by Diana Nixon
“Of course, no problem. And Evan… thank you. For everything. I don’t know what I would have done without you.”
“You are always welcome,” I said, kissing her hair.
Chapter 14. From the Very Beginning
Eileen
I would have never imagined that Christian’s presence would be the last thing I would enjoy. My morning started with me coming to have breakfast and seeing all my friends, sitting together, laughing happily and celebrating our return. My plans of a quiet morning were ruined at once. I was still depressed after yesterday’s events and the last thing I wanted was smiling and chatting. Seeing me, Evan waved his hand, asking me to join them. There was no way I could turn around and run away, so I took a deep breath and went to their table.
“Morning everyone,” I said, taking a seat next to Evan. The immediate silence made it clear that all those present were well aware of our small problem with Christian.
Tara was the first to break the ice. “We are so glad you are back,” she said, hugging my shoulders.
“Personally, I never doubted our success,” Evan said with a grin. “Want some coffee?” he asked, turning to me.
“It’s okay, I’ll get it,” I said, rising to my feet as making coffee was the only excuse to escape all the compassionate gazes.
“I think I need one more cup,” Tara said, following me. “Are you okay?” she asked quietly, adjusting to my step.
“I don’t know what to say. I'm sick as a dog.”
“Christian is suffering too,” she whispered, as she poured another cup of coffee.
“I know, but it’s not helping.” I sighed. “The more I concentrate on his feelings, the worse I feel. And I can’t help it, I can’t distract myself from thinking about him.”
“Everything's gonna be okay, you just need to….”
“Wait? I know.” I nodded, realizing that the amount of food in front of my eyes was making me feel even sicker. My appetite was gone and I really doubted that the cup of coffee in my hand would fix it. “Don’t worry, Tara, I have already been waiting for so long, I can wait more. As long as Christian needs. It’s just... easier said than done,” I added, trying to make myself smile.
“My visions are foggy, but as soon as I see something new, I will let you know,” she said reassuringly.
“Thanks. I hope this nightmare won’t last forever.”
I was wrong about my coffee, it did work, helping me to concentrate and gain control of myself. Evan did his best to distract everyone from me with his unstoppable stories about our trip to France, but I knew that he was checking on me out of the corner of his eye, feeling the nervous vibrations of my aura. But I was glad to get a chance to enjoy my coffee without saying a word.
Christian wasn’t paying much attention to Evan’s jokes, he was watching me silently. I could feel my cheeks burning under his curious gaze, and a few times I couldn’t stop myself from looking back at him. The corners of his mouth turned up and he smiled mysteriously. I almost choked over my coffee thinking about the taste of those amazing lips and the way they could touch my skin. I swallowed hard and blushed even more, hiding my face behind my cup. He chuckled and lowered his head, hiding his beautiful eyes under the shade of his long black lashes. God, I so wanted to die right then! He knew what I was thinking about and my embarrassment was simply killing. I felt like a crazy fan of some inaccessible rock star, dying to find myself in his strong embrace, because at that very moment he was my out-of-reach dream, and he knew it. And it looked like he was really enjoying the situation! He took a gulp of his coffee and licked away the few drops that were left on his lips, making me almost scream in agony, because the view of his tongue, moving slowly over his smooth lips was simply unbearable. God, help me please, I groaned mentally. No more sickness and heartache, huh? I looked at Christian angrily. Then I closed my eyes for a second, trying to block the vision of his mouth moving over mine. Evan turned to me and frowned, trying to understand what could be the cause of the bright-red sparks I was sure were now shining in my aura. And I couldn’t hide them. Then he looked at Christian and smiled knowingly, winking at his friend.
He must be kidding me, I thought irritably, kicking his leg under the table. He looked at me, raising his eyebrows innocently and I shook my head, thinking about how to pay him back.
In general our breakfast was surprisingly good. I tried my best not to think about Christian’s gazes and even managed to participate in my friends’ vivid conversation. They wanted to know everything about our adventures, so Evan and I eagerly told them all the details of our trip to France, about Marion and the Dragons. Darcy and Anna told us about a new spell they had found in one of Camilla's diaries. They couldn't decipher its meaning so they asked us for help. Evan and I followed them to Darcy's room.
“Now you have some time to calm down your heart and your thoughts,” Evan teased, leaving the dining room. “Because thinking about Christian, and uh… well, you know what I’m talking about, will never let you concentrate properly and help us. And we so need you to have your mind clear.”
I rolled my eyes, saying, “Trust me I want to stop thinking about him, I just can’t do it! Especially when he’s so close and so…” I stopped, shaking off the memory of Christian licking the coffee from his lips in such a sensual way. “I’m trying, Evan,” I said, taking a deep breath. “I’m really trying.”
“Try harder, Eileen.” Evan smiled. “He doesn’t remember you and doesn’t feel you the way he used to, but he can still read auras. And their colors betray your every thought.”
"Well, thanks for the reminder, Evan! As if I didn't know that myself!"
“But he seems to be really enjoying every second of your blushing."
“Uh, for God’s sake, Evan!" I flared up. “Let’s talk about something else.”
“Fine,” he agreed, still smiling. “What would you like to talk about?”
“Did you see Marion this morning?”
“Yes, she stopped by for a moment when you were taking a shower. She asked about you and said she wanted to talk to Patrick about something.”
Entering Darcy’s room, Evan and I stopped in surprise. The entire place was covered with old books and papers of every size.
“Was there a paper factory explosion here?” Evan asked, jokingly.
“Something of the sort," Darcy said. "Since you left I have found a few more of Camilla’s diaries that I’m trying to sort now, so please don’t rearrange anything, as Anna and I have spent many nights bringing all the chaos to order.”
“Well, if you call this order, I don’t even want to imagine what was here before,” Evan said, stepping over the papers. “Are you sure there were only a few more diaries? Because it really looks like a hundred of them spread out here!”
“Leave out your jokes, Evan!” Darcy snapped. “You’d better look at this,” she said, giving him a picture with some text written on it.
“Eileen, does this drawing ring a bell?” he asked.
“It reminds me of your family emblem a little,” I replied, looking at the picture. There was a tattoo from the stranger's back. “What does it mean? Do you think that the man killed in Norfield, was one of the Dragons too?”
“I don’t know for sure.” He shrugged.
“But the flower is different from the one that was drawn in your parent’s house,” I said, turning the picture to the light.
“Yeah, you are right. It’s weird, isn’t it? Patrick said that it was a roseroot.”
“Actually, there’s nothing weird about its form,” Anna said. “The roseroot doesn’t have any permanent form. It changes all the time. That’s why no one knows what it really looks like.”
“But how do people find it?”
“By its smell. It’s really hard to find the roseroot. It’s a rarity for the local mountains.”
“Wait, are you saying that it grows only here, in Cumbrian mountains?” I asked curiously.
“Exactly. We don’t know about an
y other place of its origin.”
“Anna, what do you know about its properties?” Evan asked, putting the picture on the desk behind him.
“The same thing everyone else knows – that the roseroot is a perfect source of life energy. But those who don’t know how to use it properly can be seriously injured. Or even die.”
“You said that man who was killed in Norfield was poisoned, right? Could it be from a very strong potion of a roseroot?”
“Unfortunately, we will never be able to find it out,” Anna said.
“Why?”
“Because the traces of the roseroot can’t be found where there’s no life.”
“Really? You know what? The more we talk about it the more I’m sure that our assumptions are correct. That man was killed by someone who knew about the roseroot potion's properties. But the murderer doesn’t know that we have the body now and it means that he will be looking for it everywhere to hide all the evidence of the Dragons brotherhood existence. Where do they keep the body?”
“As far as I know it was left in Norfield,” Darcy said, trying to follow Evan’s reasoning. “Do you really think that one of the brotherhood members will come back to take it away?”
“I’m sure about it.” Evan nodded, crossing his arms. “If we manage to find this person, we will be able to find the answers to some of our questions as well. We should warn the Keepers in Norfield.”
After calling Patrick and telling him about our assumptions, we started reading Camilla’s new diaries.
“Darcy, what spell didn’t you want us to see?” I recalled our conversation in the dining room.
“Oh, right!” She rushed to her desk, unlocked one of its drawers and gave me an old paper.
Unfolding it, I saw a text, written in Latin and a drawing covering it.
“Disarmentum absolutis,” Evan read aloud. “I’ve never heard about it.”
“But I have,” I said, stunned, looking at the piece of paper in my hands. I went to the desk and turned on the yellow lamp to highlight the picture. “I saw it in one of Marion’s books,” I said, trying to see the lines of the drawing. “It’s one of the most powerful disarming spells. It can erase not only people’s power, but the power of material objects as well. The book said that every disarming spell has its visual form. Like my tattoo. And usually we see only a part of it, but when we highlight the paper, we can see it as one piece. But the lines are very thin here, I can’t decipher them.” I sighed, disappointed. “Darcy, give me a pencil please. I think I know what to do.”
“Here,” Darcy said, coming to me with several different pencils in her hand.
Taking one of them, I put the paper on the desk and started marking it over the text.
“Look at this,” I said, when the first faint lines formed into part of a picture. And then the complete drawing became visible. No one was surprised to see the already familiar dragon's wings. The moon, the stars and the flower completed the drawing. We thought that the flower was one of the roseroot’s forms.
“Wow!” Evan exclaimed, watching my finished work. “Who would spend so much time on drawing this?”
“The one who made the spell, I guess,” Darcy replied. “But the handwriting doesn’t belong to my grandma.”
“How did she find it then?” I wondered.
“She was a historian, after all. She could have found it in a book.”
“Eileen, you said there are many other spells like this one. What does it mean?” Evan asked.
“Marion’s book said that the visual expression of a spell differs from the object or person it was cast against. The invisible ink of this drawing is a part of the spell too. It specifies its object.”
“So this time the spell was made to erase some of the Dragons member's power, right?”
“Well, considering the amount and the diversity of the ingredients, I think it was made for its leader,” Darcy concluded. Evan and I exchanged surprised glances. Neither he nor I had thought about it. And I was sure that at that very moment Evan was thinking about his parents, wondering if this spell could be the reason for their death.
“We need to show these papers to Marion,” he said, as if reading my mind.
We couldn’t be sure about anything, so we took the pictures and headed for the Administration, to Patrick’s office.
Amanda and Lucas were having classes, but Christian was with his father and the moment we entered, his eyes immediately found mine, making my heart beat faster. I turned away, hoping to seem indifferent, but he knew better. He smiled slightly and switched his attention to Evan, giving me a chance to relax. But every time I looked at him his eyes were on me, scrutinizing every inch of my face. I didn’t know what he was thinking about, but I knew that his nervousness had disappeared without a trace. The inexplicable excitement and joy were filling his heart.
God, how I wish I could share his feelings too. Christian looked very calm and confident, and I could feel it in everything he was doing, even in the way he smiled every time our gazes met. I didn’t know why, but it irritated me to the utmost. My presence didn’t bother him. He wasn’t jumping out of his shoes with my every word and wasn’t trying to step away when I came closer. If anything, he was trying to do his best to catch my eye, making Evan chuckle quietly behind me. But even seeing the vibrations of my aura, Christian, thank God, couldn’t read my mind, because he was all I could think about now.
I was dying to touch him, to feel his warmth and breathe in his familiar scent that I had been missing for so long. And I still didn’t have a chance to embrace him. It looked like I was the only person with that problem, because even his ex girlfriend, Vanessa had already managed to greet him with her hands all over his body.
That’s why his presence was unbearable. I wanted to run away, to hide somewhere and wipe away my sorrow. I couldn’t stand being in the same room with him, pretending not to feel anything for him.
“Eileen,” Evan called quietly. “Are you okay?”
I gave him a very meaningful look, making him smile sympathetically in response.
“I think, you are right," Marion said. “This spell was designed to kill the Dragons' leader. But it has never been used.”
“How do you know that?” I asked her, joining the conversation.
“It’s a one-time spell,” she explained, showing me the picture. “The drawing would be different if the spell was used. The moon, the stars and the flower symbolize the provisions for the spell to be imposed. So when it’s over, the provisions disappear and only the main picture remains untouched. But this drawing is complete. And something tells me, that the one who wanted to use it isn’t in this room now,” she said, looking at Evan.
“Are you talking about Kevin?” he guessed. It looked like he was no longer surprised to hear more bad news about his brother. “So that’s what he was looking for in Camilla’s diaries!”
“It’s just my assumption, Evan,” Marion said. She knew that no matter how calm he might seem, he still was upset about all the secrets his family had. “The ring he gave Tara was just a forgery. Though, a very expensive one. The sapphire was real, of course, but there was no emblem under it. So I think your brother has been cheated by someone, which also means that the real ring is somewhere else. And I’m still sure that it won’t work for anyone but you. The only question is – who has the ring now?”
“Wait a second,” I interrupted her, raising my hand. I turned to Evan, “Your father was wearing it the moment the accident happened. I saw it on his finger with my own eyes.”
“Yeah, I remember that too.” Evan nodded, becoming even more nervous. “But when his body was brought to the hospital, the ring was gone. I didn’t pay much attention to that memory, but now it seems very suspicious.”
“So it means that the ring was stolen somewhere between the moment of your parents’ death and the ambulance arriving,” Patrick concluded, passing his office for like the fifth time already. “Do you remember anyone who was at the hospital with
you?”
“Actually, I don’t remember much about that day. Everything was so blurry.”
“I see.” Patrick nodded, rubbing the bridge of his nose. All those sleepless nights of worry about his son’s disappearance were very stressful and now he looked like someone who desperately needed a break and a good night's sleep. “Just let me know if you remember anything,” he said.
“Absolutely.”
“And we still don’t know where Alexis is,” Darcy said. “The Keepers searched Eric’s apartment again, but didn’t find any traces of her presence there.”
“Anyway, I don’t get it. What would she be doing there?” Evan wondered. “Can I go there too? Just to see if I can feel anything unusual.”
“Of course, if you want to,” Patrick said. “I’ll take care of the car for you,” he added, coming back to his desk.
“Don’t worry about that, I’ll take mine.”
“You are not going there alone, are you?” I asked Evan. “I’ll go with you.”
“I don’t think it’s a good idea, Eileen," Christian said. It has been the first time since the moment of our return that he talked directly to me. I stopped breathing, stunned by the sound of my name. The way he pronounced it sounded so painfully familiar.
“Evan can’t go there alone,” I protested stubbornly. “We are all in danger now and if Alexis knows that Evan has killed Eric, we need to protect him too.”
“I’m sure she knows the truth," Marion said, confirming my fears. “He was her brother after all, she could feel his death even from a distance. Don’t forget that they both belong to the Wizardy family and if something happens to one of its members, all the others are able to feel it too.”
“That’s exactly my point,” Christian said, watching me meaningfully. “It’s too dangerous to let Eileen accompany Evan.”
Our friend smiled in response. “See?” he whispered into my ear. “Even with his memory problems he’s still jealous of you.”
I rolled my eyes and said, “He may take someone else with him, but I will never let him go there alone.”
