by Eliza Nolan
"By beating them senseless and kidnapping their siblings?"
Jack laughs. "He took an oath, Julia. He has to come back. Tell Graham I'll see him soon."
Chapter Thirteen
I rubbed my eyes, trying to remove the morning haze. Last night had been crazy, and now this new dream with Jack. I got out of bed and went to my closet, opening the door. Graham sat in my small desk chair, hunched over an old copy of Gone With the Wind. He looked up and smiled. "Morning," he whispered. "What time is it?"
"It's way too early," I said. "Time for school. Did you even sleep last night?" I asked, looking over his shoulder at my sleeping bag still on the back shelf in its bag.
He shook his head. "I'll catch a nap in study hall." He got to his feet, stretched, and wrapped his arms around me. He still smelled wonderful even after being cooped up in my closet all night. "I'll wait for you outside."
He climbed out the window, and gazed at me warmly as he backed down the ladder and out of sight.
* * *
We ran into Nate and Clara getting out of Nate's car in the school parking lot.
"Hey, Clara. Nate." My face flushed. How embarrassing. She knew her brother and I had spent the night together. "Sorry I stole your ride to school."
Nate stepped in. "I didn't mind picking her up."
Clara nodded, but didn't smile. Crap. I didn't know what I'd done, but I felt her anger targeted at me. We'd have to talk the next time I got her alone.
Graham's hand touched my shoulder, and we headed through the parking lot towards the entrance.
"Ju-leeeeeaaah!" The loud scream made me jump.
"Julia!" I turned to find Libby directly behind me. Her tangled hair matted over her wild eyes, which darted about. Her short shallow breaths were loud, like a panting dog.
Graham's eyebrows pressed together with concern. He reached out and put his hand on her shoulder. "Libby, are you all right?" he asked. "Why don't you sit down?"
Libby took his advice and sat on the curb, but continued to pant and look totally wigged. Graham crouched in front of her.
Libby spoke. "Why don't they leave me alone, Graham? They tell me to tell Julia all these things. 'Tell Julia she's in trouble,' 'Tell Julia she's going to pay,' 'Tell Julia this,' 'Tell Julia that.' Just tell her your goddamn selves!" she yelled, grabbing Graham by the shoulders and shoving him. Graham stumbled backwards, but recovered.
I knelt down a few cautious feet from her and placed a hand on her shoulder. The moment I touched her, the tension in her shoulders lessened, so I edged closer and put an arm around her. The mania drained from her eyes, her breathing slowed, and she started crying. "Why does this keep on happening to me, Julia?"
I looked over at Graham who'd gotten back on his feet. His eyes met mine, but neither of us knew what to say.
"Do you remember any of what you said this time?" I asked.
She shook her head. "It's sort of like I black out. When it's over, I don't remember any of it, but feel exhausted."
"Should we call someone for you?" Graham offered.
"No." Libby pulled herself up off the ground and dusted off her jeans. "Something tells me the less time I spend around you guys the better." And there was the Libby we all knew and hated. "I have to get to class." She brushed past us towards school.
"What the heck was that about?" Nate asked.
"That's what I'd like to know." Clara gave Graham a pointed look before taking Nate's hand and leading him away towards school as well.
I turned to Graham. "I've never seen Libby so shaken. I don't think she can take much more of…whatever this is."
Graham's lips pressed together. "I did this to her." He raked a hand through his hair. "I should go down there. I'm the one they want."
I took his hand in mine. "No way."
"But if I go, they'll leave you alone."
"You don't know that. Besides, if you go down there, you're giving them what they want. Letting them win." I took his other hand. "Graham, I don't know who these guys are, but I don't want them to win. Let's just wait and see what your friend Luke says."
Graham frowned and nodded. "I'll stay. For now."
* * *
I slid into the seat next to Clara in English. "I didn't sleep with your brother, I promise," I whispered. She'd been cold all morning, and it was the only reason I could think why she would possibly be mad at me.
Her head jerked back slightly. "Wow, Julia, is that what you think is going on?" She giggled nervously. "If that was all I had to worry about, I wouldn't worry." Her laughter continued a beat before it slowly turned into tears. She covered her mouth with her hand.
"Then what is it?" I leaned in, sure she was mad at me for something, and wanting to make it right.
"It's happening all over again. Graham's shutting me out. Just like he did in Charleston, right before …you know." She wiped her eyes.
Of course. Not mad, but scared. And I was helping hide stuff from her. But I no longer understood why we were keeping anything from Clara.
Enough with all the secrets. She deserved to know what was going on. So I told her everything, about all my dreams, about how Libby had been acting the day before, about the man who'd harassed me on the bus, and about the man lurking outside the coffee shop.
Clara frowned and bit her lip. "You guys were keeping all this from me?"
My heart sank. I hadn't meant to hurt her. "I just remembered how upset you were when I told you about that one dream." I was such a jerk. "I'm sorry." I looked down at my desk.
Clara's hand touched my arm. "I'm glad you told me. Finally. I just wish Graham would stop hiding things."
"But Graham isn't up to anything," I said. "It's the others, they want him back."
"Well they can't have him," Clara declared.
I couldn't agree more.
* * *
"What's up?" I said once the car doors were closed. Graham reached across the front seat and wove his fingers with mine.
"I told you I called Luke, that friend of mine who wasn't involved with the Phoenixes. I asked him to hover around Jack and the others a bit and eavesdrop. I just wanted to know if they were still doing anything with the group or with the book.
"He finally called me back this morning. Apparently, he went a little above and beyond. He confronted them. They almost put him in the hospital. I shouldn't have gotten him involved." He looked down at the floor, shaking his head.
I squeezed his hand. "You didn't do that to Luke. Jack and his friends did."
"It is my fault, though. I'm the idiot who blindly swore allegiance to something I didn't understand. If it weren't for that, Clara wouldn't have been kidnapped, Luke wouldn't have been beat up, Libby wouldn't be acting all possessed, and you wouldn't be having these weird dreams."
I pulled my hair out of my face and tucked it behind my ear. I still hadn't told him about last night's dream.
"Uh, Graham. I should probably tell you, last night I had another dream. I think I met Jack." I bit my lip.
He startled. "Jack? What did he look like?"
"Medium height, buff, pissed-off teenager with brown hair. He might've had freckles."
Graham dug his phone out of his pocket and pulled up a photo, showing it to me.
I sighed. It was definitely Jack, the same one who'd talked to me in my dream. I took the phone from Graham and examined it closer to be sure.
"What did he say?" Graham asked.
"He said I should tell you he'd see you soon." It sounded so true when I said it, I got a chill.
"And you're sure it was him?" he said, pointing to the photo on the phone.
"Absolutely," I said, then finally turned away, unable to look at Jack's face any longer.
"I never thought it was real," Graham said. "There was all this ritual and magic stuff in the book. It was sort of fun to play around with, but I didn't think any of it actually worked. Even when my tattoo changed color, I thought maybe our eyes were playing tricks on us somehow. But now, I'm h
aving a hard time rationalizing what's happening."
"So what does this mean then? Are these friends of yours up here messing with us? Are they going to hurt us?"
"They're not my friends, and I already promised I wouldn't let anything happen to you, Julia," he said, then added, "You should come to our house tonight for dinner. I'd like a chance to grab a few things from my house before our next sleepover."
Chapter Fourteen
Graham motioned for me to have a seat on the small couch across from his bed. I slunk down, still taking in the size of his room. A finished attic, it had low ceilings and so much floor space. And it was clean. No wonder Graham and Dad had gotten along so well at dinner. They were kindred neat-freaks. All Graham's books fit on his bookshelf, all his clothes were put away.
"I have to grab a few things," he said. "Do you mind hanging out here for a bit?"
"Sure." I yawned. "I may just close my eyes for a minute or two if that's okay. I haven't been getting enough sleep lately."
"You can sleep in my bed if you want," he said.
My heart quickened, but I was about to meet his mom. I figured I should try to keep my head out of the clouds as much as was humanly possible.
"I'll be okay here," I said.
He took a blanket from the back of the sofa and pulled it over me as I lay down.
I grabbed the collar of his shirt, pulling him towards me. Maybe not totally out of the clouds. He knelt down and kissed me gently on the lips. I pulled the blanket up around my face and closed my eyes. The fleecy material smelled like him so I pulled it over my nose and inhaled his musky scent before quickly drifting into sleep.
* * *
Aydan and I stand at the edge of the clearing with the stone altar. Flames flicker in the fire pit, and standing nearby are five people dressed in hooded robes.
Graham steps out into the clearing, bare-chested. He walks up to one of the men and kneels down. The man holds a chalice up to Graham's lips and he drinks.
"What's Graham doing here?" I ask.
"Graham's being initiated as Beshi."
"As what?"
"Pay attention, Julia. I told you, he pledges his life to the Phoenix. He is one of five who represent different strengths."
"But Graham's at his house. This isn't real, right? This is a dream."
"This already happened." She waves her arm towards the clearing. "You've been here before."
Graham's eyes glaze over as if in a trance. The man in front of him pulls out a knife, and chants quietly.
"Why is Graham doing this?"
"Because this prepares him for the next level, where he'll become more powerful," Aydan says. "Or at least that's what they told him."
"They lied to him," I say.
"They're playing with things they don't understand."
"Aydan, we have to stop them. I can't watch them cut up Graham."
"We can't stop things that have already happened."
The man takes the knife and cuts into Graham's chest. Graham cries out in pain. His muscles tense and he becomes lucid for an instant as he stifles more cries that want to break from his lips. Blood drips down his chest.
After the hooded figure says a few more words, the group steps away leaving Graham by the altar. He falls to the ground and curls up into himself.
The hooded figures cross the clearing and stop just in front of us.
"I'm sure she never got this far," one says. "We took the only boat. How could she have made it to this side of the swamp without a boat?"
"It doesn't matter. What's important is that she never follow us again. It's time to teach her a lesson."
I've heard this conversation before, only now I know who "she" is. They're talking about Clara, and the "lesson" they're about to teach her entails abducting her and leaving her alone in the woods tied to a tree.
They all head down the path leading to the swamp.
I hurry towards Graham and kneel at his side. There's blood everywhere. It's all over his chest coming from the open cuts, which I can now see are a crude carving of a triangle.
Graham mumbles as he writhes around. I grab his arms and call to him. "Graham. Please wake up." I cry out his name trying to rouse him. "Graham. Graham!"
* * *
I woke up to find Graham leaning over me, his eyes wide with concern.
"What is it?" I said.
"You were screaming my name, and crying."
I felt my face, wet with tears. "It was just another bad dream." I sat up.
"Bad dream as in nightmare, or bad dream as in another dream about Charleston and the Phoenixes?"
I frowned and turned away, exhausted. Yes, I'd had yet another dream about his group. Anxiety overwhelmed me. When would this all stop?
Graham sat down and put his arms around me. I buried my head in his neck and put my hand on his chest, allowing myself to get lost in the loving warmth of his strong arms. He let me sit there for a minute before he asked, "Can you tell me what the dream was about?"
Images flashed in my mind of the deep cuts on his chest, the blood dripping from them, the triangle. I didn't speak. I started unbuttoning his shirt before I knew what I was doing. I slipped my hand inside, gently searching his smooth skin until I found it - a faint slightly raised line.
"Julia." Graham's voice was low. He pulled my face up to his. "My mom will be home soon." I looked into his eyes as my fingers travelled over the raised scar. I swallowed. The outline was indeed a triangle.
Graham tensed and gripped my hand through his shirt.
"Oh. You found my scar," he said.
"It happened the night Clara was abducted."
His head jerked back slightly. "How did you know?"
"The dream I just had. I think I saw what happened to you that night. You were with five hooded figures, they carved something in your chest, and then they went after Clara."
"I don't believe it." He rubbed the back of his neck. "You really were there."
"Huh?" He'd lost me.
"I saw you there that night, Julia. I thought I recognized you the day we met. I just didn't know why. I remember it now. You really were there. I don't know how, but you were," he said.
"You saw me?" I asked. "In South Carolina before we ever met?"
"Yes. It was the night of my Rebirth Ceremony. It's the official initiation into the Phoenixes. I was saying goodbye to my old life and welcoming the new life with my new brothers. It involves drinking a magical elixir and it's supposed to put you in a state that gives you visions of your future and the wonderful things to come."
He chuckled like he thought it was ridiculous. "I did go into some sort of intoxicated state and I thought I'd lost my mind. I was in so much pain and in such a bad place. I remember, though, in the middle of it all I saw a girl sitting by my side, she touched me and made the pain go away. I remember seeing you there, Julia." Graham shook his head at me, disbelieving, like I was some sort of mystical creature.
I looked away, self-conscious. "How's that even possible?" But I knew it had to be true. From day one, Graham had looked at me as if he already knew me, and Clara thought she recognized me. Maybe she somehow remembered seeing me that night, too. "How is any of this possible?"
"I don't know." He held me close and kissed my forehead.
"So you are the Phoenix's Beshi?" I asked.
Graham pulled back. "No, we're the Phoenixes; the Beshi are the powers we would've inherited after completing the final ceremony."
"But Aydan said the Beshi were people the Phoenix drew its power from."
"Aydan? Who's he?" Graham sat up straighter.
I bit my lip. "She," I corrected him, "is a woman in my dreams. You don't know her?"
"I've never heard that name."
"She keeps on showing up in my dreams." I shrugged. "But if you don't know who she is, maybe she isn't real."
"But she told you about the Beshi? What else did she say?"
"That she's here to 'guide' me or something." I laughed.
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Graham didn't laugh with me. "She seems to know at least something about what's going on."
"Maybe." But there was nothing I could do about it now. I only saw her in my dreams, and I didn't appear to have any control over when I had them.
I let the topic drop, curling up in his arms. I relaxed a little, which was becoming easier to do with Graham. Something about being with him felt so right. It was as if we were an intricately made two-piece puzzle. I couldn't imagine fitting this well with anyone.
And then Graham's body jolted.
He leaned over, grabbing his head. His eyes closed tight.
"Graham?" I brushed his cheek lightly.
"It's another migraine," he whispered without opening his eyes. "Get Clara, please."
I rushed downstairs and found Clara in her room with Nate. Apparently I wasn't the only one who'd been invited over for dinner. Clara raided the medicine cabinet for his migraine pills and we went back up to Graham's room.
My eyes strained against the dark, the lights were off and the blinds lowered. Graham had curled up on his bed. Clara nudged him and he got up long enough to take a pill and chase it with some water.
I knelt down next to him and took his hand. It was warm. Too warm.
"Is there anything I can do?" I whispered.
"No. I think I need to sleep this off."
I leaned down and kissed him gently on his cheek. My lips tingled and Graham took a deep breath, relaxing a little as he let it out.
"Oh," I said, shocked. Of course, I'd managed to wipe the pain of his migraine away before. Maybe I could do it again now. I placed my fingertips on his temples and waited for the prickly sensation to start.
I waited.
"Julia," Clara whispered from behind me.
"Just a second," I said. I placed my palm flat over his forehead.
Nothing.
I turned back to Clara who beckoned me away. She was right; I needed to go. Whatever healing thing I'd had going on the other day, wasn't working now. Maybe it never had before. Maybe I just happened to touch his face at the very moment his migraine finally passed. I reluctantly pulled my hand away from Graham's forehead and stood up.
We left his room. As much as I wanted to be with him, it was clear he needed to rest. It looked like he wasn't going to be able to do bodyguard duty for me tonight, either. Dad would have to do.
