I was standing near the clearing I had seen in the scrying bowl, but I was hidden in the shadow of the tree line, looking out at it. It was empty, no table, no altar, no people, just the clearing, but I’d know it from any other clearing in any other forest for the rest of my life. The skin on my arms prickled in goose bumps as the residual power drifted over me, swirling around me and trying to take hold. It was so tempting; seductive like the whispers of a longed for lover. My fingers tingled with the desire to reach out and take hold of the power and wrap it around me. I had never felt that much power and it wanted me. I suddenly had an image of Eve finally plucking the apple from the tree, breaking the red flesh of the fruit and the juices running down her chin and the world exploding into darkness and pain. I flared out my own energy, pushing my shields farther out from my body. The tendrils of power snapped back as if burned by me and recoiled back into the clearing.
I came back to myself in a rush, slumping in my chair and gasping for breath. I held my hand at my heart and concentrated on breathing. From a distance, I was vaguely aware of Jodi and Steven talking to me, but it was like they were speaking to me underwater. Slowly their words grew louder and clearer, breaking through the pressure in my head. I blinked, trying to force my eyes to adjust to the soft light of the coffeehouse. I could feel Jodi and Steven’s hands on my back, a light and familiar pressure.
“Shay? Are you ok? Can you hear me?” Steven’s voice reached me first, but I had to remember how to talk and had a very difficult time thinking of the response he wanted to hear.
“I’m ok,” I managed. My voice was harsh like it would be after screaming for hours. I coughed roughly and they both reached for my coffee cup to hand to me, nearly dropping it in their haste. I took it with trembling hands and slowly raised it to my lips and took a drink. “I’m ok, I’m ok,” I managed to sound normal to my great relief. “I had a vision. He’s going back to his original site. The power is still there, waiting for him.”
***
Tracy didn’t show at school the next day. All through Home Ec I had this overwhelming sense of anxiety and nervousness, as if I was desperate to get somewhere. I looked at Steven and we both knew that Jodi wanted to find a reason to come find us and tell us that Tracy wasn’t in class as soon as possible. We found out, in the few minutes between classes, that she was so desperate to get to us because Ian was still absent as well. I gritted my teeth, not completely sure just what to do. I didn’t want to sit through class all day while something might be happening to Tracy, but I didn’t know where to find her, so we’d be on a wild goose chase if we ditched early.
“But we have to do something!” Jodi stressed when I decided we would stay for school.
“I know, and we’re going to, I promise,” I said, laying my hand on her forearm, projecting cool and soothing reassurance to her. I felt her fight the tide of emotions. I was more powerful than she, but she was trying. “Look, we just have to remember, the spell says that the victim has to come into the circle of power willingly. If something was happening to her right now, then he’d have to drag her into the circle and it won’t work.” That seemed to speak to Jodi on some level I hadn’t been able to reach yet and she visibly calmed.
“Which ‘he’ are you talking about, by the way?” Steven asked, a strange tone coloring his words.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, who do you think has Tracy?”
I considered that for a few moments. It was difficult for me to assume that either twin was responsible for whatever was going on right now. Jensen, although obviously talented to some degree, just didn’t strike me as malevolent. I wasn’t sure what to think of Ian. If he was innocent, why did he run away from me at the store? But his arm wasn’t burned. I couldn’t think straight.
“I don’t know. I guess the logical explanation would be that she’s with Ian. She’s so happy with him she’d follow him anywhere.” That stopped me. Tracy was a victim. Maybe not on purpose, but if you’re always a follower and never a leader, you’re the victim by default. “We’ll need to work on that when this mess is over.” They both nodded in agreement.
Just then the tardy bell rang overhead, jarring us from our conversation. “Awesome,” Steven said sarcastically and Jodi and I groaned in unison. As much as we would have liked to stroll casually to class, we were all too goody-goody not to hurry. We practically ran the rest of the way to French class, sliding into our seats just as the end of the bell faded away. Luckily, Madame Beaumont was writing on the white board with her back to the class when we slid in and didn’t notice we were late. We all breathed a sigh of relief. All the supernatural crap hanging around us and we were still worried about being tardy for class.
The rest of the day was just like that first hour. Each class dragged on like being caught in quicksand and the few minutes between classes passed in a second, too short to really discuss anything. Math was one of the hardest classes for me again, since Jensen was still suspiciously absent as well. My stomach was in knots by the time I got to my sixth hour elective as a Teacher’s Aide. Luckily, the kids were all taking a pop quiz and Mrs. Porter had the first four classes worth of quizzes to be graded. It was mindless work that left me to my thoughts, only having to line up the answer key to the papers and marking the correct answers with a marker if they got it wrong. I didn’t even have to read the questions. I would have to remember to volunteer to be Mrs. Porter’s aide again next year, God knows I’ll probably need the break again.
In English, I saw Michelle sitting behind Tracy’s empty desk, looking almost as forlorn as I felt and had a spark of inspiration. To my luck, the teacher called for us to pair off for a debate of modern poetry versus classic. I motioned for Steven to come take my seat to pair off with Jodi and I stood and rushed over to Tracy’s empty seat. Michelle was startled to see me and didn’t make any effort to hide that from her face.
“I know you usually pair off with Tracy, so I thought I’d rescue you from being paired off with the teacher.” I flashed my best sympathetic smile and her worry lines faded slightly from her forehead.
“Thanks,” Michelle mumbled, opening her poetry book, fixating her eyes on the page but not taking in the words. I chewed the inside of my cheek, feeling the waves of annoyance coming off of her and snapping at my face. Under that I could feel her embarrassment as she remembered coming to in the backseat of my car looking disheveled and being told that she had passed out in public. There was nothing I could do for that but just ignore it like she was. I glanced up at the clock and saw that I had been sitting there just staring at her for a full minute. I cleared my throat and tried to break the ice.
“Funny that Trace has missed two days in a row, huh? She, like, never misses. Doesn’t she even come in if she’s sick?” I asked as casually as possible.
Michelle hesitated, but I caught a flicker of something pass over her face. Finally she shrugged and said, “It was a pretty bad storm. She probably caught something bad enough to keep her home.”
“You mean you don’t know?” I arched one eyebrow, trying to get her to make eye contact with me.
“No,” she said carefully, finally lifting her eyes from the page to look at me. There was something cold and distant in her eyes. She was hiding anger. I unfocused my stare just slightly, seeming to still look her in the face, but I was really looking at the space just inches away from her skin. Her aura was pulsing red and angry. I nodded, pursing my lips and sitting back casually.
“My mistake. I take it she’s been spending a lot of time with Ian lately?” I glanced at Michelle out of the corner of my eye to see that carefully controlled mask crack for just a second at the mention of his name. “Michelle? You okay?” I asked quietly, leaning towards her again.
“Yeah…” But she sighed, like she was suddenly tired. “She’s like that.”
“Like what?”
“I dunno…” she hesitated. I held my breath, not wanting to push her. “She’s that kinda girl that lets her bo
yfriend become her world. She’ll blow off her friends if he wants something and it’s like she can’t talk about anything else when he’s not around.” She was concentrating very hard on the corner of her book as she spoke, her hands bending the spine until it creased.
I nodded sympathetically, looking down at my book as well. Sometimes it was easier to vent about something if no one was looking at anyone else. “Yeah, I feel you, a lot of girls can be like that,” I said vaguely, knowing Michelle was just as guilty of what Tracy was doing; it just happened that Michelle was single right at this moment. “Is that why she’s not here today? Because she ditched with Ian?” I tried to keep my voice casual. Michelle glanced up at me, suspicion plain on her face, but underneath that was her bitter anger towards Tracy. Michelle wanted to rat Tracy out.
“Probably,” she shrugged again, looking to the front of the class, past my shoulder. “I mean, if he wanted her to ditch, I’m sure she’d go.”
“I thought you two were best friends. Wouldn’t she tell you if she was ditching?”
“I thought so,” Michelle whispered so quietly I almost didn’t hear her over the din of the rest of the class. Ah, bitter, party of one? “Whatever, he’ll break her heart and she’ll come crawling back to me and we’ll pretend she hasn’t been blowing me off this whole time.”
“Where do you think they would’ve gone if they did ditch together?” I tried not to sound too interested, but it wasn’t easy. Luckily Michelle was starting to let herself be openly angry and didn’t seem to care that I was asking.
“Who knows,” she said with another shrug of her shoulders. I pressed my lips together, trying not to become obviously frustrated with how long this was taking.
“I dunno. Like I said, she’d do whatever he’d want to keep him happy.” She shook her head in disgust. Just then the teacher called for a switch in partners. I stood up and hurried over to Steven and Jodi, pushing Steven towards Michelle, hoping he’d be able to get some more information out of her. I knew she’d be more comfortable talking to him now that I had chipped away at her façade. I told Jodi what I’d gotten out of Michelle, vague as it was.
“So, we’re banking on the fact that Tracy’s the sacrifice and either of the twins is the guy we’re looking for?” Jodi asked.
I sighed, not really wanting to answer the question, but we had no other options right now. “Yeah, I guess so. At least it gives us somewhere to start. I mean, even if we’re wrong, we know it’s gonna be at midnight on Thursday and we know where it’ll be, so that’s something at least.”
We rushed to history class so that we could huddle at our table and talk before Michelle made it to class since she sat in the row in front of us. “Ok, so I guess Ian’s been giving Tracy a lot of gifts, taking her out to nice dinners at least three times a week, she’s hardly ever home anymore. Um, she didn’t seem to know anything about Ian not being home since Thursday…” Steven trailed off, trying to remember any other details we needed to know.
“So he’s a good boyfriend that’s spoiling her, big deal.” Jodi sat back in her seat, a little crease forming between her eyes.
“Oh, that’s right! Ok, so, the gifts!” Steven picked up his train of thought quickly. “I guess one of them was a necklace with this pendant that a symbol of some kind.”
“What kind of symbol?” I asked eagerly.
“She didn’t know, she said she didn’t recognize it, but when she described it, it kinda reminded me of the rune symbols you drew from the vision.” The three of us shared a long, silent look. My stomach was in knots and I knew they were feeling the same cold and clammy sensation I was. “But let me tell you, Michelle is bit-ter,” Steven drew out the syllables of the word.
“Yeah, I got that too,” I agreed, nodding.
“This is still circumstantial,” Jodi said, the crease still prominent between her eyes.
“I know, babe, I agree,” I said, patting her arm. Jodi seemed to be more affected by the unpleasant developments than Steven and that had me curious. I realized I was soothing her more often than I was trying to calm myself. I wanted to explore that, but the bell rang and the teacher called the class to order. I knew I felt like I had something to lose here, no matter how briefly I had known Jensen, but I didn’t understand Jodi’s stake in all this. And that, almost more than Tracy’s safety, had me worried.
Chapter 16
I dreamt of Jensen that night. I was standing on a beach. In the distance, I could see the figure of a man standing on the edge of a cliff. I stopped, feeling the grass and earth reach up and meld with my feet, and watched him. Cautiously, I walked towards him, concentrating on keeping my feet above the ground. I stopped a few feet away from him, watching the line of his shoulders set against the horizon. I waited. Eventually he turned to me, as if he had known I was there the whole time, setting fathomless blue eyes on mine and smiling sadly.
We stood there staring at each other in silence. I was terrified to speak, as if the sound of my voice would break whatever wonderful spell had brought us together here. I heard him take a deep breath, holding it for a moment before letting it out, steeling himself. I knew he was going to speak and I wasn’t sure I wanted him to, but before I could summon up the courage to stop him, preferably with a kiss, he spoke.
“It was unfair of me to come here.” I shouldn’t have been able to hear him speak so softly with the waves crashing against the cliff just behind us, but this was my dream; I could hear the birds singing in the trees over a hundred feet away if I wanted. “But I had to see you one last time. I had to warn you.”
“Warn me?” I took another step closer towards him, wanting to reach out and touch him.
“I don’t know if you can stop what is going to happen, but,” he hesitated and took a small step closer to me. We were merely inches apart now and I had to tilt my chin up to look him in the face. “I don’t know if you can stop what is going to happen, but I cannot stand the thought of you dying…” he whispered the last word as if afraid of it.
“I can’t let anything happen to Tracy if I have the power to stop it,” I said calmly, accepting without question that we were talking about the same thing.
With bravery I didn’t know I possessed, I reached with both hands and set them on his chest, feeling the warmth beneath his shirt and the beat of his heart. The skin was firm with muscle and I had the desire to clutch at his chest.
“How do you know you have the power to stop it?” He was still whispering and reached and laid his hands over mine, holding them against his chest.
“I don’t,” I whispered. “I don’t know if I do, but I have to try. Tracy deserves that much.”
“And if you die trying?”
“Then at least I’ll die with a clear conscience.” That seemed to cause him pain. He closed his eyes tightly, pressing his lips together and gripping my hands. He pulled me to him, closing that last inch between our bodies and pressed me into him. I clutched the fabric of his shirt in my fists, my arms pressed along the length of his chest and his arms encircled my arms and back, his fingers curling into my ribs. I turned my head and laid my cheek against the hollow of his collarbone and he buried his face in my hair. I felt hot tears spill out of my eyes into his shirt before he slowly pulled his hands around and gripped my upper arms. With gentle force he pushed me away from him, holding me at arm’s length. There was a hard determination in his eyes as he leaned a little to look at me.
“I never meant to bring you into this; I hope this is enough for you to forgive me.” Suddenly, he pulled me close again and pressed a hard kiss against my lips. His lips were warm and I crushed myself to him, trying to take all of him into me in that one moment but, as always, too soon he broke away from me. My eyes were still closed and I knew when I opened them he would be gone. I could taste the metallic warmth of blood in my mouth from the split in my lip he had caused when he kissed me. My hands trembled and my knees felt weak, but I found the courage to open my eyes.
My bedroom was dar
k around me; only the ever-flickering blue-white light of my television illuminated anything to give me a sense of where I was. I lay there staring at the ceiling, savoring the fading aroma of salt and damp earth. I traced my tongue over the wound on my lip, cleaning away the blood that was drying there and barely noticed the sharp pain from doing so. The only proof that the kiss had been real was painful. The life of a teenage girl can be so unfair.
I lowered my hand from my face to lay it on the bed next to me when I felt the cool, soft leather of my journal. Confused, I sat up and stared at it as if it could speak to me and explain what it was doing there. I reached out to turn on my bedside light and sat up Indian style. I pulled the book into my lap and opened it where my pen laid like a bookmark. The book was opened to the pages Steven had found that I didn’t remember writing and suddenly they made complete sense to me. There was a sketch on one page of the clearing in the woods from my dreams and notes written all around. I had found the five trees that marked the seals of the circle of power that would be cast and the point in the middle where the sacrifice would be made.
“‘I hope this is enough for you to forgive me,’” I muttered to myself, tracing a star with my finger between the five points. Strangely I hadn’t sketched an altar. I noticed that drawn on the five trees were not your traditional pentagrams but rather the different runes that we had seen on the altar in the first ritual. I shivered at the thought of Tracy trapped in the middle of that circle and could taste the bile in the back of my throat.
Elemental Series Omnibus Edition Books 1-4 Page 21
