Wild-born (38 page)

Ralph shot me a nasty look, and I returned an equally nasty smirk. Well, at least we weren’t trying to kill each other anymore.

“Adrian,” continued Cindy, “I’m going to rejoin the Guardians. That’s the agreement I made with Travis and Ralph in exchange for their help.”

I opened my mouth to protest, but Cindy cut me off, saying, “Please don’t feel guilty about it! It was my choice. I’m taking Alia with me, and Mark is coming too, until we can find some way to hide him from the Wolves.”

“And don’t you go feeling guilty about me either,” Mark called back from the driver’s seat.

I did feel guilty. I had given the Wolves Cindy’s real name. I had told them about her connection to Mark Parnell. I knew that it would be very difficult for Cindy and Mark to safely settle down again. But, as with all of the many mistakes I had made, I knew I couldn’t undo what I had done. All I could do was try to make up for it. I didn’t even want to hear Cindy ask.

“I’ll come with you,” I said quickly. “I’ll join.”

“Excellent!” said Mr. Baker, clasping my shoulder. “Welcome to the Guardians, Adrian. I do hope you won’t be disappointed.”

“I’ve been very impressed so far,” I said.

Mr. Baker smiled. “Cindy here has told me that you want to save your sister from the Angels. I can’t promise you that we’ll make it our top priority, but God willing, we may be able to help you get her back.”

I gaped at him. Despite what I had once said to Cindy, I never seriously believed that the Guardians would help me retrieve Cat from the Angels. If I had, I might have joined them for that reason alone.

In a way, I was glad I hadn’t believed it. Cat was already family, flesh and blood. But Cindy and Alia were family too, and joining the Guardians with them made a lot of sense to me.

“So, Adrian,” Cindy said brightly, “we have another long road ahead, and I want to hear all about your adventures over the last few months.”

“Right this instant?” I asked, my exhaustion from the previous night finally catching up with me. Alia was already asleep on her seat, leaning against what I recognized with a smile as her old unicorn.

“It can wait,” said Cindy. “Give it to me little by little. For now, at least you can tell me what happened in town.”

I had to think about that for a moment. What town?

“Oh!” I said, finally remembering. “You mean the mystery graviton.”

“So, did you find him?” asked Cindy. “Who was he?”

“He was a she,” I replied quietly.

“Ah... And what happened?”

“Nothing...” I muttered.

Cindy raised her eyebrows. “Adrian?”

“Okay! She crashed into me on a bicycle, glued me to the sidewalk, threatened me and went on her merry way. Happy?”

Cindy giggled. I looked away embarrassedly, and she burst out laughing.

“Always a pleasure to amuse,” I said, rolling my eyes.

“I’m just glad you’re okay, Adrian,” said Cindy, extending her hand to me. “Friends?”

I shook it.

This pentalogy will continue right where it left off in

PSIONIC Book Two: The Tower

About the Author

B
orn of a Japanese mother and American father, Adrian Howell (pen name) was raised for a time in California and currently lives a quiet life in Japan where he teaches English to small groups of children and adults. Aside from reading and writing fiction, his hobbies include recumbent cycling, skiing, medium-distance trekking, sketching and oversleeping.

Send comments and questions to the author at:

[email protected]

Visit the author’s website at:

http://adrianhowell.com/

Introducing Lester Smith’s D6xD6 Role-Playing Game

Adventure in the World of the Psionic Pentalogy

C
ome adventure in Adrian Howell’s Psionic Pentalogy world as your own unique character, with the D6xD6 Role-Playing Game! If you’re new to role-playing, you’ll find the game a quick and easy way to get started: Character creation takes only five minutes. If you’re an old hand at the hobby, you’ll find surprising depth to the system, which one reviewer called “the haiku of role-playing games.” Created by four-time Origins award-winning game designer Lester Smith, the D6xD6 Role-Playing Game is simple but elegant, a marriage of equality between storytelling and game mechanics. It features two dozen different worlds of adventure by professional authors, with new ones being added regularly. So join the secret psionic war in which young Adrian and his friends have become embroiled, and explore countless other worlds besides. To learn more, visit
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A Plea for Word-of-Mouth

Thank you for reading
PSIONIC Book One: Wild-Born.
The
Psionic Pentalogy
is an independently published work. Consequently, it does not have the big financial support of traditional publishing houses to promote the books, and instead relies much more heavily on reviews and word-of-mouth by readers such as yourself. If you have enjoyed this book, please tell your friends about it. Please give it a mention on any social networking sites you use such as Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest. Please also consider leaving a review on your online bookseller’s site. Even if it’s only a sentence or two, it would make all the difference and would be very much appreciated.

Online Store Links to the Psionic Pentalogy

For purchase links to the Psionic Pentalogy books, please visit Adrian Howell’s website at
http://adrianhowell.com/the-psionic-pentalogy/

Hope to see you in the next installment!