"So let me get this straight," I frowned. "We only have two weeks in New York City, and you want to go to some science conference?"

My best friend, Coleen Darcey, rolled her eyes at me dramatically. As always, she was dressed in smart black trousers, a red blouse and pink pumps, looking more like she was on her way to work than she was on holiday. Her blonde hair had been pulled back into its usual strict bun, silver studs pressed into her ears that shone almost as bright as her shining blue eyes. In her hands, she held a map and a large wad of American dollar bills, holiday money from her parents who'd had to stay back in New Zealand to work.

"It's not going to be that bad," she told me, in her usual posh tone, like she was purposely trying to sound British.

"It's a science conference, Col," I groaned loudly. "Just thinking about it makes me wanted to bury my head in a brick wall."

"That's it, Des," a sarcastic voice sounded from the hotel door. "You always did have a positive outlook on life, didn't you?"

I shot my cousin, Jessie, a cool look, but shrugged a shoulder when she smiled widely. Like most of the family, she was quite small, with masses of red tangled hair and dark chocolate eyes. She looked almost the exact opposite of Coleen, wearing small denim shorts and a baggy black crop top with a white lip print.

"Are we getting this thing over and done with then or what?" she sighed, straightening out.

Coleen glanced at me uncertainly for a moment, then turned back toward Jessie with a grimace. "Aren't you . . . I mean, don't you want to . . ."

Jessie lifted an eyebrow. "Don't I want to what?"

"Get changed," Coleen rushed and I burst out laughing, pulling my friend in a hug before she could move.

"Oh, it's a good job we love you, Col," I chuckled.

"For your information, I dressed like this on purpose," Jessie pouted, and Coleen's shoulders sagged wryly.

"Why?" she asked, as though she didn't want to answer.

Jessie sniffed, drawing herself up to her full height. "It's my own little experiment," she answered, relatively proud of herself.

My lips curved into a wide smile. "Oh?"

She shrugged a shoulder. "I want to see if any of these science geeks are going to be brave enough to hit on me."

"Jessie!" Coleen scolded as I laughed again, high fiving her as I passed to raid my suitcase for my favourite denim jacket.

"What?" she blinked back innocently. "Intelligence can really work for some guys, you know."

"Oh, I'll bet," I said, pulling my face.

"Just because some girls prefer the athletic types," she sneered, shooting me a pointed look. I smirked back, ignoring her.

Instead, I focused on the reflection in the mirror on the far wall. I was a little taller than Jessie, with the same family resemblance and build. My dark brunette hair had been dipped-dyed blonde, pulled back into a rough ponytail away from my slim face. Today, my first day on holiday, I'd dressed in a white lace summer dress to showcase my heavy tan, and my sunglasses were already perched on top of my head. New York might not have been the sort of place to lounge around on beaches all day, but I was on holiday, so I was going to make the most of every single second, and God help anyone who ruined it for me.

Figuring she was going to lose the battle, Coleen sighed heavily and slung her bag over her shoulders. "Ready to go then?" Jessie and I nodded at her, and I pulled my cropped denim jacket over my shoulders, rolling the sleeves back and slipping my feet into my usual, tatty combat boots on the way out of the door.

Outside, the sun was shining down so brightly, the heat almost knocked me back. Business men and women looked even more annoyed than usual, uncomfortable in their suits and jackets. On the other side of the road, a group of workmen drilling through the tarmac had paused to cool off, wolf-whistling at the women walking past. Kids on their holidays rushed past, giggling loudly and ignoring shouts from their parents.

"So," Jessie yawned. "When do my favourite Aunt and Uncle arrive, and how the hell did you convince them to let you come out here early?"

I smiled. "Your only Aunt and Uncle arrive later tonight, and since Cam lives over here, I promised to check in with him and Loz."

My parents, both of whom were severely over-protective, had only allowed me to come to New York with Coleen and Jessie when I begged my eldest brother, Cameron, to talk sense into them. He'd gotten a job over here and emigrated years ago, and now lived in an apartment in the city centre with his wife, Laura, and their two children, Margo and Oliver, both under four years old. I'd only managed to see them all for a few minutes yesterday night, and I couldn't wait to spend more time with my niece and nephew since I rarely got to see them, living so far away.

"I still think we could have just come out with them tonight," Jessie shrugged, her eyes shining.

And, just as she wanted, Coleen gasped in horror. "But we'd have missed the conference!"

"Exactly," Jessie grumbled at me, and I scoffed, letting my attention slip back to scanning my surroundings curiously. I knew the two of them were about to get into another of their constant arguments, and I'd heard it all before. They clashed. In fact, Coleen and I clashed. A lot. She was academic and quiet, and I . . . I wasn't. I was athletic, strong minded and outspoken. But she'd been my best friend since I was three years old. She was the one that pulled me back before I made a rash decision. For that alone, I owed her a lot.

Remarkably, there was no queue outside to get into the conference. Go figure,I thought dryly. I really didn't want to, but I followed Coleen and Jessie through the doors reluctantly and clipped my sunglasses on the front of my dress. Inside, a reasonable sized group of teenagers roughly our age were shuffling in different directions, to the bathrooms, to buy drinks or to find seats. I figured there was no rush to do the latter, so I swerved around Coleen and Jessie and made my way to the drinks stand.

Queuing up silently, I rummaged through my small bag to find my iPod, hoping I remembered to pack it. I didn't think I could bear sitting through a whole three hour lecture on . . . well, I wasn't even sure what it was about. But I'd hardly opened the bag when I caught a snippet of someone else's conversation.

"-believe you dragged me to this," an irritable, gruff voice came.

"I didn't drag you," another boy replied, and I looked up, scanning the queue cautiously to try and find whoever was talking. "Xav's happy enough."

"Oh, yeah," the third voice replied, dripping in a sarcasm Jessie would have been proud of. "I'm just here for the chicks."

I couldn't help smiling at that, abandoning my search for my iPod as my eyes fell on the three boys at the front of the line. One was taller and muscular, dressed in dark clothes and a biker jacket, like he was here to beat up nerds rather than listen to the lecture. The second was taller still, lanky with the looks of a male surfer. The third was the only boy that looked like he fit in here, with stylish glasses perched on the bridge of his nose, ruffled dark hair and a look about him, as though intelligence could actually change your appearance. The sight made me wonder if coming here was such a bad idea after all, and I smiled to myself, lifting a hand to pull my hair free of its ponytail.

The three guys moved away from the front of the queue, and my eyes trailed after them. There was something about them, the way they acted, that made me smile. It reminded me of when I was younger and I actually saw my brothers.

"Hey, Des!" Jessie shouted from the other side of the hall, and I glanced back, just in time to see Coleen smack her around the back of the head. "You nearly done? If I hear one more word about university from her. . ."

I grinned. "Just a minute!"

When I finally reached the front of the line, I bought myself a small drink and strode back toward Jessie and Coleen, already tuning out their bickering and returning to my search for my iPod as Coleen led the way into the lecture hall.

The room was huge, and despite the fact it was boiling hot outside, it was freezing in here. A stage had been set up at the far end, and an optimistic amount of chairs sat in front of it. The lights had been turned down and spotlights shone on the stage, as though we were attending one of those self-empowerment talks rather than a science conference.

"Come on," Coleen beamed in excitement. "Let's find some decent seats."

"That'll be the food court then," Jessie mumbled sourly at me, and I snorted, hurriedly trying to turn my laugh into a cough when Coleen shot me a cool look.

"I'm sorry," I grimaced at her. "We'll be good, I promise."

Jessie scoffed. "Speak for yourself."

We eventually found seats, horribly close to the front, but I pursed my lips tightly and settled down next to the others, discreetly shoving one of my iPod headphones into my ear, ruffling my hair until it covered the wire. I'd just about picked out one of my favourite songs - Army of Two by a British singer named Olly Murs - when someone cleared their throat out behind me.

"That's cheating," the voice muttered in my ear, and I jumped in surprise, wheeling around on my seat.

The boy grinned at me. He was the surfer looking one from the drinks stand, tall and reasonably lanky. On either side of him, the other boys who I presumed were his brothers grimaced at me, like they were already apologising in advance.

Coleen, on the other hand, barely paid them any attention. "What's cheating?" she frowned at me. I opened my mouth to answer, but her eyes had already landed on the iPod in my hand. "Des! You promised!"

I shot the boy a sour look. "You had to open your mouth, didn't you?" He smirked, shrugging a shoulder.

"Forget him," Coleen glowered, and one of his brothers, the biker guy, scoffed.

"Most people do."

She ignored them again, reaching out to snatch the iPod headphones out of my ears. "Do you have any idea what people here will think if they see you zoned out listening to . . . oh God, what is that anyway?"

I sighed heavily. "I don't care what people think, Col," I shrugged, taking my iPod back. "You wanted to come here, not me."

"You could at least stop complaining about it!" she snapped back.

"Hey, I go to plenty of these back home without one word," I scowled back at her, folding my arms over my chest indignantly. "But we're supposed to be on holiday, Col, not squirreled away in some dark room listening to know-it-alls brag about how much smarter they are than everyone else!"

"Here, here!" the surfer boy agreed with me.

Coleen rolled her eyes. "It's one lecture, Des, then no more talking about it until we get home."

"Damn right," Jessie scoffed at her. "If you think I'm putting up with you pick apart every sentence when we finally get out of this hell-hole, you've got another thing coming."

"I won't," Coleen assured us. "So long as you keep quiet and pay attention."

I shifted with a frown. "I knew I should have gotten the later flight," I grumbled. She scowled at me. "Fine, not another word, I swear." She nodded, but took my iPod out of my hands before I could stop her and stuffed it into her pocket. I glowered back at the surfer boy. "I'll never forgive you for that."

"Well then, I'll just have to talk to your friend over here, won't I?" he grinned, winking at Jessie. She lifted an eyebrow, but the corners of her lips tugged.

Unfortunately, I only managed to keep my promise to Coleen for about half an hour. I didn't mean to make any noise, but I'd forgotten to put my phone on silent, and of course, my over-bearing mother couldn't go for twelve hours without speaking to me. So when the Blackberry gave a shrill ring from my pocket, the entire lecture hall turned to stare at me and I felt my chest tighten awkwardly.

"Sorry!" I hissed at Coleen, who was gawping at me like I'd just slapped her. Grimacing, I ignored the boys behind us laughing to themselves and hurried out of the lecture hall, apologising to everyone I could on my way.

The moment the doors were shut behind me, I dragged my phone out of my pocket, groaning loudly at the name on the caller ID. "Mum!" I complained as I answered it. "I was in the middle of the lecture!"

"Oh, well it's nice to hear from you too," her sour reply came, and my shoulders sagged wryly. "I was only ringing to let you know that your father and I are about to get onto the plane now."

I hesitated. "That's it? Mum, you could have sent that in a text!"

"Don't be silly," she replied irritably. "I don't know how to work those things!" I bit down on my bottom lip hard to stop myself snapping at her. I knew she was more than capable of texting, she just didn't like it because then she couldn't grill me about every tiny detail of my waking life. "Anyway, we'll be there in time for dinner hopefully, so I've asked Cameron to book a table at the restaurant Laura works in."

"Great," I replied, forcing myself to sound more optimistic than I felt.

"And what about you and your friends, honey? Having a good time?"

My lips pursed. "I'm at a science conference, Mum. What do you think?"

"And Cameron picked you up from the airport, did he? Took you to the hotel? You haven't been wandering around New York in the dark, have you, because you know it's dangerous there."

I felt my eyes close exasperatedly as I massaged my temple with my free hand. "I know, Mum, I'm not stupid. Cameron's given me the lecture already, okay? He picked me up from the airport, took me to see Margo and Oliver for an hour and to get some food, then dropped me off at the hotel, just like he said he would. I stayed in the room all night watching TV, fell asleep before ten o'clock and had pancakes for breakfast at the hotel restaurant this morning."

"Honestly, Destiny, why would I care what you had for breakfast?" Mum sighed back, and my eyes rolled. "You're not a child anymore, you know."

"I'm getting that," I agreed through my teeth.

"Alright, well they're calling our flight now, so be good! We'll see you soon, honey. Love you!"

"Bye, Mum," I grumbled unenthusiastically. "Love you too."

Hanging up, I took a deep breath and leant back against the wall to calm down for a moment. My Mum had always been like this. Since I was the only girl in the family, she'd always been so much more paranoid over my safety than anyone else's, which was strange, because Dad was quite confident in my ability to look after myself. Mum seemed to think that she had to stop me from making all the same mistakes she had, which didn't leave much room for me to make my own decisions. From what I'd heard from Jessie's parents, my Aunt Claire and Uncle Dan, she'd made a lot of mistakes.

Shaking the thoughts out of my head, I turned to head back into the lecture hall, making sure to put my phone on silent as I went. But being so focused on my phone, I walked straight into something quite solid, taking a sharp intake of breath in surprise and staggering back at step.

"Sorry!" the guy cursed, reaching out to grab my arm to steady me. "Sorry, I didn't see you there!"

"No, it's fine, I wasn't looking where I was going," I answered back, blinking a few more times and letting my gaze settle on his face. It was one of the guys sat behind us in the lecture hall, only this time, it was the intelligent looking one. Looking at him, I opened my mouth to say something else, but the words disappeared before I had the chance.

He frowned carefully. "Are you alright?" His hand tightened slightly around my arm.

I gulped, shaking myself. "Yeah, I'm fine," I nodded. "Just . . . erm, distracted."

The guy hesitated for a moment, then held his hand out in front of him. "Yves Benedict," he told me.

I cleared my throat awkwardly, shaking his hand. "Destiny McKenna."

"McKenna?" Yves blinked. "As in, the McKennas from New Zealand?"

I stared at him in surprise, trying not to look as panicked as I felt. In my experience, people who'd heard of my family generally weren't very nice people. "Yes," I said slowly, taking a small step back. "Why'd you ask . . . exactly?"

"No, no, it's nothing bad," he rushed, flushing slightly. "I heard of your family through the Net."

My eyes widened. "You're a Savant?" I gawped, and automatically my mind reached out for his to double-check. Stepping into his thoughts however, made something shift awkwardly, and though I knew he was telling the truth, there was something different that made me take another step back. The sight made his eyes widened slightly and he held his hands out in surrender.

I'm not going to hurt you, his voice came in the back of my mind, and I went rigid. Suddenly, the rest of the world seemed to blur out of focus and a rush of emotion strong enough to leave me breathless overrode my whole body. It was as if the whole world had turned on its axis. This wasn't possible. He couldn't be . . . could he?

Oh my God, I heard myself breath mentally, my heart beating frantically, and Yves's face dropped.

For a moment, neither of us moved. Then I let out a stunned laugh, shaking all over in shock, and threw my arms around his shoulders tightly. He scoffed weakly, spluttering my hair out of his mouth and locking his arms around my waist. "God, I can't believe this," I laughed quietly, unable to shift the smile off my face. "I can't believe this!"

"Me neither," he muttered back, stunned.

Beaming widely, I pulled back slightly, making sure my arms were still wrapped around his neck. "Who would've thought I'd meet my soulfinder at a science conference?"