by K. A. Poe
I shuddered involuntarily. “Does that happen often …? Enemies coming here, I mean.”
Forrest shook his head. “No. It’s rare. And when they do, they don’t usually realize they’re even in Castus territory.”
“How not?”
“We’re hidden from them, so to speak. Look, I’d love to fill you in sometime, but we’d better head out and see what’s up. Thanks for the dinner.”
“Yeah, sure, of course. Thanks for chipping in,” I said and looked at Elijah. “Why didn’t yours go off?”
He smiled at me and stood up. “I don’t have mine on me right now. I pretty much depend on him to have his. Not too fond of the thing.”
I heard a door shut and Iris came back into the lobby smiling.
“You two get it too?”
“Yep.”
“Well, what’re you waiting for?”
And with that, the three of them vanished out the door. I sighed, cleaned up the mess from dinner, and went back to my room to begin the tedious task of finishing my homework.
Thoughts and images of Mathias crept into my mind countless times throughout the next few hours, and I yearned to go see him again, but I knew I shouldn’t. I sent him a quick text to ask how he was, but slapped my hand against my forehead when I remembered he couldn’t use the phone. With a heavy sigh, I resumed reading and writing and filling my brain with knowledge that I knew would be of little to no use to me in the future. My phone chimed and my heart leapt with excitement.
Even if it was just a simple “Okay”, it was relieving to know that we were able to communicate with each other and that Tobias must have finally gave in. I stuffed my books back into my bag and shut off the lights, climbed into bed and pulled the covers over me. I thought again of Hannah and her nightly visits back at Eila’s house. Did she still attempt to visit me now, here? I doubted it. She had gotten what she wanted from me — the promise that I would do anything she asked of me if she helped get my mom out of Littlehaven.
The boy with the blood-red eyes flashed through my mind as I shut my eyes and struggled to fall asleep.
I opened them with a startled gasp and stared at the ceiling above me. Mathias had sent another message, asking how I was, and I told him the truth — that I was scared. I was afraid of what might happen to him, I was afraid of what might happen to me when and if I went to Romania to face my twin brother and the man that had twisted him into the monster he was. Mathias replied quicker this time, telling me that I didn’t need to be afraid — everything would be okay.
I let myself fall asleep again with that thought in mind, as much as I didn’t believe it.
Everything would be okay.
Chapter Twenty-Four
The rest of the week slid by slowly; it was a mix of trudging through school with thoughts full of Mathias as well as my ‘destiny’. Most evenings were spent practicing my new gift, trying to move heavier objects and get them from one place to another more quickly. One night was spent watching TV with Eden, who was silent and shy throughout the entire show. It had been my first time seeing her in a while, and I’d thought maybe we could talk about how she was progressing at discovering her power. But she’d said nothing and I felt like she just wanted to rest and zone out. So I let her, and for the first time in weeks, I let myself do the same.
My Clairvoyance was definitely gone, replaced somehow by this Telekinesis gift. It seemed as though three gifts at once was truly impossible as Iris had suggested. I’d attempted numerous times at school to read other’s thoughts, but only came up with silence. They couldn’t shield their minds from me the way fellow witches could, so I knew it wasn’t anything on my classmate’s part. Something had changed inside me, something that I couldn’t explain — no one could explain, and that made it a little scary. I wanted to talk to Artemis about it finally, but I hadn’t seen him since he left the day I’d demonstrated the new power to him. I assumed he was still gone, doing whatever he was doing ... hopefully far away, finding help for Mathias like he’d said he would.
Saturday morning came and I let myself sleep in a little. When I woke up, I found that, yet again, my mom was missing. With an annoyed sigh, I sat up and fed Willow. She’d been sleeping on Mom’s bed more than mine lately and it made me almost as depressed as Mom’s absence had. With a quick thought, I summoned a laser mouse into my hand and sent the cat running wildly around the room in an impossible feat to catch the mysterious red dot. She climbed onto my nightstand and knocked down a piece of paper I hadn’t noticed. I turned the laser pointer off and stuffed it into my pocket; Willow still looked around expectantly for the red light, but soon gave up and started licking her paws. Kneeling down, I picked up the piece of paper and saw that my name was written on it in neat, tiny lettering. Script that I recognized immediately as the same writing I’d seen in a journal written in my mom’s journals.
Madison,
I am truly sorry for how distant I have been these past few weeks. Please know that it is nothing to do with you, or rather, me not wanting to be around you. I have been trying hard to find a job so that I may support you (us) while also trying to find time to relearn my old gift. Jason’s been helping me a lot, and I have transformed twice now ... but the effect doesn’t last long. I don’t understand why. Jason believes it’s because I’m too distracted, and he’s probably right. You’re all I think about — you and your father. Your real father. I know how things might have come across to you, that Jason and I were going to become more than what we have always been ... best friends ... but nothing and no one could take Salem’s place in my heart. I admit that we tried, we tried to go out and tried to be more than friends, and while Jason wanted it more than anything ... I couldn’t go through with it. My heart is taken, even if by a man whose heart no longer beats. I’ve spent more nights crying than anything else. That is why I’m not often in the room. I couldn’t let you know. Couldn’t let you hear.
Please know that I am here for you, and that I always have been in some way or another, whether you knew it or not. My heart and soul have always been with you. I had wanted to tell you all of this in person, but for some reason, these things come easier in written words. Perhaps it was something passed along from the woman who raised me — Janet.
When I was eighteen, my mom practically abandoned me through a note she’d left me. She wrote that she had run off with some guy and I was on my own.
I would never do that to you, but that doesn’t mean that I won’t have an easier time communicating some things to you through notes than words. Maybe it also stems from all of the time I’d spent writing in journals all of those years at Littlehaven. I hope you understand.
I love you, Madison. And I am here for you, any time you need me.
Love,
Mom
My eyes grew warm and I let a tear fall down my cheek. How could her mom have been so cruel? I couldn’t even imagine what it must have been like for her — her life had been even harder than I’d realized.
After setting the note back on my nightstand, I showered and got dressed, then ate a bowl of strawberry oatmeal. My next destination was Mathias’s room, with or without Tobias being there. The door was locked, but thanks to Alan, I now knew a way to get past that. Tobias was sitting at the dining room table eating a bowl of cereal and I looked at him with a finger to my lips, casting a warning glare in his direction. He sat up and eyed me curiously but didn’t move to stop me. Mathias was asleep, his long lashes — now as silver as the hair on his head — rested against the pale, sunken skin of his sockets. I admired him and how at peace he seemed, until his body flickered in and out again. My eyes went straight to Tobias and he frowned — maybe he wasn’t as bad as I’d previously thought. With a final glance at Mathias, I stepped quietly out of the room and headed toward Artemis’s room with the hope that he’d be back.
To my surprise, his door was unlocked. We must have forgotten to lock it when we left. That also meant he hadn’t been back since I saw him that day in th
e lobby …
With a sigh of disappointment, I headed for the lobby with uncertainty. Without Artemis around, I had no idea who to go to, and I knew that Mathias wasn’t improving at all. If anything, he was getting worse. I contemplated seeking answers from Hannah and telling her what Noah had said and seeing if she could help in any way. After all, if she could get into my locked windows at night without a trace, surely she could get into the Nefastus’s hideout and help get me some information. I doubted she’d agree, but figured there would be no harm in at least asking.
Noah was coming in through the front door right as I was about to leave.
“Missed me and decided to come looking for me, huh?” he asked with a flirtatious grin.
I rolled my eyes and laughed. “No. Not even close.”
He frowned pitifully and I shook my head, not giving in. “Then where do you think you’re going all alone?”
“Out,” I said mockingly, mimicking his response when I’d last asked him the same question.
“Funny,” he said and folded his arms across his chest.
“So, um, where is the Nefastus’s secret lair place anyway?”
He looked taken aback and seemed to have to think a moment to determine whether I’d really said that or not. “Uh, are you joking?”
“No. You said that I should go talk to them.”
Noah shook his head and sighed. “That is NOT what I said. If they didn’t kill you, Artemis sure as hell would when you came back.”
“Just tell me. I promise I won’t go there. I just want to know.”
He laughed. “Likely story.”
“Ugh, would you just tell me already?!”
“Fine,” he grumbled. “At the base of Rocky Mountain National Park, off on one of the little service roads, there is a tower fortress built into the side of the mountain. But you won’t have an easy time finding it. It’s hidden with a concealment spell.”
“A concealment spell? Wait ... we can do spells?”
Noah looked amused and surprised at the same time. “Really, Madison? What, you thought that witches were just magic casters? There are other kinds of witches out there ... lesser witches, if you will. They’re the ones that cast spells and make the potions; they’re the ones that make it so everyone but us sees this place as just an old abandoned motel. I assumed you’d know that by now.”
With a frown, I said, “Yeah ... there are a lot of things I assumed I’d know by now. How would someone get past such a spell?
He looked at me darkly. “For someone who doesn’t plan on going to this place, you’re sure asking a lot of questions about it.”
“A girl can be curious, can’t she?”
“Curiosity killed the cat, didn’t it?” he said gravely and looked me over. “You don’t know what you’re getting yourself into, Madison. It’s not safe and it’s not smart. Mathias wouldn’t want you risking your life for him like this.”
“Well, someone has to,” I replied stubbornly. “So, are you going to take me there or what?”
“And be the one responsible for helping get the girl he likes killed?”
I froze up. It had nothing to do with the door being cracked open and the wind blowing a chilling breeze into the building. “He’s said that? That he likes me?” I remembered him saying he liked being with me, at the diner, but not word-for-word ‘I like you’. Had that been what he meant?
Noah laughed. “Even if he hadn’t, it’s obvious. He’s been wrapped around your finger ever since he first met you.”
I was stunned into silence, even though I had been subconsciously aware of it for a while, and Alan had pointed it out to me numerous times already ... but he had actually told Noah of his feelings for me?
“Then the more reason to save him,” I said with a shaky breath.
“You can’t be serious ...” he said with a look of disbelief. “Madison ... he wants to protect you, and ... you going out and risking your life like that is the complete opposite of that.”
“What about what I want? I want him to be safe and healthy and alive!”
“We’re having almost the same conversation over again,” he said with amusement. “Artemis is working on it, okay? He’s got it.”
“Bullshit he is! He’s been gone for over a week and Mathias is just getting worse!”
“He’s been gone for so long because he’s that dedicated to finding a cure.”
“Even if that’s the case, why can’t I help? If he hasn’t already gone to the Nefastus, then someone needs to ... and it might as well be me.”
“You’d be making a huge mistake.”
“So what!”
He took me by the arm and brought me close to him, his warm breath tickling my skin. “There is more to it than that. They know of your gifts, they know that you are unique, and they want you for themselves. You can’t just give yourself up to them willingly.”
“How do you know all of this? How do you know where their lair is?” I asked and tried to pull away from him.
He shut his eyes and inhaled deeply, a look of pain flashing across his face. “I can’t talk about it.”
“Can’t or won’t?” I asked and successfully pulled away, brushing my hair back from my face and looking him over. “What’s going on, Noah? Are you … are you one —”
A sound from behind us alerted me of someone else’s presence in the room. I looked back to see Alan looking at us curiously. Brows arched, he stepped further into the room and eyed Noah.
“Is everything all right? Am I interrupting something?”
Noah straightened up and cleared his throat. “No. I was just leaving, anyway.”
There wasn’t any time to question him or even say goodbye before he stepped through the door and it swung shut behind him. I sighed in defeat and turned around to face Alan.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
I nodded. “Yeah. Fine. I’m about to head over to my aunt’s house to ask her a few things.”
“I could walk you there,” he offered, eyes lit up with gentle warmth.
The offer was tempting, and I contemplated it for a moment, but ultimately shook my head. Having him there would have caused questions to arise, and I didn’t feel like explaining to him yet what was going on — if ever. He didn’t need to know that I was going to look for the Nefastus’s hideout, nor why. Likewise, Hannah didn’t need to point out I was with another boy.
“No, that’s okay. It’s kind of personal ... family-related.”
He looked disappointed — maybe even a little sad — and stuffed his hands into his jeans pockets. “Ah.”
“It’s nothing to do with you or anything, I promise. I just need to talk to her alone.”
“I understand, Madison. If you do need me however, for any reason, you know where to find me,” he said and started walking to his room.
I watched him walk away, without a single glance back in my direction. There was a pang of guilt in the pit of my stomach that I didn’t quite understand. I wanted him to go with me; I wanted his presence to comfort me along the walk toward the apartments. Walking there alone, after being attacked by the frost witch, I felt vulnerable. There was more to it than that, though.
I shook my head in frustration with myself. Maybe my aunt had been right, at least a little. This whole boy thing was driving me crazy. And, no matter what I decided, I knew one would be hurt.
Chapter Twenty-Five
On my way to Hannah and Ezra’s apartment, I made sure to take the most public route possible, despite it doubling my travel time. I passed by shops and drug stores, and only the occasional alley — each of which made me nervous. I tightened my arms around me and ducked my head as I swiftly walked along the sidewalks, hoping that no one around would notice me — human or witch. The further I walked, the more my mind became clouded with thoughts of Alan and Mathias. I wanted nothing more at that moment than to have either of them by my side, walking along with me and warding off any threats that might come. Mathias had sworn to pr
otect me, yet he couldn’t be with me, and it felt like I needed to be the one protecting him. Alan had offered to walk with me and I was stupid enough to decline. My feelings for the two boys confused me and made my head whirl and my heart flutter with excitement, something I never experienced in school. Every boy there had seemed ordinary and uninteresting to me, but then I met Mathias and everything changed. He cared about me, wanted to be around me and wasn’t only interested in me because I was pretty or different … but so did Alan. Alan was right — sooner or later, one of us was going to get hurt.
But it didn’t matter. Not right now. All that mattered now was helping Mathias. Whether I liked him in that way or not, he was still a Clan member; he was still a friend … and a good person.
Hannah was sitting in the armchair with a book in her hand, flipping through the pages and seemingly ignoring my presence. I opened my mouth to speak and she put a finger up to silence me, then flipped the page again and placed a bookmark where she’d left off.
“I never pictured you as someone who reads anything other than my mother’s diaries,” I said and watched her eyes rise to meet mine.
“Oh, please,” she said dully and sat up. “What do you want now?”
“Who says I want anything?”
Hannah grimaced and her eyes darkened. “It doesn’t take a psychic to know that you only come here now when you need or want something.”
I sat on the futon and went to apologize, then thought better of it. Hannah didn’t deserve my apologies. She was the one that came to me only because she needed something, wasn’t she?
“I’ve been doing some digging around, and I may have figured something out that might help Mathias.”
My aunt’s lips formed a thin line. She closed the book completely and set it down on the lopsided coffee table. “You have come to me with this stupid nonsense again? What did I tell you before about love and boys?”
“Look,” I said, ignoring her as best as I could, “Artemis said there was only one other Shimmerer. I found out who they are. They’ve been using their gift for a lot longer than Mathias has and they aren’t sick, so they have to know something.”
