“Remember what I told you at lunch?”

I remembered what Phoebe had told me at lunch.

“You asked how I learned to control my gift,” he continued earnestly, “and I told you it was fear. You’ve got to let go of the fear, Em. Or you’ll never get control of this. And you want that, right?”

Vaguely, I wondered if he had another gift hidden behind those dark eyes, because I found myself nodding, agreeing to submit to the mind-jacking.

Things kind of happened fast after that.

Parker waited for us inside. I was taken aback by how he blended into the darkness of the log walls, as if he was nothing more than smoke and shadows. He stood near the bed where Hayden and I had fallen asleep so many nights since the bonfire that it’d become a habit. I hated seeing Parker close to it. It was like this cabin was no longer a place for just Hayden and me.

It took me a moment to realize Parker held somethingthat something being a sweater of mine. “Why does he have that?” I asked.

“It’s easier to get in when he has something that belongs to the person,” Hayden answered. “Right, Parker?”

Parker nodded.

“Kind of like a psychic?” I asked, feeling dumb for doing so.

“Yes.” Hayden brought a potted aloe back to the couch. He sat, keeping the plant in his lap. “You ready? It’ll just take a few seconds. Parker will be in and out. It will over before you know it.”

My glaze flicked back to Parker. His bright, bottle-green eyes fastened on Hayden and me. As always, his pale face appeared vacant.

Hayden said a couple more reassuring things, and then it was time for me to do my thing. My fingers hovered just over one of the green stems, and it happened. It was like a whisper of air in my minda slow, purposeful brush behind my eyes that sent shivers through me.

Parker was in.

I touched the plant.

Immediately, my mind went blank. Then, like a switch being thrown, several thoughts rushed to the surface. I felt them being picked out, looked at, and then thrown to the side. During this, the thick arms of the aloe started to deflate, wither up. My scalp tingled, and then my head seemed to explode with information. My own thoughts and memories flooded me. I couldn’t stop it, couldn’t make sense of any of it.

A flash of bright light sent dizziness sweeping through me. It was like watching my life on rewindnot what I’d expected. My fear of being mind-raped, the conversation I’d overhead, lunch, my Catcher in the Rye epiphany, and on and on as Parker sifted through everything.