“Come on, Cal, toughen up,” Sophie chided me gently. “You can’t take anything she says personally—she was just trying to hurt you, and if you let her, she wins. Got it? You know nothing she said was true. You know it, and we know it. Nothing else matters, ’kay?”
I sighed. “You’re right. You’re absolutely right. I’m over it,” I said, not very convincingly, but it was a first step.
“Good.” Lily returned her attention to her yogurt. “’Cause I do want to go to the bonfire this weekend, and I don’t want that bitchy hag ruining it for us.”
“You do?” I stood up and tossed the rest of my lunch in the trash, my appetite gone.
“Yes,” she said, a shy smile forming. “Roman will be there.”
“Oooh,” Sophie said. “Well, Calista has Justin, Lily has Roman…who do I have?” She turned her mouth down into a pout.
“I don’t have Justin, Sophie. Have you not been paying attention?” I rolled my eyes.
“I wonder if Brady Cafferty will be there,” Sophie mused. “He’s so cute, and I know he’s friends with Justin.
“Isn’t he with Amber?” Lily asked.
“Nope, they broke up,” Sophie replied triumphantly.
“So, we’re going then?” I asked. They both nodded. “Okay, why don’t you guys spend the night on Saturday? We can walk to the pier from my house.”
“Great!” Sophie enthused. “That way I can borrow something cute to wear!”
I laughed.
When I told Justin we were going to the bonfire, his face lit up so bright, for a second I felt a little guilty. Later, I saw Savannah in the hall. She wore her hair down in front of her face and her head was bowed. She looked so unhappy, I almost felt sorry for her. Almost.
*****
Saturday afternoon rolled around. On the patio outside my room, I stretched out on a mat, soaking in the late-day sun. I’d gone running every day this week and my legs were sore, the muscles strained and knotted. I felt good, though—in fact, my body never felt better. I’d already decided to try out for the team in the spring, and although the tryouts weren’t for several months, I wanted to be as ready as I could possibly be.
I was stretching my calves when I heard a noise coming from the beach—like someone calling my name. Curious, I walked down the slope toward the water. I couldn’t see or hear anyone…was I just imagining it? Then I heard it again, a tiny voice barely audible over the crashing of the waves.
“Leeesta!”
I trotted to the bottom of the hill and looked around. Finally, I saw him. Joey was standing up against the cliffs, calling for me.
“Kee-leesta!” he hollered again. When he spotted me, he waved his little arms furiously. As I jogged toward him, I noticed he was holding the side of his head, and I felt a surge of panic.
“Joey! Joey, are you okay?” I called as I sprinted to his side. He just smiled and nodded.
“I got her, Uncle Nicky—here she is.” Joey handed me the small cellular phone he’d been holding.
What?
My heart stopped briefly, and then began again, beating twice as fast as before. “He…he…is Nicholas on the phone for me?” I asked, incredulous.
Joey bobbed his head and said, “I told him we played the other day. He said to get you.”
I wondered if this was some sort of joke. There was only one way to find out. I couldn’t just stare bug-eyed at the little boy forever. I took a few deep breaths and spoke into the silver phone.
“Hello?” I said, my voice shaking.
“Hello, Calista. How are you?” His voice, smooth as silk, sounded like it was right next to me. My knees instantly went wobbly.
Happy that his mission to get me to the phone was now accomplished, Joey chased after Max, who was running down the shore. Apparently, he didn’t think this was going to be a quick conversation. I cleared my throat.
Pretend it’s just a voice –don’t think of who the voice belongs to…could be anyone. Pretend it’s Justin…pretend it’s Sophie…or Henri – don’t say anything stupid!
“Hi, Nicholas, I’m fine. How are you?” Thankfully, my voice sounded fairly steady.
“All right; missing California at the moment. We got an early start to winter out here.” And then his tone changed, dripping with sexiness. “So…what are you wearing?”
I felt my face burn. Then I heard him laugh.
“Kidding…kidding…Joey said you guys were on the beach, so I’m just trying to get a visual of the warm, sunny California day. No fair that I’m trapped inside during a rainstorm, and you guys are outside working on your tans.”
“Yeah, sure,” I said, my voice teasing. “Well, if you must know, I’m wearing some extremely sexy sweatpants and a ridiculously seductive sweatshirt.”
“Ooh…take it easy. Joey’s only a kid. Don’t be giving him any ideas.” Nicholas’s voice was rich with laughter. “I don’t want to have to fight him for you when I get back. He’s stronger than he looks.”
A large foreign object wedged itself in the bottom of my throat. Nicholas was thousands of miles away, but he may as well have been standing three inches from me. My skin tingled and my head felt hot. I squatted down on the sand, tucking my legs beneath me; I didn’t trust them to hold steady much longer.
“Well, you better come back here soon and claim me, or I might have to run off with Joey,” I bantered back, surprised by my boldness. I squeezed my eyes shut, afraid of his reply.
After a brief pause, he said, “I just might have to do that.” The laughter had left his voice. He sounded intimate. Sincere. My head raced in circles.
“So, is that why you wanted to talk to me? Make sure I wasn’t falling in love with Joey while you’re away?” I asked, and bit my lip so hard I tasted blood. Had I said too much? Why did I say ‘falling in love’?
“Well, that’s part of it,” he replied smoothly, “I also just wanted to say hi, and see how you were adjusting to your new life out there. You staying outta trouble?” The smile in his voice was back.
I traced a small heart in the sand with my fingertip. “Everything’s fine. No trouble. I’ve been a good girl.”
“Bein’ a good girl, huh? That’s a shame.” He chuckled. “Well, maybe I’ll be able to do something about that when I get back there.”
“When exactly will that be?” I asked, trying to sound casual and failing miserably.
“Soon…sooner than I thought. Some things have changed so I need to see what’s up.”
“Oh. Cool.” Yes, yes, yes! Come back!
“So, what are you up to tonight? It’s Saturday– any hot plans?”
I drew our initials in the heart, and then quickly brushed over it. “Actually, yes. Very hot. Smoking hot…”
“Oh really,” he drawled. “Care to elaborate?”
I smiled and drew another heart, bigger this time. “I’m going to a bonfire with some friends from school.” I briefly allowed myself to picture Nicholas’s gorgeous face and sensuous mouth, and imagined him standing right next to me as we talked. My heart raced again.
“Sounds fun. Wish I was there,” he said, sounding wistful.
“So do I,” I replied automatically, then clamped my hand over my mouth. So much for playing it cool.
He chuckled softly. “I’ll be back soon, promise. So don’t run off with anyone else before I get back.”
“Well, I can’t promise anything, but I’ll do my best.”
Joey and Max ran back over to me, Max barking loudly. I quickly covered up my drawing. “Kee-leesta, Max wants you to play with him,” Joey said as he handed me the soggy tennis ball.
“Sounds like the master is calling you,” Nicholas said. “I need to talk to Joey for a sec, if you don’t mind.”
“Okay—sure, here he is.” I tried not to let the disappointment show in my voice. I wanted to talk to him forever.
“Hey, Calista, do me a favor?” he asked, his voice serious.
“Sure, what?”
“Be ca
reful tonight. Stay close to your friends.”
I pressed my eyebrows together. “Um, okay. Why?”
“Just—do it. Stay safe.”
“Um, okay.”
“And, Calista…?”
“Yeah?”
“I’ll see you soon.”
Oh, I hope so. I really hope so.
I said goodbye, and handed the phone back to Joey. Why had Nicholas said those things? Why did he warn me to be careful? It sounded like more than just friendly concern.
Well, whatever it was, it thrilled me to my bones to know he cared, even a little. That he’d thought of me…and he’d wanted to talk to me!
After playing with Max and Joey for a few minutes, I took off down to the pier, my mind swimming with fresh fantasies of Nicholas. I barely noticed I was running as I played the conversation with Nicholas over and over in my mind, dissecting every word he said—and didn’t say.
He said he’d be back soon, but he didn’t say when. He told me to stay close to my friends, but he didn’t say why. The fact that he’d even called for me in the first place, that he’d wanted to talk to me… was he thinking of me the way I was thinking of him? I didn’t want to allow myself to dream that possibility, but what did he mean when he said he wished he was here? Did he mean here in Crystal Cove, where it was sunny and dry, or did he mean here…with me?
I had returned from the pier and was pacing in circles beneath Ana’s house, trying to cool down, when a sudden movement in the distance caught my eye.
I glanced to the spot where I’d seen Joey earlier. Only this time, it was Nicholas who stood there. But as soon as I blinked, he was gone again.
Keep dreaming, I chided myself. I let out a long sigh and tried to squelch the ball of worry forming in my gut.
Sane people don’t hallucinate, do they?
Chapter 18. Rings
I headed to my room to get ready for the evening. Lily and Sophie would be here within the hour, and I needed to soak in a hot bath first. I was lost in my own world fantasizing about Nicholas when I heard the doorbell ring, followed by someone calling my name.
“In here,” I yelled. I hopped out of the tub and put on a fluffy bathrobe. A second later, Sophie and Lily strolled into my room.
“You’re still not ready?” Sophie asked. “Good, I wanted to shop in your closet and have Lily do my hair. How much longer are you gonna be?”
“Let me just rinse off.” I pointed to the suds running down my legs.
“Take your time,” Lily said. “It’s not even dark yet.”
I retreated to the bathroom and closed the door. I was happy to see them and was excited about tonight, but I still wanted more time to be alone with my thoughts of Nicholas. I wasn’t ready to share him with them just yet, and truthfully, there wasn’t much to share. I wasn’t entirely clear what—if anything—was happening between us, and what was just a foolish fantasy.
After my shower, I emerged with my robe on and a towel wrapped around my head. “What do you think I should wear?” I asked them. They were both dressed in jeans and sneakers, but Lily wore a pretty red sweater, whereas Sophie had borrowed a long-sleeved pink shirt with a jeweled crown design.
“Jeans, something casual, but warm,” Lily said. “It might get chilly tonight.”
“You’ll just have to let Roman keep you warm,” Sophie giggled. Then she turned to me. “Is it all right if I borrow this? It’s so cute—I feel like a princess.” She spun around to show off the way the tight shirt accentuated her curvy figure.
“Of course. It looks way better on you than on me anyways.” I glanced down at my chest.
“I wish I had your body,” Sophie sighed. “You have more of a dancer’s body than I do. These things get any bigger I’m gonna start taping them down.” She frowned as she examined her ample bosom.
“I don’t see any of the boys complaining,” Lily said with a smirk. “But if you have too much in the boob department feel free to send some my way.”
“You have a model’s body,” Sophie said to her. “And you have a ballerina body,” she said turning to me. “And what do I have? A porn star body.” She sounded crestfallen.
Lily and I looked at each other and burst out laughing. “Whatever you say, Sophie,” Lily sputtered.
Sophie sat down on the floor to let Lily do her hair while I finished getting ready. We decided to eat some sandwiches before heading down to the pier, because although Justin had said there’d be food there, as Sophie pointed out, “burnt hot dogs covered in sand are gross”.
“Look—” Lily pointed as we headed down the cliff. “You can already see some smoke. I wonder how many people will be there.”
We walked along the shoreline, the damp sand making our trek more strenuous than a normal hike. Within moments, Sophie started to complain.
“Ugh, I didn’t realize it would be this far away,” she said with a heavy sigh. “It looks so much closer from the house.”
She was right, and although I was used to the distance by now due to my early morning jogs, I could tell they hadn’t realized how far we would have to walk.
“It’s dark…no one is around. Lily, do you think you can shimmer us a little closer?” Sophie stage-whispered.
“No, you know I can’t. I can barely do it properly by myself, let alone taking others with me. Have to have my Rings first,” Lily replied.
“What’s a shimmer?” I asked.
“Lily can do it, lucky duck. I can’t,” Sophie pouted.
“Well, you can fly, or at least you’ll be able to,” Lily interjected. “I can’t do that.”
“Still, I’d much rather be able to shimmer. It’s a way better power.”
“Is anyone going to tell me what that is?” I asked. I was getting used to their secret language of magic now, and didn’t get annoyed as easily as I had before. They always got around to explaining themselves eventually.
“Shimmering is the power to relocate your body from one place to another. In theory, when I am better at it, I’ll be able to move great distances in the blink of an eye,” Lily answered.
“What, you like disappear, and then reappear somewhere else?” I asked.
“Yes. But it’s tricky and can only be done under the most controlled conditions. Of course, no one can see me do it as it would cause pretty serious fallout. Plus, I have to be careful where I land. If I get thrown off course somehow, that could be bad.”
“Wow,” I breathed. So far that seemed like the best power of them all. Imagine being in one place one second then somewhere else the next. I already knew where I’d go if I had that power. Big Apple, here I come!
“And what’s even better, one day we’ll be able to go with her,” Sophie said. “Someone who has the power to shimmer can transfer that power to anyone she’s touching. So hopefully, soon we’ll all be able to do it, too!” She clapped her hands in excitement.
“What’s it like? How do you do it?” I asked.
She laughed. “Well, the first time I did it was by accident. I was in my bedroom and my mom called me to dinner. The next second, I was downstairs in the dining room with no memory of walking there. I just appeared. My parents were really shocked because no one in either of their families could shimmer as far as they knew.”
“It’s a really rare power,” Sophie interjected.
“So, yeah, they were really surprised to see me just appear in the room. I didn’t mean to do it—I just did. It took some research, and a lot of trial and error, but I finally figured out how to make it happen on purpose—mostly so I don’t do it by accident again.”
“What’s it feel like?” I asked her.
She cocked her head to one side. “It feels weird… like being tickled all over on the inside of my skin, but at the same time it feels like my whole body is made of liquid ice.” She laughed. “It only lasts a fraction of a second though, so it’s sorta hard to process any feelings. Doesn’t hurt at all though, if that’s what you’re wondering.”
It w
asn’t. I was still trying to wrap my head around the fact that a corporeal body could disappear into nothingness and reappear intact somewhere else. I was now convinced that everything I’d ever believed about how the world worked had been completely and utterly wrong.
“What did you mean when you said you needed your rings?” I asked Lily.
“You mean you don’t know about those?” Sophie asked in a shocked voice. “How could Ana forget to mention that?”
“I’m sure she would have gotten to it eventually,” I replied tersely. I wasn’t sure why I always felt so defensive at any perceived slight directed at Ana.
“It’s just that getting our Rings is a pretty big deal,” Lily said. “It’s the most important time in a Morningstar witch’s life.
“Anyway,” she continued, “the Rings symbolize a witch coming into her full powers. We get five of them, and when we receive our Rings we have full use of all the magics around us. What we have now is only a precursor of what’s to come.”
“When do we get them?” I asked.
“There’s no set date exactly; we get them when we’re ready to receive them. The whole process is pretty hush-hush, actually—like being initiated into a secret society,” Sophie said.
I thought about this as we trudged along the shore. I tried to recall if I’d ever noticed Ana wearing any unusual rings, but nothing came to mind.
“So we are given five rings to wear? Geez, between those, the protective amulet, and the blocking bracelet, I’m gonna be magically blinged out,” I joked.
“Yeah, but the Rings are usually invisible,” Lily said, “They are only visible if the wearer wants them to be. Otherwise, the wrong people might see.”
“You know what I want to know?” I asked, looking at Sophie. “I want to know, if you can fly, or will soon be able to, and you can shimmer,” I said, turning to Lily, “what can I do? Everything that I already do seems so…ordinary…for a witch.”
“I dunno,” Sophie said, and Lily was quiet. “I suppose you’ll just have to wait and see. Maybe it’s something you can already do that will become stronger, or maybe it’s something you haven’t discovered yet.”
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