by Myers, AJ
Grams was waiting by the door, her foot tapping impatiently, when Skippy dragged me past her at a run. She didn’t look like she thought much of my sense of humor when I yelled over my shoulder, “Come on, Grams! We’re gonna be late!”
As it turns out, we were. I barely made it through the door, Nathan and Grams right behind me, when the graduation march began to play. Since I was the first person down the aisle—since Lisa Anderson had failed Chem and couldn’t graduate because she was a credit short—that wasn’t good. Whoever had decided graduates should march in alphabetical order should be shot. Twice. And then decapitated for good measure.
“How nice of you to join us, Miss Blaylock!” Ms. Cantrell snapped, bearing down on us like a tornado. Skippy wasn’t the only one who had gone through a makeover. Kim had talked Ms. Cantrell into a shopping trip or two, too. Gone were the baggy suits replaced with form fitting, kind of sexy, replacements.
“You look very nice today, Constance,” Nathan drawled, grinning at her. “New suit?”
“Flattery will get you nowhere, Nathan,” she said, giving him one of her narrow-eyed glares. “Now get yourselves out front! Immediately! We should have started five minutes ago!”
“I guess everything didn’t change,” Nathan muttered to Skippy as I hurried to take my place. “She still has a broomstick stuck up her ass.”
I practically sprinted to the front of the line, passing Blake and Kim. Kim was the only person in our class who could pull off the horrid red color scheme with any kind of style. Her cap was set at a jaunty angle on her new, short, pixie-style hair. She looked more like a runway model than a high school graduate.
She laughed when I flew past her, and Blake gave me a wink of approval for ticking Ms. C off on graduation day, of all days. I made it to the front of the line just as they threw the doors open, then proceeded down the aisle with a little more decorum than I had shown during my mad dash to get there.
We made it through the same tired speeches, and the bad rendition of I Believe I Can Fly played by the band. And finally, it was time to take the walk. Even though Headmaster Grayson had given specific instructions for everyone to hold their applause until the last student had crossed the stage—like he did every year—the senior class ignored him and cheered loudly for their friends anyway—like they did every year.
When I walked across the stage, half the auditorium went nuts. I accepted my diploma from Headmaster Grayson, smiling at his annoyed expression, and then turned to my fellow seniors and family and friends—many of which were of the undead variety—and bowed. I thought I saw Blaire roll her eyes at me from the back of the room, but it was hard to tell with her cabana boys going ape-shit crazy around her. Yeah, I had charmed them, too.
And then it was over. High school was finished and another chapter of my life was opening its pages to me. I thought about that as we all had dinner together at our favorite restaurant, then thought about it some more when we dumped the old people and headed for Icon.
What would the next chapter bring for me? Would it be as terrifying as the last chapter? Or would things finally go back to normal? I was still thinking about it when Kim tossed a gold foil-wrapped box across the seat to me.
“I forgot to give you that,” she said as Nathan pulled into a parking spot a block away from Icon. When she saw how confused I was—we had exchanged gifts the night before—she just shrugged. “Don’t ask, because I don’t know. I found it this morning on my doorstep.”
“Maybe it’s yours then,” I told her, tossing the box back to her. She just handed it back, rolling her eyes.
“It’s got your name on it, twit,” she said with a laugh.
I arched an eyebrow at her and then turned the box over in my hands. It was the shape of a bracelet box, only longer and wider. There wasn’t any indication as to who it was from on the box. There was only my name, scrawled in neat, oddly familiar, handwriting on a tiny gift card. I smiled when I saw there was a heart drawn beneath it.
“Aren’t you going to open it?” Kim asked, sounding disappointed, when I just tucked it between my seat and the console without a second thought.
“Later,” I told her, reaching for Nathan’s hand where it rested on the console between us. “I’m sure it’s just another amulet or something from one of the witches. I’ve been getting them all month. You know how confused some of the older ones get. They probably left it on your doorstep by accident, thinking it was mine.”
Icon was rocking, packed with most of the senior class, and we had a great time. I pushed the memory of the last time I’d been there aside as we walked in the door, trying not to think about Tyler and the way he had looked—and looked at me—that night. It was getting easier. I could think about him without crying my eyes out, at least. But I knew the pain of losing him the way I had would never really go away.
I had been attempting to do what everyone kept telling me to do and get on with my life, but Tyler had been dancing across my mind all day. I chalked it up to graduation, the sentimentality of it all. But it was time to look forward, not back. It was time for new adventures, new dreams. Tyler would want that. He would want me to enjoy the gift he had given me. Lark had been right about that much if he hadn’t been right about anything else.
We got home late, happy and exhausted. Nathan went to sleep almost immediately, but I laid there for hours, his arms holding me close, unable to shut my mind down. Finally, I got up and started wandering through the house.
I surfed the Net for a while, reading statuses on Facebook about how amazing it was that we had all survived high school. Well, I was still walking and talking, but I wasn’t sure that I had survived. I checked out the latest videos on YouTube, read the news on Yahoo, and finally gave it up as a lost cause when I still wasn’t tired.
Closing my laptop and tossing it aside, I decided what I really needed was a drink. I didn’t need my Nexus shots as often anymore, which was a relief. Thanks to my redemption in the eyes of the Powers That Be, I wasn’t such an out of control life-sucking quasi-demon anymore. Still, like every other being on the planet, I had my weaknesses, too. And the one that totally drove me bonkers was the fact that I was always thirsty. Like, always.
Like Tyler, I thought, remembering him chugging down coffee like it was going to disappear tomorrow. Black coffee. Or juice. Or soda. Or bottled water. Or whatever I was drinking. Or whatever anyone else was drinking.
Telling myself I had to stop thinking about him, that I had to let him go, I walked into the kitchen with a lump forming in my throat and tears in my eyes. I was headed for the refrigerator when a flash of gold on the counter caught my attention.
“Now, how did that get there?” I wondered aloud as I walked over and picked up the gold gift-wrapped box. The last time I’d seen it, I was tucking it away in the car. I hadn’t even thought about it since Kim tossed it to me.
Assuming Nathan had brought it in for me when we got home, I perched on one of the stools at the counter and carefully peeled the paper back. Beneath it was a long, wooden box with runes carved all over it that were so old I would never be able to decipher them.
It was really beautiful, but not that unusual. Witches had been sending me odd stuff since February. Trust me, I had gotten plenty of weirder gifts. My least favorite had been a shrunken head that the little old woman who’d given it to me swore would protect me. It had taken everything I had not to shudder in revulsion when she insisted on slipping it over my head personally. So, yeah, a pretty box wasn’t all that impressive to me after that.
Until I opened it, that is.
The second I carefully pried the lid off, I felt my heart squeeze tight. I plucked the long antique gold feather from the velvet lining with shaking fingers. It gleamed in the moonlight coming through the window behind me, and I didn’t fight the tears that filled my eyes as I ran my fingers over it. It was soft and silky, and I could feel a strange kind of energy surrounding it.
There was a folded piece of paper tucked into
the box beneath the feather, and my fingers trembled as I plucked it free and carefully unfolded it. Tears welled up in my eyes when I read the two simple words written below a detailed sketch of a daisy.
Be happy.
A familiar warm, tingly sensation squeezed my heart, and I smiled through my tears as I brought the feather to my lips, sliding it back and forth. Then, like it would disintegrate or disappear if I wasn’t very careful with it, I put it back inside the box along with the note and replaced the lid. I didn’t know where it had come from or who had sent it, but I was grateful to them.
Before you start trying to figure it out, don’t. Just remember, this is the World of Weird. If you think graduation gifts from the beyond are strange, you haven’t seen anything yet.
Author’s Note
Hello there, my Mystics!
Wow! It seems like this one took forever, huh? Yeah, for me, too. As much as I wanted to give this book to you months ago, it had to be perfect. So, tell me…
Was it worth the wait? ;)
Seriously, though, I have a ton of people to thank. My editors, Sarah Liu and Alex Raab, who weren’t afraid to say, ‘No! Nononononono! Fix it!’ My copyeditors, Tawnya Raab and Jessica Rowell, who laughed and cried and cheered—and were only too happy to tell me so in their notes (right next to their actual copyediting comments haha).
My family and friends have been amazing for the last two years as they watched me bring Ember’s world to life. My twinkie, Terrica has done double duty as cheerleader and Promotion Queen and I love her for it every day. My sister, Audrey, who is still the only person I will let confiscate my laptop. My son, Trey, and my daughter, Sierra, for letting me kill them off without whining too much about it—and my sons, Ben and Taylor, for not cheering while I did it haha.
I would also like to send a special thank you out to Jim and Ashley Whatley. It’s really rare to find someone who will support a friend, no questions asked. Ronnie and I are both lucky to have you. Thanks, y’all!
And my amazing, generous, funny, cuddly—wait, did I say amazing—husband, Ronnie Paul who fell in love with me for some reason and then decided to keep loving me even after he realized I’m nuts. I love you, baby!
But mostly, I have to thank all you Mystics & Mayhemmers out there. You have been so patient and supportive. I can’t tell you how much your emails and Facebook messages have meant to me. You’ve made me laugh when I wanted to cry and made me work just that much harder to get it right. I love you guys! You make this all worth it!
Love,
AJ
About The Author
AJ Myers lives in her own little world—but according to the IRS, she actually resides in Mississippi—with her husband, who she loves more than life, her four amazing kids, a spoiled rotten bullmation named Ghost, and a crazy cast of family and friends who keep things interesting.
If you want to keep up with what’s coming next, you can find AJ on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ajmyersnovel, on Twitter at www.twitter.com/AJMyersNovel and on the Web at www.aj-myers.com, or, feel free to shoot her an email at [email protected].
