Love lines

by Nixon, Diana

  On our way we woke up my parents, who were also a little scared. Frederick still wasn’t on campus, so we just left him a message to find us as soon possible.

  Thankfully it was night outside, so, apart from us the educational building was empty. We chose the largest audience.

  “Well,” said Evan turning to Eileen. “Let's see what you're capable of, my dear. I’ll take that chair up in the air and you repeat after me,” he instructed her.

  “Okay,” obediently replied Eileen.

  Evan did his part, and we all froze in anticipation of how Eileen would do that task. No one was surprised when the chair abruptly rushed to one of the walls and dashing against it with full force, shattered into splinters.

  “Holy cow! Not bad!” Evan smiled. “Listen to me carefully, Eileen. When you are going to do something, you should concentrate and imagine what you are going to do. Don’t be nervous, calm down, we can stop you if something goes wrong. Got it?”

  Eileen nodded.

  “Let's try again,” Evan said waving a hand to bring that chair back, then lifted it into the air again and put it slowly back to the floor.

  This time Eileen managed to do everything right. Well, almost. The chair hung in the air and then, as in the case of the chandelier, started to fall sharply downwards.

  “Much better,” said Evan catching it on the fly.

  “Apparently, Eileen’s problem is that she doesn’t know how to distribute the power properly,” my father pointed. “Let's try this. I'll create a small circle and you try, just very slowly and carefully, to make it bigger and then smaller. Okay?”

  Eileen nodded again. My father created a simple water range, which swayed in the air at Eileen’s eye level. She slowly raised her hands, closed her eyes and tried to do what Patrick had said. First the line of the circle was shaking a bit, and then became longer at one side, making the former circle look vague. Eileen didn’t open her eyes.

  “You are doing pretty well,” my father said calmly. “Try to align the circle again and make it larger.”

  Now all the edges of the established shape began to move in one direction. The circle again got the old form and really grew in size.

  “And now,” said Evan, “continuing what you're doing, open your eyes.”

  Eileen did just that and the circle shaken a little.

  “Just keep making it bigger, not closing your eyes, Eileen.”

  The circle lost its shape again, but Eileen was able to quickly bring it to its former state. Then she slowly began to expand it. The circle wasn’t losing its form, and became bigger. Then she tried to reduce it, and again everything went as it should be.

  “I can’t do this anymore,” she said dropping her hands and sitting on the floor. “I feel as though I had run several miles and was completely flaked-out.”

  “The art of managing your own powers is studied for more than one year, but in your case everything happens too quickly. So it’s not surprising,” my mom said sitting next to Eileen. “You will learn everything.”

  “It would be nice if by that time I don’t destroy the entire Dever,” Eileen tried to joke. We all smiled.

  “I'm afraid that even your power is not enough for that,” said Evan. “But if you ask me to help...”

  “What is going on here?” asked just entered Frederick.

  “Trying to teach Eileen how to control her magic blows,” I replied.

  “Is that so bad?” he asked again.

  “Actually, no,” replied my father. “She has already made some progress.”

  “Let's try together,” Frederick suggested.

  He took all the same chair that Evan had used before, put it a few steps away from Eileen and forced it to move over to the opposite wall, and then back to its original place.

  “Now repeat after me,” he said to Eileen. She also raised one hand, and following Frederick’s instructions, moved the chair. Strangely enough, but this time she did everything right - the object moved away, and then returned to its original place.

  “See, it's not that difficult,” he said smiling reassuringly. “Tomorrow we will have a little more practice, okay?”

  “Okay,” said Eileen, looking thoughtfully at Frederick. I wished I could read minds, because at that moment I wanted to know what she was thinking about.

  All went to their dorms, and Eileen, Evan and I went to his room. He decided that he wouldn’t be able to go to sleep tonight knowing that at any moment the walls of the dormitory might become Eileen’s next victim, so it was decided to leave her with someone possessing magic. Eileen was completely exhausted, so Evan let her take his bed. We both didn’t want to sleep, so we just sat on the floor in front of the fireplace and lit a fire. Nice flame warmed my body, so soon I wanted to get some sleep too. Evan said that I could take his couch, as he himself still couldn’t put his eyes together.

  Just a few minutes were enough for me to drop off. I had a dream. I was standing at the root of a high mountain the peak of which couldn’t be seen even high in the clouds. The place seemed familiar. There was no one around, just me and the wind striving to knock me down. Watching closely, I saw someone climbing up the mountain. The man was too high, so I couldn’t understand who it was, and only hearing Eileen’s scream, I recognized her silhouette. She was firmly pressed against the rock, trying to hold on and not break down. I was terrified. Without hesitating, I also began to climb the rock. That appeared to be much harder than I thought. Not only that annoying wind wasn’t giving me a chance to see normally, but the rock fragments were rolling straight at me. Eileen was still crying, so I stopped paying attention to all the noise and started to think only how to help her. I seemed to have climbed high enough to reach her, but the higher I was climbing, the more distant her silhouette seemed.

  And now I could see the top of the mountain. Eileen got there first. I began to climb even faster. The moment I got there too, Eileen’s silhouette turned into an image of... Eric! Only in my dream he didn’t seem sick and exhausted, no, there he was completely healthy and full of energy. And he was smiling radiantly.

  “Oh, my! I didn’t expect that it would be so easy to get into your mind, Christian,” he said.

  What was he talking about? I didn’t understand.

  “You probably don’t even realize that my play of weakness and powerlessness was performed especially for you.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked puzzled.

  “Oh, Christian! You have to learn so much more from your famous father. What a pity that he couldn’t expose me, however, as well as our almighty Frederick. I deliberately masked my powers so all of you could think that I had lost them! I specifically made you bring me back to Dever! I needed you. I just couldn’t get Eileen, but you... As you can see, I’ve managed to entrap you.”

  “It's not true. This is only a dream!” I shouted back.

  “Are you sure?” grinning, he asked.

  I looked around trying to figure out how to get out of that place, out of the dream, about the unreality of which I was still sure.

  “Let me help you,” said Eric.

  In the blink of an eye a big screen just as in a cinema appeared in front of me. There was a picture of Evan's room, where I had just fallen asleep. Eileen was still lying on Evan’s bed and he was curled up on the floor near the fireplace, also asleep. The couch where I was supposed to be was empty now.

  “As you can see, everything remained the same. Except for you,” pointed Eric.

  “It’s not true,” I said. “If it's not a dream, then where are we?”

  “I’m sorry, Christian, but I can’t tell you this, because this - is what Eileen will have to find out. She has to find you, because otherwise I won’t be able to take away her power. She was supposed to give it on the lake, when my dear Anna helped me to recover. I was hoping that it would be Eileen there to help me, but didn’t think that our brave Evan could do it all alone. So now I just have to wait until Eileen comes to save the life of her beloved Chr
istian.”

  “You won’t do this!” I yelled trying to catch Eric. He didn’t even move, but a transparent wall grew up between us and I couldn’t go through it.

  “Sorry, Christian. I have nothing against you personally, but Eileen is the one who I need a lot more.”

  Having uttered these words he waved his hand and a strong blow of wind knocked me down. I was falling down swiftly. It seemed that all my strength was exhausted, and I couldn’t even scream. The feeling was familiar, I've experienced that before... The very same day on the lake, when we first got there with Eileen. Just like now I couldn’t move or say anything, I just slowly sank into darkness.

  Daylight no longer seemed so bright and the image of the mountain wasn’t so clear. I lost all my feelings, except for one... I still knew how much I loved Eileen.

  Chapter 30. Dream thief (Eileen)

  I woke up in the night with a strange anxiety inside of me. I looked around, but everything was as usual. Evan was sleeping near the fireplace that was still burning and Christian... Where was Christian? I got up, walked past Evan, knocked on the bathroom door, hoping to find him there, but the light was off everywhere, and he himself wasn’t anywhere around. Someone's phone rang, scaring me half to death. Evan also jumped in surprise, not knowing where the loud sound was coming from.

  “The cell phone,” I said. He got up shaking a little and approached the table where his phone was.

  “Patrick? What happened?” he asked sleepily. “What?! How? When?”

  I didn’t like his tone, so I came closer becoming more nervous.

  “Yes, I’m coming,” he said silently looking at me.

  “For god’s sake, say something, Evan!”

  I shook his arm.

  “Eric's gone,” he pulled in a barely audible voice.

  “What? What do you mean gone?!” I cried in disbelief.

  “I don’t know. The Keepers have just informed Patrick. No one saw how he did it, he just disappeared.”

  “How is this even possible? He could barely move!”

  “Apparently not.”

  “Damn it, Evan, what shall we do now? And where the hell is Christian?”

  It seemed that Evan had just noticed his absence.

  “Did he go out?”

  “How do I know that! I went to bed before you did!”

  “Let's go now to Patrick’s, he could already be there.”

  I waited until Evan changed his clothes, and we both left.

  Frederick, Amelia and Patrick were in panic. None of them could explain how Eric had managed to escape. The Keepers of the dungeon were saying in one voice that the security cameras worked all the time. Unfortunately the records from those very cameras were gone now.

  But most of all I was worried about Christian’s absence. No one had seen him, except us and no one knew where he could be. I tried to call several times, but every time I heard his voice mail. Patrick ordered the Keepers to search the entire territory of Dever and the surrounding areas. Frederick was talking with someone on the phone, looking at the map of neighborhoods, along with Evan. He also called to London and warned that Alexis and Nora could try to escape from their prison. So it was decided to reinforce their protection with some more Wizardy.

  My phone rang, getting a new text message from Christian:

  “Meet me at the west gate,” was written there.

  Weird, I thought. Why would he ask me to go there?

  “What is it, Eileen?” Evan asked.

  “Christian asked to meet him at the west gate.”

  Evan frowned wondering.

  “Okay, I'll go with you,” he said. “I can’t let you go there alone.”

  He warned the others, and we left.

  The weather had changed a lot since the previous evening, and now it was windy and cold like in a real autumn. Reaching the mentioned place, we didn’t find anyone there.

  “So where is he?” asked Evan, turning around. “Try to call him.”

  My attempt failed again. Just as previously, I didn’t hear anything but the voice mail.

  “There's some note here,” Evan said, picking up a sheet of paper folded in half from the bench. I took it and began to read aloud:

  “He is your light, you are his darkness;

  just losing him, you will come to me.

  Remember - where he is,

  you can find what you are looking for;

  Remember - where the sunset fades,

  his dreams were lost.”

  “What the...”

  “Oh, no!” I whispered, settling on the ground. My own legs refused to hold me any longer.

  “Eileen!” Evan shouted, somewhere far away. His voice sounded like echoes in my mind. I couldn’t understand a word. I was sinking into the darkness...

  Some time passed before I heard Evan's voice again

  “Eileen!” he called. This time it sounded very close. I tried to open my eyes, blinded by an unusually bright light. All the surroundings were floating and even Evan’s face seemed just a blurry silhouette.

  “Can you hear me?” he asked.

  I couldn’t answer. I just didn’t know how to do this. My voice still refused to talk. I tried to remember why I was unconscious, why...

  “Christian!” suddenly I cried. “He kidnapped him! He took Christian away!”

  “Sh-sh-sh, I know, I got it. We are already trying to find him.”

  “I have to do it myself.”

  I sat up in bed and realized that I wasn’t in my room, but in the office of Mrs. Weber.

  “You can’t go anywhere now, Eileen,” Evan said, trying to hold me back. “You are too weak.”

  “I can’t just stay here, Evan!”

  “Okay, I'll take you to Patrick, but you must promise that you won’t do anything stupid. This won’t help Christian.”

  “I promise.”

  Evan helped me to get up, and we slowly went out. I was really weak, barely moving my feet. My head was still spinning, and there was a terrible pain in my eyes.

  “He has cheated all of us,” I said quietly.

  “Yeah,” Evan nodded. “No one could have imagined that his weakness would be just pretense. He can still manage his powers too well.”

  “He still wants me to give him my power as well. He wants me to find him.”|

  Evan didn’t answer.

  “The note was saying about the place “where the sunset fades away.” What could this mean?” I asked thoughtfully.

  “I don’t know. We're just trying to figure it out. Venturo couldn’t see his actions too, so apparently Eric possesses really strong magic if he's managed to escape just like that.”

  “Then why does he need my power?” I wondered.

  “He can’t be eternally strong spending so much energy. Sooner or later he will need new powers, and only you can give him something that could be compared to his own abilities.”

  “This is ridiculous! I don’t have even a small part of what he has. For example Frederick could become his real goal, but certainly not me.”

  Evan kept silence. We came to Patrick's apartment, where already were a lot of people. Among them I saw Amanda, who was sitting on a small sofa near the window, weeping quietly. Next to her was Lucas. Apparently, they had finally managed to restore their relationship. Evan and I approached them. Without saying a word, I sat down beside Amanda and put my arms around her. I didn’t know what to say because there was nothing to say, actually. I didn’t know where and how to find her brother, but, just as she, I couldn’t hide my own emotions. Tears were burning my eyes. Amelia came to us and asked to go with her to the library. Patrick and Frederick were there too.

  “Eileen, dear, sit down,” Amelia said. “We need to tell you something.”

  I sat in the nearest chair, watching all of them nervously. Only Frederick was looking straight into my eyes.

  “What's going on?” I asked.

  “I should have confessed a long time ago,” began Frederick. “Maybe t
hen we would have avoided many of those problems that we are facing at the moment. But I thought it would be better not to say anything.

  He also sat in a chair opposite me.

  “Many years ago I met a woman and fell in love with her. She was the first real happiness in my life. Unfortunately we couldn’t be together, because back then I was married to another woman.”

  “I heard this story,” I said, seeing how hard it was for him to continue every word. “You had a son.”

  Frederick smiled sadly.

  “No. A daughter was born then. A beautiful little girl,” he said. “Despite the fact that her mother was an ordinary human, the child was gifted. Not just gifted, she also possessed other very extraordinary talents.”

  “I’ve heard these words before,” I thought to myself.

  “Being my daughter, the girl was supposed to get all my powers, as soon as she became an adult. As it happened she really did.”

  Thoughts rapids flew around in my head making me confused and I couldn't understand a word of what Frederick had said before. He was watching me carefully. Slowly distant memories began to come together like a puzzle in my mind - the baby-girl, the powers, eighteen year old...

  “No, no, no... this is impossible!”

  I broke into hysterical giggle.

  “You are kidding me, right?”

  Frederick’s very serious expression confirmed my worst suspicions.

  “So, is it true?” I asked quietly. He nodded in response. “That is why I felt something familiar with what you were doing! Your power was in that medallion and now... Oh, god! It is in me!”

  He nodded again. I stood up from my seat, unable to sit any longer. All the parts of this puzzle begun to take their places - his name, my powers, my life... Everything started with this very man! Other memories begun to appear in my mind.

  “That dream of my eighth birthday...”

  “I sent it,” said Frederick.

  “Can you send dreams?” I asked in surprise.

  “I can do a lot of things,” he replied smiling slightly.

  I walked to the window.

  “Why didn’t you tell me the truth before?” I asked not looking back.