I took my station outside the door, making it very clear to anyone who passed that they could not come in. No one questioned me, not even Rene when she made her way up the stairs. No noise came from the room besides Alysana’s breathing, and I anxiously waited, hoping to kill off all my thinking until I had answers.
It seemed like a long time as I stood waiting. I couldn’t ask how everything was going in fear of interrupting Linden. The only change came when I heard Alysana’s breathing stop, at which point I whirled around and hurried into the room. When I stood at the bedside, she was breathing again, and normally this time. Linden slowly raised his head and blinked hard, standing on sore knees.
“There. I think she’ll be okay,” he said, bracing a hand against the wall. Even though she still didn’t look any less flushed, just her normal breathing and the relaxed look on her face was enough for me. I smiled and hugged Linden.
“I don’t know what you did, but thank you,” I said.
“Don’t mention it,” he replied, sounding distant. I looked up at him and asked who the vulcani was. “I don’t know,” he admitted, frustrated. “I would know if one of them was around, you can tell. Unless he pulled some weird trick like you with hiding his aura.”
I was going to ask who it could be, but I already knew the answer. There was only one other person Alysana was ever with. I just couldn’t imagine Aidan being an Elemental or why he would even do this.
“Remember when we saw the woman with the crystals?” Linden asked me, shaking his head slightly as if to forget the vulcani.
“Yeah.”
“Well we actually need some of those. Anyone in this house know about them?”
Rene had the most extensive knowledge, so it was her turn to try something more. When I called her in, she was amazed at Alysana’s progress. She gazed at Linden for a moment before thanking him. He hardly noticed and asked her for healing crystals.
She rushed out and returned with two small wooden boxes. Putting them on the desk, she opened the first one. It was filled with crystals and other minerals of all sorts; a colorful spectrum of things I was not used to.
“She just needs some defenses, you know? To get her back on her feet,” Linden said, just as clueless as me.
“This didn’t work before,” Rene said cautiously. “Are you sure it will work now?”
Linden nodded. “Trust me, it will.”
She hesitated, but finally started looking through both boxes. As she collected some in her hand, she turned to me. “Listen closely to what these can do, all right?”
My first thought was to ignore her, but then thought better of it. If I could learn how to use these for healing, it definitely might benefit me in the future, especially if anything like this ever happened again.
Rene held up an opaque, golden stone and told me it was amber. She placed it on Alysana’s forehead and explained it would help her connect with the earth energies again to promote healing. On her neck she put down black tourmaline to repel negative energy. I took that one to heart, thinking it could be used over and over again these days. She put down purple fluorite and moonstone for any physical pain, and finally red sardonyx for the lungs. I didn’t know what it would take for the things to start working, but Alysana was lying still and breathing easy, so I hoped something would improve soon.
Still somewhat stunned at Linden’s presence in her house, Rene excused herself saying she had to tell everyone the good news. That left Linden and I alone, and I quickly pulled him into the hall and into my bedroom. It felt like we might have more privacy there.
“I hope she’ll be okay,” I said as I shut the door.
“She will be,” he replied, leaning heavily against my bed. “With all that we did, everything should be reversed. Just don’t light any candles around her.”
“Why not? Does that attract the vulcani or something?” I asked, still hesitant to pin Aidan as the blame.
“No, but it’s part of him. It can only increase the potency of anything he’s affected,” he replied.
“I’m confused.” I sat down on the bed next to him as he stood up.
“So am I, but I’m going to figure things out,” he said. “I need to find that guy Aidan.”
“But you can’t feel his aura, right?”
“Not the Elemental part—if he is one—but he does have some kind of aura. It can’t be that hard,” he said, though he sounded doubtful.
“I’ll go with you,” I said as I got up. “I can help you find him.”
“No, you need to stay here. Stay with Alysana, she’ll want you to be there when she wakes up,” he replied. “I’ll come back here as soon as I’m done, okay?”
I bit my lip and entwined my fingers with his. “Okay. Be careful, I mean if he can do this—”
“We don’t even know if it’s him yet,” he pointed out, “and if he is, he can’t do anything to me. That’s law.”
I smiled ruefully. How could we be sure he—or whoever it was—would be so good as to follow the rules after this? “Will you explain everything to me when you get back?”
“I’ll explain everything I know,” he promised. So I took his word for it and kissed him once before he left. I stood alone in my room for a minute, visualizing Aidan’s friendly smile, his civil manner inside a house full of witches, and the way he had looked at Alysana. It just didn’t seem probable.
I finally returned to Alysana’s room where she still slept, no crystal out of place. Looking at the burns, a fury began to build up inside of me for whoever had done this. If I could, I would try to take revenge.
VULCANI
I just sat in Alysana’s room all day until she came to. Rene was ready with tea and weak soup for her in case she could eat anything. She left it on the bedside table after cupping Alysana’s face and kissing her cheeks, relieved she was okay. She still wouldn’t say anything about Linden.
The crystals removed, Alysana was able to prop herself up with a few pillows. I insisted on helping, watching her slowly drink her tea. She was able to keep it down, and she was just happy to be able to stay awake.
“I don’t know what Linden did—but he’s good; why isn’t he a healer or something?” she asked while I chose a movie to watch.
“Who knows, maybe it’s just part of the Elemental thing,” I said, slipping in a video.
“Rene’s got to let up after this. She’ll get over it, you can live here again, and Linden can come by whenever he wants.”
I laughed as I sat next to her. “Yeah, ideally.”
She searched my face for a second. “You don’t want to come back, do you?”
“I don’t know,” I admitted, tucking my hair behind my ear. “You have to see this town where his uncle lives, it’s so beautiful. The ocean is right there and it’s just huge. Everything just seems better than this.”
She nodded, resting her head on the pillow. “I bet. I could use a break after all of this …”
Her voice trailed off and her eyes seemed out of focus for a second. I gently shook her arm. “Aly? What happened anyway? Did—did Aidan do this?”
She snapped out of it and met my worried gaze. “Sorry, zoning out. I’m not even sure what happened. I can’t remember much.”
“What do you remember?” I asked, trying not to be too pushy.
She stared at the TV screen for a minute, biting her lip in thought. “I remember most of the day before. Just hanging out with Aidan and stuff. We went back to the bed and breakfast after dinner and … I don’t know, that’s where everything gets hazy.”
“Did he hurt you?” I asked.
She laughed. “No, no the opposite. From what I remember, at least. There are little snippets of memory there, but mostly feeling. I woke up here so I must have gone home at some point, and then there were the burns all over.”
That was a large gap for memory loss, and I speculated what could have happened. I still wondered if Omar had something to do with it. Had he somehow done something to her while she walk
ed home? Was she his target? As much as I wanted to believe this, something else was nagging at my mind, an idea that went with the speculation of Aidan being a vulcani.
“Aly, did you …” I wasn’t sure how to form the words without causing extreme embarrassment for the both of us. “Did you Aidan um—sleep together?”
“What?” She blushed even under her ashy complexion. “No! I think I would have remembered that, Riley.”
“Are you sure?” I pressed. I didn’t know if this mattered, but how could she not remember so much for such a long period of time? And the areas her burns covered seemed specific.
“I’m pretty sure,” she said firmly. “I may like him, okay, but I’m not one to jump the gun like that.
“Okay,” I replied. “I just wanted to … make sure.”
“You don’t like him that much? I thought you did,” she said, smiling slightly.
“It’s not that, I thought he was fine,” I replied, now unable to look at her.
“Thought?”
I wasn’t sure how to begin, but I took Linden’s approach. “Linden thinks Aidan could be an Elemental. A vulcani.”
She was silent for a long stretch of time. When I finally looked at her, she was frowning and staring at the floor. “Why would he think that?”
“He said he’d seen someone that was sick like you and it was because of a fire elemental. That’s why he knew how to help you.”
Her teeth clenched together tightly and she parted her lips for air. “A fire elemental? But wouldn’t someone—wouldn’t Rene have noticed?” She was near tears now.
“We’re not totally sure yet, Aly,” I assured her. “I have no idea how any of this could have just slipped by. But Linden left a while ago to find out. He was going to find Aidan.”
She pressed her lips together as tears leaked from the corners of her eyes. “But what does that mean? What if he is an Elemental?”
I gripped her hand tightly and tried to get her to look at me. “Aly, no one knows—”
“What did he do to me?” Her voice broke as she yelled.
She broke down and covered her face with her hands. I quickly lay beside her, holding her tightly as her shoulders shook. Rene rushed into the room, asking what had happened, and I just told her to leave. I could just imagine her reaction when she heard about the theory of Aidan.
“Does she need anything?” Rene asked, backing out.
“No. Just let Linden in when he comes back,” I said. She nodded, looking at me strangely, and left.
I held Alysana until she calmed, continually stroking her hair. I desperately wanted to say something to comfort her, but I couldn’t think of anything. When she was still and quiet, I let her go but stayed next to her on the bed. She didn’t say anything, just kept her eyes on the TV. The only time she moved was when she heard footsteps on the stairs. She was even more anxious for Linden to return than me.
He didn’t come back until it was much closer to evening. Once again, Alysana sat up at the sound of someone on the stairs, and she looked both relieved and afraid when Linden walked in. I quickly got off the bed, wanting to hear everything.
“How’s everything?” he asked, sounding tired.
“Better,” I answered when Alysana didn’t say anything at first.
“Did you find him?” she asked, her eyes locked on his.
He let out a breath and leaned against her desk. “Yeah, he was actually really easy to find. He wasn’t trying to hide.”
I caught the sound of concern in his voice, though it was barely there.
Alysana swallowed hard. “So is he?”
He seemed a little surprised she knew, and when he looked at me I nodded. He hesitated and pulled out the chair at her desk, sitting down. “Yeah. And like I thought, he’s been masking it all this time.
“How’d you find out?” I asked.
“He just told me,” he shrugged. “I didn’t have to pry it out of him. He’s one of the bragging type.” His voice was thick with annoyance.
Alysana lay down slowly and looked at the burns on her arm. “So he’s a vul—vulcani. What does that mean for me?”
“What do you mean?” Linden asked.
“He did this then. Why?” She looked at him hard. “Did he mean to?”
Linden nodded solemnly. “He knew what he was doing—”
“Well what did he do?” she demanded.
He shut his mouth and seemed to debate with telling her the facts. “When he was with you he just let his guard down. All the power was exposed to you—and it’s a lot—and your body couldn’t handle it.”
She absorbed this bit of information. “Like Riley’s headaches.”
I wasn’t prepared to be pulled into this conversation. “What?”
“That’s what Rene said once. She thought you had the headaches because Linden was exposing some of his power when it rains.”
I looked to Linden for a confirmation, and he shrugged. “Yeah, that’s about the same. Except I never use all of it, and Aidan did.”
All of us went quiet, and I tried to make sense of all of this. Alysana asked if the release of power was the reason she couldn’t remember much, and Linden pointed out Aidan had probably counted on that to make her forget what she saw. There was something else he had to add to that, but he wasn’t voicing it. I made it a point in my mind to corner him later.
When he stood and asked if Alysana wanted to know anything else, she just asked what had to be done next. I could tell she was afraid. Linden assured her that she was safe; Aidan had said he was moving on anyway. He then mumbled something about needing rest, and he left the room, heading towards mine. Asking Aly if she was okay, I said I’d be back and followed him out.
I found him lying on my bed when I walked into the room. He was on his stomach and his eyes were closed but his expression wasn’t one of calm. I sat next to him and lay with my chest across his back.
“What else happened?” I asked quietly.
I rose up a little as he took a deep breath. “He knew what he was doing. He wanted to hurt her. Bad.” I didn’t say anything and waited for him to continue. “This isn’t the first time he’s done this.”
“No?”
“The same thing happened a few years ago in Arizona, but that woman died from the effects.”
My heart must have stopped. “He—he killed her?”
Linden nodded. “He’s one of the rogue ones. He doesn’t really belong with the others of his kind; not all vulcani are like him. But he mentioned something that I still don’t get.”
“What?”
“He said besides the ‘fun of it’ he was doing a friend a favor.”
I frowned and sat up, looking down at him. “You mean like another vulcani?”
“I don’t think so. The way he said it was just strange. Like he emphasized ‘friend’ and laughed about it. That makes me think something else is up.”
I couldn’t even fathom what else could be going on. So there was a rogue vulcani on the loose, and he had targeted my friend for the fun of hurting her as well as a favor to someone else. I couldn’t think of anyone who would want to hurt Alysana—she didn’t really know anyone outside of the house, and she didn’t have enemies. Was there another Elemental on the run out to purposefully try to kill someone?
I told Linden my theory, but he could only be as curious as I was. I could see he was deeply troubled, and I asked if Alysana was in any danger.
“I don’t think so,” he said. “I made it very clear that if he came near the house again, there would be consequences. He agreed with that. He said he didn’t need to see her anymore.”
I was almost too shocked to be angry. Still, there was room for me to think about writing a spell against him, but my rational side convinced me that it could have a bad effect in the end.
“I told Rhys about him already, and he’s doing all he can to talk to some of the older vulcani. I don’t know how much help they’ll be, but it was worth a shot,” Linden said as h
e watched my anger boil.
“I hope they can do something. Don’t you all have some sort of prison system?” I asked.
He laughed without humor. “Not really. A lot of us still believe in total freedom with few restrictions. In his case, they should definitely reconsider.”
“If he’s already killed someone and tried again, then yes, they should do something,” I replied.
He was quiet for a minute, staring at the wall that separated my room from Alysana’s. “I didn’t want her to hear all of that. She’s scared enough as it is.”
“And thank you for doing that,” I said with sincerity. “She knows enough for now.”
He nodded and looked at his own hand. “She’ll be scarred though. And I don’t just mean emotionally. Those burns won’t fade completely.”
I didn’t want to accept that. He explained it was just something that couldn’t go away; any mark from an Elemental’s full power was bound to stay for life. After hearing that, I didn’t have the heart to tell Alysana; not now, not ever.
“I’m sorry,” Linden said softly.
“It’s all right,” I said tightly. “It’s just the truth.”
He apologized again, and I told him it wasn’t his fault. I should be thanking him more for helping Alysana. He said it was the least he could do, and he wished there was more he could do to help.
“As far as I’m concerned, you saved her,” I said, lying down again to pull him close.
“I think that’s a stretch, but I’ll take the compliment,” he replied, kissing my nose. “Just tell me you’re not about to go out for revenge and I’ll be happy.”
“I can’t say I won’t try to attack him if I ever see him, but—”
“That’s exactly what I mean. If you ever do happen to see him, don’t try anything.”
He was completely serious, and looking into the gold of his eyes, I nodded. “Okay—okay, I won’t.”
That night, I agreed to stay in the house to be near Alysana. Linden made a show of leaving out the front door, though he had promised to come back later when everyone was asleep. For that reason, I kept my window unlocked and open a few inches. I ate dinner with everyone else at the table, though it felt very strange, and went back upstairs to actually watch something with Aly and some of the others. Though I could tell she was still processing the information she’d learned, she tried to be cheerful around everyone else.
The Evensong Page 26
