by W.J. May
Part of her felt sad to leave, but she wanted to head back to America and spend some time with her aunt and uncle. Hopefully, Uncle Argyle would be willing to tell her about her mother and grandfather and even talk a bit about her father. She could get information out of him which she couldn’t get from anyone else, if she could get him to talk.
Rae headed down the marble stairs with her new, larger suitcases, courtesy of Molly, and set them by the door. She ran back up to grab her duffle bag. She had already said good-bye to everyone except Devon. He’d seemed preoccupied when he popped by yesterday to say good bye to Molly. She’d wanted to give him a proper farewell, but he’d left before she had a chance. Plus, she wasn’t quite sure how to handle him now…after their awkward conversation outside Carter’s office.
Julian stood waiting in the foyer. He took her suitcases from her and set them by the door. He smiled his warm, friendly smile. “I have something for you.” He handed her a white envelope.
“What’s this?” The blank cover of the envelope gave away nothing.
He scratched behind his ear. “I had a vision early this morning and thought maybe you could help.”
Rae opened the envelope with apprehension. The last time he’d handed her a vision it hadn’t turned out so well. However, the reveal was anti-climactic. Inside was a piece of paper with nothing on it. She stared at Julian, confused.
“Rae, this is going to sound kind of corny but…pretend it’s a letter. I know I didn’t draw anything on it, but just work with me here for a moment.” He paused and gave a small smile when Rae nodded. “That paper’s trying to tell you something, you just need to open your mind to what it says.”
She blinked, trying to make sense of what Julian was asking. She held the sheet with both hands and tried to pretend she was about to read a letter. She closed her eyes and exhaled a long, slow breath.
Julian started talking quietly. “There’s this dope I know, who wanted to try and write you a letter. First he tried emailing, but that didn’t work. He wanted tell you how he felt and ask you to forgive him. So, he thought that if he wrote it to you, it would be better. Except, this dummy doesn’t know how to say it. He’s all messed and confused in the head himself.” Julian sighed, as if he understood the writer’s frustration. “If this guy could just realize his feelings would explain everything to you… Ahh, but his pen never moves. The idiot doesn’t know how to start, or finish, the letter. He wanted to tell you how he’d made a mistake and he wished he’d never listened to those around him, or allowed himself to step back from you.” Julian grunted. “He should’ve just followed his heart all along.”
Julian stopped talking and Rae heard him move toward the door. She opened her eyes and stared at the blank paper. She gazed at the pretend letter for a long time and then back to Julian.
“Where is he? Do I still have time to see him before we have to go?”
Julian grinned and glanced at his watch. “You’ve about ten minutes. He’s in his room packing.” He grabbed both of Rae’s suitcases. “I’ll get these in the car for you in the meantime.” He disappeared out the door with a smirk on his face.
Rae looked down one more time. Go to him. She heard her mother’s voice and knew that was exactly what her mom would have told her to do. Rae dropped the letter and took off running through the front door toward Joist House.
She barreled through the entrance, and straight up the marble stairs to the top floor, not caring what kind of scene she made. Winded by the time she got to Devon’s door, she took a few deep breaths. She knocked once before barging straight into the room. Devon stood behind the suitcase on his bed.
“Julian, I told you already I’m not --” he stopped short when he saw Rae standing in the room.
“Hi.” All the self-confidence Rae’d felt a minute ago, disappeared. She tucked a curl behind her ear and tugged it behind again when it popped back immediately, refusing to obey. Great, here I am, tongue-tied with my hair flying everywhere…What now?
“Hey.” Devon stared at her for a moment and then focused on refolding a shirt he’d already packed into his suitcase.
“Julian’s taking me to the airport. He said he had a vision this morning.” She swallowed nervously, not sure what to say. When Devon stayed silent and continued to gaze at his suitcase, Rae mustered what courage she could find. “He said you tried to write me a letter…”
Devon’s head popped up in surprise. Rae could feel tears fill her eyes, so she glanced at the ceiling, begging them not to fall. She took a deep, shaky breath and glanced back toward Devon. She trembled as she watched him walk over to her. He put both of his hands gently on her face, his fingers silently brushing the tears from her cheeks.
“I’m so sorry…About…About --” His voice broke as he spoke. “I didn’t know what to write then, or what to say now. I’m just so sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry. It’s not your fault.” She reached up and removed Devon’s hands from her face, keeping them held inside of hers. “Nobody saw it coming. Everyone trusted Lanford. Carter said he went off a gut feeling and had to follow the hunch, hoping he might be right.” She blew her bangs from her face. “Julian’s taking me to the airport in about five minutes. I don’t want to spend the summer worrying if you’re never returning to Guilder because of me. I don’t want to lose your friendship.” I don’t want to lose you. I need you.
“I’m coming back.” He smiled and showed his adorable dimple. Worry lines appeared on his forehead as his brows mashed together. “I’m the idiot. In so many ways, I can’t even begin to explain, or try to show you.”
“Don’t—” Rae started, but Devon cut off her words off with a kiss. He pressed his warm, soft lips against hers. The kiss felt like the flutter of a thousand wings from butterflies setting off into flight. It was like time stood still and nothing else mattered at that moment or was ever going to matter again if Devon wasn’t with her. At the same moment her stole her breath away, he stole her heart.
He slowly pulled away, but barely. As he spoke, his lips brushed lightly against hers. “I have, for a very long time, been very much in love with you. I’m just a fool who didn’t know how to say it. I kept trying to follow the path everyone else instructed us to go down – the one I’m expected to follow.” Devon swallowed. “When, all along, I should’ve just followed my heart.”
Wow! Can life get any better than this? She smiled, sure the corners of her mouth were close to touching her ears. “I’ve never really been one for doing what’s expected.” She shrugged nonchalantly, but couldn’t stop the excitement coursing through her body. This is ten times better than the morning of my sixteenth birthday.
Devon grinned and rubbed his nose against hers. When a knock sounded on the door, and Rae and Devon jumped apart, suddenly conscious about how wrong this could be. Getting caught before anything had started could ruin everything, on so many different levels.
Julian popped his head inside the room.
“I really hate to be the one to interrupt the two of you, but Rae needs to head to the airport or she’s going to miss her flight.” He tossed a balled up piece of paper at Devon. “The offer still stands, if you’re interested.”
“Offer?” Rae glanced back and forth between the two guys.
Devon chuckled and put his arm around her shoulders. “Julian made two offers to me this morning. I could come with him to bring you to the airport, and try to tell you how I felt. Or, use his car and take you myself. I think I’ll take him up on the second offer.”
“You don’t mind?” she asked Julian.
“Silly girl with the super-ability. Do you think I could say no?” Julian tossed his car keys at Devon. “Just don’t let her drive. She may be talented, but she’s a bloody American.” He laughed and jumped back when Rae forced the door closed with a gust of wind.
Devon and Rae stared at each other, both smiling like lunatics. They walked down to the car in a companionable silence.
“Do you have plans for
the summer?” Rae asked once they were on the motorway.
“I’m heading home for a week and then Carter wants me and Julian to come back, and apply to the Privy Council academy. Plus, my dad wants me to help set his office up.” He rolled his eyes. “What about you?”
She touched his knee, still thinking this had to be a dream. “Not much. I’ll work on my tatù, and I’ve got a hundred questions I want to ask my uncle.”
“Let me know if you learn anything. Email or, if you’re allowed, call me?”
“Of course.” She glanced at his tight jaw line. “What’s up?”
“Nothing, really,” he said. “I…I just think we maybe shouldn’t say anything… to anyone, you know, about us.”
She should have felt guarded. A boy asking a girl to keep their relationship a secret couldn’t be a good sign. But this was different. They were different. She knew they weren’t any normal boy and girl. “I think you’re right. After the year I’ve just had, and my parents’ history…We’d give the professors, and my uncle, a massive coronary.”
“We can figure stuff out when you get back next term.” He winked at her. “I’m still mentoring you, and I’ve got my own place next year. Nobody’ll suspect a thing.”
“Yeah, it’s almost as if Carter knew, when he set up the position for you.” They both glanced at each other and after a moment, broke into laughter. Fat chance!
At the terminal, Devon gave Rae a tight hug and leaned in to kiss her. A voice announced on the speakers that her flight was now boarding.
Devon deepened the kiss. Again, the flutter of butterfly wings floated around Rae. She totally got what Molly had been talking about all year. This was how a first kiss was supposed to feel. She understood her tatù’s wings gave her the fluttering wing-feeling and smiled at her deep, personal understanding.
“This summer’s going to take forever.” Devon rested his forehead against hers.
“I’ll let you in on a little secret.” Rae loved the wild abandonment feeling being with Devon gave her. “The first kiss is something a girl never forgets. This feeling, at this very moment, could carry me through a hundred summers,” she whispered, lightly pulling on her bottom lip with her teeth.
Devon groaned. “One summer apart is enough for me.”
Rae kissed his ear and whispered, “I’m glad we stopped hiding and told each other how we feel.” I can’t wait till next year, and a lot more kisses. “I guess we owe Julian.”
Devon shook his head slightly. “He’s never going to let me forget.” He wrapped his arms tightly around her waist. “It’s totally worth it.” He kissed her again.
Slowly, she stepped back from him, and, after a few reluctant seconds, he let go of her hand. “See you in seven weeks,” he said.
She laughed. “You’re counting already?” “You better believe it!”
THE END
Dark Nebula
Book II in the Chronicles of Kerrigan
Now Available
Read the next installment of:
THE CHRONICLES OF KERRIGAN
Book Trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_VOo4NxGCk
