The Bridge Read Online Free

taped above the mirror. The far wall from the entrance was filled with shelves of containers. The plastic ones contained weapons, most of which were wooden. A small alcove at the end of the floor had three doors: one for the bathrooms, one for the back exit, and one for the master instructor’s office.
    Everett slipped a hand in his bag and revealed the paranormal traces.
    His jaw slackened.
    The strings were gone.
    Impossible. At the rate from the morning, not even half the strings could have disappeared.
    The boy from yesterday walked in, dressed in a white uniform with vertical blue stripes embroidered down each pant leg and both sleeves. On one flap of his black belt were three golden stripes.
    “Sorry I’m late!” His voice was strong, assertive, and it made Everett’s spine tingle.
    The instructor clapped her hands and the class quieted. “Turn and bow to Pu Sabom-nim Bryce.”
    The class bowed. Bryce bowed back. “We’re doing Korean now?”
    Everett liked his voice. It had a silvery undertone; in private, it was probably low and suave, smoky even. And with that handsome, crooked smile, he seemed inclined to make lighthearted jokes on the spot.
    “ Kwang Jang-nim Antonio is adding terminology to the curriculum.”
    “Again?” Bryce muttered and rolled his eyes.
    There were no residual strings attached to Bryce. He kicked his flip-flops under the chair next to Everett. “Oh. Hey. You’re from yesterday.”
    Everett couldn’t find his voice. He smiled.
    Bryce looked confused, and Everett wondered what he did wrong. “You okay? You look a little pale.”
    Everett nodded.
    Bryce’s lips and eyebrows twitched as though he found Everett amusing. Everett must have looked childish in his silence with his round eyes, twitching leg, and hand stuffed in his bag. Then there were his hand-me-down clothes from his father’s childhood. He guessed he looked like one of the ghosts from Ashville’s history.
    The instructor divided the class in half and gave Bryce responsibility over ten kids. Everett paid more attention to Bryce than the kids. He called on Bryce’s aura. A strange dizziness passed over him. Aura reading usually didn’t take much energy, not even enough to make him slightly dizzy. He steadied his breath, then bathed in the warmth of Bryce’s golden light. Gold auras were associated with optimism, prosperity, and generosity. Bryce’s aura reached to the kids, connecting them to his warmth. Aura reading wasn’t an accurate method of judging others, but it was a decent first look at someone’s personality.
    Everett exposed the kids’ auras. They were receptive to Bryce’s teaching and tendrils of their auras waved in Bryce’s direction. Everett let the auras go after his thoughts started to cramp in his head like painful knots. His energy pool was too small to watch so many people at once.
    He left halfway through the lesson to replenish his energy with a fruit blend in the neighboring café. He sat at a window seat and watched people pass on the sidewalk, recognizing a few kids from his school, all of them in groups of at least two. Everett’s only school friend wasn’t even a friend. She just stuck by Everett’s side on campus because her friends attended other schools.
    He tossed his drink and retook his seat when Bryce walked in. He ordered a large double chocolate chip vanilla drink that wasn’t on the menu.
    “For the kids?” the barista said.
    “King of the Mountain. Winner takes the drink.” Bryce drummed his hands on the counter. He looked over a shoulder at Everett and a corner of his mouth lifted. “Small world! Then again, you literally just walked from next door.”
    Everett held his breath as Bryce pulled out the chair next to him, straddled it backward, and held his hand out. “I’m Bryce.”
    Everett withdrew his hand from its home inside his bag and touched palms with Bryce. Bryce closed his fingers around Everett’s hand in a strong hold. The warmth ran from