Moving Objects

Chapter 1

Not again! I couldn't let this happen again. I tried to calm my breathing, but it didn't seem to help. I sank down to the floor and pulled my knees to my chest, hoping to block out the world around me. I could hear the objects in the storage room rattling and shaking on the shelves and I prayed that I could make it stop. I needed to calm down. If I calmed down, it would stop.

"Rose?"

My head snapped up from where it rested on my knees and the room stopped shaking. My eyes landed on Dimitri standing in the doorway, his expression a weird mixture between his guardian mask and confusion. But one thing is clear. He saw what was happening in this room. What I was doing.

He walked towards me and crouched down and placed his hands on my legs, rubbing them gently as he looked at me. I reached up and wiped the tears from my face with the sleeve of my shirt.

"What is going on? What's wrong?" he asked, but I shook my head. He sighed and moved his hands to my face, cupping my cheeks. "Clearly, something is going on. When I came in here, everything was shaking on the shelves."

I shook my head and pulled out of his grasp and slipped by him, making a beeline for the gym exit and the safety of my room. But I wasn't fast enough. Dimitri was hot on my heels and caught up to me, spinning me around and backing me towards the wall of the gym.

"Rose, just tell me what's wrong," Dimitri implored, his hands holding my shoulders to keep me from bolting. I looked up at him hesitantly and weighed the pros and cons of revealing the one secret I had kept from everyone: including Lissa.

I shook my head and tried to pull out of his reach, but he held me tighter and tried to meet my eyes. "You wouldn't understand," I whispered, forcing the fear to remain unnoticed. Dimitri sighed in frustration and pulled me closer to him and positioned me so that I was trapped between him and the wall.

"Roza, please."

I closed my eyes with a sigh and tilted my head against the concrete behind me. If there was ever a person I could trust this with, it should be him, right? I mean, he's Dimitri. "You have to promise that you won't freak out or think I'm nuts. Okay?" Dimitri moved his hand from my shoulders to cup my face, nodding his head while quietly giving me his promise.

I took a shaky breath and unbuckled the watch around his wrist, letting it drop between us. When he moved his hands to catch it, he faltered when he realized that his watch never hit the ground. I mentally pulled the watch closer to my face – his chest level – and held it there.

Dimitri stepped back slightly and gapped at me as he looked between me and the watch. He took another step back and I felt my resolve falter, causing my control to slip and the object to drop from between us. Dimitri's hands snapped out to catch it and he gripped it tightly. I had never been someone who would let small reactions bother me, but Dimitri's face made me want to crawl under a rock and hide there for the rest of my life. I muttered quietly under my breath and moved to flee but Dimitri moved fast and gripped my hand.

I didn't dare look at him and kept my gaze to the floor, kicking myself for thinking I could show anyone that. Dimitri gently tugged me back to him and held me against him, his hand going up to cup the back of my head.

"What was that?"

"Lissa wasn't the only reason we were running. People were starting to notice, and I tried so hard to hide it. I did everything I could to hide it, but I had to get a handle on it first and I couldn't do that here," I said against the cotton of his shirt, my voice muffled by it. I focused on the thumping under my cheek of Dimitri's steady heartbeat, using the sound and sensation to bring my own galloping heart down to a normal level.