Echo Into Darkness: Book 2 in The Echo Saga (Teen Paranormal Romance) Read Online Free

For a normal human being, at least."
    "Clearly it's not, or I'd be dead right now."
    "I wish for once, you'd tell me the truth."
    My desire to tell her the whole story flashed cross my face. She saw this. If I told her right now about my telekinesis, or that her disappointment was piercing my skin like shards of glass, would that repair our friendship?
    I glanced into the sink where her failed potions soiled the white ceramic. The truth was messy and sharp, and sharing it might end any chance of us being friends ever again.
    "There's nothing else to tell," I said.
    "Have it your way." She gave me one more disdainful look and left the bathroom.
    *******
    I couldn't find my car keys. I'd searched everywhere—in my locker, my classrooms, my book bag—I even checked to see if someone had turned them into the office. I gave in and retraced my steps through school, and found them near my Trigonometry desk. So far, the first day of the semester was scoring a big fat zero.
    It was eerie, wandering the school hallways an hour after all the other students had left. Lights were dimmed and my tennis shoes squeaked against the tile, advertising that I was alone. I had no reason to feel unsafe there, but old habits died hard.
    It was dark by the time I got outside, and another storm was drenching the city. I flipped the hood of my rain jacket over my head and sloshed past the cars in the teachers’ parking lot. I dodged a puddle, cursing that I had to go all the way across the lot and a sodden soccer field to get to my car.
    I was irritated for another reason, too. I'd scanned every student in my classes, the hall and lunchroom in search of the girl, but was no closer to finding her. My school had over a thousand students. Multiply that times all the high schools in Portland, and tracking her down was a ludicrous task. I'd gotten small consolation when I used the library computers during lunch to check the local news. Nobody had reported finding a girl's body overnight.
    A shadow fluttered across my path and I inched the hood away from my eyes. The teachers’ lot was still pretty full, but I was the only one out there. A few rows over, a car alarm went off, screeching three discordant tones at once. I jumped.
    Another one shrieked in the row next to me, and then two more. There was no way I triggered the alarms. I'd kept my tele-chaosing under control all day. Little bumps rose on my neck and I took off at a jog into the soccer field.
    The mud sucked at my tennies and seeped onto my socks. Stray hairs floated out from under my hood, like the sky was building with electricity. When I opened my car door to climb in, the metal sparked.
    Unease trickled down my back. Static shocks didn't usually happen when everything was soaking wet. Something was not right.
    I started the car and pressed the accelerator.
    I heard the explosion before I saw it. A ball of light hit the pavement in front of my car, sending flames up over the hood. I screamed and slammed on the brakes. I scrambled out of the car.
    The rain snuffed out the fire almost immediately. A guy lay curled in a tight ball on the scorched pavement. Smoke rose off his clothing.
    "Oh no. Omigod. Are you all right?" My voice shook.
    I watched, breathless, as the boy rolled to his hands and knees. He braced a dicey leg beneath him and got to his feet. He was tall and had broad shoulders. I expected him to be hurt from the explosion, but he appeared to come out of it unscathed.
    "What happened?" I screeched. "Did I hit you? Did you hit me?"
    The guy braced his lower back with his knuckles and stretched. His dark eyes gave me a cursory once-over. His upper lip curled high and smug on one side. A flicker of recognition set in and my lips parted in disbelief. I knew that smirk. I'd wanted to slap it off its owner more than once.
    "Jaxon? Is that you? What are you…how did you…"
    He knew the questions that scrambled my brain without my finishing them: how did he get here from 160 years in the