because of what they see. Being a Sibyl can complicate things, complicate plans, and prove to be a great liability. However, their visions only pertain to those their heart or soul is tied to, a warning system in a manner of speaking for those they love... From what I know, jealousy caused confirmed or identified Sibyls to be put to death by their own people."

I struggled to swallow the lump that had formed in my throat. "What?" I whispered.

"Since their visions could not be utilized for nefarious purposes, they were considered a liability thus they were put to death... Sorry," he whispered, wiping away the tear that rolled down my cheek for some reason. "I am scaring you."

"I'm not a Sibyl, I'm just a hot mess that's confused about the hot new guy that waltzed into her combat program and kicked her ass without wanting the ranking," I argued.

Viggo blushed. "There is not much known about Sibyl, and what is known is from second-hand accounts recorded by Scribes. I only know of them because of my mother and a warning given many years before it came to pass..." his words trailed off.

The look that washed across his face caused my chest to tighten and it was suddenly difficult to breathe.

"What else have you felt about me?" Viggo asked.

"Whatever it is, add heart attack inducing to it," I complained, rubbing my chest.

Viggo gave me a look. "May I?" he asked, holding two fingers up.

Not sure what he wanted to do with those two fingers, but strangely curious in a perverted way to find out, I nodded.

He caressed his fingers up the length of my neck before pressing against the carotid artery to take my pulse.

That was disappointing.

"Your heart rate is elevated, and you are rather flush all of a sudden, but I do not think it is a heart attack," Viggo said. "Do you need to go to the Healing Center?" he asked.

I slapped his hand away and scooted away from him. "No, you annoying boy. You are what's wrong with me!" I informed him.

Viggo gave me a look before rolling his eyes and shaking his head.

Obviously, he was a bit slow when it came to humor.

"You are ridiculous," he grumbled under his breath.

I think he has that backward because he's the ridiculous one if he hasn't figured out my problem was him.

"No, ridiculous is buying a pain in the ass Mundane dinner and just showing up at her door because you were too scared to ask her to have dinner with you," I argued. "Ridiculous is hanging out in the library while she slept half of the day away..." my words trailed off. "Ridiculous is tucking her in, letting her play Batman in your cape, and not staking her for biting you. Why are you bothering?"

Viggo got to his feet and started picking up our dishes then took them to the sink. "What is your point? You are the one presenting as a Sibyl, so why do you not tell me?" he suggested, his tone condescending, his attention on me as he washed our plates.

I put my fingertips to my forehead and closed my eyes before curling all of my fingers into a fist, leaving my middle fingers up.

He chuckled.

"I sense that you're an ass that is trying to skirt around the subject and that I should press charges because that is breaking and entering," I said, opening my eyes.

Viggo gave me a look, one that I have come to understand means he is slightly amused with my antics but he wasn't going to admit it.

Then, a strange sensation flooded me.

Something tingly and numbing bit at my mind and constricted around my body at the same time. My blood felt as if it was freezing in mid-circulation, and it was a struggle to breathe all of a sudden.

A small nagging in the back of my mind screamed at me that something was very wrong.

Instincts were not to be ignored when you were a Sentinel. A gut feeling was a Sentinel's greatest strength!

Sentinel training kicked in and I looked around the room, trying to figure out what was different. Every little detail was important; smell, feel, the change in temperature, and even taste could be the difference between life and death.

My naturally paranoid nature was what made me the perfect Mundane to be a Sentinel, and that was why just letting a stranger waltz into my life today as I had was so concerning, but it wasn't triggering concern within me.

This feeling though, was triggering.

This was a major trigger.

"Something is wrong," I whispered, my voice echoing around the room as if I were speaking into a cave.

Everything looked in its place.

For being teenagers, we were unnaturally organized and tidy, borderline OCD even; Sentinels-in-training are the equivalent of military cadets, so order took precedence.

Harper was strict about cleanliness, and he fought with Slevin when the chaos in our lazy Wizard's room spilled over into the shared living area.

Slevin wasn't a Sentinel-in-training, he was a lackadaisical student of wizardry.

Viggo still stood at the sink washing up the last of our dishes, his attention on me, and each of his movements was slowed. His full lips were moving, but I couldn't make out what he was saying to me.

"This is wrong," I said again, my voice echoing.

My vision started to fail for some reason. The umbrae were accompanied by searing flashes of light that made it impossible to clearly make out the room or movement around me. An unnatural freezing sensation licked at my skin; I couldn't taste the bitterness of the cold on my tongue or the dryness that accompanies that type of natural chill.

I shook my head, trying to clear my vision, and when I did, my vision cleared.

I looked around, but the dorm wasn't how it should have been, and instantly it caused my blood to run cold.