Read Mind Games: An Urban Fantasy Novel (The Lillim Callina Chronicles Book 6) for Free Online

was more of a meat and more meat type of girl. Unless of course, those carbs were French fries, but those didn’t count. French fries went into a separate stomach like snacks. Still, I was going to eat the toast. It wasn’t a good idea to go to class on an empty stomach after all. My belly could rumble during first period and make everyone look at me. Oh God, today was going to be so embarrassing.
    The next thing I knew, I was sitting in my mom’s car, all buckled in. I was chewing a bite of toast, the piece still in my hand. I looked around in bewilderment as she pulled out of the driveway and turned onto the street. How had I gotten out here? I tried to remember, but only the vaguest impression of having gotten into the car filled my mind. That was weird. It was like I was missing time, but that didn’t make sense.
    “Mom?” I asked around a mouthful of toast even though it was way rude. “Does my medicine cause memory loss?”
    “Why?” she replied, sparing me a quick concerned glance. “Do you feel like you’re forgetting things?”
    “Not really, I just wondered what sort of side effects I could expect,” I lied even though I didn’t know why. Okay, I knew exactly why. I didn’t want her to say no after I admitted it and toss me back in Mercer & Mercer. I didn’t know why, but I had the feeling if I went back there, it might be for good.
    Even if this world was completely imaginary, I didn’t want to spend my time in a made up mental hospital. Still, it’d been weeks, and I still hadn’t found any real indication everything was, in fact, made up. No, on the contrary, every day made me feel like I had been crazy and only now, had woken from a dream, albeit one with missing time I couldn’t remember.
    “I’m not sure,” she said, a smirk crossing her lips. Was she on to my lie? “I’ll check with your doctors later.”
    “Awesome,” I groaned sarcastically and finished my toast. It was strangely tasteless for having been heaped with butter and jam. I must have lost my sense of taste from nerves. Well, that was lame. The only upside to eating carbs was tasting them.
    We pulled in front of my school a second later, and I stared at the old, stucco-covered cement main building in shock. We’d just left the house, how could we be here already? Oh man, I was losing it. Unless… no, no, this had to be real.
    I sucked in a deep breath as my mom leaned over and squeezed my hand before wrapping me in a hug and kissing my forehead. “Good luck,” she whispered, and her words were strangely comforting.
    “Thanks,” I replied, disentangling myself from her even though I didn’t remember her hugging me very often. “I’ll need it.”
    “No, you won’t,” she said just before someone knocked on my window. I leapt out of my skin and whirled around, my seatbelt going tight.
    Panic rose in me as I pulled my fists up, ready to fight off the person as the door opened to reveal Charlie. He stood there in a tight-fitting blue Superman t-shirt that had muscles painted onto the abs even though he clearly didn’t need the paint.
    “Hey, Lillim. Mind if I walk you to class?” he asked, holding out one hand to me. How had he found me? Had he been waiting for me to show up? That was kind of creepy, but maybe the pizza dinner I couldn’t quite remember had gone better than I thought? Maybe we’d agreed to meet up before class? But why? If it had gone that well I should have remembered it, and what’s more, why would he want to be seen with me? The crazy girl?
    It was one thing to show me around the school when no one was here and quite another to do it in full view of the other kids. He might as well be walking through lion country with a wounded antelope.
    “Sure,” I said with a blush as I unfastened my seatbelt and threw one last look at my mom. “Love you.”
    “Love you too,” she called as I shut the door. It slammed with a strange air of finality, and as I turned back to look at her car, she was