by Allison Sipe
“But Matthew works at a winery. How is he helping the Magical world stay secret?” I asked, not sure how someone like Matthew was helping hide Magic from the rest of humanity.
“Do you remember what I told you last night about the first men who heard the prophecy about you?”
“Yeah, but what does that have to do… Deardon, that’s where I’d heard that name before.”
Robert let out a low chuckle. “Matty helps draw attention away from them. His family is very influential and they are able to cover up any exposures that might occur.”
Did Matthew sense something in me? Did Meredith already know who I was? Was that why she wanted Matthew to show me around all day? And why was Robert so quiet? What had happened today that changed his attitude so much? Was he giving up on me already? Did I care if he gave up on me? I did care, I suddenly realized.
“Ugh,” I said with an audible sigh.
“What’s wrong?” Robert asked.
“Nothing.” I kept my eyes on the road, refusing to look at him.
“Violet, talk to me.” His voice was soothing but I could hear the frustration hidden behind his tone.
“I just don’t know what to do with all this.”
“I know,” he said, placing his hand on my knee. “It’s okay.”
My knee tingled at his touch. I looked over at him but he just stared out his window again. Something was clearly bothering him. I decided to let him be with his thoughts and not ask any more questions for now. I’d been so wrapped up in my life being turned upside down I never thought about what it must be like for him. His whole world had been wrapped up in finding me and now that he had I became just a pain in the ass who never believed anything he said.
“I’m sorry.” I sighed.
“For what?” he asked. His hand remained on my knee and he gave it a reassuring squeeze.
“That I’m not what you expected to find.”
“Violet, don’t.” He took his hand off my knee and touched my cheek.
“But, Robert…” I looked at him and he brushed my hair behind my ear.
The feel of his skin on mine was intoxicating.
As I opened my mouth to speak he shook his head and said, “No.” I turned my eyes back to the road and tried to make sense of everything I was feeling. Aside from being blindsided by the knowledge that Magic was real, I could feel myself falling for Robert and that was just as terrifying as being called The Waker. Every time I let someone in, I ended up with my heart broken and I honestly didn't know if I could handle any more pain in my life.
We spent the rest of the ride in silence, both lost in our own thoughts. I turned onto my street a little over an hour later and found a parking spot along the curb. I realized I hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast and put my hand over my stomach to muffle a growl. Robert grabbed my camera bag and computer for me and I pulled my purse out from under the passenger seat. We walked inside and I headed straight for the kitchen.
“Where do you want me to put your stuff?” Robert yelled from the entry way.
I threw a square plastic tray into Chef Mike and punched in two minutes and thirty seconds.
“Sorry about that. Here, I’ll take it,” I said, reaching for my bag. He handed it over and I walked into the living room to set everything down by my desk. “Are you hungry?”
“No, I ate before Annabel dropped me off at Caltome. Thank you though,” he answered and followed me into the living room
“Ok, well I’m gonna eat real quick and then I’ll get out of your way.”
“You’re not in my way.” Robert sat down on the couch.
“Still, I'm going to head to bed after I eat. It’s been a long day.” I wasn’t tired, though. I would probably just read for a while, but I wanted to give him his privacy.
“Yes it has.” He gave me a small smile.
I ate the microwaved meatloaf and mashed potatoes alone in the kitchen to give us both some much needed space. I didn’t know what was bothering Robert and felt bad that I didn’t know how to cheer him up. I couldn’t help but think I was the reason for his melancholy attitude.
When I was finished eating I walked back out to the living room to say goodnight. Robert was still sitting on the couch but his head was bent over his lap. I tiptoed over to him and noticed he had a journal open on his lap. He didn’t hear my approach, or if he did he was ignoring me, so I took a moment to drink him in. I knew I shouldn’t, knew that letting even a piece of him in wasn’t a good idea, but I couldn’t help myself. There was this need somewhere deep inside me that ached to be close to him.
As I moved closer, I watched as his fingers traced the tiny handwritten words scrawled across the page.
“I’ve read this journal a million times,” he said with a thoughtful sounding voice, like his mind was a million miles away.
I guess he did know I was there. I walked around the couch and sat down next to him. He took a deep breath and sat back, relaxing into the cushions.
“But it was just words until we found you,” he noted. Robert angled his body so we were facing each other and a melancholy smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.
His eyes pulled me in. I hadn’t seen him this unguarded since he saved me. He wore every emotion written on his face: anger, sadness, awe. The control he always seemed to have shattered before me for the first time since that night.
“There was a part of me that never thought we’d find you,” he said, placing his arm across the back of the couch and turning to face me. “That maybe they had already found you.”
Without consciously telling my body to move, I shifted on the couch, bringing my leg up under me so I was facing him. My heart started to beat a little faster. His eyes never left mine and I felt a mix of emotions radiate off him.
“And then when we did find you, I almost lost you.” He shook his head and looked back at the journal in his lap.
This must be what’s been bothering him, I thought.
“But you saved me. Without you, I wouldn’t be here,” I said. I leaned a little closer to him and placed my hand on his chest. He was so warm and my fingers itched to pull him closer.
“I shouldn’t have needed to save you. I should have been keeping you out of harm’s way in the first place,” Robert lamented.
I started to pull my hand back but he caught it in his and kept it pressed against his chest. The steady beat of his heart pounded under my fingers and I wanted to comfort him.
“Maybe you were meant to save me,” I said, shifting my shoulders with insecurity as the words left my lips. He was the one who believed in fate and prophecies, after all. His crazy talk must have really been getting to me.
“But at what cost? Destroying your life?” He looked up at me and his thumb made little circles on the back of my hand, sending chills up my arm. “It’d be different if you were brought up with Magic, but you weren’t and now…” He trailed off.
“You didn’t destroy my life, you saved it,” I said, trying to ease his pain and frustration. “You. Saved. Me.” I leaned my body a little closer to him. I wanted him to see how much that meant to me, no matter how I might feel about everything else.
His eyes dropped from mine and his heart beat a little faster, making mine leap into my throat. The space between us was almost nonexistent. I could feel his breath on my face and the warmth of his body engulfing me. Something inside me stirred, pushing me closer to him.
“Robert,” I breathed.
His eyes met mine and he placed his hand on my cheek. Any walls I still had in place shattered as we studied each other. I didn’t care about not letting him in anymore. I didn’t care about the prophecy or the Promised Ones. In this moment, he was all that mattered to me.
Robert stared deep into my eyes and said, “Violet, I wish there was a way I could make this-” The sound of glass breaking had him on his feet in a split second.
“Follow me,” he said, reaching for my hand, “Stay close.” Startled, I did as he asked without q
uestion.
We slowly made our way in the direction the crash had come from. I could feel my pulse echo throughout my entire body as I crept behind Robert. Ever since the night I was attacked, I had been waiting for someone to come back and finish the job. The only comfort I had now was that I wasn’t alone this time.
As Robert reached for my bedroom door, he glanced back at me and motioned for me to wait in the hall. The door opened without a sound and Robert slipped into my bedroom. The darkness swallowed him whole and suddenly. Only the hum of the refrigerator in the kitchen and my own ragged breathing broke the sudden silence in the house.
Chapter 10
Unable to sit in the hall and wait for something to happen, I took the few steps into my room, hoping to find nothing but Robert. The moment my foot crossed the threshold something pushed me face first to the floor. The air in the room felt charged, like a summer storm, ready and waiting to unleash its fury. The thickness of the air made me feel deaf, and as I hit the floor I heard not a sound. Panic flared through me like wildfire. Something Magical was happening in here, I could feel it deep in my bones. I tried to scurry away on my hands and knees deeper into the room but someone caught my ankle and pulled me backwards. I tried to scream but no sound reached my ears. The room remained silent. I could feel my vocal cords vibrating and I could hear my screams in my head, but my ears didn’t pick up a single trace of noise. Kicking wildly, I pulled free as electricity moved all around me like floating rivers. I scurried away as a bolt of light struck the ground next to my head, momentarily stopping me in my tracks.
The assailant grabbed my leg again and dragged me toward the door. I flailed and my arm struck the nightstand and brought the whole thing down on top of me. The corner of the stand caught the side of my head and a bolt of pain shot through my body. Stunned by the blow, I stopped struggling and my attacker effortlessly pulled me into the hall.
“Robert,” I screamed. This time my voice rang out and I prayed Robert wasn’t still in my bedroom where sound ceased to exist.
“He can’t hear you,” a blonde woman said as she dragged me down the hall.
“Yes actually, I can, Lila,” Robert replied, his voice laced with venom.
The woman let go of my leg and turned her full attention to Robert. I pulled myself back down the hall away from both of them and watched as Robert lunged at the woman he called Lila.
They both fell to the floor and she was able to get the better of him, rolling on top of him. She pinned Robert to the floor with her knees and raised her hand over him in a way that sent a shiver of terror through me. In a split second, I realized she wasn’t going to punch Robert, she was going to use Magic.
“No!” I screamed and charged her. Looking up just as my body crashed into her, we both rolled to the floor in a tangle of arms and legs. Lila pinned me in an instant and raised her hand again, this time directing it at me. Yellow sparks ignited the tips of her fingers and a sick smile splayed across her face.
Robert rushed her just as the sparks flew, the Magical attack striking the wall behind me and narrowly missing my head. The wall exploded and rained plaster down on all of us. I choked on the dust and wiggled away from the two of them fighting for control next to me. Robert got a few quick punches in before she shook herself free from his grasp. She made a beeline for the door as Robert rolled onto his side, raised his hand and shot a ball of hot white light toward the intruder’s back. She flew forward, crashing into the front entry table and taking it down in a heap beside her.
Robert rose to his feet, hand still raised in defense, and walked over to her. As he knelt down to check for her pulse, her eyes popped opened and she threw Robert across the room with an invisible force.
I watched in horror as she stood, dusted plaster off her jeans and came toward me. An orange electric looking ball formed in the palm of her hand as she towered over me. "Playtimes over." A menacing smile formed on her lips and her eyes narrowed.
Pushing myself helplessly against the wall I closed my eyes and braced for the pain.
"Lila, please don't make me do this." Robert growled.
Opening my eyes I noticed that Lila had turned to look at him. I wiggled away while her attention was otherwise engaged and then looked at Robert horrified. He was holding a transparent, grapefruit sized ball in his hand. Thick black smoke swirled inside the sphere as blue sparks crackled along the surface.
"You wouldn't," Lila dared him.
Robert's expressionless face cocked to the side and he said, "Care to find out?"
Sparks flared on her fingers and she ran at him. Robert threw the smoky black sphere at her. As she dodged out of the way the sparks from her hand struck him in the shoulder. I followed the path of the black ball as it crashed into a photograph hanging on the wall above me. As the photo fell to the floor it disintegrated into a pile of ash.
Another explosion pulled my attention back to the fight as smoke filled the room. Robert stood up from behind the kitchen table where he had landed. Searching through the smoke for another figure I came up empty handed, she was gone.
“Are you okay?” Robert asked as he ran across the room and helped me to my feet.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” I winced.
“You’re bleeding.” Robert touched just above my left eyebrow. Warmth spread over my face and then his hand fell to his side. “There, good as new.” I felt for the gash in my forehead but it was gone.
“Thanks,” I said, grimacing awkwardly. A lot of Magic had just gone down and I didn’t know how to begin wrapping my head around everything. I couldn’t deny what I’d just seen with my own two eyes, but that didn’t mean I understood it.
“You shouldn’t have attacked her, you know,” Robert noted.
“She was trying to kill you,” I countered.
“Violet, I’m supposed to be protecting you.”
“But-“
“But nothing. Don’t do that again,” he warned, his voice hard and unforgiving. “I need to make a phone call. Are you going to be alright for a minute?”
I managed to nod.
He pulled his phone from his pocket and anxiously tapped his foot while he waited for the other party to answer.
“Hey, I need you here now,” Robert said. He put his phone back in his pocket.
I made my way to the kitchen in a daze. Without really thinking about what I was doing, I pulled a glass down from the cupboard and poured myself a healthy dose of whiskey. My hand shook as I raised the glass to my mouth and sipped the amber liquid. Robert had said they would come after me again, but it wasn’t until now that I actually believed him.
I didn’t know how many minutes passed as I stood in the kitchen drinking, but a knock at the door stirred me from my reverie and I walked out to see who had arrived.
Robert opened the door and Brett burst in. “What happened?” she asked.
“We had a visitor tonight.” Robert pursed his lips, “It was Lila".
“Lila?" Brett turned at looked at her brother.
He closed his eyes and quietly nodded.
Clearly they had a history with Lila and neither of them looked pleased by the fact that she had attacked us tonight.
“Damn, they’re closer than they should be.”
“I know.” Robert frowned. I’d never seen him so serious before.
“Is she alright?” Brett asked Robert. “Are you alright?” She turned to me.
“Just fine.” I tipped my glass toward her. “Although I can’t say the same for my house.”
"It's nothing that can’t be fixed.” Brett waved nonchalantly.
“Brett,” Robert said and exhaled with frustration.
“Alright, geez. Someone’s cranky tonight.”
“Could you take this a little more seriously? What’s gotten into you?”
“I am taking this seriously. I just don’t have a giant stick up my ass,” Brett spat back.
“I really don’t need any of your shit tonight, Brett. Can you just help me get this
place cleaned up?”
“You know, I don’t know why you always call me when there’s a mess to clean up. Why can’t you ever call Jake?”
“Because I actually like Jake and I need him running perimeter tonight.”
“Rude.” They both smiled and got to work. It was nice seeing someone go tit for tat with Robert for a change.
Brett got to work right away and started cleaning things up, Magically. I would have helped, but the only thing in my arsenal was a dust pan and broom. By the time Robert and Brett were saying goodbye, everything looked as it did before the fight. The only indication that any altercation occurred was the missing picture that had turned to ash. I guess Magic couldn't fix everything.
“Fill everyone in, will you?” Robert asked his sister. I couldn’t see them from where I stood in the hall but I could hear them perfectly.
“Of course,” Brett replied. “Do you think we should call on-”
“No, not yet. If there was something she could tell us, she would have sought us out already.”
“Robert, are you okay?” Brett asked, her voice laced with concern.
“I’m fine, it’s just been a long day,” he replied.
“Do you want me to stay with her so you can get some rest?” My heart leapt into my throat. I didn’t like the idea of Robert and I playing house but after tonight I really didn’t want him to leave.
“No, I’ll stay with her.”
A long pause followed.
“Don’t look at me like that,” Robert said. My interest peaked and I wondered how Brett was looking at him.
“Just be careful,” she said and I could hear the smile in her voice.
“Goodnight, sister.”
“Goodnight, brother.”
The door closed and I made my way out to him.
“So what exactly happened tonight?” I asked, propping myself against the back of the couch.
“Lila was sent here to kill you,” Robert said matter-of-factly.
“And who's Lila?" I raised my eyebrows with interest.
“She's Aiden's daughter and someone I've run across in the past.”
“Oh,” I said and hiccupped. I slapped my hand over my mouth, embarrassed.
