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“What about this morning?” she asked. “Oh, you mean that thing with Ophelia? That girl is a bitch… did you hear what she said to me?”

“I did,” he said. “And she wasn’t wrong. You were behaving as if you didn’t have the wits you were born with. I know you’re cleverer than that, Kate. Why on earth did you attack her in front of a teacher?”

Kate flushed red with embarrassment and looked at the floor. She muttered her answer so quietly that a human wouldn’t of heard it Darlryan had better hearing than that.

“You forgot that he was there?” he asked incredulously.

Kate nodded sheepishly and flushed even darker. “Yeah, it was weird. Usually I can sense when someone is around me even if I haven’t seen them, but today…”

“Ah! That’s just because you talents and my power are still harmonising. It’s interfering with your sensitivity temporarily. Your ability to sense people should return in a few days.”

“You could have warned me,” she muttered.

“Yes, I should have,” he said. “I’m sorry. But Mr Dooley was right there. You’d seen him. You didn’t need some psychic talent to tell you he was there. How could you forget?”

“I don’t know,” she said. “I only meant to rattle Ophelia a little but she seemed so unperturbed and then she insulted me. I saw red and forgot everyone else…”

He frowned at her. “Kate,” he said gently. “Why are you so obsessed with Ophelia? You never hassle anyone else like that.”

“She was my friend!” Kate exploded, forcing him to shush her again and push her parents back to sleep. “Sorry,” she said more quietly. “We were friends and when I started to get these headaches she cut me off just because I was ill.”

Darlryan chewed his lip. That wasn’t actually what had happened, but he had no doubt Kate perceived it that way. No wonder she was angry and while that might have served his purpose, he couldn’t let that stand.

“I don’t think it was because you were ill but whatever causes those headaches had an effect on your personality as well.”

“I…” Kate was obviously about to argue but then she stopped and frowned and he could hear her thoughts racing through all the times she lashed out at Ophelia and her other friends because of the pain she was in. “Oh, damn, was I really that bad?”

“You still are,” he said. “I need to look into those headache’s when I get a moment.”

“I’d be grateful,” Kate said. “They fry my brain, that’s why I attacked the new girl… and she’s not human, is she?”

“Kirala? No, she isn’t.”

Kate’s eyes in the meantime had gone wide. “And you’re at the school as well. There’s no other way you’d know what happened back then. Who are you?”

“I knew you were clever, Kate,” he said. “I’ll tell you once I’m sure you’re stable enough to not to give me away. Okay?”

Kate winced at that. “I deserve that.”

“You do,” he said. “Now the other thing I need to talk to you about is training. We can start tonight if you want.”

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