Saying goodbye to Carla was a little bit of a concern, especially when I saw her take out her cell phone and fire off a text message.
Dmitri was a sight for sore eyes by the time we bumped into each other outside the gym doors.
“You ready?” he asked.
“What is that suppose to mean?”
He held out his hand, waiting for me to take it. It took a second to process that real couples hold hands when they walk places together.
Funny, a part of me knew that this was the point of no return. Before this moment, we were two people who had a connection but we were still considered two separate individuals.
The moment my hand was secured into his strong hold, I was no longer Celia, the new girl. I was someone’s girl, someone’s life.
I am Dmitri’s.
CHAPTER Eight
Trisha waited until the end of class to acknowledge my existence. “Is what Cassidy posted true? Are you and Dmitri an item?”
My heart hurt for her, mostly, because I had been her so many times before, liked a guy who ended up choosing another girl. The only difference in this case, Dmitri didn’t choose me, circumstances made our relationship a necessary evil.
“We are trying things out. It’s not super serious.” I tried to make it easier for her. But who am I kidding; she was ready to tear my eyes out.
Through grit teeth, “I’m glad you are making yourself at home here. Must feel great to go somewhere new and get exactly everything your little heart desires.”
“Oh, Trisha, it’s not like that and you know it.” I sighed at her.
Her head snapped back around at me, “Really, because I could have sworn I told you I liked him.”
My eyebrow immediately raised, “Okay, you might have mentioned it, but he isn’t a dress on a hanger at a store. You can’t claim him. He has feelings of his own and has the right to be with someone that makes him happy. Someone he wants to be with.”
You’re defending me now? He interrupted my train of thought.
“Well I hope the two of you will be very happy together.” She sassed, passing me without so much as a goodbye.
The situation made lunch so uncomfortable that I decided I wouldn’t eat with everyone else. I picked up my lunch and ate outside on one of the benches by myself.
The typical Florida heat was a welcomed blessing in this case. I found myself out of sorts and the warmth of the outside air, felt like a hug on my skin.
I heard a soft laugh and turned to find Kyle leaning against the column next to the bench.
“What’s so funny?” I asked him.
He took my question as an invitation to sit next to me, which was random considering we hadn’t talked much since the farm.
“How you can make people jump through hoops without even realizing it.”
“Sure, don’t you know I’m a circus trainer?” I replied sarcastically, not knowing where he was going with that statement.
“This campus hasn’t been this excited about a couple since Lisa and Justin started going out 3 years ago.”
“Well, excuse me if I don’t see the novelty in the Facebook status and comments.”
“You wouldn’t though, would you?” He twisted his body to face my side. “No, you are the type to keep to yourself and be perfectly happy living an ordinary life.”
“Exactly, it’s how I grew up.”
“Celia, I’m going to tell you something your precious Dmitri has omitted telling you, and only because your choices are dangerous.” He started, “You are a witch in a coven of nine. I know you are already aware of that but you are also in an immortal circle, a coven unlike all others.”
I nodded my head, I knew all this already.
“What you haven’t been told, is the most crucial of all bits…You are the only witch powerful enough that can make everything change. The only one capable of casting the spell of all spells, the one which could give us our lives back.”
I let his statement dance around in my head for a moment before asking anything, but before I could open my mouth, Dmitri walked up to us.
I could feel his heated glare as I stared at Kyle, with only questions on the brain. Questions I was sure Dmitri was now aware of.
“You had to do it, didn’t you?” he said smugly to Kyle.
Kyle stood up, and faced Dmitri, almost nose to nose. “She has to know everything, and if you won’t tell her, I am more than willing to enlighten her. I won’t see centuries of protection washed down the eternal drain because you are slowly being blinded.”
“Damn it, Kyle. It’s not the time or the place to go into this.”
I looked around, noticing other kids slowing down by us, seeing if they could hear the conversation.
“Yeah, you wouldn’t want any of this to end up on Facebook. Wait, worse, it could end up on Youtube, and then what would you do?” I asked, standing up and leaving them standing there.
I went straight to the front office, my stomach actually hurting from the stress. I needed to go home, and the only way that could happen was if Olivia picked me up.
Mrs. Bates, at the front desk was all too happy to get me to the clinic in the back of the office.
“Sweetheart, you just lie here and I will go fetch the nurse.” She assured me, her accent thick with southern class.
A minute or so passed, when I noticed a figure lurking in the hallway, then whispers about someone in the clinic.
I picked up my head, checking to see if I was the only one in the small room.
Yep, just me.
Then all of a sudden, a small woman walked into the room with a stack of papers in her hand.
“Hello, Mrs. Bates said you were in here waiting for me. What seems to be wrong with you today?”
“I’m just not feeling well. My stomach hurts and I don’t think I can make it the rest of the day.”
“I see, is there someone I can call to come pick you up?”
“My aunt Olivia. It’s in my records.” She pulled up my file in the school computer system.
“A Ms. Olivia Murphy?” she asked, picking up the phone, looking at me through her little black rimmed glasses.
“That’s her.”
The nurse nodded and waited for someone to pick up.
Finally, “Good afternoon, this is Mrs. Peirta from the Hernando High School clinic. I have your niece, Celia, here in the clinic. She says she doesn’t feel well and doesn’t think she will make it through the day. Do you want to speak to her?”
She nodded her head at something my aunt said then she handed me the phone, and the dread of having to explain today’s event to Olivia made my stomach hurt worse.
“Hi.” I told her.
“Stomach ache?” she asked.
“Just about.”
“Can you give me 10 minutes? I need to finish unpacking the new stock.”
“Thank you.” I felt a huge relief knowing that she would be okay picking me up in the middle of the day.
I handed Mrs. Peirta the phone and she talked to Olivia for just a minute more.
“Well, you lay there and wait for her; I have to go get the other stack of papers from the copier. I’ll be right back.”
With that, I was left alone again in the tiny room. It really is a sad, sad, little clinic. The walls are a stale pale blue and almost bare of posters. The clinic bed looked identical to the ones at the pediatrician’s office that I use to visit when I was five. They are gray with a maroon cushion which gets covered with the white sheet anyway.
Closing my eyes made me aware of one thing; someone was standing near the doorway. They’d been there since before the nurse walked in. I could feel it now as strongly as I felt it then.
“You really are a special person, aren’t you, Celia?” the voice said, bringing my eyes to fly open and my body to sit upright at attention.
“Who are you?” I asked the man, now standing firmly between me and the exit. His dark hair combed back making his face look older than it probably was.<
br />
“I’m Mr. Harrison, one of the private counselors that service the school. I heard your name being mentioned a few moments ago. I hope it’s okay that I check up on you from time to time. I knew your mother very well.” His dark beady eyes stared at me, almost as if trying to read me. An unsettling sensation rushed my system, as if warning me to be wary of him.
“I’m sorry I have no idea who you are. Mother never mentioned you.” I assured him, but somehow I felt I should be considering the reaction my other senses were having in his presence.
“Yes, well, we had a very complicated relationship.” He took his glasses off, cleaning the lenses with his button down shirt.
When I didn’t say anything, he nodded his head, “Well, I hope you feel better. Need you up to par for what’s ahead.”
“Oh, what’s ahead, Mr. Harrison?” Inquisitive minds learned more than fearful ones.
But a fearful one knows when to leave things be. Dmitri chimed in.
What are you afraid of? I asked before cutting our connection.
“You my dear, are at the very epicenter of all things, and when you feel like too much is happening all at once, just know I am here for you.”
I couldn’t figure out if he was referring to high school or the other part of my life, the very real magical side that no random person should know about. “I don’t quite understand what you mean?”
“Your mother had great plans for your future. She mentioned many times that you had the potential of being a doctor, that you had a natural healing touch. She was very proud of you.” And there it was, my paranoia was merely taking advantage of my weak state.
“Be well.” He blinked and left the clinic.
Only seconds later, Olivia walked in, her demeanor riddled with concern. “You’ve been doing too much. Let’s get you home so you can rest.”
I was grateful to leave campus from the front office. Not having to see another face that wondered if I had stolen Dmitri from the alumni female population at Hernando High School.
It doesn’t seem fair that the new girl would be alienated to keep relationship free because of a sonority claim on the boys at the school.
Back at the house, Olivia sat with me on the sofa for the remainder of the afternoon watching day time television. Eventually, she clicked off the screen and gave me a sideways glance.
“So what really happened?”
My lips pierced, not wanting to say anything, wanting it to stay buried in the embarrassed box, but Olivia isn’t the type to leave things be.
“A girl posted something on her Facebook account about Dmitri and I being ‘together’,” my fingers emphasizing making the quotation marks to highlight the word.
“As a superficial excuse to spend time together without raising any alarms, I don’t see the problem.”
“It’s a problem because we are not a couple, Olivia. We never will be.” I stood up, the emotions rushing up to the surface. “It’s a problem because the more time he is in my life, the stronger the connection becomes between us.” I started to pace the space in front of the sofa.
“So you have feelings for him?”
Not really sure how to feel about it, I stopped and looked at her. “I don’t know what it is, but I know I’ve never felt this sort of struggle for any other person.”
“Come sit down,” she motioned to where I had been originally sitting.
Back on the sofa, I gave her my attention.
“Celia, it’s okay if you have feelings for him. Human nature is full of bonds with others that come into our lives. May it be family, friends, or even those few stronger attachments.”
“Yes, I understand human nature, Olivia. But we are not talking about any normal person. We are talking about Dmitri. He is immortal, for Pete’s sake.”
“And you are a witch. The problem has never been about that, it’s always and will always be about his first priority, which is to protect you?”
My eyes flew open, “Which is why, if I let myself feel this irrational feeling for him, everything is going to be complicated.”
“Yes and any love two people feel has the potential of being complicated. Loving Dmitri would come with limitations but if you both feel the same, fighting the struggle could be more of a distraction then giving in to it.”
Her complete 180 as far as Dmitri was concerned made me wonder. “Why are you being pro Dmitri all of a sudden?”
She shook her head, caressed my hand, and smiled. “I’m pro you, Celia, and if Dmitri is what your heart needs, then I am all for it. Your mother asked me to be on your side, always, and this is what that means. He will protect you, and make sure you are safe. It’s his sole purpose in life, and because of that, I know you could choose worse if given the opportunity.”
“It’s never going to happen, Olivia. He is fighting it, the connection we feel for each other. He says it’s forbidden because of having to protect me.”
“Of course he is going to say that, love leaves us vulnerable. He is trying to be responsible. Can you blame him?”
I laid my body into the comfort of the sofa once more and looked at Olivia get up.
“I wouldn’t worry about the girls at school. They will bounce back and act as though nothing happened. Believe me, it’s not worth the stress, you have more pressure with preparing for your coven convening.”
She had a point, several in fact, but the latter was a very real stress of mine. It is one thing to be in a room with a handful of people you know, but to be with potentially seven other witches, and their protectors is totally different, and completely intimidating.
With the news of Augusta being taken by a threatening warlock, the tension was high enough to make anyone feel like they are walking on needles. I was staring at the needles and deciding on how to proceed.
“Celia, someone is here for you.” Olivia called out from her office, which is at the front of the house.
Just then, the doorbell rang, and while I expected on having to get up, my body hadn’t. Something inexplicable occurred. I took 1 step towards the door, after getting up, but my body gave way to the exhaustion I had been feeling. I fell to the floor with my next step, and plunged into a dark barren plane. I almost knew what was occurring, except, previously, I’d been transported to a murky place where she revealed herself through a mist that surrounded us. Here, in this place, there was only the feeling of emptiness. She appeared, like a phantom appearing from a shadow, and we were surrounded by shadows, as if she wasn’t alone in this plane.
“I have brought you here with a grave warning, young one, a foretelling which will weigh far too heavy on you.” She frowned, noticing her features in a more defined manner.
“They will tell you that nothing can be done. That there is nothing to spare the coven from its doom.” She began, moving closer to me, her eyes affixed heavy on mine.
“When the moon transitions to its greatest state, 3 cycles hence, you will come face to face with the one you must vanquish.” She reached out and took my hand in her own.
“If you do not succeed, there will only be one option for you and you alone.”
“How will I know what I need to do to vanquish him?” I asked her.
“Your coven will follow you, for they too will know it is the only way.” She assured me.
“Ciara…” I muttered.
She raised her head, waiting.
“I’m sorry they hurt you.” I offered, feeling a real need to console her. She caressed my cheek and smiled.
“I’m sorry they hurt you too, my child.” She whispered.
Light plunged in and I felt heavy on the floor. I pressed my eyes closed, blocking out the brightness. I realized I was lying on my Aunt’s carpet, someone’s hand rubbing my shoulder, trying to wake me up.
Carefully my eyes adjusted and found Dmitri before me and Olivia behind him.
“If I’d known you felt that bad I would have taken you upstairs to your room.” She leaned in.
“Are you okay?” Dm
itri voice filled with worry.
“Help me up.” I instructed, answering neither.
Dmitri took my hand and placed a palm on my back to carefully sit me up. After letting the cloud of dizziness disappear I looked from one to the other, “It was Ciara again.” I trailed off, trying to clear my head.
“She made it clear that we need to figure out how to vanquish Kalvati before the third full moon from now. Otherwise, something terrible will happen.”
Broken (The Immortal Coven Book 1) Page 13
