“That’s wonderful!”
I chuckled and took a seat on the bed beside us. “You were right though, it’s difficult to explain, I couldn’t have done that with you. It’s so organic and … I dunno, instinctual, that it had to be another demon, otherwise I wouldn’t have learned anything .”
“And who was helping you?”
“Um … Aidan. He’s the only demon that I know…” my voice tapered off as her face grew serious.
She sighed. “I figured that would probably be the case — once Aidan got his sights on you there was very little chance he’d allow you to train with someone else. I don’t exactly approve,” she told me carefully. “But I know you didn’t have a lot of other options. Just promise me that you’ll be careful. He is dangerous. Aidan will play mind games with you and find … creative ways to try and control you. You will have to keep your guard up at all times. Training a new recruit is something usually delegated to lesser devils and demons. Teaching you is honestly, far beneath him. For him to take such a personal interest in you, regardless of who your mother is, is extremely troubling. I am telling you now that the center of this man’s attention is not where you want to be. He’s a Lord of Hell, and much more cunning and manipulative than his cohorts. That being said, I’m not telling you to stop, I’m telling you to be careful. Obviously you can’t insult him by training with another demon now that he’s accepted you under his tutelage, but I would urge you to proceed with caution. He is not to be trusted.”
Her words sent a shiver down my spine.
“See? This is why I need you, to tell me things like that. Caleb … wouldn’t understand.”
She smiled kindly and gave me a one armed hug. “Of course I understand, but that doesn’t stop me from being worried for you. Was there something else you wanted to show me?”
“Huh? Oh, yeah!”
I’d completely forgot about the original reason I asked her up here and walked over to my jewelry box where the quartz crystal was waiting. When I lifted the lid and grabbed it, there was the same unnatural thumping of a heartbeat coming from within. I placed it in the palm of my hand and walked over to where she could see. “What I wanted to talk to you about, is this.”
Nadia looked down at the pink stone and her eyes narrowed. “Is that what I think it is?”
I laughed at the obscurity of the situation and said, “I don’t know, you tell me!”
“May I?”
Realizing what she meant, I placed the stone in the palm of her hand and let her examine it more closely. “Well, it’s obviously a spell stone, but I don’t have any idea what the original charm could be. It’s faint now, I can sense the power is wearing off. Probably something she had to renew on a regular basis and it hasn’t been getting done.”
“So that heartbeat isn’t Moms? It’s not, you know, her life force or something?”
Nadia smiled as she handed it back to me. “No dear, I strongly doubt it. My guess would be a love spell, or something like it. If I’m right, then this stone could be the entirety of your parent’s relationship.”
“It’s so faint,” I muttered softly. “What do I do?”
“Nothing, sweetheart, you didn’t cast the spell. All you can do is love them while it runs its course. You can’t manipulate other people’s life choices the way your mother did, it isn’t right. Just set it aside and keep it safe, but don’t dwell on it.”
I nodded soberly and returned it to the jewelry box where I had kept it. There was a long pause before I forced a smile and turned to her. “Wanna hear all about the stuff I learned?”
Nadia smiled back at me and placed her arm around my shoulders. “Absolutely!”
~ * ~
The next morning there was a knock on my open bedroom door and Nadia stepped inside. She was dressed in her traveling clothes again and had her suitcase in hand. “Hey,” I greeted her warmly. “You heading back so soon?”
Nadia smiled. “I'm afraid I have to, love. My life is in New Orleans.”
I smiled weakly and took a step towards her. “Thank you so much, for everything you've done.”
She sighed and gave me a one armed hug. “I'm afraid I've done more harm than good, but it was lovely to see you again after all these years. You've grown into such a lovely young woman, I'm sure you'll do great things.”
“Thank you. Elyse seems to be adjusting well. She just needs some time.”
“Yes, I think it came as more of a shock than anything else,” she agreed completely. “Besides, she has Kevin now and they’ll be starting their own family soon.”
I nodded in agreement and said, “That’s true. Who knows what will happen after that.”
Nadia set down her bag to embrace me one last time and kiss me on the forehead. “Why don't I give you my contact information so the next time you need to get in touch with me you can simply call instead of driving across two states?”
I grinned guiltily and handed her a pen from my nightstand. “Because that would be the easy way of doing things.”
Nadia grinned as she scribbled down her name and telephone number on a scrap of paper and offered it to me. “Blessed be.”
“Uh, right. Same to you,” I mumbled. She gave me a gentle wave and picked her bag up off the floor before disappearing down the hall. I had no idea if or when our paths would cross again, but she was my very own fairy Godmother, and I was eternally grateful that she and I had found one another.
Walking over to the window so I could watch her drive away, I felt a prickle at the back of my neck and I knew that he was coming. As if on cue, when she appeared on the lawn below, Caleb shimmered into my bedroom. He didn’t speak at first and just joined me at the windowsill, silently supporting me.
Nadia looked up at us from the drive and waved before getting in her car. I waved to her as well and choked back the sob that was struggling to break free.
“Are you sad to watch her go?” Caleb asked me softly.
I nodded, thinking about everything that had happened since Ryan and I went to visit her in New Orleans. “Yes.”
Chapter Thirteen
Behind Blue Eyes
Monday mornings were the universe's secret way of punishing me. It's the most inane and useless time of the week. Nothing of any importance ever happened on a Monday and everyone hates them, which begs the question, why aren’t we all still in bed? If I were to ever run for president it would be primarily on an Anti-Monday platform, mostly due to its intrusion on my love affair with sleep.
This was just such a day.
Dad was driving Nate and me to school, though he didn’t fully comprehend the reasons why. All he knew was Ryan and I had a falling out and I needed some other way to get to school. We could have taken the bus, except Nate reminded us what happened the last time we took public transportation and that pretty much ended the discussion right then and there.
I was still hurt by Ryan's decision not to call, but I wasn't really expecting him to either. It was clear when we said our goodbyes he was going to need some time to heal.
After Dad dropped us off, Nate walked with me down the tiled corridor until our paths diverged.
“See ya later, kid.”
He gave a lazy wave in my direction as I turned into the foreign language hall so I could drop my bag off in my locker. I wasn’t sure if he was angry at me for complicating things with Ryan and making his daily ride more difficult, or if he was still getting over the news about Elyse, but he didn’t seem like his usual happy self. I’d been lying to him as well, and he knew it — that wasn’t exactly conducive to familial bonding.
One of these days he’d find out the truth about me, about everything. The deeper I got, the more I realized there was no way to hide this forever. Truth has a nasty way of coming out no matter how hard you try and squash it. I just hoped when the time came to have that fateful discussion, he would be more receptive than the last person who discovered my secret.
By the time I got to class my mind was anxiously fli
pping through different scenarios, trying to come up with the best possible outcome. Sadly, they all seemed rather bleak.
Courtney doodled idly in her notebook when I took my seat beside her. She was wearing a red blouse and her signature matching headband with her hair pulled up into a ponytail. As the teacher took roll I turned sideways in my seat and asked, “What's up?”
She looked up at me through her thickly lined eyelashes and smiled. “Oh, hey. Long time since we've had a chance to talk, eh? I heard you got roped into helping Ryan with the musical, how’s that going for you?”
I chuckled nervously, drumming my pencil against the notebook on my desk. “Yeah, well a lot's been going on, sorry.”
“You look tired,” she agreed. “Up late?”
I was about to answer her when Monsieur Warner started class. We both turned dumbly toward the front of the classroom while he began his lecture, unable to finish her line of questioning.
Several minutes later, Courtney slipped a folded piece of paper onto my desk when the teacher wasn't looking. I flipped it over as soon as it was safe to see what she had written.
Are you going to the Murphy’s lake house for spring break with the rest of us?
I rolled my eyes and scribbled my response onto the tattered piece of paper before handing it back to her. It was beginning to seem more and more like there was an inherent duality to my life; the Wynn who went to school and had a strained relationship with her family, and the demon Wynn who was currently on probation from a supernatural governing body and was learning to use magic. Two lives which were mutually incompatible. Now I knew how Clark Kent felt. I hadn’t even thought about spring break until she mentioned it, everything seemed so trivial after the chaos of this weekend.
I don't think so. Ryan hasn't mentioned anything, so I doubt that I'm invited.
She frowned while reading it and started writing furiously in response, her blonde ponytail falling gracefully to the side.
WHY NOT?! Everyone's going to be there!
When she slid it back onto the table, I shook my head to show I didn’t want to talk about it.
Courtney sensed good gossip like a bloodhound and snatched the paper off my desk, writing a few more lines before handing it back to me. Frustrated with her insistence, I took the paper and crumpled it into a ball without even reading it. Her mouth dropped at my abrupt behavior and made no further attempt to question me.
It was my most productive hour in French class to date.
When the class ended, I quietly got my things and left the room before she could hound me for more details. Her moods were unpredictable and just in case she decided to change her mind, I thought it was best to try and steer clear from any unnecessary drama.
The next two hours dragged by even slower than I thought possible, but the payoff was well worth the wait. I entered the library and quietly took a seat in one of the empty chairs in the silent reading area behind the rows of books. It was completely vacant except for the two women behind the circulation desk, which made it the perfect hideaway until this thing with Ryan boiled over.
I should have put my foot down and seen Nadia alone, but I’d been carrying this burden for so long by myself, I just wanted someone I could talk to about it, to know the struggle I’ve been going through. And now I’d lost one of my only friends because of it. I guess they say hindsight is always 20/20. Even if we did patch things up eventually, he would never look at me the same.
Carefully, I retrieved the peanut butter and jelly sandwich from my backpack and ate in relative silence so the librarians wouldn't notice the breach of policy. I was flipping through one of the National Geographic magazines when someone cleared his throat beside me and I glanced up from the article I was reading. Much to my surprise, I found Caleb sitting next to me with a mischievous smile on his face. “Hey, there,” he greeted calmly. “Whatcha doing? I thought you had some friends you usually spent this time with.”
I set down the magazine and sighed, “Ryan needs some time to cope. I’m trying to respect that and give him space.”
“So that means you have to eat alone?”
“I don’t have to, but here I am,” I responded with a shrug. “Don't you have other things that require your attention?”
Now it was his turn to shrug and sit back deeper in his chair, along with that crooked smile I loved so much. “Probably, but none of them are quite as interesting.”
“As talking to me, you mean,” I clarified sarcastically as I scrutinized his overly-casual attitude. I crossed my arms and teased, “Nope, I'm not buying it. What's going on up there? Who are you avoiding?”
Caleb's smile faded as he placed his hands behind his head and leaned back in his chair so that it was only balancing on two legs. “Who says I'm avoiding anyone?”
I challenged him by raising an eyebrow and he sighed, returning the chair to its original position. “All right, you got me. Maya and I are in the middle of another argument, so I'm laying low for a while. Happy?”
“What are you fighting about?”
Our eyes met for a moment and he seemed lost in thought before shaking it off and staring into space. “Don't worry about it. She's just being stubborn and it's getting on my nerves. How’s the show?”
Grinning up at him sideways, I scolded, “Don’t change the subject, we’re talking about you now!”
Caleb sat back in his seat and sighed, exasperated, “You’re nearly as bad as she is.”
“Oh, I’m much worse,” I assured him. “But I’ll let it go this time. You seem to be pretty upset.”
“Thanks.”
“You were asking about the show?”
“Yeah, how’s it going with that? It’s been keeping you pretty busy.”
I nodded in agreement while clicking absentmindedly at the back of my pen. “Yeah, Lacey has me running around in circles most days. You know … you kinda remind me of her,” I told him honestly.
“Really?” he asked with a quizzical eyebrow. “I would never have suspected that.”
“You might be surprised. Your features are similar to start with, and something in your mannerisms is uncannily familiar.”
He pondered that for a minute and smiled. “Huh, interesting.”
I set the magazine on the coffee table and looked at him adoringly for a moment. “What do you do when you’re not here bugging me? Are there other charges you’re responsible for?”
“I’m ‘bugging’ you now?” he inquired playfully. “I thought we were having fun.”
“You know what I mean!”
Caleb sighed and rested his chin in the palm of his hand. “There are a handful of people that require my special attention,” he responded simply. “Ones who are in more need of protection than others. I merely seek to give them a fighting chance and offer sanctuary when needed. You’re not the only one demons have got their eye on.
“I understand.”
“Do you? Because you look distressed,” he pressed me gently.
I chuckled at his ability to see right through me and smiled at him weakly. “It’s just that I feel guilty, taking up so much of your time when there are others who need your help.”
“If they need me, I’ll sense it,” he assured me adamantly. “I like spending time with you as well. Your insights can be … refreshing.”
We talked for the rest of the hour, almost as if our lives were completely normal. It was a refreshing change of pace from our past interactions which were usually fraught with tension and emotionally draining by the end. I was able to laugh with him and just enjoy his company.
When the bell rang, ending the lunch hour, I waved goodbye, and he said he would come by and visit again tonight. I quickly reloaded my backpack, smiled at him, then left him there between the rows of books as I rushed down the hall to my next class.
~ * ~
It was hard to concentrate after that.
I flipped to an empty page in my binder and started sketching what I remembered of his face, from t
he square jawline beneath his ears to his pale, blue eyes. Even his dark, unruly hair was traced with all my skill, down to its finest detail.
When I was finished, I sat back and admired my work — it was like looking at a photograph. The grey shading from my graphite pencil would never do justice to his eyes, but they still looked back at me with the same intensity he always did. I’d never thought of myself as an artist. I don’t identify myself that way, but I have a keen eye when it is needed.
Mr. Green was passing back our Crucible assignment at the end of class when the bell rang, releasing me from the temporary prison. I was getting ready to leave when he called me to his desk. “Miss Hendricks! Good work on that last assignment. I was impressed with your insight on Puritan Era witches. Very interesting.”
“Thank you,” I sputtered out in surprise, embarrassed by his praise.
“Have you thought about what you’d like to do after you graduate? You’d be a shoe-in for a degree in journalism.”
I cleared my throat and pulled my books up to my chest. “I guess I hadn’t really thought about it that way. I’ve always loved creative writing, though I never considered making it a career.”
“You should!” he insisted kindly, the skin crinkling around his eyes when he smiled. “You're turning into a fine writer. Based on your work this past semester I’m sure you’d do quite well in anything you want involving literature. Keep up the good work.”
I nodded, slipping the paper into my notebook, and headed out of the classroom. Halfway down the hall Lacey came running up behind me. “Wynnona Hendricks! I have a bone to pick with you!”
Turning at the sound of her voice, I knew right away something was wrong. Her usually cheery green aura was dull and muddled, there were even a few pieces of hair falling out messily around her face. I took in a quick influx of air and braced myself for the oncoming storm. “Do you want to explain to me why one of my lead actors is now saying he can't be in the show?”
“Oh … crap. What did he tell you?”
Dealing with the Devil (The Earthwalker Trilogy Book 1) Page 21
