WeavingDestinyebook Read Free Page A

direction. His green eyes lingered on Malini who was embarrassed to be caught staring. It was hard to look away from Gideon when he wasn't in his usual form of Dr. Silva's red cat.
    "Nice to see you again, Gideon," she said, breaking the awkward silence.
    "Shall we get started?" Dr. Silva grabbed two wooden staffs that leaned up against the wall by the desk. She handed one to Gideon. "If everyone would stand back, we'll bring in our other team member."
    Malini took a step toward the windows. Dr. Silva and Gideon faced each other, tapped the staffs together and then pulled them apart. Their muscles strained with the effort. Between the two staffs, thin blue fibers stretched like electric taffy. A girl formed within the blue web. She stepped out, looking around the room as if she'd landed on another planet. Gideon and Dr. Silva closed the portal behind her.
    To Malini, the new horseman was the one who looked alien. She guessed the girl was not much older than herself. She wore a hooded leather jacket over a clingy, gray sleeveless t-shirt and skinny jeans. Her lips were too red, the lower one pierced with a metal stud. A hot pink streak of hair fell from her widow's peak to her chin. As the girl turned to face Gideon, Malini noticed a tattoo on her neck under her jet-black ponytail, but from where she stood she couldn't make out the details. Everything about her was hard, tough, unarguably a Horseman.
    But she also had a figure. She reminded Malini of one of those girls in a video game, all muscles and boobs. If that wasn't enough to make Malini feel inadequate, the girl's roving peeps landed on Jacob. Her eyes worked their way from his head to his feet, then back up again. When she reached his face, she stood up straighter.
    Malini tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and hugged her stomach. Maybe, after this, she could start working out.
    "This is our new Horseman, Mara Kane. She comes from Chicago. She witnessed the kill."
    Mara did not attempt to shake anyone's hand. Instead she reached inside her jacket and pulled out a sucker, the cheap kind they gave away free at the bank. She yanked the wrapper off the red candy top and popped it in her mouth. She rolled it across her tongue as she turned toward Dr. Silva. "When do we start?"
    "It's nice to meet you, Mara," Lillian said with exaggerated zeal. She extended her hand to the girl who shook it without enthusiasm.
    The prompt spurred a rash of similar greetings from the others. Malini smiled and nodded to be polite.
     "Perhaps each of you Horseman can demonstrate your gifts," Dr. Silva said. "Jacob, you first."
    Jacob removed the flask he kept strapped to his ankle and stepped to the center of the room. Into his hand he poured a pillar of water that rotated in his palm before freezing and reshaping into a double-edged sword. He maneuvered the weapon around his body so quickly Malini saw only flashes of white. When he'd completed a turn around the room, he tossed the blade into the air. It rotated to the ceiling where it exploded into a billion bits of white.
    Snow floated down overhead, fluffy white flakes that settled on everything. Mara caught one in her palm but before she could close her fingers, Jacob whistled. The flake jumped from her hand and flew across the room to Jacob's waiting flask. The remaining flakes followed, until every drop returned to its origin. He screwed the lid back on.
    Malini clapped excitedly until she realized she was the only one applauding.
    "Nicely done, Jacob," Dr. Silva said. "Lillian?"
    In a flash, Lillian dove forward, executing a series of handsprings between the other Horsemen before landing with a short knife in each hand. Malini noticed the sheaths at her thighs, but hadn't seen her draw the weapons. Slicing at the air in a whirlwind of acrobatics, she kicked up a random piece of paper from the desk against the wall. Her knives worked swiftly as it floated to the floor. When she was done, she sheathed the knives and lifted the paper