“Oh, really? What are you going to do to me way up there?” I questioned, trying to suppress my smile.
“You don’t think I can break through this little levitation spell you put on me? Phuleez, sweetheart. You’re no match for me.”
That was it, I couldn’t hide my smile any longer, he just looked so silly floating in the air. “Really, Mr. Macho, why don’t you show me what you’re made of then?” Abby told me that she had never seen someone with my type of power when it came to controlling objects or people. It was the same spell that I had used at the church to save the Harpers, and now that I’d had time to perfect it, there was no holding me back. Or, at least, I hoped there wasn’t.
He closed his eyes for a moment as if he was trying really hard to concentrate on something. When his eyes opened it was funny to see the panic spread across his face. “What kind of spell do you have me under?!” he shouted.
By this time, I was hunched over, laughing in hysterics. I tried to stop. I knew it was rude—but it was so worth it! He had brought this on himself. If he hadn’t acted like such a jackass—calling me those stupid names and insulting Abby just for being a female— maybe he wouldn’t be in this situation.
Apparently I had gotten good enough at controlling this spell that I didn’t even have to concentrate very hard. After taking a few deep breathes, I was able to pull myself together and glance up at Collin again.
“This is so not funny. You better put me down right this instant or—”
“Or what?” I interrupted him. As hard as I tried, I couldn’t keep it contained. I found myself busting out in laughter again. Tears were running down my face and my stomach began to cramp, but I had to admit, it felt so nice to laugh.
My cheeks hurt and my stomach was killing me, yet every time I looked up at Collin and saw the scowl he was wearing, I would start my laughing fit all over again. Once I was able to compose myself, I decided to give Collin some choices. “I have a few rules that I would like you to agree to before I let you down.” I cleared my throat and tried to maintain a straight face. “Rule number one, no more sweetheart, sunshine, love, or any other stupid names you have in your vocabulary.”
“Oh, come on, princess, I’m just having some fun.” He smirked.
I gave him a pointed look, letting him know I was serious.
“Ok, no more names, but you’re taking all the fun out of our little arrangement.”
“Which brings me to rule number two, our arrangement is teacher/student. Jackie was nice enough to recommend you and I feel very grateful that you are willing to train me temporarily. However, I would appreciate it if you would act like a professional. My previous teacher took her role very seriously and I would like for you to do the same. In return, I will promise to be a diligent student.”
He scoffed, but nodded in agreement.
“Okay, and for rule number three; under no circumstances, is there to be any more criticizing my previous teacher. Her name is Abby and I hold her very dear to my heart. Please, this rule is the most important to me.”
I stood there waiting for his response.
“Man, you really know how to spoil the fun, lov—” He stopped short, remembering rule number one. “Fine. I will agree to your stupid rules if you let me down from here.”
“Deal.” I allowed my mind to lower Collin, fast at first, then slower as he reached the concrete below him.
“Hey, easy now,” he growled at me as his feet touched the ground.
“See, we can still have fun with each other.” I smiled.
Collin and I spent the rest of the afternoon, going over a few spells; nothing major, mostly some basics. I think he wanted to see what I was capable of, even though I thought I’d done a pretty good job of showing him that earlier. He remarked how impressed he was with my skills, especially without much training. I thanked him, but didn’t say much more, hoping he wouldn’t become intrigued and ask me more questions.
When we got back to Jackie’s that evening, she was waiting for us and quizzed us on our day. She was interested in how I did and if I felt like Collin had done a good job. He seemed offended by that question, but I thought it was funny.
“Well, you two must be starving. Take a seat in the dining room and I’ll bring you some soup,” she said, heading towards the kitchen.
“Here, love, let me get that for you,” Collin said as he began to pull the chair out for me.
I stopped and stared at him, giving him a you’ve-got-to-be-kidding-me look. Had he forgotten the rules already?
He looked over to me, giving me a questioning expression. “What? I thought pulling the chair out for a lady was a nice thing?”
Then it must have hit him.
“Oh. Oops, sorry. What can I say? Old habits die hard.” He shrugged innocently, but I was not in the forgiving mood.
I shook my head, walked around to the other side of the table and jerked out my own chair.
After stuffing his face with three bowls of soup, Collin left, but not before telling me that he would be back bright and early in the morning and that I should be prepared for an intense day of training. With all that had happened today, I wanted to give him an eye roll and finish it up with a yeah-right, I’ll-believe-it-when-I-see-it look, but I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he would change his tune and start taking his role more seriously. We had made a deal, after all.
That night, Jackie and I stayed up talking until I could barely keep my eyes open. She spoke about her difficulties when she started learning the craft, and I had to admit, it was nice to hear about someone else’s problems. She admitted that a large issue between her and my mother was jealousy. Jackie was envious at how easy the craft came to my mother. She felt like she had to practice twice as hard, and yet, never seemed to come anywhere near my mother’s power. It was strange, but in this situation, I felt like I could relate to what Jackie was saying. There were times when I felt like I was the worst witch on the planet. Abby and Blake always made everything look and sound so easy. Even though Jackie and I had only known each other for a couple days, it was beginning to feel like I had known her for a lot longer, and I couldn’t help feeling relieved that we were getting along.
After telling Jackie goodnight, I headed to bed and let my thoughts drift to the person I wished was there with me right now. I hoped that one day I would see him again, be able to touch his face and kiss his lips. It had only been a few days since I had seen Blake, but it already felt like so much longer.
The next day began a little more promising. Collin showed up at ten a.m. It wasn’t the bright and early, crack of dawn I was expecting or used to with Abby, but it was still an improvement for him. He also hadn’t called me any stupid names or criticized Abby, so as far as I was concerned, today was starting off better than the day before.
“So, you don’t fly, do you?” Collin asked me out of the blue on our way to the warehouse.
I swallowed hard. “Yes, I fly... just not very well.”
“Huh, and why is that?”
“Well, Abby wanted me to learn how to defend myself against dark magic, instead of running away from it.” I tried to sound confident, but it came off sounding like I was more on the defensive. He had better not start bashing Abby, or he is heading straight up towards the clouds, I thought to myself.
Nothing negative came out of his mouth. Instead, he nodded his head in agreement. “I can see that, but it’s still an important skill you need to perfect. There are times when flying comes in handy. Like right now, we could’ve been at the warehouse a half hour ago.”
“Would that be for my benefit or are you just particularly lazy this morning?” I asked, jokingly.
He narrowed his eyes upon me. “No, I actually prefer to walk, but after yesterday, I agree with you and I think I should start taking this teacher role more seriously. I think our first step should be maximizing our time together.”
It wasn’t clear to me if he was joking or not. This is what I wanted
and what he had agreed to yesterday, it just didn’t seem possible that he could change his tune so quickly.
“So, we’ll start flying lessons today.” He looked over at me with a large grin. “Flying lessons are my favorite thing to teach.”
“Great,” I mumbled, feeling the anxiety build in my stomach.
“So, tell me a little more about Abby,” Collin insisted, totally changing the subject.
I had been so vague with my answers the other day and I wondered if I continued, would he start to get suspicious?
“She was assigned to me by the council, and then, after a few weeks, some things came up and she couldn’t train me anymore.” There it was, short and sweet.
“Interesting,” Collin said, intrigued. “You know that’s rare. Being assigned personally by the council doesn’t happen very often. You have to be something pre-tty special for them to show an interest in you.”
Great, my plan had totally backfired. I bit my lip, wondering if there was a way to get out of this without piquing his interest even more. “Really? I didn’t know that was so rare. I thought that the council always assigned the teachers, protectors, and guardians?”
Collin laughed. “Well, back in the olden days, that’s how it worked, but now, the magical community just works together in assigning everyone a duty. We have meetings once a month to discuss the new roles and we divvy them up as we see fit. Plus, the council can’t keep up with the magical community anymore anyway. It’s gotten to be so large that they’re always overlooking things. I wish they would just get over themselves and see that their ways need to be changed. If they would just take a step back and look at the current state of the magical community, they would see that it needs a major remodel. In my opinion, they need to divide up the duties a little more, create new sectors in order to regulate magic and keep it in order. Ugh, I’ve got to stop complaining, I could just go and on.” He finished his tirade and looked over to me as if he wanted to dig around my past a little more. Luckily, he refrained.
I swallowed hard and panic filled me. This wasn’t good. Collin looked curious—but even worse and more dangerous—he looked suspicious. Even though he wasn’t saying anything, I felt like he knew there was something different about me. There was no way for me to know how the magical community worked these days, and of course I was only familiar with the “olden days,” my entire magical team was from 1905!
“What’s got you all nervous?” Collin asked as we approached the warehouse, trying to hide the smirk on his face, but failing miserably at it.
I turned and smiled at him, not wanting to give him the satisfaction of letting him know I was panicking over our impending flying lesson. “Nothing; nothing at all.”
He took a few steps forward, stopped and then looked up towards the top of the building. “You can fly up or take the wobbly fire escape on the side of the building. Either way, I’ll meet you up there.”
There was a flash and before I knew it, Collin was standing on top of the warehouse, staring down at me. “Sometime today would be nice, love.”
I gritted my teeth, knowing that he was just saying that to piss me off. He wanted me to fly up there, or he at least wanted me to try, and as much as I wanted to, the fear deep within me caused me some doubt. It had been weeks since I had my last flying lesson with Abby and there was no telling how rusty my skills would be. Pushing all the negative thoughts from my mind, I closed my eyes and began to look back on my previous lessons with her... trying to remember what she’d said. Slowly, I felt my body leave the ground. That feeling excited but also frightened me. I concentrated and began to feel myself float higher and higher. When I opened my eyes I saw that I was hovering over the top of the building.
“Look at you,” Collin said, peering over at me. “You’re a little slow, but we can work on that. Now I know you can fly up, but let’s see how you do going down.” He threw his thumb over his shoulder, pointing over the ledge and towards the ground. “You first.”
My annoyance with him was at an all-time peak. I had only known this guy for a couple days, yet he got under my skin more than anyone I’d ever met before. Why did he have to act like such a cocky jackass? It was difficult to not show my frustration with him as I walked to the edge of the building. We stood shoulder to shoulder as I stared over the edge. I couldn’t concentrate on anything except the four-story drop to the ground below us. When Abby and I had practiced, she would set up stations with different heights, allowing me to get comfortable with each one before moving on to the next. This just felt like I was being thrown to the sharks. What would happen if I couldn’t do it? Well, I knew what would happen—I would fall down to the ground below and die. Did Collin really think this was the best way? I tilted my head towards him, seeing him picking at a string that was hanging off his shirt. He wasn’t even paying attention to me. Would he even notice if I jumped off and tried to fly, but couldn’t? He would probably realize it the second I hit the ground with a thud. Ugh, he was so aggravating.
“Come on, love. Don’t think about it too much, you’re going to psyche yourself out.” His voice was patronizing.
I glared over at him. “This isn’t my first time, thank you very much. I’m just evaluating the situation. It’s just... it’s been a long time, is all.”
“Oh, come on. It’s not that bad.” He looked amused, like he was actually happy that he had found something I struggled with. I didn’t know what bothered me more: the smug look on his face or the fact that he was right.
I took a couple small steps closer to the ledge and peered over. Then BOOM out of nowhere, I was falling. I let out a half gasp, half scream. My eyes focused on the ground that was getting closer and closer, very quickly. Think! Feather floating; allow the energy to escape you. My body stopped a few inches from the ground beneath me. Whew! That was close. Too close! After regaining my footing on the ground, I was able to analyze what had happened. Collin had pushed me. The jerk pushed me! The nerve of that guy! As I looked up towards the top of the building, I heard laughing. Uncontrollable, belly shaking, laughter. I stormed off and heard him yelling after me.
“Oh, come on, sweetheart! No guts, no glory!” He barely got the last few words out through his laughter.
Blood boiled in my veins. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been this mad. Who did he think he was?
When I got back to Jackie’s house, I slammed the door behind me, causing a picture that was hanging on the wall to fall to the floor. My anger had never gotten this out of control before, but I guess with all that had been going on over the last week, I had hit my breaking point.
“Meredith, what’s going on?” Jackie’s face was covered with concern as I stormed passed the dining room towards the kitchen. I glanced over in her direction and noticed that she sat with a man at the dining room table.
“Collin is what happened. He’s such a jerk!” I huffed, unable to control my outburst. Where was this coming from? I’m usually able to control my emotions better. I had only known Jackie for a couple days. I felt awful that I was acting like this in front of her and in front of the man sitting beside her. He was staring right at me and looked as if he was trying to hide a smile. Even sitting down he towered over Jackie’s small frame sitting next to him. His inky black hair was combed over to the side and he reminded me of someone, but I couldn’t place who it was since my anger seemed to be taking over my ability to think straight.
She chuckled. “Well, I have no doubt that he did something horrible. He’s the best teacher around, but he can be a major pain sometimes.”
“Sometimes!” I scoffed. “Ugh, he’s insufferable. I would like to... to... punch him in the face.” I gritted through my teeth.
Jackie laughed again and glanced towards the man sitting beside her. “Meredith, I’d like you to meet Daniel, Collin’s father.”
My eyes widened and I suddenly felt ill. I had just called his son a jerk and said that I wanted to punch him in the face. Nice.
My face f
elt like it was a thousand degrees and getting warmer. Luckily, Daniel laughed, then stood up and held out his hand to mine. “It’s nice to meet you, Meredith. Believe me; I know the pranks my son can pull. So don’t go feeling bad about what you just said. There are times where I feel like giving him a good punch in the face, too.”
Just then, the front door swung open and Collin strolled through, looking all proud and totally irritating. “There you are, love. I wondered where you had run off to.”
“What have you done, Collin?” Jackie demanded when he approached the table.
“Oh, I was just playing with her. Similar to how she played around with me yesterday. It seems that she can dish it out, but can’t take it.” He looked towards me, giving me a wide smile.
Yesterday, I had pulled a joke on him, but it wasn’t going to kill him. Today, I could’ve gotten killed! What he did totally crossed the line.
Collin spent the rest of day and night apologizing for pushing me, but would quickly follow it up with a joke about falling or being light on my feet. Much to my dismay, Jackie insisted that Collin and his father stay for dinner. I wanted to protest like a five-year-old, but I couldn’t; it was her house, after all. I tried to be nice and polite, hopefully showing Daniel and Jackie that I was a respectable young woman and that my behavior from earlier wasn’t my normal conduct.
Overall, the dinner was pleasant. Daniel mentioned that he was a protector in the magical community and that, since he didn’t have an assignment at the time, he would watch over me while I was in London. I told him that there shouldn’t be any need for one, but he insisted. If I was being totally honest, it made me feel a little safer. I mean, in general, I felt safe, but I also knew that potential enemies could come from anywhere, time, or place. Someone could be after me right now and I wouldn’t even know it. A large part of me felt like accepting Daniel’s offer was kind of replacing Blake, but I shook those thoughts out of my head, knowing that I had to keep focused and stay positive. My only reason for being here in London was ultimately to try and find a way back to him, and repeatedly feeling like I was tarnishing my loyalty to the Harpers wasn’t going to help me do it.
Crest (Book #2,Swift Series) Page 8
