The Gossamer Crown: Book One of The Gossamer Sphere Read Online Free Page B

table and hunched over his laptop, trying to become invisible.  He had an hour until his first class, so he opened the graphic file he’d been working on for his friend.  Just a few finishing touches to the intricate silver crown nestled in the warrior princess’s mass of red hair and he’d be done.
    He sipped his coffee and grimaced.  She might be cute, but Cashier Girl couldn’t brew a decent cup.
    “Hey.”
    Zach looked up.  Think of the devil .
    “I’m sorry if I embarrassed you,” Cashier Girl said. Her nametag read “Alice.”
    “You don’t look like an Alice,” he blurted.
    She smiled.  “It’s not my apron.  I’m filling in today.  Can I sit here?”
    “Yeah, sure.”
    She pulled out a chair and sat.  “So why’d you make it, anyway?  The video.”
    Zach gave a short laugh and said, “Too much electrical stimulation to the frontal lobe, I guess.”
    She raised her eyebrows. 
    Damn she’s pretty .  He couldn’t see her hair.  It was tucked under an old-fashioned frilly cap with the snack bar logo on it.  Her complexion was unblemished, a genetic coup for one so young.  She had blue eyes and straight white teeth in a delicate mouth that all of a sudden looked familiar.  Where had he seen her before?
    She was waiting for him to explain, so he said, “Look, I’ve already made a complete fool out of myself.  You wouldn’t believe me if I told you why.”
    Her head drifted to the side as she regarded him.  “Try me.”
    Zach took a deep breath and let it out in a sigh.  “Electromagnetic pulses have been known to appear in some places prior to an earthquake.  I can feel them.  At least, I’ve deluded myself into thinking I can.”
    “What does it feel like?”
    He couldn’t figure out why she was still talking to him after his crazy revelation.  In order to avoid her intense blue eyes, he looked down at the drawing on his laptop screen and said, “I don’t know, like dropping a radio in the bathtub or getting struck by lightning.  I have nothing to compare it to since I’ve never felt that way before.  Anyway, I’m sure I’m either insane or I’ve got some incurable disease.”
    “Perhaps not.”
    Something in her voice made him study her face again.  Then it hit him – the reason she seemed so familiar.  He looked at the digital image he’d created on the screen and back to the young woman seated across from him.
    “I don’t believe this,” he said.
    “What?”
    Zach half-stood and reached out to tweak the hat from her head.  Lush red curls tumbled out.  She didn’t protest, just looked at him with those eyes and repeated, “What?”
    He turned his laptop around so she could see the screen.  She’d been so composed throughout the whole strange conversation that Zach was almost gratified when she gasped.  She didn’t comment on the striking resemblance between herself and the warrior princess, however.  Instead, she demanded, “Where did you see that crown?”
    Confused, Zach said, “I didn’t.  I designed it.”
    She collected herself so quickly he wondered if he’d imagined the outburst.  “It’s lovely.  You’re very talented.”
    “You don’t find it odd that this,” he gestured to the screen, “looks exactly like you?”
    “Odd?  No.  It actually gives me a better idea of your…abilities.”
    Zach paused to consider that enigmatic statement, but then he stiffened as he felt the hair on the back of his neck rise; prelude to an electromagnetic shock.  “Not again,” he muttered.
    “Give me your hands,” she said.
    He frowned and shook his head, but she reached out and took them.  A split second later, he went rigid as the pulse hit, but instead of being immobilized by an excruciating jolt, the charge flowed through his body and exited from his hands to hers.  He tried to pull away before she got hurt, but she clasped his hands tightly.  Four, five, six pulses and her face remained expressionless throughout.  When it was