“Men!” I exclaimed.
“You’d better get used to it Morgan,” Mom picked up a purple lettuce leaf and pointed at me with it. “You’ve got a few lifetimes to master the subtle art of ignoring their gaping mouths.”
I laughed. “They’re talking about you.”
Aletheia’s eyes darted to me. “How do you know?”
“I can hear them!”
Their startled looks made me doubt myself.
“Can’t you?”
Both of them looked over to the guys’ table, and I realized it was pretty far away – a good thirty feet from us. Both men looked back with hopeful looks.
“That’s odd,” I mumbled.
“You can hear them?” Aletheia leaned forward, whispering. “We can’t. You must be getting your sensory powers. You shouldn’t have them yet.”
“Huh?” I put down the chicken sandwich.
“Those come after mind reading.”
“Oh,” I shrugged in obvious sarcasm, as if it were no big thing.
Aletheia smiled. “Well, no two rulers are alike.”
“When do you plan on focusing her teaching?” Mom asked Aletheia.
“It has already begun,” she answered. “All the preliminaries are out of the way.”
Mom nodded and chomped down on the purple leaf.
“We need to focus on your teachings every day. There will be no breaks from your learning.” Aletheia lowered her voice. “You have to be prepared for when your husband returns.”
My husband? It was strange hearing Thayde called anything other than my boyfriend.
“What happens when Thayde returns?” I asked.
“He may not be himself when he does.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Excuse me,”
The three of us looked up to the Egyptian man who had decided to take the chance and approach us.
“I noticed you were sitting alone. May we join you?”
“Thank you,” Mom began, “but we prefer to be alone.”
“Are you sure?” He pressed. “It’s not right for three lovely ladies to be dining alone.”
I was getting impatient and glared at him, the heat rising in my body.
“She said we prefer to be alone. That means you leave, now.”
He held up his hands and backed away.
Mom’s face was filled with alarm. “Aletheia, look at her eyes!”
Aletheia cupped my chin, turning my face toward hers. Her eyes widened.
“Morgan, control yourself.”
“What a pig!” I exclaimed. “How dare he not take no for an answer!”
“I think it’s time to leave.” Aletheia and Mom stood, waiting expectantly.
I rolled my eyes and took one last look at the three men who sat in silence watching us. The blonde one looked inquisitively at me.
Piling into our rented SUV, I wrapped my purple shawl around my shoulders and eased back into the plush seat.
“So what’s the big deal?” I asked.
Aletheia turned in the passenger seat, steadying herself as Mom pulled out of the parking spot. “You have much evil in you. You must learn to control this if you want to survive.”
“Survive?”
“It will kill you if you don’t get hold of it, Morgandy,” Mom added.
“What’s wrong with my eyes?” Curious, I pulled a mirror out of my purse and took a good, long look. They were nearly black. “What is this?”
“We call it The Look. You’ve heard of the phrase ‘if looks could kill’? You literally can kill with your looks. The black is the buildup. It’s your first time summoning it and thankfully it didn’t release. We would have been in terrible trouble if it had.”
“The Look,” I repeated. “Don’t we have any names that don’t start with ‘The’? The Look, The Blessing, The Shadow, The Fire. I mean, it’s really lame.”
Neither one of them spoke for a moment. Aletheia sighed. “These are old names handed down from many generations. I doubt very much they were concerned with being ‘cool’ when they were coming up with the names.”
She turned to face the front of the car and we drove in silence until we got back to the house. Once there, I went straight to my room and locked the door. Staring in the mirror that hung above the set of drawers, I was relieved to see my eyes had changed back to their normal color.
I paced to my bedroom window and watched Naira play in the water. From my position up high, I could see down into the lake at the schools of freshwater fish gathered around her. Waves of green water splashed as they darted around her and she chased them. They seemed to be playing tag with her. I grunted a slight laugh and rubbed my tired eyes. My chest felt heavy, and I rubbed at the area just over my heart.