The Elders (Mind Dimensions #4)(89)

I give her an amused look. “You know, I sometimes forget you’re actually younger than me.”

I limp into the elevator and press the button for the first floor.

I expect Mira to say something like, ‘In terms of maturity, I’m double your age,’ but she just steps up to me, rises on her tiptoes, and kisses me.

I kiss her back. Having her close almost makes me forget about the missing Quiet in my life—a lack that might be everlasting.

We’re still kissing when the elevator doors open. Thomas and Liz are standing there, observing us with varying degrees of fascination.

Being caught kissing by my shrink makes me feel surprisingly like a naughty schoolboy. I steal a glance at Mira, who doesn’t seem fazed at all. Her manner is so casual, it’s as if she was caught wiping dust off her shirt.

Thomas gives me a sly smile, while my shrink studies Mira.

“Liz, you’re here, at the hospital?” I ask, realizing the silence lingered too long.

“Liz? What are you talking about? She’s not here,” Mira teases. “Imagine how ironic it would be if your hallucination took on the shape of your shrink.”

Liz smiles and says, “I came as soon as I heard.” She protectively loops her arm through Thomas’s elbow. “Thanks for rescuing him.”

“No problem.” I don’t know what else to say, so I just exit the elevator, doing my best not to make my ankle worse. I follow the hallway sign to the cafeteria, and the others follow.

“We were actually going up to see you,” Thomas says, speeding up to walk beside me. “I just heard from Hillary. She and your mothers are about to arrive.”

“Oh.” I give Mira a worried look. “How bad do I look?”

“You’re walking, you’re talking.” Mira runs her fingers through her hair and grabs the scrunchy holding it in place. “Sara shouldn’t freak out too much.” In an elegant gesture, Mira tightens her hair into a much neater ponytail. “What’s our story, by the way?”

“About that.” I look over at Thomas and Liz. “I was thinking of going for the big-bang approach.”

“How big of a bang?” Thomas asks, his eyes gleaming with hope. “The whole truth?”

“Yes, like that oath in the court room.” I feel a little lightheaded. “Liz, is this a good idea? I mean, is Lucy ready to hear the truth about Kyle?”

As I wait for her to answer, I lean on the sterile white wall to rest for a moment.

“She’s as ready as she’ll ever be.” Liz and everyone else stop walking, waiting for me to recover.

“Can you do your Xanax thing on both of them as I tell them all this stuff, including how I got hurt?” My moment of weakness passes, so I resume walking and my friends follow.

“I think I can do better.” Liz looks surprisingly excited. “If Mira would assist me, I think we can do something unprecedented in psychiatry. I can Split, pull her in, and she can monitor Lucy and Sara’s thoughts from the Mind Dimension. She’ll tell me what needs adjusting, and I’ll fine-tune their reactions in real time.”

I stop again. “I’m not sure that would work,” I say, remembering how I couldn’t pull Mira into the Quiet back at the Temple. I look at her. “Aren’t you Inert, Mira?”

“No.” She shakes her head. “I was, but I’ve recovered now. I ran out of Depth during the trip, when I woke up from being drugged and tried to figure out where we were, but as of this morning, I have a couple of minutes of my Depth back. It’s not a lot, so we might need to use Hillary’s Mind Dimension, but I can certainly help Liz.”

“Oh, great.” I suppress an irrational flare of jealousy as we start walking again. I’d kill for even a couple of minutes of Depth right about now.

“Yeah, it’s going to be very interesting,” Liz says. “Would make for a great research paper, if only such things were allowed.”

“I see. You want to use my moms as Guinea pigs.” I nod a silent thanks to Thomas for holding the cafeteria door, and gesture for Mira and Liz to go in ahead of me.

“I think it could be a very effective method of therapy,” Liz says, accepting my chivalry with a smile.

“She might be right,” Mira says as she follows. “This sounds like a way to minimize their distress while still giving them all the information.”

“Wait, Liz,” I say when I’ve caught up. “You don’t mind if I tell them about the existence of Guides, right?”

I’m prepared for a negative answer; I've always suspected she was on the conservative side of this issue.

“I don’t mind,” Liz says without hesitation. “Provided you take full responsibility for them knowing, by which I mean you will Read and Guide them to make sure they don’t do something crazy—like go to a newspaper.”

“Of course I will, and in any case, they wouldn’t,” I say, realizing Liz doesn’t know that my Inertness might be permanent.

“Then why would I mind?” Liz smiles. “I don’t see how else you could explain Thomas’s situation without delving into such matters.”

“Speaking of that,” I say. “Thomas, how about you? Are you ready for this?”

Thomas’s voice thickens as he says, “I don’t even know what to say . . .”