“Oh. Well in that case, I should have gone with Danny to the Winter Ball to grease the wheels of my social life.”
“Yeah, maybe.”
She hooked her arm through mine as we walked to class. “So we’re going dress shopping after school, right?”
I grimaced. “I have training.”
She rested a hand on her hip. “And when do you plan on getting your dress?”
“Right after Gavin asks me to prom.”
She froze, her jaw hanging open. “What? I thought it was understood you were going together.”
“Yeah?” I clenched my books to my chest. “Because, I don’t know, I feel kind of stupid for assuming that.”
“Well, don’t. He’s taking you whether he knows it or not. And we’re going dress shopping. After Vila training.”
She held a pinky out to me, so I hooked mine with it and smiled at her. “Deal.”
Her positive spirits kept me going through the morning. I decided to push thoughts of mud-covered feet out of my mind until I could talk to Lilura. Maybe there was nothing to worry about. Not that I could confirm that theory with Chase, seeing as how he’d skipped history class again. It was beyond me how he was even passing.
My day brightened even more when Gavin and I decided to spend our lunch period outside for some “alone time.” We picked a spot to sit under one of the trees in the schoolyard, held hands, and planned what cheesy B movie we were going to see that weekend.
“Zadie, where’s the bracelet I gave you?”
I grimaced. “Oh, I…didn’t put it on today.”
It wasn’t a lie. I just didn’t have the heart to tell him I’d already lost it. Besides, maybe it would turn up.
“Hey, Gavin. Nice shirt.” Kelly stood a few feet away from us, looking Gavin up and down. Nicole was planted loyally at her side.
He glanced at me before answering. “Um, thanks?”
“It really shows off your form. I had no idea running track built upper body muscle like that.” Kelly’s perfectly plucked brows waggled.
I cleared my throat, resisting the urge to roll my eyes.
A small smile played on Kelly’s lips. “Oh, are you two still together?”
I blinked. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Kelly batted heavily-coated lashes at me. “Oh, nothing. Just that every time I’ve seen you lately you’re talking to that Chase guy. It’s like everywhere I turn, there you are, talking to Chase. Whispering. Giving each other long, meaningful looks.”
“We’re just friends.” My voice was a little louder than I’d meant it to be.
Kelly scoffed, tilting her head at Gavin. “Are you sure about that? I see the way she looks at him.”
“I’m sure.” There was no doubt in Gavin’s voice.
Kelly clicked her tongue multiple times and shook her head. “How can you be so sure, Gavin? Do you honestly believe she always tells you the truth?”
I dug my nails into my palm, thinking about the lost bracelet.
Gavin let out a breath of a laugh. “Yeah, I do. You ever hear of something called trust? I trust her.”
“Hmm. What some call trust, others might call utter stupidity. But whatever. If you come to your senses, Gavin, you’re welcome to come to my graduation party.” Kelly grinned at me then shared a giggle with Nicole as they walked away.
I turned to Gavin, grabbing his hand with both of mine. “You know she’s full of crap, right?”
Gavin brushed a strand of hair away from my cheek. “Yeah, I know.”
My eyes searched his face. “Then again, maybe if you’d ask me to prom, people would stop spreading rumors about our rocky relationship.”
The bell rang, blaring over the end of my sentence.
Gavin gave me a lopsided smile and jumped to his feet. “We better get to class.”
I bit my lip, somehow too chicken to press him about prom. Part of me had the feeling he was teasing me, torturing me. But another part of me wondered if Gavin even wanted to go to prom. Maybe he thought proms were lame. Maybe he didn’t want to dress up in a tux. I let him pull me up and dropped the subject as we headed into the school building.
By the time I got to Lilura’s house, my mind was filled with battling thoughts. Team A: My mud-covered feet. Team B: Gavin’s avoidance of talking about prom. Hunter came to Lilura’s door when I knocked. He opened the screen door and leaned against the frame, blocking my way.
“Hey, Hunter.” I figured he probably just wanted me to acknowledge him.
“Sorry, Zadie. We’re going to have to skip practice today.”
“What? Why?”
“Lilura’s a little under the weather. Sleeping right now, actually.”
“Oh.” I adjusted my book bag on my shoulder. “What about Chase?”
“Chase is brewing up something for her. Said he didn’t want to be disturbed.”
What was I going to do? I wanted to talk to Lilura about my sleepwalking. Or at least to Chase. Though Hunter was supposedly here to help me, I didn’t feel comfortable confiding in him. Not yet, anyway.
I shrugged. “Um, all right. Tomorrow, then?”
“Hope so.” He winked and shut the door.
Halfway down the sidewalk, I spotted Mara.
“What’s going on?” she asked.
“Lilura’s not feeling well, and Chase is brewing something. No practice today.”
“But…damn it. I really wanted to figure out this return-of-my-powers thing.”
“Yeah, I had a few things I wanted to clear up too.”
She nodded. “Well, I guess we have no choice. Let’s head home.”
“Actually, I’m going to meet up with Naomi. I told her I’d help her pick out a dress for prom.”
Mara sighed. “Oh, all right.”
“You can come if you want.”
“No, that’s all right. I actually have another final tomorrow. I should study.”
Three texts to Naomi and a half-hour later, I perused a dress rack at a fancy store in the mall. Naomi’s selections were a little too risqué for my taste, but I had to admit she looked great in them. As for myself, I couldn’t help but wonder if I should have even bothered looking at dresses. Then again—as much as I wanted to go to the prom with Gavin—shouldn’t I have been concentrating on the more important problem I faced? If my sleepwalking got worse, who knew if I’d even make it through to the end of the school year?
“Hello, Earth to Zadie.” Naomi waved a hand in front of my face. “What’s wrong with you?”
“Hmm?”
“You haven’t heard a word I said.”
I was about to tell her I had been listening, but knew I shouldn’t lie to her. “This morning when I woke up? There was mud all over my feet. And muddy footprints all over the house. And I can’t remember how it happened.”
“No way! You were sleepwalking?”
“I’m hoping that’s all it was.”
Naomi and I stared at each other. I wrung my hands together, knowing she thought the same thing I did. Could a Reaper be involved here? Could one be stalking me, or worse, luring me out in the middle of the night? It was a terrible feeling being in the dark, but having someone to talk to about it made things a little better.
She turned so I could unzip the dress she’d tried on. “Well, what did Lilura say?”
“I haven’t told her yet.”
“Chase?”
“I’ll tell him tomorrow.”
She regarded me for a moment. “I’ll cross my fingers there’s an easy fix.”
I tried to smile, but couldn’t muster one up. “Thanks.”
“Here, try this on.” Naomi handed me a dark blue, tea-length dress.
I cringed when I looked at the price tag. “Naomi….”
“Just try it on. For me?”
Shaking my head, I smiled at her and headed for the changing rooms. The lighting was poor, giving the stalls a dingy look. Such an odd feel in a store filled with elegant clothing. I slipped off my
things, hoping the floors were at least clean enough to stand in my bare feet. The silky dress felt fantastic against my skin, hugging me in just the right places. It even had wide enough straps to hide my scar. I turned this way and that, surveying the effect in the mirror. But there was no way I could afford this dress. I’d have to try and find a knock-off somewhere else.
The soft whisper caught me off guard. I froze in place, begging the dress to stop swishing. It was probably just another customer coming to try something on. I was too short to peek over the stall door, so I gathered up the skirt of the dress and climbed atop the bench where I put my clothes. But no one was in the hall outside the stalls. Maybe there had been someone there and they were just too quick for me to notice.
I changed back into my clothes and said a quiet goodbye to the lovely dress I knew I couldn’t have. Out in the hall, a shadow moved, and I held my breath. I let it out when I realized it was the door of the stall I had exited, still swinging open. Looking around, I noticed all the stall doors were open. There was nobody here but me. But why did I feel like someone was watching me?
I fought off a shiver, fidgeting with the agate stone at my neck, and told myself I was imagining things.
After a determined search, Naomi finally found the perfect dress in the perfect size and perfect color. The sales girl even showed her shoes in the exact shade, which Naomi instantly fell in love with. She frowned at me for not picking a dress out, but I assured her I would look again soon.
We walked toward Naomi’s car, her purchase secure in a long dress bag hanging over her arm. Naomi beamed, clearly happy with her find. We paused in the parking lot to let a beat up, green pick-up truck by, when suddenly it screeched to a stop in front of us. Through the open window, an old man with stringy gray hair and a wild look in his eyes glared at me.
“You!” He grabbed the frame of the window and poked his head out.
I glanced at Naomi, then shook my head at the man. “Do I know you?”
“What business do you have near my house?”
I looked at Naomi as if she would be able to clue me in on what the man was talking about. But she merely shrugged.
“Sorry. What?” I asked the man.
“Don’t play stupid. You’re the girl who was snooping around last night.”
“Excuse me?”
“I’d recognize that red hair anywhere. Stay off my property!”
He scowled at me, shifting in his seat. The engine growled as the truck peeled away.
My breath caught in my throat. This had to do with my sleepwalking. But where did I go, and what was I doing there?
Naomi’s eyes narrowed. “Um, you know that guy?”
I swallowed. “No. I have no idea who he is.”
Chapter Six
Once again, Hunter answered the door when I went to Lilura’s. He opened the screen and took a step back, motioning for me to come in. When I didn’t see or hear Lilura anywhere, I turned to him.
“She’s resting,” he said. “But Chase is out back waiting for you, and Lilura promised she’d be down later.”
I nodded and set my book bag down on the floor. “Okay. Thanks.”
Chase was sitting on a bench on the back porch sharpening a dagger. Funny that the sight of someone readying a weapon would give me a calming sense of normalcy.
“Hey.” I pulled my hair back into a ponytail and sat beside him. I glanced around at the arrows on the ground by his feet and the assortment of weapons on the picnic table. “Since when do you have a sawed-off shot gun?”
He glanced at the weapon I was referring to, which glinted in the sunlight as it rested on the picnic table. “It’s Hunter’s.”
“Oh.” I tucked a stray strand of hair behind my ear. “So, you skipped out of school early.”
He held the dagger up, studying his work. “I tested out of chemistry so I could have a free period at the end of the day.”
“You tested out of chemistry?”
He raised a brow at me.
“Oh, right,” I said, remembering that he was an alchemist and could probably name more formulas than any high school teacher in existence. “Did you also test out of history? Because you weren’t there.”
He averted his eyes and shifted on the bench. “I had to take care of something.”
Of course he did.
“Oh. Um, I need to talk to you about something that’s worrying me.”
“Sure.” He leaned over and picked up the crossbow from the ground.
I took it but didn’t have the energy to lift it properly. Not with this problem nagging at me. “I wanted to talk to Lilura about this actually, but she’s been sick, I guess. Anyway, a couple nights ago, I wandered off in my sleep. I don’t know where I went, but when Mara woke me in the morning—in my bed—my feet were covered in mud.”
He fixed his gaze on me, but I knew the gears in his mind were turning, trying to make sense of what I’d just told him. “And last night?”
I shook my head. “Nothing. At least, I don’t think so.”
He scratched his brow. “All right. It could be nothing. But we’ll talk to Lilura when she’s up.”
“Do you have some kind of anti-sleepwalking potion you can make me?”
“If it’s just sleepwalking, yes. If it’s something else…” He didn’t finish. He didn’t have to.
“Okay.” I stood and lifted the bow. “We’ll talk to Lilura. Is she okay? Hunter said you were making some kind of medicine for her. Did it work?”
“Yeah, yeah.” He waved a hand at me in dismissal, reminding me of his grandmother. “She just needs a little more time to get over a cold, that’s all. Older people aren’t as resilient as we are. Enjoy being young while we can, I guess.”
“I guess.” I ran my hand over the bow. “All right. Let’s practice.”
I stood in my usual spot, focusing on my aim. At least here, doing what I always did after school, I felt normal. The arrow made a sharp zinging noise as it shot through the air at the target. I smiled when it hit the exact center of the bull’s-eye.
After a round of perfect hits, Chase held out a dagger to me.
“Ready to try these?”
I’d been practicing with the daggers for a month now at Lilura’s suggestion that I should be ready, just in case. Though I totally sucked at first, I was beginning to get the hang of it. I lifted my arm and swung it down, flicking my wrist at the proper moment. The dagger zipped toward the target, stabbing into the bottom left corner. Far from center, but at least I was hitting the target at all.
Chase stood beside me with his arms crossed. “I’ve improved the tincture coating on the weapons to what I hope will be more lethal to a Reaper. Of course, there’s no way for me to test it. But based on the information we have, I’m hopeful it’ll work better. And faster.”
“Sounds great.”
“I’m also trying to figure a way to get the poison inside the daggers.”
I stopped mid-throw and turned to Chase. “Inside?”
“Yeah. To put some kind of mechanism in the handle so that when the blade hits its target, the poison is injected into whatever it penetrates.”
“You can do that?”
He shrugged. “I can try.”
I shouldn’t have questioned his ability. After all, he did construct the crossbow I used with his very own hands.
“Cool.” I faced the bull’s-eye again and threw the next dagger, hitting bottom center this time.
“I have an idea,” Chase said. “Turn around.”
I blinked. “What? Why?”
“Just do it.”
I sighed and did as he said, not knowing what to expect. A piece of black cloth came down in front of my face. Everything went dark as he secured a blindfold around my head. I could hear his breathing at the back of my ear as he tightened the knot.
“What exactly do you have in mind, Chase?”
He laughed, his breath tickling my hair. “Give me your hand.”
I held my ha
nd out and felt cold metal resting in my palm. I carefully wrapped my fingers around the handle of the dagger.
“What do you want me to do?”
Chase took me by the shoulders and turned me slightly. “I want you to try to hit the bull’s-eye again.”
“You’re kidding, right? There’s no way I can do that.”
“Zadie, one of the things you need to learn is to feel your magic. You can’t always rely on your eyes. But your instincts will lead you the right way. Feel it in your blood. Vila have a great sense of… well, sense.”
I took a deep breath. If it was a trait of a Vila, then it should come easy to me. At least, that was the theory.
“Okay, you’re facing the target. I’m pretty sure you remember where it is. Trust your instincts. Feel what you need to happen. And when you’re ready, throw the knife.”
“But what if I hit something I’m not supposed to?”
“Don’t worry; it’s just Gavin standing there. I’m sure you won’t hit him.”
“What!”
He laughed and gave my shoulders a squeeze. “I’m kidding. There’s no one there. It’s just you and the target. Feel your way. And throw the knife.”
I held my breath and lifted my arm, trying to memorize what I’d learned so far. When I could see the target, that is. Guessing where I’d have to let go, I swung my arm and flicked my wrist, releasing the dagger. Chase’s sigh told me I was way off target.
“You’re letting your nerves get in the way. Concentrate on the energy from your being. Find the target without looking.”
I bit my lip. How was I supposed to find the target without looking at it? This was crazy. I let out a small grunt of frustration. When I threw the dagger this time, I heard a small thunk, as if I hit the wooden fence behind the target.
“Missed again?” I asked.
“Try to feel where the target is.”
“I’m trying.”
“Do you feel the sun on your hair?”
“Yeah.”
“So you know where it is without seeing it.”
I shrugged. “I guess.”
“Don’t guess. Know it.” Chase stood close behind me and placed his hands on my hips. “Feel that?”
My Tethered Soul: Volume 2 (Reaper's Rite) Page 4
