A modern brick building with glass windows took shape on the horizon. A familiar brick building.
‘Keep going,’ Fire said.
The ground below me wasn’t soft and crunchy any more but hard and black. I kept following Fire as she floated ahead of me. I inhaled freshly cut grass and the unmistakable smell of gasoline. I tripped over a root or something hard. My body lurched forward and I threw my hands out to break my fall. And I did fall, landing on to the campus of Wickham Boarding School.
CHAPTER 2
Present day
I shook my wrists; they stung from the impact of hitting the ground. I was on all fours and dug my fingertips into the soil. I had landed just within the boundaries of the Wickham woods. Ahead of me was campus, behind me Main Street.
Lovers Bay, Massachusetts was a town on Cape Cod. The salty smell of the ocean was a pungent odour compared to the earthy scents of home. The sounds of the campus echoed about me. Shrieks of laughter mixed with the beeping of a utility vehicle somewhere nearby.
Utility vehicle. Something that didn’t exist in the fifteenth century.
Despite Suleen’s death and despite the hollowness in my gut, a smile tugged at the side of my mouth. I was really here, at Wickham – wasn’t I? A car roared past behind me and I threw my hands over my ears. I pressed harder as a police car screamed by too. I jumped up, turning to the stone wall that encircled campus. My ears burned as the siren pulled away. The modern age was relentlessly loud.
For the three years that I had been back home in the medieval world, the soundtrack of my life was the chanting of monks and whispers with my sister under the covers.
Her laughter.
I swallowed hard. This world seemed hollow and metallic. I would hear her laughter only in my memory, perhaps for the rest of my days.
I smoothed out my work dress just to do something with my hands, but found myself no longer in my medieval garb. I was wearing what I would have picked out for myself in the modern world: black pants, T-shirt, combat boots.
The clothes of a soldier.
I lifted my wrist. The cloth blotted with Suleen’s blood remained fastened safely to me.
Fire hovered by my side.
‘We are invisible to those around us,’ she said, and handed me the sprig of lavender I had taken from my parents’ house; I took it without meeting her cranberry-coloured eyes.
‘Well . . .’ I said after slipping it into my pocket. ‘Let’s get on with it.’ I crossed my arms over my chest and lifted my chin.
‘You have every right to be angry,’ she said.
‘Suleen is dead.’ I pointed to her when I said, ‘You punished Rhode and me. You said we couldn’t be together, so I went back, Fire. You said it would be safe for those I left behind,’ I snapped.
She said nothing at first. Fine. Rhode and I wouldn’t be together. I would do what Suleen and Fire wanted of me and then try to get back to the medieval world. I was here again regardless of what I had tried to do before.
‘Things are different than the Aeris expected,’ Fire said.
Dare I sense hesitation in her voice?
‘After what has transpired here in the modern world, you and Rhode are free to do what you choose,’ Fire said. ‘But it’s not simple. As you asked of me, the Aeris gave him his life back; he does not carry the scars of his former vampire life. He has no memory of his past.’
‘He was nineteen when he was made a vampire. Won’t he look older to the students? I asked.
‘He will not age as a human until he turns nineteen. He has a whole host of memories from Lovers Bay, human memories.’
‘He needs to know what happened to Suleen, Fire. Give him back his memory.’
‘I can’t. What I have done with you and Rhode is—’ She stopped herself and her scarlet eyes locked on me with such intensity a flicker of fear rushed through me. I wanted to take a step backwards, but fought the desire. ‘Don’t you see what we’ve done?’ she continued, ‘Justin poses an insurmountable problem.’
‘We? What I’d really like is for someone to tell me what the hell has happened since I’ve been gone.’
Fire dropped her head. She was not human, but this was such a human admission of failure I couldn’t help but be taken aback. Fire could not meddle in the affairs of vampires. The Aeris were only responsible for the four elements and keeping the balance of all living things. She would never be human no matter how she behaved.
‘If you do not kill Justin,’ she said quietly, ‘someone will take my place who does not care for you as I do. Someone who will reverse this decree and keep you and Rhode apart again,’ she explained.
I drew a sharp breath at the frightening hierarchy of the universe. Fire was in trouble because what we had set out to do had failed.
‘You can be replaced?’ I asked quietly.
She did not answer but instead placed a warm, feather-light hand on my shoulder.
‘Wait. Wait,’ I said while working it out in my head. She had said someone would take her place who would keep Rhode and me apart. That would mean Rhode and I would have to be together first.
‘Rhode and I . . . we don’t have to stay away from one another any more?!’
She nodded once.
I wanted to jump up and down. I wanted to run through campus at that very instant and find him immediately. I also wanted to hold on to the nearest tree because my breath was short. I exhaled heavily to steady myself.
Fire hesitated before she spoke, and I caught a glimpse of pity in her eyes as she said the next words.
‘I would not be so excited. I do not think he will ever remember his past,’ Fire said. Her words were sobering. Think like a soldier, Lenah. I touched the bloody fabric on my wrist.
‘Rhode’s going to need protection,’ I said. ‘From Justin.’
It sounded weird even saying it aloud.
‘What do we know?’ I added, getting to business.
‘Justin is the king of the vampire world. He has made an allegiance with the Hollow Ones.’
I straightened my back. If I felt tight and strong, I could understand this. I could work out a plan. I couldn’t imagine any scenario in which Justin was more powerful than Suleen. Or one in which he was in cahoots with the Hollow Ones – vampires who had given up their ability to love in return for power and knowledge, becoming mutants of the supernatural world. Demons.
‘Why is he still a vampire? I know you can’t meddle in the affairs of vampires, Fire, but you promised me the world would change.’
‘Some circumstances are beyond even the Aeris’s control.’
Anger shot through me yet again.
‘You’re an all-powerful being. You can manipulate time.’ I stopped myself and shook my head. ‘Forget it. Forget it. Yelling about it won’t change anything. Just tell me what I need to do.’
Fire reached up to her neck and removed a necklace. It was simple, a gold chain with a red teardrop-shaped pendant. It floated through the air towards me and dropped into my palm. I curled my fingers around the smooth jewel. It had an unnatural heat as though a tiny fire burned within the gem.
‘What is this?’ I asked.
‘The only power I have left to give you: the power of flame. You may use this only once. Cast this necklace at your opponent and it will become a conflagration so monstrous that it will tear down those who wish to harm you. It is fire. Nothing more, nothing less.’ She punctuated every word and warned, ‘Use it only when you need it most.’
The little orb glinted. It seemed to be echoing Fire’s declaration.
‘You’ll find your life at Wickham ready for you. To those here, you are a new student entering the school in your senior year.’
I closed my hand around the warm jewel.
‘What would have happened if I had refused this task?’
Fire paused and finally said, ‘I would fear for the natural order of the world.’
I shivered. Whatever had happened to leave Justin a vampire had unsettled th
e natural balance of the world. It must have been catastrophic indeed for Fire and Suleen to bring me back.
‘Tell me first,’ I said. ‘My friends – they won’t remember me?’
‘It won’t take them long this time. The soul can always recall who it has loved.’ Her light faded from bright red to orange.
The necklace in my palm swirled and sparked. I wanted to ask her why we had failed the first time, but all I could think to say was, ‘What if I need you?’
But Fire’s orange light had dimmed to yellow before I finished speaking and in a blink, she was gone.
I fastened the necklace, but when I reached up to make sure it lay correctly – the clasp had disappeared.
I turned around to face campus. Just a few steps and I would be on a Wickham pathway. I didn’t know what lay ahead, but I knew I had to leave these woods to begin this journey.
With his death Suleen had said it all in the orchard. He had summoned me back to Wickham to complete a task that he could not.
To kill Justin.
I dared to step to the edge of the woods. People talked on their cell phones and moved boxes into their dorms. Parents idled by large luxury cars, hauled comforters and mini fridges. Fire had sent me back to Wickham Boarding School on student move-in day so I could begin school with the rest of the student body. Security walked up the paths and a large food truck pulled to a stop before the union.
Food! Oh my goodness. Food. Glorious, succulent, thousands of different kinds of food that I could buy in tons. No more making it myself, no more dreaming of coffee. Here they had coffee that brewed in seconds. Oh, modern world, I missed you so.
Nothing seemed any different to three years ago. At least, not on the outside anyway. The sight and sound of the latest cell phones briefly amused me.
A girl passed through the gates with tight jeans and boots that went over her knees. If only my mother could see her, I thought. She would think the girl a devil, unsure how she got cowhide a different colour. And what of the unnatural tan of her skin?
I stepped away from the woods and on to grass that stretched from the library to the main quad.
Wickham Boarding School.
How those three words had slung through my mind the last three years. Like a sonnet. Or a name of someone I loved dearly.
I reached up to my neck to the hanging gem.
Only when you need it most.
I had to find Rhode.
The need to see him pulsed through my body coupled with a tinge of fear. This was a world with no decree from the Aeris, but this was also a world in which Rhode had no memory of me.
Focus, Lenah. OK. What to do first? Beyond, near the union, a welcome table was set up with purple and gold balloons – the Wickham school colours. Perfect. I could find my dorm room assignment and class schedule.
Class schedule. Preposterous. I would have to go though, wouldn’t I? Especially if I was posing as a Wickham student. I scoffed and took a step towards the path as a boy nearly barrelled into me. He wore a backwards baseball cap and looked up at me from a collection of drawings in his hands.
‘Whoa, sorry,’ he said. ‘Didn’t see you there.’
I froze.
Almond eyes, high cheekbones.
Beautiful face.
I backed away, bringing my hand to my chest.
Tony Sasaki’s eyes widened.
‘Are you OK?’ he asked.
Joyshockhappinessjoyhappiness – shock.
Tony was alive! He was actually living and breathing! I took a step towards him and pressed a hand on to his chest. His body stiffened at my touch.
He was warm.
‘What are you . . . ?’ he said.
A laugh escaped and I took a step back, dropping my hand. I slid my palm over my mouth and gulped back the sting of tears.
‘You look like you’re gonna puke,’ Tony said.
‘You,’ I whispered.
‘Me . . . ?’ he said.
I threw myself at Tony, hugging him. I couldn’t seem to grasp his stocky frame hard enough. He patted me on my back a couple of times.
‘Hello, Crazy . . .’ he said.
I squeezed him one more time. He was here. He was alive.
I pulled away from him. ‘I’m sorry,’ I said.
‘Easily the weirdest hello I’ve ever had,’ he said.
He paused, his face falling serious for one moment. ‘So I have amnesia and forgot we know one another, right?’ Tony said. ‘Have we met?’
‘No. No we don’t know one another. I mean, not yet. I’m Lenah,’ I replied awkwardly.
‘Oh!’ Tony said. Recognition passed over his face, which startled me. He pointed at me with the hand holding the papers. ‘You’re the new girl.’
‘New girl?’
‘My friend said the new exchange student was gonna be living with her. I’ll help you with your stuff,’ he said, and he seemed to be relieved to be busy. ‘Wow, this is heavy.’
I spun. What was heavy?
A red trunk sat near my feet. It hadn’t been there before. I wondered how many more ‘red’ things might show up.
‘So you’re Tony,’ I said.
‘Why am I not surprised you know my name, mystery girl?’ he asked.
Tony handed his drawings to me and lifted my trunk.
‘These are really good,’ I said. I had expected to see portraits, which is what he used to paint. These though were depictions of the night sky in all kinds of mediums: acrylic, pastel, watercolours. They showed incredible constellations: Ursa Major, Cassiopeia and Pegasus. That was my favourite. He had depicted the sky in dark blue, and thick white brush marks were picked out the constellation of the horse. ‘I love these,’ I said, adding, ‘You’re talented.’
‘Oh, go on,’ he said, feigning modesty.
Tony pointed out all of the places I had to go to get my Wickham paperwork completed. Of course this meant we eventually had to stop at Hopper building to get my room key. As we approached the familiar building, I purposefully did not look to the great stone tower where, in a different life, Tony had met his death. I kept my eyes on him instead and at the sun shining down on his face.
‘So . . . do you always hug and jump on people when you meet them for the first time?’ he asked.
I laughed. ‘Just you, I think,’ I said as I opened the door.
Amazed at the sight of our reflection, I kept my eyes on the glass door. Tony and I walked inside.
CHAPTER 3
Tony had left my trunk near the union entrance so I could get an incredibly delicious mocha latte. Once I got my keys and welcome packet, we headed outside. While I sipped on my drink, I pretended to read an official Wickham Residence Hall orientation sheet. Really, I was making up questions I already knew the answer to so I could keep looking at Tony.
We approached a bulletin board erected next to the path near the union; on it were two posters. Each had a photo of a missing student. One was Justin’s. It was his student photo so he wore a nicer dress shirt, a blue button-down, but in the poster it was muted grey. Justin’s handsome face was the same – the slim nose and pouting mouth – but in that picture I saw his love of life, his positive outlook, and his need to live at the fastest speed possible.
‘That’s Jackie Simms,’ Tony said, nodding to the second missing-student photo. He placed my trunk on the ground and wiped some sweat from his forehead. ‘She went missing in March.’ No doubt her disappearance was connected to Justin. Tony’s eyes lingered a moment too long on Justin’s poster.
‘And?’ I gestured to Justin’s picture just to see what would happen.
‘He was my friend,’ he said with a short clip to his words. ‘Been gone two years. This will be the third.’
Tony’s voice filled with silence and I regretted asking him about Justin.
‘I’m sorry,’ I said, and we kept walking.
Tony led me to my dorm across the quad, past students and teachers organizing for the first day of school that would begin tomor
row. I wanted to ask him to go to the union again, to walk the beach, to get my books, as we once had, but I had to keep my excitement under control. He wouldn’t remember that life; to Tony, it never happened.
‘And I’m living in . . .’ I checked the orientation sheet again. ‘I’m living in Turner?’ I said. Oh right, he wouldn’t remember that I had never lived in Turner as most of the senior girls did. ‘I’m not in Seeker dorm?’
‘You want to live in Seeker? Teachers live there. And the debate team. You don’t want to live with the debate team.’
‘I don’t?’
‘Turner connects to Quartz, the guys’ dorm, through a hallway. So we can come back and forth.’
‘But you just met me,’ I said, cocking my head. I had to squint because of the sun. ‘You want to visit my room already?’
‘Well, you basically cried when you met me. That means I’m awesome, so obviously we’re gonna go up and down the hallway.’
Awesome. Gonna go. Clipped syllables. Yes, I was back in the modern world.
‘True . . .’ I said. ‘That sounds great.’
Tony led me into Turner and down the hallway. My nose was overwhelmed: perfumes, detergent and cleaning products. The list went on and on. The many smells and the sounds of music made my head buzz. I was not fascinated by it as I had been years before when I first came to Wickham. It was like coming home, just a bit louder than I was used to.
Turner dorm was almost all windows on the right side. I had a perfect view of the woods and Wickham beach beyond. The sun’s beams fell at long golden angles through the trees. The slant of the light meant it was ten in the morning. My mother and father were already halfway through their workday. I wondered if Fire had constructed it so they would not miss me or worry over my disappearance. I touched my pocket where my mother’s lavender remained tucked away.
‘So this is room 102. Classes start tomorrow. But your roommate will be able to explain everything. You know, it’s lucky I was walking back from town. Maybe we wouldn’t have seen one another.’
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