Exposed (9 page)

“Come on,” Cora sighed. “The others will be there already.”

They followed the road, the rising moon shining like a beacon. Up ahead around a corner, the town’s auto mechanic blazed with light. Three figures were leaning outside the building, smoke circling their heads.

Next to June, Cora stiffened. Her steps slowed, pulling them to a stop in the middle of the empty street. But it was only for a second, then she shook back her hair, straightened her shoulders, and kept walking.

“Cora?”

“It’s okay,” she said out the side of her mouth. June wasn’t sure who she was reassuring.

It was Danny she recognized first. He was taller than the others, and his greased back hair caught the shop light. Then June recognized the other two and suddenly understood Cora’s trepidation. Ralph hunched against the building, dragging on a cigarette and twitching his free hand against his thigh. Nearby, Butch stalked back and forth, a sneer souring his already harsh face.

Ralph smacked Butch’s arm and pointed. Butch squinted into the darkness outside their circle of light, then leered.

“Thought you left us behind for the fancy side of town. Clayton already dumped you?”

June swallowed back a gasp, but Cora ignored her brother and kept walking. Yet that just made Butch quiver with energy. He stalked back and forth, faster now. June’s stomach tightened painfully, and her heart fluttered like a moth in her chest. 

Behind Butch, Danny looked away and sucked hard on his cigarette. He muttered something to Butch, but Butch ignored him and turned back to Cora and June. 

“What. You’re too good to talk to us? You think you can get away from what you are so easy just because you got a new last name?”

Cora shook her head. “Butch, I already
am
away from you.”

Butch laughed—a mean thing. “You’ll be back. You might have gotten that ring, but how long before Clayton tires of you?” His beady eyes found June. “Probably already has. How else do you think she got that job at the bank?”

June shook with anger. It washed over the fear that’d flooded through her and made her teeth clench together. How dare he. How dare Butch insinuate that. Before she realized, June took a step closer to the men, but Cora grabbed June’s elbow and held her back. 

“Leave us alone, Butch,” June snapped. “You don’t know a thing about me or my job.”

Butch’s mean gaze found June. “That a challenge?”

June didn’t answer, just held her chin up and stared him down. 

He was the first to look away. He spat on the ground and muttered something to Ralph and Danny, but they only seemed to laugh because it was expected.

Without another glance, June and Cora walked away from Butch. But neither one of them breathed until they were hidden in the dark again.

The dirt road petered to a rutted track, choked with weeds on either side. They were closer to the river now, and the roar of the Breakneck Rapids stole June’s breath. Ahead of them, the abandoned silver mine loomed giant and darker than the night. It backed up to the even more giant mountains and slumped to one side, like an old man leaning on a cane. The road ended, tumbling down into the most dangerous section of the rapids, Miner’s Revenge.

Carefully, Cora pulled back a section of fencing and held it open for June. “No trespassing” signs were tacked to the fencing every hundred feet, but June ducked through and peered into the darkness. 

Closer now, she could make out the loft poking from the top of the warehouse, a rusted, drooping chute hanging from the side of the building. If she held her breath, she swore she could hear voices.

Cora pulled a flashlight from her bag and clicked it on. “Follow me.”

They picked their way past rocks and overgrown bushes that yanked at June’s dungarees. And there it was again. Voices. The beam from Cora’s flashlight bounced over the sides of the mine. The wooden slats were flaking rust red paint, knots in the wood betraying movement and light from inside the structure.

Cora ran her hand along the slats, feeling for something. Her hand stopped, and she tugged. June hurried up next to her and helped pull back the loose slats. They slid the planks to one side and clambered inside.

Five people turned and stared at them, and June’s mouth fell open in shock.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Ivan

“June?”

Ivan spun at the sound of her name, his chest tightening. He’d taken a step forward—toward June—before he stopped himself and melted back into the shadows of the mine.

June had just entered with Cora and was being waved closer. But Ivan hung back at the edges of the group standing around a fire barrel and simply watched.

What could her power be? Ivan couldn’t stop wondering, watching her for any sign of something strange waiting just below the surface. 

June walked closer, nearer to the barrel at the center of the cavernous space. Next to him, Frank Greg was going on about them being lucky or something equally stupid, but Ivan wasn’t really listening.

Fire danced in the barrel, casting a warm, orange glow against necks, chins, and cheeks. Ivan watched June and Cora creep closer, emerging from the deep shadows an inch at a time as they carefully picked a route around overturned wooden crates, another barrel, and a slumped, ratty couch. The wood floor groaned underneath them. Ivan had never been to one of the legendary parties at the mine—but he knew enough about the place. He knew that the ground underneath them was pocked with collapsed tunnels and pits, and the entire area was prone to sink holes. 

Outside the glow of the fire, shadows reached up to the rafters. Darkness blanketed the loft and nestled in the corners where open tunnels wormed into the very heart of the mountain.

“Meg?” June cocked her head and stared at the girl obscuring him from June. “
You
have a power too?”

Meg tucked her hand through the arm of Will Briggs’, her fiancée and Clayton’s older brother. Ivan didn’t miss the way she held on tight. “I have …
something
. I’m not certain I’d call it power.” Meg shuddered and then tossed her head. “But what about you! You didn’t say a thing!” 

Firelight washed across June’s skin, across a sliver of stomach showing between the band of her pants and where she’d tied her buttoned shirt. Ivan wondered what it’d feel like to touch her there. He frowned at the unbidden thought. She was just like the rest of them, and the sooner he scrubbed her from his mind, the better off he’d be. 

June laughed—nervously, it seemed. It pulled Ivan from his thoughts. “It didn’t exactly come up in conversation,” June said.

“I don’t expect any of us were too forthcoming with this,” Clayton said. “We’ve been searching for others since last week, but we’ve only found you all through lucky accident.”

Next to Ivan, Frank quivered with excitement and elbowed Ivan in the ribs. Ivan glowered down at the smaller man and stepped farther away. Frank didn’t seem to notice.

“And look at us! Powers!” Frank practically bounced as he spoke. His smile just made Ivan’s frown deeper. 

Why had he come again? He’d wanted to keep tabs on Clayton and Cora, make sure they didn’t tell his secret. But instead, now four more people knew about him. 

People who included June. With Meg hiding him, he let himself stare at her. She might be like the rest of them, but God, she was beautiful. Her hair waved softly against her neck, and Ivan’s fingers itched to push it away and kiss the soft skin behind her ear. In the shadows, her eyes were nearly black. Could he make them widen with desire if he touched her in just the right places? 

Ivan shook his head at his own ridiculousness. He had to get a hold of himself. All she’d ever done was yell at him—and yes, it’d been surprising to hear perfect June Powell raise her voice to anyone. But she was one of them, the people who’d shunned his family and whispered about his allegiances. She no doubt believed his “comrades” were behind the attack on the town as well. Ivan would prove to himself she was just like all the others. Then he could be done with her for good. 

Frank was still talking, and Ivan forced his attention back to the eager man.

“We’re lucky, that’s what,” Frank said. “We’re special. Wasn’t I just saying that?” He elbowed Ivan in the ribs again. Ivan grimaced and sidestepped Frank, walking closer to the firelight. “Wasn’t I, Ivan?”

June’s mouth fell open and her eyes grew wide when they darted to Ivan’s for half a breath. Ivan narrowed his in response. So she was surprised to see him here, was she? She didn’t think someone like him could be special
like her. 

“Yeah, Frank,” he said, his voice harsh. “We all heard you.”

“Yup!” Frank rocked back onto his heels and grinned. “And to think, we all thought Violet Miller was the special one running off to Hollywood. But it’s us! We’re the ones who could be famous!”

The seven of them grew quiet, just the crackling of firewood popping and echoing around them. 

Ivan stared into the fire. Someone like him, someone with his background—he’d become
in
famous, not famous. He’d become hunted. Ivan’s hands twisted together nervously. It’d been a mistake to let these people know his secret. He let his eyes find June’s, and she was watching him. He shoved his hands in his pockets so she wouldn’t see the way they shook.

He didn’t want her to know he was more than nervous. He was scared. And even more, he was angry that he cared what someone like June thought of him.

“I don’t want to be famous,” Ivan said solidly. Heads turned to look at him. He’d barely spoken at all since joining them in the mine. Clayton had tried to be inviting, but Ivan had hung back, wary. And now he knew why. 

Frank wanted fame? Frank was an idiot.

“Let’s not be stupid,” Ivan continued. “Others wouldn’t welcome us if they knew about this. Take it from the Commie,” he drawled. 

“Speak for yourself,” Frank said, his smile still firmly in place. “I don’t think anyone would call us stupid.”

“I just did.”

He didn’t miss the way Will and Clayton shared a look, the way Meg pursed her lips or June sighed. Tension jagged through them like lightning. But they were all dumber than Ivan imagined if they thought going public with these powers was a good idea.

“Ivan,” Clayton started. He stopped and held his hands out to the entire group. “Everyone. We’re not here to talk about announcing this to the whole world.”

“Not yet, at least,” Will added.

“Right,” Clayton said. “But what we do need to do is work together, figure out our powers and our limitations.”

Around Ivan, people nodded. The tension that’d snapped around him eased.

“Cora and I discovered these … powers, abilities. Whatever you want to call them, we have them. And you do too.”

Beside Clayton, Cora nodded and took over. “We don’t know exactly where they came from, but there’s no denying what we can do. We think, Clayton and I”—she laid a hand on Clayton’s arm and smiled up at him—“we need to learn more about all this. About what we can do and what we should do next.” 

Frank raised his hand, like they were all back in school. “Do you think there are others?”

Cora and Clayton shared a glance, then Clayton nodded. “I believe there are. That fog, it did something to us.”

Just the memory of those feverish few days pulled a groan from several of the people gathered round the fire. Ivan’s forehead prickled with sweat. It’d been another of those nights—the nights he left the safety of his family farm and ventured into town. He’d been at the edges of the festival when the fog had rolled in. Noxious and purple. Choking him, gagging him, making his eyes sting and his skin sweat and his insides churn.

But more than that, he wasn’t the only one who’d fallen ill. “There were many people sick, not just us,” he said.

Frank shuddered. “And we all thought it was your folks who were responsible,” he said to Ivan.

Ivan’s eyes went dangerous.

Frank laughed nervously. “Come on, Ivan. You know we all were thinking it. But if you’re here ….”

The accent that could fill his mouth so easily was thick when Ivan spoke. “Of course,” he growled. “It was my family that attacked this town.”

Clayton held a hand up. “Hey, now. Ivan, no one here believes your family had anything to do with this sickness, even if it does
turn out to be a Soviet attack.” He looked between Ivan and Frank, shoulders tight. 

“You’re right though, Ivan. We’ve been careful, but we’re trying to check in with others who were sick,” Clayton said.

Ivan ran a hand along his jawline, his gaze far away. “If others found out about us ….”

Frank sent Ivan a sidelong glance before speaking up. “But for now, it’s just us.” He looked around at them, a wicked grin playing on his face. “So let’s see what we can do.”

Ivan frowned and crossed his arms over his chest. It was one thing for Cora and Clayton to accidentally see his power, but to willingly share it? Yet … Ivan found himself nearly leaning forward, wanting to meet June’s gaze and ask her about her power. He crossed his arms tighter and wouldn’t let himself look June’s way.

The group went quiet again. No one seemed too keen on going first. It was Frank who finally broke the silence.

“Okay, I’ll go first.” His eyes were bright, his forehead shiny from the heat of the fire. He took a couple steps back until he faded to just an outline of shadowy gray against the pitch black of the mine. “Just you wait,” his voice said from out of the darkness.

And suddenly, they were flooded with light. Pure, white light with a hint of blue shone over the group on ten distinct beams. The beams of light waved and moved through the darkness, striping across Ivan’s face and making spots ghost in front of his eyes. He blinked hard and stared again into the light. The beams coalesced into two spotlights and moved to shine up into Frank’s face. 

That’s when Ivan realized where the light was coming from. Frank’s hands, or more specifically, his fingers. Beams of light burst from the tip of each finger.