I clutched the necklace in my sweaty hand, looking back and forth between Abe and Jerica, trying to decide what to do. I wondered what Re’Vel would say, but then reminded myself he was a figment of my vivid imagination, and therefore had no bearing on the subject at hand. Jace weighed in with his opinion by sending a short, but definite message across our link. I quickly removed the necklace and handed it to Jerica. The taint of evil on it was evident now that I’d given it up, and I wondered why the Alexanders couldn’t feel it too. I shuddered in response to its abhorrent nature.
I felt dirty for having had such a close association to something so wicked. Was I as evil as the necklace? If it took a spell of such horrific proportions to protect me, what did that say about me? I didn’t want to contaminate this wonderful, loving family with my dark existence. To think I’d once sensed the darkness in Bryce. Maybe darkness knows darkness.
***
During the week leading up to final exams, I saw a Hunter every day, sometimes more than once. I began having panic attacks just thinking about the eventual moment when it would be me and the Hunter with no one to call, and not enough time for anyone to save me. I saw Hunters everywhere it seemed, even when they weren’t there at all. For each time Abe showed up and said, “It’s okay, he’s gone,” there was at least one other time he came to rescue me, only to say, “I don’t sense anything. He must have left before I got here.”
The Alexanders tried so hard to be nice to me, never once insinuating it was my fault for failing to control my magic. The more I stressed about my lapse in security, the less control I had. Only my link with Jace worked on a consistent basis.
“It’s going to be okay, Rachel,” Jerica said one night when I stopped by to drop off some math notes for Jace. “As soon as school is out, you should be able to relax. When the pressure of finals is over, we can concentrate on your training. Just keep practicing at home. The exercises I gave you should help.”
I hadn’t practiced in over a week. I didn’t have time. “I’m sorry, Jerica. Am I driving you crazy with all the phone calls? I could have sworn I saw a Hunter when I left school today. I’m sorry I made Abe come all the way over there.” My voice had become whiney, and I hated the sound of it. It didn’t feel good to have to add paranoia to my already long list of character flaws. Paranoia, dependency, irrational fear, irritability…the list went on forever.
“Are you sure you don’t want a full-time Protector? We can find someone who will be very discreet. You’ll hardly know he’s there,” Jerica offered. For a moment, I actually considered it. When I thought about my mother’s reaction if she found out, I declined.
I couldn’t understand how Jace managed to tolerate me and my swiftly changing moods and I felt guilty for putting him through it. On the upside, I no longer carried the burden of guilt over my dreams of Re’Vel. With all my stress over Hunters and finals, I hadn’t slept long enough to dream in over a week.
***
I was relieved when finals were finally over, but now the real work was about to begin. It was time to master my magical studies. For the first time in a long time, I did my meditation exercises before going to bed. I didn’t want Jerica to find out how badly I’d been slacking off on my magical training, so I worked on my exercises until I was so tired, I couldn’t keep my eyes open. After talking to Jace across our link for a few minutes, I drifted off into the deepest sleep I’d experienced in a long time.
I found Re’Vel on my favorite forest path, his opalescent skin glowing in the moonlight. I ran to him, leaping and bounding, almost flying. “Oh, Re’Vel, you should have seen me. I’m me again. I aced my last final. I wish you could have been there,” my dream-self rhapsodized.
“I was there,” he replied in a soft whisper against my skin.
As the dream progressed, my feelings toward Re’Vel began to change. He became too insistent and forceful. His face held a hint of menace, and his dark eyes narrowed as he glared at me.
“This isn’t a game. I won’t wait for you any longer. Once you give yourself to me, Nevare’s claim will not matter.”
“But I’m in love with Jace.” It was a struggle to remember his name.
“It doesn’t matter. Your father gave you to me and spoke my Claiming Words when he named you. You’re mine, Rachel, even if he changed his mind and tried to give you to another. Mine,” he insisted, grabbing my arm.
He pulled me toward him and I tried to twist out of his grasp. A cold breeze lifted a strand of his black hair from his pale forehead. Tendrils of his shoulder-length hair brushed against my cheek, igniting my senses.
“You’re hurting me,” I cried. I jerked away from him and he grabbed my nightgown. The tearing of fabric ripped the quiet of the night. He clamped down on my wrist and twisted it until I stopped moving.
“Say nothing to the Alexanders or they will cast you away like last week’s rubbish,” he hissed in my ear.
That expression of air continued to tickle my ear even as I jolted up, relieved to find myself alone in my bedroom. I felt sluggish, drugged. Images of Re’Vel slipped through my mind, but instead of feeling euphoric like I usually did after dreaming of him, I felt violated. I sat at the edge of my bed, letting the memories of my nocturnal travels wash over me. I tried to remember all the details of our conversation, but the memories scattered like the particles of dust illuminated by the ray of sun shining through my bedroom window.
I lurched to my feet, swaying for just a moment. On unsteady legs, I staggered into the bathroom, turned on the shower, and lifted my nightgown over my head. Disappointment hit me full force. It was my favorite silk gown and I’d never be able to wear it again. Somehow, it had become torn beyond repair. I had a brief vision of Re’Vel, face twisted in rage, but the memory disintegrated when I stepped under the steamy hot water. I rinsed away my nightmares, marveling at the way a bad dream could sometimes haunt you even by the comforting light of day.
Chapter Twenty-One
Alisa
I spent the first days of summer vacation in front of my computer, alternately waiting for emails from Bryce and sending replies. Obsessive perhaps, but it was my summer vacation and I was determined to spend at least the first couple of weeks doing whatever I wanted. I wanted to spend all my time with Bryce, and if we couldn’t be together in person, we could at least be together in cyberspace.
Lately, we’d been emailing more than usual. Bryce sent me an email every chance he got, often sending out a few sentences in between training sessions. He faced a grueling two weeks of final exams. These tests were unlike anything I’d ever experienced—less pencil and paper, more exertion and pain. High school seemed pretty tame in comparison.
My emails, for the most part, were humorous and fun. I tried to keep things light, tried to keep him feeling upbeat and positive. The emails Bryce sent to me tended to be more serious. Some of his emails were so full of love and affection, I blushed just reading them. He was very poetic at times. His elegant words of romance were certainly no match for a lowly high school student and I feared if we ever broke up, all men thereafter would never match up.
Dear Alisa,
I’m so homesick, I can hardly stand it. It’s funny, because when my family first moved to Oaktree, I hated the idea of living in the Deep South. I swore Oaktree would never feel like home and would just be a place to store my stuff while I was away at Central. My family has never stayed in one place for very long, but Oaktree feels more like home than any other place we’ve ever lived. Probably because you’re there.
I still haven’t decided what to do about next year. I won’t be coming back to WTB, but I’m considering Watcher training. Career-wise, it would be a good move, but I don’t know if I could handle leaving you. Maybe I’ll take a year off and you can come to Europe with me after you graduate.
There’s one thing I know for sure—if I come back to Central next year, I’m going to buy you a new phone so you can get my emails even when you’re in school. Maybe we can donate y
our current phone to a history museum or something. They could display it next to primitive caveman tools or in a case next to a giant dinosaur bone.
I’ve got to get to class, so I’ll email you later. I love you.
~Bryce
Wait… what did he say? He wanted me to come to Europe with him after I graduated? He couldn’t be serious. Not really. What should I say in response? If I acted like I took his offer seriously, he might think I was expecting too much out of our relationship. Most of what he said in the email was a joke, so he was probably just messing around when he mentioned me coming to Europe. Maybe it was best to just ignore that particular statement and focus on the grievous insult he hurled at my phone.
Dear Bryce,
Ha. Ha. My phone might be old and terribly outdated, but it’s mine. As much as I’d love to be at your beck and call twenty-four hours a day, my school has rules against using cell phones in the classroom. Wouldn’t it be a shame if the brand new phone you bought me was confiscated the first day of school? I’d better stick with my craptastic phone. By the way, you owe my phone a massive apology the next time I see you.
I’ll support you in whatever you decide. WTB, Watcher Training, college, clown-school…whatever you choose, I’m with you all the way. I know your parents will back you up. They just want you to be happy. So do I.
I’ve been marking off the days until your return. It seems so far away. Probably seems even longer for you since you’re the one who’s staring down the barrel of final exams. I know you’re going to do great. I have absolute faith in you
Love,
Alisa
I bummed around the house, waiting for Bryce’s response. That’s all I did—hide in the house and wait for Bryce’s emails. Jace tried to lure me out of the house, using promises of tennis or ice cream as an incentive, but so far, I’d managed to resist him.
After a couple of hours, I sat in front of my computer, my face splitting into a wide grin when I discovered an email waiting in my inbox. The timestamp indicated he’d emailed me forty minutes ago. Forty. Maybe I would take Bryce up on his offer to buy me a new phone—assuming he was serious. If I owned a fancy I-phone, I would have received an instant notification that Bryce had emailed me. Instead, I wasted the last forty-minutes cleaning the stupid house.
Dear Alisa,
Sorry, but your phone still sucks. I refuse to apologize to your ancient piece of technology. If I want to buy you a new phone, you can’t stop me, but if you want to battle this out, we could always settle our dispute in the training room. I wonder who would win?
There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t replay what happened that day in the training room. I wanted to kiss you then, but everyone was standing around, staring at us. If I close my eyes, I can still feel your body underneath mine. I can still feel your heart beating against my chest. If we ever find ourselves in that position again, I’ll make sure we’re alone. I’m ready for another kiss. Are you?
I can’t wait to hold you in my arms, Alisa. I don’t think I’ll be able to let you go. Only a few more days. And then we’ll be together.
Love,
Bryce
My hands trembled so much, I couldn’t type. I pressed my palms against my cheeks, feeling the warmth as a dark blush spread across my face. What would have happened if Bryce and I had been alone during that sparring session? What would happen if we found ourselves alone in the training room sometime in the near future?
Bryce said he thought about that moment in the training room. Well, so did I. Besides our first kiss, it was the most memorable experience of my life. That training session had been the start of something between us. It was the first time I’d stood up for myself, the first time Bryce acknowledged me as an equal even though I didn’t have magic. It was a major turning point in my life.
Sometimes I wondered what Bryce saw in me. Surely there were girls at the Watcher Academy who were older, more sophisticated, and magically gifted. Why hadn’t one of them caught his eye? Maybe WTB was segregated from the Watcher Academy and I was the only girl Bryce had contact with. If that were the case, maybe his relationship with me was one of convenience. If he went to the Watcher Academy next year, would he hook up with someone else? Would he still want me?
I pushed those thoughts from my mind. Certainly, I was getting ahead of myself. Our relationship might not last through the summer. It might not last once he stepped foot in Oaktree. Maybe we didn’t have a relationship and everything we’d discussed in our emails was just a game.
It wouldn’t help to worry. All I could do was hold onto the love I had for Bryce and hope he felt the same way about me. I had to trust the things he’d said in his emails to me and trust my own intuition. I had to have faith in love.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Rachel
With all my worries about finals behind me, I could finally relax. For the first week of summer vacation, my mother gave me relative freedom. Sure, I had my regular chores, but I didn’t have to help her at church until the second week of June. Now it was Alisa’s turn to stress. With Bryce’s homecoming approaching, she was a nervous wreck.
I suggested a shopping trip, just the two of us. Well, three counting Jace. He insisted on driving me for my protection, but I think he was just trying to soak up the last bits of freedom he had with Bryce’s truck. He poked around a video game store while Alisa and I tested lotions and potions in one of the shops.
“So, ladies. How’s it going?” Becky’s voice came from behind us. I spun around to face her.
“Just fine,” I replied, warily.
“You two sure seem to be as thick as thieves these days,” Becky continued, twirling a lock of hair around one manicured claw. “It kind of reminds me of the good old days when we used to be friends. I miss our friendship.”
“You mean, you miss bossing me around and having me at your beck and call,” I replied.
“Is that how you viewed our friendship? That makes me sad. I thought we were more than that to each other. It really surprises me how you were besties with me one day, and then all of a sudden, you and Alisa were inseparable.”
“Oh, yeah?” I asked. “What’s surprising about that? That I’d choose to be friends with someone who actually cares about other people? Or that I finally figured out what a cold-hearted, conniving person you really are.”
“No. Actually, I’m surprised Alisa was so uber-cool with you stealing her almost-boyfriend.”
Before I could come up with a scathing response, Alisa cut in. “Jace was never my boyfriend. We were friends. We still are.”
“But that’s not what you want, is it?” Becky asked, her voice smooth. “I saw the way you looked at Jace. It’s got to kill you that he picked Rachel over you. Or did he? Maybe Jace is playing you both. You know, I’ve heard rumors…”
I cut her off. “Rumors you probably made up. Give me a break, Becky. You start so much drama, it’s a wonder you haven’t changed your name to Shakespeare.”
“But there’s that little bit of doubt, isn’t there, Rachel? You’ll never know what goes on behind your back.”
I laughed out loud. What Becky did not know was that I could very easily find out anything that was going on behind my back. Thanks to my mind-reading curse, I could find out anything I wanted. Fortunately, with Alisa, I didn’t need to rely on my mind-reading skills. I trusted her. Yes, she’d had feelings for Jace, but she was in love with Bryce now. Everything worked out the way it was supposed to—just like my friendship with Alisa. We were meant to be best friends and I was grateful every single day that things had turned out the way they had.
“You know what, Becky?” Alisa asked. “Maybe you should be the one to worry. With the way you’ve treated people, it wouldn’t surprise me if everyone was playing you behind your back. Do you have any real friends? Or just people who are afraid of you, so they do anything they can to stay on your good side because it’s easier.”
“What’s the difference?” Becky asked casu
ally, flouncing out of the store and joining her awaiting entourage.
“That’s sad,” Alisa said.
“It really is,” I replied. “Not only for those who kiss her butt just to keep from being tormented, but for her because she’ll never know what it’s like to have a real friend. Thank God I’m free of her.”
“You’re better than her, Rachel.”
“So are you. Remember that. You were never the problem. She was. I’m sorry I didn’t stick up for you sooner.” I glanced away, embarrassed to be having this conversation with the person whose life I’d helped make a living hell for years.
Spellbound (Spellbringers Book 1) Page 21
