“On it, Gandalf.” Savannah picked up her tray and skipped out into the big room…then disappeared.
I frowned and followed Gigi, carrying my own tray as we went after Savannah. We walked along the edge of the room, where there were no tables but lots of people moving around. When we got to the end of the walkway, Gigi turned to the right and led us to the other side of the room.
She nodded her head. “There’s Savannah. Perfect.”
I glanced over, but despite Savannah having ocean-colored hair, she was still lost in the sea of people. “Gigi…what is a Gandalf?”
Gigi chuckled and stepped around a couple of boys throwing a ball around. “He’s a famous character from a very famous book. Gandalf is a wizard who is very smart and very sassy.”
“Oh.” I felt like that was the only thing I ever said now. Oh. But then I remembered the walls of books in Landreia’s house and I perked up. “I’ll see if Landreia has that book, then maybe I can know who this Gandalf is.”
Gigi grinned and stopped just inside the big room of people. “That’s a great idea, but there’s also movies of it and those are so much better.”
“And that is the only time I will allow you to say that a movie is better than a book.” Savannah said from suddenly right in front of us. She arched one eyebrow at her friend, then looked to me and took my tray of food. “Here, sit.”
I sat in the blue chair. It was cold to the touch, even through my jeans and sweater. Savannah and Gigi took the chairs beside me so that I sat between them – which I was sure was not a coincidence. “Why is this movie better?”
Savannah closed her eyes and moaned. “Two words: Aragorn and Legolas.”
Gigi sighed and fanned herself. “What a sandwich.”
I scowled. “You like the movie because of the food in it?”
Savannah snorted and water spilled from her mouth. She buried her face and laughed.
Gigi tried not to laugh but failed.
I sighed. “You’re not talking about food, are you?”
“Oh, they’re edible—”
“No, we are not.” Gigi shook her head, still grinning. “They’re men. Extremely attractive men. You’ll see. We’ll marathon it with you and then you’ll get it.”
I groaned. “I hate not knowing what anyone is talking about.”
Gigi opened her mouth, then closed it with a grimace.
I smiled. “It’s okay, you can ask me about it.”
Her cheeks flushed. “Sorry.”
“No reason to be. I’m not dying, I just can’t remember anything.”
“Anything at all?” She frowned. “Landreia said you could only remember your name…I guess I was hoping she was exaggerating.”
I shook my head. “Sadly, no.”
Savannah reached over to my tray and picked up my apple. “You don’t know anything about you yet you remember a piece of fruit. What a fickle thing.”
“Must be hard for you, I can’t even imagine.” Gigi cocked her head to the side and the golden tips of her hair fell over her shoulder. “How are you handling all of this?”
“I’m not sure? It’s only been a day. But my psychologist recommended going to school and making friends, and I think she may have been right.” I gestured around the room behind me and glanced over my shoulder. “This is…a lot to take in, but being alone last night was awful.”
“Then no more being alone.” Savannah winked. “Right, Gigi?”
“Right,” she said without a beat of hesitation. “And feel no shame, you can ask us about absolutely anything.”
“Exactly, think of us as your memory-buddies.” Savannah picked up her pizza.
My stomach growled. I’d forgotten about the food for a moment, but now that I looked at it my mouth watered. The pizza looked the most enticing. I peeked up at Gigi and Savannah and saw they were both holding theirs in their hands, so I reached out and picked mine up. It was warm and soft in my hand. I lifted it up toward my mouth when something moved in my peripheral vision. I glanced up — and froze.
Across the walkway, standing just outside the large window straight across from me, stood a tall figure…wearing a black hood. My heart lurched and breath caught in my throat. I recognized the tall form and broad shoulders…and the black hood covering most of a face. It may have been broad daylight but in my mind the sky was black and the air was bitter cold against my bare skin.
My pizza slipped out of my hands and crashed onto the bowl of French fries.
“Whoa, Saffie, are you okay?”
No. No, I am certainly not okay.
It’s HIM.
Chapter Eight
Saffie
It’s him.
HIM.
I gripped the edge of my chair as the world spun around me
No. No, it can’t be him. He’s just some other guy wearing a black hood. I’d seen other boys walking down the halls in black hoods…then again, I hadn’t thought any of them had been him. The guy was standing there looking down at the phone in his hands. His fingers were long and tanned. On his left middle finger was a large raw amethyst ring, though I couldn’t have said how I knew what stone that was. The black hood hung low over his face, casting the top half in a dark shadow.
It’s not him. It can’t be. It can’t.
And then he turned and headed straight for the door just off to my left. My pulse skipped. He stormed inside, his long legs carrying him over the threshold in a few steps. The doors seemed to open for him without anyone touching them, which was ridiculous, I knew.. A cold gust of wind swept in behind him and slammed into my face yet I felt only heat rushing through my veins.
In the back of my mind, I heard Savannah and Gigi talking to me but their voices were far away. It was definitely him. I’d recognize the rhythm of his steps in my sleep. My fingers burned from how hard I gripped the chair. Everything seemed to slow down around me. I couldn’t take my eyes off of him.
A few feet inside, he reached up with his left hand and the amethyst on his finger sparkled under the bright white lights in the ceiling. He pushed the black hood off of his head and I gasped. Pale, golden hair tumbled forward in light waves that fell past his shoulders. His skin was tanned from the sun. His face was all sharp, glorious angles that I had the sudden urge to run my fingers over.
He looked up and his big, bright golden eyes met mine. My breath left me in a rush. All I could hear was the pounding of my heart against my chest. My lungs burned and each breath scorched a fiery trail down my throat.
“Ohhhhhh.” Savannah leaned against my side, her voice close to my ear. “That’s Zachariah Martin.”
Gigi leaned against my other side. “I heard our teacher refer to him as Riah. It’s so hot.”
“That’s dirty hot,” Savannah whispered. “He’s too beautiful to look at.”
I licked my dry lips and nodded. I’d told the police he was pretty, but I hadn’t realized that was the understatement of the year. He was gorgeous. I didn’t know what dirty hot meant, but I liked the way it sounded. I liked the way my heart fluttered with every step he took in our direction, his black boots thudding heavily against the wood floor.
He wore the same black hood but today he had a black leather jacket on over it. I liked the way his black jeans clung to the muscles in his long legs as he walked and the way his gray shirt seemed to be transparent. His golden eyes drank me in for a long minute, or maybe I was imagining it. But then he turned and moved down the walkway, walking away from me like nothing had happened at all.
Maybe nothing did happen.
My thoughts swirled. I knew it was him I’d seen sitting by that house by that wharf. I could never make up a face as beautiful as his. But I just didn’t understand. Why him? Why is he following me? What’s he doing here? A group of guys jumped up from their table and clapped him on the back.
Wait. They said his name was Riah and he’s a student here. I peeled my gaze away from him and glanced around the room…no one was alarmed by his presence. Sure,
every girl within the radius of a few tables was staring at him, but I couldn’t blame them. I was too. He was that beautiful. No one was afraid or concerned at all. The guys at the table with him laughed and carried on their boisterous conversation…like he totally belonged.
If he’s a student here then was he trying to hurt me by the wharf? It didn’t make any sense. What if he wasn’t following me at all?
What if I just thought he was?
What if Dr. Troy was right? What if it was a coincidence?
I knew for a fact I’d seen him outside that brick house and then walking down to that liquor store, but now I was wondering how much I’d actually seen after that. What if he went in that store and didn’t follow me at all? Maybe that’s why I saw him with the bags talking to the police.
What if there was someone else following me and I just assumed it was him?
But then a tiny voice in the back of my mind said, what if no one was following you at all? My eyes latched on to his profile and I was helpless to look away. I just wanted to drink him in. That night on the wharf I’d been terrified beyond recognition, yet I felt no fear now. I felt a lot of things that I definitely did not understand but it wasn’t fear. It wasn’t anything close to fear.
He glanced over his shoulder and our eyes met once again, if only for a moment.
A fire exploded in my chest and I gasped for air.
“Damn, girl. That beautiful bastard is eyeing you.”
Gigi leaned into my peripheral vision. “Do you know him?”
I shook my head. “W-who i-i-is h-he?”
Savannah leaned closer. “Zachariah Martin. Moved here at the beginning of the school year.”
“I’ve yet to hear his voice even once,” Gigi grumbled. “I bet it’s hot. I hope it’s hot. I’m still upset David Beckham’s voice isn’t. It’s just not right when the face and the voice don’t match in hotness.”
“Preach.” Savannah sighed.
I didn’t understand. It all had felt so real, but watching him now as he sat at a table full of other high school boys it didn’t make sense. Even if he had followed me, he hadn’t actually tried to grab me or hurt me. He hadn’t even approached me. And why would he have a sword? I was going to have to talk to Dr. Troy about it this afternoon when I went for our talk. She’d help me make sense of this. Because I was confused.
He turned and our eyes met once more. Except he didn’t look away this time. Those eyes of burning sunshine locked on me and my body melted. I licked my lips and his eyes tracked the movement before he looked away again. Heat exploded in my cheeks. I tucked my hair behind my ears with shaky fingers. Do you remember me? I stared at him, willing him to hear the confusion in my thoughts. I felt an overwhelming pull toward him, like I needed to be by his side. Which made no sense.
Just look at me one more time.
Chapter Nine
Riah
I felt her eyes on my back.
It was a torture far worse than the purgatory of three centuries in the shadows just watching her. Somehow knowing she was finally seeing me was mine own personal brand of hell.
Because I dared not go near her.
No matter how much I wanted to go to her, to wrap her in my arms and squeeze her tight, I could not. After three-hundred-twenty-seven years, the waiting was over. This was it. This was the endgame. The final stretch. The light at the end of the tunnel. All my centuries of patience could not be destroyed by one lavender-eyed gaze. Something happened to me whenever mine own eyes met hers, it was like a forest burning to ashes in seconds. She felt like drowning, like gasping for air. Every distraction that pulled my gaze away was the hand dragging me out of the water. Yet I burned to look again.
I was going to have to remain cloaked as much as possible. At least that way she would not see me, and I may pray to have some semblance of control and composure…and a heart still whole at the end of this.
“Yo, Riah, you gonna eat that?”
I turned to the boy beside me and arched one eyebrow.
He turned his hat backwards then pointed to the tray of food before me. “I’m still wicked hungry, bruh, and you haven’t touched it.”
I pushed the tray over to him and my stomach turned. I could not eat, Saraphina’s presence turned my body inside out and upside down.
Back in August, when The Coven’s presence forced me to leave her side and retreat, Prince Thorne had sent me here to Salem to prepare for her arrival. It had nearly killed me to be away from her. To not know if she was safe and well. The distraction of the students at this high school had served me well enough at the time…but now, their antics faded into the background, to a place detached from my wavelength.
I glanced around the table at them as they laughed in all their ridiculousness. They were children. With mere seventeen years of life, they were babies. I’d never begrudged them their youth or innocence until this moment, but it was not fair to hold their humanness against them. It was just hard to relate to them. I was born at the height of the Hundred Years’ War against Lilith, in a time of darkness and bloodshed. I was their age when Prince Thorne gave my sword to me…and over six centuries later I was still haunted by the things I’d done with it.
Humans did not know their luck.
And for that, I envied them…a little.
I glanced over my shoulder until mine eyes found her. I wondered, not for the first time, what was in her heart. Did she remember me from before? Did she long for the life she was robbed of? Did she regret the favor she gave for The Coven and then paid heavily for? I would never forgive myself for my part in her misery and that was my driving need to ensure her happiness in the future. I would see her get back what was taken, as much as possible.
And after three centuries of waiting and planning…the time was finally here.
Chapter Ten
Saffie
“I feel like I’m playing that game Carmen San Diego, there’s got to be clues for us to follow and figure out who you are.” Savannah spun around to face me while walking backwards down the hall. “I mean, we’ll do some serious digging for your name online and I’m sure the cops are doing the same…but is there anything else?”
Gigi turned to me with a bounce in her step. “Did you empty your pockets?”
“Um…” I glanced around the hall, scanning every face in the crowd for him. I couldn’t stop thinking about him and it was driving me crazy. I had bigger things to worry about. “I was wearing a dress that only had one small pocket and it was empty.”
Savannah frowned. “A dress?”
He wasn’t anywhere in sight. I needed to see him again. I needed to talk to him. To see if it felt the same as at lunch. To see if it was just an unexpected pretty face or if that magnet would still try to draw me near him. It was like this ringing sound in my ears, I needed to know. He was probably only looking at me because I was staring at him like a crazy person. And I felt like a crazy person. Somewhere deep in my subconscious my memory thrived on. It lurked in the shadows of my mind just enough to haunt my thoughts.
And the problem was, he was the first thing I encountered when I woke up. The first person I saw. I needed answers, I just wasn’t sure how to get them. I couldn’t even figure out how to tell my new friends about it.
I shook myself and shrugged. “Yeah. It was sleeveless and pretty short.”
“In December? In Salem, Massachusetts.” Savannah wrinkled her nose. “No, I smell something fishy there. But we’ll circle back to that later. What else were you wearing?”
“Nothing. No jacket. No pants. No shoes.”
Gigi winked at me. “She’s like a detective. This is catnip for her.”
I blinked and nodded. I had no idea what catnip was. Or detective, really. I knew it was some form of police officer but the differences gave me a headache. And I didn’t need any more confusion today, Riah was proving too much for me to handle on his own let alone school.
We stopped at one of those metal contraptions in the hallway that G
igi had referred to as a locker. I fought the urge to pull out my notebook to write down all the things I was learning. Instead, I scanned the next rush of students going by, but he wasn’t one of them.
Savannah spun a dial then pulled a door open to reveal stacks of books and two small bags. She glanced over her shoulder and narrowed those blue eyes at me. “Any birth marks? Scars? Tattoos?”
“Oh…” I bit my lip and hesitated, though I didn’t know why. It wasn’t something to be embarrassed about. Then again, maybe it was. I reached down and pulled up my left sleeve to reveal the bold black letters marking my pale skin. “Well, I do have this.”
Savannah gasped. “OH MY GOD. Ma’am. You have a tattoo?”
“This is getting juicy,” Gigi whispered as they both leaned down to my arm with wide eyes. “It’s a Roman numeral thirteen.”
Savannah cocked her head to the side. “It’s not uncommon. But there’s usually a significant reason for a tattoo like that. I wonder what it means…”
“Me too.”
Savannah shrugged and pulled one of the bags out of her locker, then handed it to Gigi. “Class time.”
My heart skipped a beat. Class. Butterflies fluttered in the pit of my stomach. This was my first class ever…or as far as I knew. I had absolutely no idea what to expect. What would I have to do? Would I have to know things? Would I have to talk to people? I was praying for a no to all those questions.
As we headed down the hallway, we passed door after door and even though I wanted to pretend I wasn’t, I scanned each one for Riah. But it seemed like he’d just disappeared. Just like he had that night on the wharf.
Gigi bumped my arm. “How are you doing? You can tell us if you’re too overwhelmed.”
“Umm…” I wanted to tell her that I was. My hands shook and my palms were sweaty. But I had to be strong. If I gave in now, I’d crumble and shrivel up. “I’m nervous, but I-I think I’m okay.”
The Cursed Witch Page 6
