Eye of the Sh*t Storm by Jackson Ford (most romantic novels .txt) 📕

and a pair of light-up sneakers. Only one of them is working, blinking a frantic red.

“Have you seen my mom?” the girl babbles.

“Uh…” Annie just stares at her.

“Her name’s Shonda. She looks like me but with long hair. Have you seen her?” She looks around, craning to see behind us, as if we’re purposefully trying to hide her mother. “She went to get some water, and then everybody started running, and I went to the water place but she wasn’t there.”

“We haven’t seen her,” Nic says, sounding dazed.

“Maybe the Zigzag Man got her.” Leo claps a hand to his mouth, like he knows he’s said something he shouldn’t.

The girl’s eyes meet mine, just for a second. Before I can say anything, she bolts, yelling out for her mom, zipping between scaffolding.

Is it possible to have an awkward silence in the middle of a panicked crowd? Why yes. Yes, it is.

“Can we find her, find her mom?” Leo asks.

“I don’t think we have time,” Annie says, more gently than I would have expected.

I take a deep breath. “Actually…”

“Actually… what?” says Nic.

“Well…” I spread my hands. “Look, it won’t take long. I can echolocate, remember?”

Leo screws up his face. “What?”

“The thing I do where I can sense objects with my PK.” I look up at Nic and Annie. “If the kid’s mom is wearing jewellery or whatever, maybe I can find her.”

“Stop.” Annie holds up a finger. “Don’t you dare.”

“Don’t I dare? You’re seriously suggesting we just leave that little girl to—?”

“Yes.” But she can’t stop herself glancing at the little girl, who is just visible off to our right, her back to us, still yelling for her mom. “We have to move, or we’re not going to get out of here before the flood—”

Fuck this. Before any of them can stop me, I dart away, heading for the girl. “It’ll only take a second,” I yell over my shoulder.

“Teagan!” Nic yells. “Wait!”

The girl zips off before I can get there. I have to sprint after her, nearly tripping over the scaffolding a couple of times, almost knocking people over. But eventually, I catch her, swinging myself in front of her with my hands up. She goggles at me, like she’s never seen me before.

“Your mom,” I say. “Shana?”

“Shonda.”

“Right. Does she have any jewellery on? Like a necklace or a bracelet?”

Someone bumps me from behind, nearly spilling me right into the girl. Annie and Nic are just making their way over to me, Leo in tow. They look somewhere between pissed off and really pissed off.

I speak quickly. “Kid. Jewellery.”

The girl gapes at me. “You can’t rob my mom!”

“What? No, I—”

“She’s trying to rob my mom!” The girl yells this out, jabbing a trembling finger at me. Fortunately, the place is in such a panic that nobody pays any attention. Behind the girl, Annie is staring at me in absolute wonder.

“No!” I wave my hands, bringing the girl’s attention back to me. “I’m not, I promise, I—”

“Then why do you want her jewellery?”

“I…” Shit. “Look, it doesn’t have to be jewellery. It can be anything. Keys, or a cellphone, or…”

A cellphone? Brilliant, Teagan. Let’s try and track this kid’s mom by finding objects also owned by probably every other person here.

The little girl tilts her head. “Are you a crazy person?”

“I promise I’m not. But I think I can find your mom.”

“How?”

For a moment, the words defeat me. “Please, hon. Just tell me if she has anything on her.”

Seconds tick by. Seconds we don’t have. God, this was a stupid idea, this was—

“Um… she’s got this, like, bracelet she wears,” the girl says. “It’s not real gold or anything…”

I almost gasp with relief. “Does it have links? Is it a solid piece of metal?”

Now the kid looks even more confused. “I dunno? It’s got this thing hanging from it. Like a little charm.”

“What kind of charm?”

“It’s in the shape of a frog,” she stammers.

I’m not at what you call peak performance here. But my little echolocation trick doesn’t take much energy – I’m not lifting anything, I’m just sensing it. So even before the little girl has finished speaking, I send my PK out in a wide circle, as far as it will go. Sampling the pieces of jewellery I find, each one lit up in my mind like a glittering star in an inky black sky. Necklaces, chains, rings. Zeroing in on the bracelets. Metal ones, plastic ones, links, bronze, gold, until—

“Wait here,” I tell the girl.

“Who are—?”

“Wait here. Do not move.”

Annie makes a grab for me, but I duck underneath her arm, zipping away into the crowd. Telling myself that this won’t take long, that they can’t possibly be angry at me for this.

I keep my mind locked on the bracelet, my PK wrapped around the tiny little frog charm hanging off it, swinging wildly as its owner moves back and forth. Someone has put a makeshift bridge over the channel of water, a big sheet of reinforced steel, and I bolt across it, ducking under yet more scaffolding. Where are you?

I’m so focused on my PK that when I finally locate the bracelet, it takes me a second to spot the owner.

I grabbed her arm. “Shonda, right? I’ve seen your daughter.”

She does indeed look like her kid, just with longer hair. She’s in a full panic, but the word daughter is like a signal flare, locking her attention in.

“You have?” she says. She has a Southern accent, reminding me of Reggie – something I could do without right now. “Where is she?”

I point back in the direction I came from, describing the spot where the kid was standing. Hoping she hasn’t moved, because if she has, I don’t know what I’m going to do.

Before I’ve even finished talking, Shonda is moving. She turns back, awkwardly, confusion fighting the need to be with her daughter. “How did—?”

“Never mind. Just go. Get your daughter and get the hell out of here.”

I watch her go, stuck in my own mind for a