Excerpt

Maya jumped from the chair, her heart racing. "Who are you? What do you want?"

Darius splayed his palms. "Now, now, there's no reason to get excited." He gestured to her empty seat. "Please, sit."

Like Hell.

She retreated a step.

The edge of his lip twisted into a smirk. "We need to chat, Maya. I'm your guide, your mentor, so to speak."

"Mentor for what?"

"We have a lot to talk about. Would you please sit?"

She backed up until her rear slammed against the door. She fumbled for the handle and pulled it open. A rush of hot air hit her as she turned to the sting of hundreds of tiny pebbles thrashing her face. Maya raised her hands to protect her eyes and peered through her fingertips into the blinding rays of a low-hanging sun. The cascading sunbeams scorched her cheeks and illuminated the outline of a figure that looked a lot like the Sphinx. She gasped and choked on air riddled with blowing sand.

Darius laughed behind her. "Let me guess. You were thinking that you'd rather be anywhere but here, and somewhere deep in the back of your mind, you always wanted to see Egypt."

He appeared beside her, and she allowed him to close the door. Sweat poured from Maya's brow as the room instantly cooled.

"Do you want to be back at school?"

She nodded, terror constricting her from any other movement.

Darius turned the door handle and pulled. The secretary looked up from her computer with narrowed eyes.

No heat, no sand, no four-thousand year old monuments. Had she imagined it all?

She brushed the sand off her sleeves. Apparently not.

Darius smiled, waved to the secretary, and closed the door again.

Maya was dreaming. That was the answer! Why else would her sight have cleared up out of nowhere? And Egypt obviously wasn't on the other side of that door. She needed to wake up, because this was getting way too weird.

The air conditioning clicked on, shifting some papers left on the top of a gray filing cabinet. Maya dug her thumbnail into her palm and stared at the pink indent left behind until the mark faded. That hurt, but she didn't wake up.

Numbness crept up her legs. Stumbling, she allowed Darius to guide her back to her chair.

He eased her down. "Are you ready to talk to me now?"

She shook away her fright. "How'd you do that thing with the door?"

"I didn't do anything. You did."

"Me? That's crazy."

"Not really. Any of our kind can move from place to place. Anywhere we can imagine."

"Our kind?"

He reached across the desk and grabbed a pitcher of ice water that Maya didn't remember seeing a moment ago. Goosebumps riddled her skin as he poured a glass and handed it to her. She reached for the cup, wishing it was something more soothing like cocoa with marshmallows.

When her fingers curled around the cup, heat burned her skin. She jumped, spilling a mug of hot chocolate across the papers on the Vice Principal's desk.

B-but, he'd handed her water!

Her heart pounded. Her breath came out in ragged gasps until Darius grabbed her hands.

"Calm down, Maya."

A rushing wave of serenity rolled over her. Her fear lifted, leaving her relaxed and completely at ease despite enchanted doors and magically appearing cocoa.

He raised his left brow. "Better?"

She nodded, and her gaze dropped to the neat stacks of clean, dry papers on the desk, and a full mug of steaming hot chocolate resting directly in front of her seat.

But-but, she'd spilled that drink, and it was definitely a glass of water when he passed it to her.

"What the Hell is going on?"

Darius's gaze locked with hers, and the essence of something foreign seeped through her mind. She fought against the invading presence until her resolve snapped, and against her better judgment, she allowed the tenseness to ease from her muscles.

Darius smiled. "Enjoy that little splash of relaxation. It's probably the last time I'll be able to do that for you."

"What do you mean? What's going on?"

"I'll try to explain as it was explained to me." He leaned back and folded his hands across his chest. "You are adopted, are you not?"

Maya shifted in her chair. Her hands grew cold. "Yes."

"We all were. Wardens, for the most part, don't raise their own young. Too many complications."

"What are you talking about?"

"You are special, Maya. You have gifts no other child here has. You can make pretty much anything happen, just by wanting it."

Her stomach plummeted. That morning, she'd wished she didn't have to wear glasses, and her eyes instantly focused. She wanted eggs, and they suddenly appeared.

It had to be coincidence. Stuff like that just wasn't possible. "You're crazy."

"Am I?"

A bird cawed over her head, and Maya jumped from her seat. Water rose and fell gently around her and all the way to the horizon on every side. She, Darius, the desk, and two chairs stood alone amongst the rolling waves of the ocean.

She snapped her jaw shut and turned to him. "I didn't do this. I wasn't thinking about the water!"

"No. This one I did. I've always enjoyed the sounds of the ocean."

"Well, I don't. Take me back!"

He smiled. "If you want to go home, just desire it strongly."

Maya gritted her teeth as the essence of Darius pushed against her need to negate everything he said while forcing her to accept and understand.

But that wasn't who she was. If he really was some kind of super-power-dude, he would have known that.

Maya was nobody: the girl in the back of the class, the one no one spoke to, the one no one noticed. She wasn't special. She was someone who sat and watched special people do all their special things. Nothing ever happened because of Maya. Ever. She couldn't have powers.

Her disbelief washed away as she closed her eyes. The gentle sounds of the lapping water disappeared, and she found herself back in the Vice Principal's office. Maya's inner fear continued to struggle with Darius's calm until he overpowered her once more, forcing serenity and understanding to wipe away her unease.

Maya's eyes fixed on a stain mottling the carpet at her feet. She wished it gone, and it slowly faded away. The rational side of her brain laughed, still unable to process what she'd seen.

Her gaze traversed the shelves, through the leaves of the plants on the windowsill, and across the pictures on the walls: anywhere but the other side of the desk, and this strange man with strange ideas and strange… well, everything.

What this guy suggested was ridiculous. Magical powers would definitely explain her odd day, but she was too old for fairy tales. But if not magic, what, then?

The silence lingered until Darius tapped a pen on the edge of the ink blotter. "I'm sure you have questions."

Maya shuddered. Questions? Of course she had questions. She wasn't an idiot. Then again, only an idiot would believe anything this man said. But they'd just been out in the middle of the ocean. The ocean! This wasn't possible. None of it.

Well, it wasn't possible for a normal person. Her stomach clenched. "What am I?"