Page 22 of Resolve
Kell throws him a wink with a smirk. “Not you, Rapunzel. I know you’re already familiar with the sight of mine.”
The elevator dings just in time as Dane curses at him, and I drag him away before they start a fight in that cramped space.
“I’ll get it!” Tinsley calls from the apartment following Aiden’s knock. The door swings open a millisecond later, and Reid fills the doorway instead, his back to us.
Seeing his protectiveness for her makes me smile. I’m happy he has someone he cares about so fiercely, like how the guys and I feel about each other. It’s a relief that she’s back from GE, unharmed. Maybe he’ll be less grumpy all the time.
Tinsley smiles at him and shrugs. “We knew they were coming. It was safe.” She stretches to her toes to kiss his cheek. “Love you!”
He grabs the back of her head and pulls her mouth to his long enough for Tinsley to melt against him. Aiden clears his throat, and Kell chuckles, squeezing my hip. They separate, Tinsley wearing a dazed expression and smile. “Mm, okay.” She turns and happily strolls back into the apartment while Reid spins to us.
“Come in,” he offers, ignoring Kellan’s wide grin and the fact that we’d just watched him kiss Tinsley into submission. His blue gaze lands on me, and he gives me a small nod. I’m not completely fluent in Reid gestures yet, but I think he’s telling me he’s glad I’mokay. Just like I’ve become accustomed to him always seeking me out, looking for me within the group to make sure I’m there and okay. I think we’d be hugging right now if either of us were hugging people, but since we’re not, I return his nod with one of my own.
He leads us into the living room where Tinsley’s sprawled in one chair and Cibrina is standing before a wall of information from her gift. Shimmering, golden lines and text fill the length of one wall. She glances down at her laptop, scrolls with the mouse, and I catch more text appearing in one of the columns the more she reads.
“I see you’re still deep in research,” Aiden remarks, and Cibrina’s head pops up. She smiles warmly and straightens.
“Yes. Reid shared fascinating information about his gift. It’s not just teleporting like we thought. His gift allows him to connect one space to another, then slingshot himself across a void dimension to get there—”
“Slingshot is a stretch,” Reid corrects.
“Oh, I’ll fix that.” She poises her hands in front of her as a golden keyboard appears and then starts typing away. Some of the text along the wall changes as she works.
“How does that help us block it from being used?” Dane asks, taking a seat and flipping open his laptop.
I walk to the wall. Ever since I first saw her gift, I’ve been wanting to touch it and see what happens. The letters smudge when I run my hand over them, then fix themselves a second later. “Cibrina, have I ever told you how cool your gift is?” Now that I know I’m not actually messing anything up by touching it, I play with it some more and watch it rearrange, shift, or sharpen.
“Thank you, Raegan. I do enjoy it.”
The glowing text suddenly changes to outline an image ofsomething. I step back to see it better. Two circles and some wavy lines?
“Reid’s gift is quite similar to Bea’s portal magic. We’re dealing with dimensional-type gifts for both. While there’s limited information on dimensions, there have been studies on string theory and M-Theory, which is the closest I’ve found to what we’re looking for. This is all theoretical physics, of course, but I think there’s something here. I’ve analyzed all the published studies as well as some scientific journal articles, and there are a few tests I’d like to try.”
“You did all that this morning?” I ask, amazed.
“No.” Oh. “I started last night.”
...Oh.
Kellan laughs, throwing his arm around my shoulders and pushing my slack jaw back in place. “I’ll bet she’s an expert physicist by the time this is over.”
Cibrina laughs. “I wouldn’t go that far.”
“We also need a way to identify anyone at the Tower who’s invisible,” Aiden adds.
Reid shoots a look at Tinsley, who shrugs, then turns to Aiden. “As a precaution, or did something happen?”
“We met one of Harvey’s sisters in the locked-down apartment. She’s still there, and I’ve re-secured it.”
“Her name is Alice,” I tell Reid, sharing the name she’d given me before falling asleep. “Looks like you have another younger sister.” And I have a younger sister. My chest tightens at the realization that I’ve gone from no family to a dozen half-siblings. Maybe even more out there.
It’s... exciting. And terrifying.
They could all hate me like Alice. They might not want anythingto do with me.
But they might also want to get to know me, too. Just like I’m becoming more curious about them.
Reid slices through my train of thought. “You’re the only sibling who matters to me.”
