Love lines

by Nixon, Diana

  “Thank you,” I said, putting the leaves into my pocket.

  “You will need also this,” she added, handing me some balm flowers. “It will help to get rid of bad dreams, and this - to help soften the worries, your soul is full of with at this moment.”

  “I hope it really helps,” I said, smiling.

  “And this is for you, Amanda. This is not a cure for love, but it helps to overcome some painful emotions.”

  “How did you manage to figure out what bothers me?” Amanda asked in surprise.

  Anna laughed in response.

  “Sorry, bad habit of scanning all the people I get acquainted with. It’s my nature, I can’t run away from this - always want to help those who suffer,” she said.

  “Why, on Earth, were we born to be so unique?.. Why couldn’t we be just normal people, without all the supernatural abilities and have the same normal friends?!”

  Anna smiled again.

  “Consider this as a compliment. Do you really want to be normal, Amanda?”

  “I won’t deny that some of the abilities, I still would have left,” she said cheerfully.

  We spent several hours walking around the beautiful gardens of Embry. Anna told us how while she was a child she tried to treat all her pets. She never used pills and she spent her adult life studying books about herbs and flowers.

  “It’s not a surprise that now she’s one of the best Embry,” I thought.

  Late in the afternoon, when we were alone, Amanda and I decided to visit Evan. Anna went on about her own business, Christian hadn’t yet returned from a meeting with parents, which seemed rather strange, so Evan remained our only source of information.

  “Always feel great being surrounded by ladies,” he said, opening the door to his room. Darcy was already there and that didn’t make Amanda very happy. Of course, we were on the same team, but when it concerned Evan, she preferred to be the only object of his attention. Although, the relationship with Evan was vague, she still felt some jealousy towards Darcy.

  “We're glad to see you too,” I said.

  “Speak for yourself,” Amanda hissed.

  “Who are we?” asked Evan quietly. Now I understood what Christian meant, saying how hard it would be between these two fires.

  “Eileen, I wanted to ask you something,” Darcy started. “Evan and I have spent all day trying to figure out whether or not Nora could really do something to your palm.”

  Mentioning the whole day enraged Amanda even more. I saw that she could barely restrain her anger. Evan noticed that too, but only smiled slightly, pretending that nothing had happened at all.

  “We contacted some of the Keepers in Norfield, when we couldn’t figure out who Nora was. They had never heard of her before. They said that there hadn’t been anyone else for years possessing supernatural powers, apart from the Fairey family, of course.”

  “How did you hear about her?” Evan asked.

  “Rebecca gave me her address,” Amanda said. “She was our guest once and said she knew a woman who was a master in all such matters.”

  “Who is Rebecca?” I asked.

  “Are you talking about Frederic’s wife?” clarified Evan.

  Amanda nodded.

  “As I recall, Christian said that you and Frederic were not in touch,” I said.

  “Yes, but my mom and Rebecca have always been friends. She often came to our house.”

  Evan frowned. He exchanged a strange glance with Amanda and Darcy.

  “I’ll be back in a minute,” he said, going out into the hall.

  “So Frederic again,” I said. “He appears everywhere! Who is he really?” Once again, I thought Amanda and Darcy exchanged glances. Amanda’s phone rang and she looked puzzled at the screen.

  “I believe that Nora is not a real Feta,” Darcy said distracting me from my friend’s call. “I tried today to find out whether our spells could change the lines of fate, but it turned out that nobody, not even teachers can do this. This was magic, Eileen, a very strong magic.”

  I looked at her with wide eyes, not believing her words.

  “So Rebecca sent us to Nora on purpose. But why?”

  Darcy shrugged. I had a feeling as if I was missing a very important part of the whole thing. I just couldn’t figure out which one. And what did Frederic’s wife have to do with the whole story?.. Amanda finished her conversation, that Darcy and I successfully missed, lost in our own thoughts.

  “It was Christian, he returned from town and is now with our parents in father’s apartment. He wants Eileen and me to come over there too. My Mom and Dad want to see you,” she said, turning to me.

  “Of course. I haven’t seen them for a long time,” I replied eager to see some familiar faces from my past life.

  Evan entered the room.

  “Already leaving?” he asked.

  “Yes, have a nice time!” I said, thinking too late about how Amanda could interpret my words.

  “Sure thing, we'll find something to do,” Evan said winking, that added even more oil to the fire.

  “You bugger!” Amanda hissed when we went out.

  “Come on, don’t you see that he is doing it on purpose, just to tease you?”

  “I can see that perfectly well, Eileen! But someday I will stop and kick his smart ass just to let him know how fierce I can be when someone gets on my nerves!”

  “I think I should warn him about the coming attack,” holding back a laugh I said.

  “Don’t even think about it! I want to rub it a bit in his perfect face. At least for some fun,” Amanda added with a devilish smile on her face.

  “You do like him,” I pointed.

  “Eileen! Stop saying that, I feel like a jealous girlfriend!” she flared blushing.

  “Sorry, Amanda, but that's exactly how you're behaving. And if you really want to make Evan pay some attention to you, it’s better to pretend that you don’t care about him. While I personally believe that both of you should stop fooling around and make peace at last. Especially about Patrick. He was right, but now you just cannot step over your pride and admit it.”

  “Well, today, you are going to lecture me!”

  “Yesterday was your turn, so today is mine.”

  “Tace is Latin for a candle! Otherwise I won’t talk to you too,” she said warning.

  ”Then you won’t have anyone else to talk to, sweetie. Maybe you should make friends with Darcy after all?”

  “Eileen, one more word and be sure you and I will no longer be best friends,” she hissed.

  “Okay, okay, I promise to keep quiet,” raising my hands soothingly, I said.

  Amelia opened the door when we came to Patrick’s apartment.

  “Amanda! Eileen! I missed you so much! It seems that you have left ages ago, not just a week!” She hugged us one by one, and shut the door behind us. “Come on in, let’s have some tea.” We went into the living room, where to my surprise, there was only Patrick.

  “Christian's not here?” Amanda asked, reading my mind.

  “He had to go somewhere, because we’ve taken his whole day,” said Amelia apologizing.

  “Great!” I thought. Now, instead of learning what Christian was talking to his parents about, I have to smile and drink tea. Of course, I couldn’t ask Patrick about anything myself.

  Chapter 21. What do eyes speak about?.. (Christian)

  “It was a good idea to preoccupy Eileen for a while,” Evan said, as soon as I entered his room. “Have Patrick and Amelia agreed to play this game?”

  “They didn’t have another choice,” I said. “As well as all of us they don’t want Eileen to know anything about Frederic. By the way, our trip took so long because we had a meeting with him.”

  “What?!” asked Darcy and Evan.

  “My father called Frederic immediately after our morning conversation. They agreed to meet, so I had to attend it too.”

  “So what does he think about the whole story?” Evan asked.

  “A lot o
f things, actually. For example, that becoming eighteen Eileen will start to feel magical power. He had been suspecting that already, so when I told him about your assumption, he agreed. He also tries to protect Eileen, piercing into her dreams and sending false dreams and good vision, instead of those nightmares, which she has so often.”

  “You said he is able to pierce into her dreams?” Evan wondered.

  “He has been doing it for all her life. There is a strong bond between them. And the fact that Frederic intentionally didn’t give Eileen his name, only had strengthened it. He said that he didn’t understand why this was happening. But as it turned out, the parental bond could be broken only by death. But just broken because no one is able to overcome what has been given by nature. And Frederic is very strong. He really deserved to be Wizardy. That's why he didn’t give his last name Eileen. He thought that by abandoning her, he would save her, so she could live a normal life, never go to Dever, and never become the heir of all his powers. He has to be on guard all the time because there are many people willing to do anything to get these powers. And they will stop at nothing to take them away from Eileen too.”

  The fact that these people would be willing to kill her, I didn’t mention. That was quite clear by itself.

  “That's why I became her Keeper. And while I'm there, no one can do any harm to her.”

  “So that’s why Medellin is trying to get rid of you in those dreams,” Evan guessed.

  “What Frederic said shocked me the most. He said that Medellin Wizardy was never able to forgive Gabriel for the death of her daughter. Even though he wasn’t guilty, she still felt he was responsible. For this reason, imposing her spell on the Fairey family, she said that only a woman would be able to take the curse off, but not a couple in love, as we all thought before. That is why the burden has passed from Frederic to Eileen. He's older than my father, which explains why the burden hasn’t touched Amanda. Despite the fact that she was older than Eileen, our father wasn’t the one destined to take the curse off.”

  “I see that the meeting with Frederic cleared up a lot,” pointed Evan. “However, some more questions still remain. Does he know anything about Alexis?”

  “No. He only suggests that she may be associated with those who want to take Eileen’s power. There’s nothing to worry about before her birthday, but the powers will grow stronger after that. According to Frederic’s words, his opponents will wait for the moment when the forces reach their maximum value in order to steal them all.”

  “What do you mean by stealing?” asked Darcy.

  “To kill,” replied for me Evan. “They will try to kill her. It means that until they try to rid of Christian, we know Eileen is safe.”

  I nodded in agreement.

  “Oh, God!” Darcy whispered. “So we need to figure out how to protect both of you.”

  “I think it’s better to figure out who is behind all this and come up with something to bring them out into the open,” said Evan, passing the room.

  “Frederic believes that the list of people may not be that long. In order for them to steal and hold the powers Eileen will get, they must be very powerful themselves. Even ordinary graduates of Wizardy are not always so talented. He has begun trying to find out if any graduates were very strong, but I doubt it will be so easy to do. I think anyone who would want more power, would never openly demonstrate all the things he is actually capable of.”

  “I agree, we shouldn’t look for the strongest, but for those who had a good background to become really strong,” said Evan. “But that's not all. Today we’ve learned that Nora – the so called Feta, who Amanda and Eileen met in Norfield, is, in fact, not who she passed herself off as.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked puzzled.

  “Rebecca Fairey sent the girls to her. But her existence was a mystery even to the Keepers of Norfield,” explained Darcy.

  “So why do you think she was lying?”

  “Eileen said that Nora used some kind of elixir, and you know perfectly well that we don’t use anything like that. I believe that this elixir was used to erase the lines on Eileen’s palm. But that could be done only with a very strong magic.”

  The news that Eileen was so close to someone who wanted her death humbled me. And I wasn’t there to protect her! However, it wasn’t surprising that such a trap would be done by someone like Rebecca. I’ve never liked her. I didn’t understand how my mother could be her friend.

  “I think Rebecca frequented your house with the purpose of getting close to Amelia, Christian,” said Evan. “She knew that Frederic and Patrick won’t tell anyone about their bond. They didn’t hide it, but even you have never seen them together, which means that even someone from Wizardy wasn’t able to find out about it so easily. And she was constantly watching all of you. She wanted to know if you were sent to Dever, also she watched how the friendship of Amanda and Eileen had developed.”

  “You mean that she could go against Frederic and did all this behind his back, all the while helping those who want to destroy him?”

  “Think about it. He betrayed her many years ago, she knew of the existence of a baby. They could never have children of their own. That's why she wants revenge. This is my opinion. The only question is, why does Frederic still not know anything about it?”

  “He wouldn’t know,” Darcy said. “No one could imagine that we would study Eileen’s palms so precisely, nor would we guess that Nora had done something with them and that she wasn’t a real Feta.”

  “If he doesn’t know about our findings, then we must tell him everything,” I said.

  “At the earliest possible time,” agreed Evan. “We have only a month to figure out everything. Frederic, being an integral link in that chain, must be aware of what is happening around him. What is worse though is that Eileen suspects that we are hiding something from her. We need to be more careful and come up with a good cover for our conversation with Patrick. I doubt that she will ask him herself, but we need to think how to take her focus away from this investigation.”

  “I can ask her to help with the preparations for the Festival,” said Darcy. “I am involved in both, so it won’t seem suspicious. I could tell her some of our findings without mentioning the real details.”

  “Good idea. I guess she won’t suspect anything. And as much as I don’t want to, I have to spend less time with her too.”

  “That’s not a problem,” Evan said. “I mean you have a week to prepare for the performance and you need more practice, so it's the best excuse.”

  “Amanda is not a threat since she always knew how to keep her mouth shut. What about you, Evan?”

  “Well, I’m still her teacher, so I'll have to do my best to stuff her lovely head with more history and practical classes. The rest of the time, she will be at your disposal Darcy.”

  “So, one of us will always be by her side and I will continue to control her feelings.”

  “It's a good plan, Christian. But who will look for you?” asked Darcy. “So that you will not be alone all the time.”

  “During my classes there will be no danger for me, and then...”

  “Then I'll be with you,” Evan said. “Eileen will be helping Darcy at those times, so I’ll be free. If she finds out that I’m helping you, it won’t seem strange. Help is always necessary.”

  “Good. Let's hope that it will work. Otherwise she would be furious,” I said. “I need to talk to Frederic about what's going on here. So I'd better go to find him, in the meantime I need to figure out what to say, when Eileen asks about the conversation with my father.”

  “Yeah, and try to come up with something really believable,” Evan smiled.

  “Sure, sure. See you later,” I said and walked away.

  The mobile rang in my pocket. It was a text message: “We have already drunk some tea, just as you asked. Coming back. Be ready. Amanda.”

  Why did she get have fun?! What kind of cohort was she!

  I had been thinking all
day about what to say Eileen. Frederic said he would tell her about himself, when the right time came. He and my father agreed to say that their bond had nothing to do with this. And the records of Camilla were talking about some unknown Frederic. Overall we decided to leave everything as it was - a lot of questions, few answers.

  Eileen knew about the involvement of Rebecca, which made me worry a bit. So I decided it would be better to focus her attention on Nora. It seemed to be the lesser of two evils. I couldn’t tell her that her own father's wife was the one who wanted to get rid of her.

  I heard a soft knock at the door. It was Eileen. I felt her coming even before she knocked. It was pretty hard to stay calm and not to betray my own emotion. So I took a deep breath and opened the door.

  “Hey,” she said shyly. “Can I come in?”

  “Of course. Actually I wanted to talk to you.”

  If I had to lie, then why not start at the door?

  “How was tea with my parents?”

  “Good. At least something felt familiar in all this madhouse. And where have you been?”

  “I needed to prepare the classroom for tomorrow's lessons. There isn’t much time left before the Festival and I still need to train.”

  “Right. And how was your meeting with your parents. Were you able to find out anything useful?”

  “Not really.”

  I told her my edited version of the conversation with my father and felt that she believed me. Neither her feelings, nor her aura showed me that she was suspicious. The already familiar frustration and anxiety didn’t count.

  “How was your all-girl party?” I asked, deciding to change the subject.

  “Not bad. There were tons of flowers and lots of fresh air,” she said, smiling. “My head was spinning a little with the abundance of different smells. And, of course, this,” she said, pulling out a leaf of a plant. “Anna gave it to me so I could cure my hands. The only pity is that it won’t help.”

  Eileen turned her hand palm up and put the leaf there.

  “Ouch!” she cried, clutching her hand to her chest.