“Felicia’s work is fabulous.” Then I moved to her mixed media section, compositions of photo backgrounds with a poem or quote, dried flowers, and fabric overlays. A description of the materials hung on small plaques next to each work. In a word, gorgeous.
But the real beauties were two enormous oil paintings. One painted entirely in pastel colors with a pair of shadowy, semi-translucent figures in the center entitled, “A Walk with the Father.” The second was flanked in bold hues of red and orange surrounding a blue and black center, simply called, “Ramifications.”
“Must be some kind of pain or suffering.” Brooke cocked her head at the bold painting.
I stared at the pair of paintings, gnawing on my bottom lip. “You think? Maybe that Ramifications one could be, I guess.”
“Hey, Felicia,” Tony shouted across the gallery.
Bryan jerked back as a streak of green flashed toward us. His eyes rested on the auburn beauty in front of us.
“Hi, guys. Glad you’re here.” Her emerald dress matched her kitten eyes that stared right back at him. Her smile sagged as she smoothed down her hair. “Hectic night.”
Bryan wrapped one arm around her in a side-hug. “Your work looks great.”
Her eyes lit up at his touch, at his compliment. Somewhere deep inside, an old ember burned.
“I really couldn’t have asked for more. My pieces are professionally lit and displayed. The gallery even promoted this event well. I’ve talked to a ton of reporters. Not the Times or anything, just small markets. Still, it’s been a blast.”
“Way to go, Felicia.” Lenny cheered, pumping his fist over the crowd. “These are awesome.”
“Calm down.” With her tiny hands, Laura wrestled his arm down. “No need to cause a ruckus.”
“You’re no fun. Everyone likes a good ruckus now and then.” Lenny winked at me as if my traitor thoughts were written all over my face. He slung his arm over Felicia’s shoulder. “How about a teeny hubabaloo?”
Laura rolled her eyes, then burst out laughing. “Do you mean—” she said between giggles, “—you mean, hullabaloo?”
Lenny held his head high. “No, I mean hubabaloo. It’s my new word, like hubba-hubba, with the added bonus of a ruckus.”
“So you think my art is attractive?” Felicia narrowed her eyes at him.
“You bet. I’d say they’re quite something.” Lenny wriggled his way out from under her glare. I gulped back a laugh. “Especially those paintings.”
“Thank you, everyone.” Her face bloomed as red as her hair. “It’s an exciting night for me.”
“We wouldn’t have missed it.” Bryan rested his arm on her shoulder. She pressed her cheek against his hand, closing her eyes.
The ember inside me sizzled.
He patted her head, then slid his hand back. “What’re friends for?”
She flinched, turning a catty glare on me. “I better get going. My dad wants to do a celebration dinner. Thanks for coming guys, I’ll see you at school.”
Felicia waved goodbye and headed for the stairs, toward a man in black-framed glasses with salt-and-pepper temples. A strange silver necklace gleamed from his neck—a pyramid pendant with an oval in the middle.
My next breath beat against the bars of my ribcage. An image flashed in my mind, of him dressed in all black.
Felicia kissed his cheek. How did she know him? He wrapped his arm around her shoulder, smiling down at her almost like a father would.
I backed up, right into the wall. My fingertips bumped against the corner of Felicia’s painting, Ramifications. The canvas warmed at my touch, growing hotter and hotter under my fingers.
“Ouch.” Wincing, I yanked my hand away and turned to face the painting. A tiny symbol glowed white-hot on the bottom white corner—a swirling eye inside a triangle, dashes radiating from the outer corners.
The same symbol on Felicia’s Dad’s necklace. A symbol that was burned into my skin.
Red and orange brush strokes blurred into oblivion until the colors burned like flames. A shriek almost ripped from my throat but some strange Latin words, the name for that symbol, screamed back at me. Signum Videns. Lack of oxygen blurred the gallery into splotches. Slowly, I sucked in a full breath.
The revelation finally eeked from my lips. “It’s the mark of the Seer.”
Chapter 22
“What about the Seer?” Like a knock on the door of my sanity, a gruff voice pulled me out of the fire, back into the real world. This time it was Tony’s pale face and dark brown eyes I stared into. He shook my shoulders, but his words barely registered. “Talk to me, Lucy.”
“I thought I saw ...” My finger traced the outline of the symbol on the painting, then swiveled to the stairs, his escape. “With Felicia.”
He examined the painting. “Felicia? Of course she’s not the Seer.”
I honked out an ungraceful snort. “No, not her. The guy with her. He had on a necklace, with a strange symbol.”
“You mean this one?” When I nodded, his forehead scrunched up like he didn’t believe me. Then his eyes widened, and he scratched his chin. “You know, now that you mention it, he did seem kind of familiar. Show me.”
Without a glance back at Bryan, or anyone else, I clutched Tony’s arm and dragged him down the stairs to the front door. We raced down the sidewalk, mauling through the crowd, until we hit the subway station.
“There.” I spotted a flash of green dress, aiming his head in their direction.
She brushed back her auburn hair, and the man pecked her cheek. A streetlight caught the silver, reflecting it back to us. It was only a profile shot, the necklace barely visible. Then they disappeared into the shadows.
Tony stopped two feet from the entrance, mouth dangling. “Okay, that was definitely the same symbol that you were branded with. Who was that guy with Felicia? He’s old enough to be her father.”
I thumped his shoulder. “Brilliant, Watson. My thoughts exactly.”
He shook his head back and forth, like a sad bobble-head staring down the gaping hole of the subway steps. “What’s so important about him? Why can’t I remember where I’ve seen him before?”
His questions huffed white clouds into the air. They thinned out, dissipating into the inky black sky. My insides squeezed into tiny knots, as the street noise filtered in and out, blurring into a dull roar.
“I think maybe…” I trailed off, my suspicions almost too horrible to verbalize.
Footsteps pounded the pavement behind us, high pitches and low tones flitting above the din.
Brooke reached us first, gasping for breath. “What was that? You guys just took off.”
“Like the place was on fire or something,” Lenny chimed in, the only half-smiling face in the bunch.
Bryan reached for my hand, but my arm was limp in his grip. “Are you okay, what happened?”
“I, uh ...” I whipped my head toward Tony. His pale face stared back at me, contorted in an odd expression. “We had to see something for ourselves.”
He zipped up his leather jacket, his tough guy persona roaring back in a flash. He inched his way in front of me, protective, almost like James. “Lucy saw something strange, said it had something to do with the Seer, so I had to see it for myself.”
“Hush.” I drew my finger to my lips. “Not here.”
“But that doesn’t explain anything.” Brooke’s lips furrowed into a frown. “Like why you went running out of the gallery.”
I couldn’t look at her. She wouldn’t understand, none of them would. “I don’t know if I can explain. It sounds impossible.”
“But Tony saw it too, right? You have to tell us.” She crossed her arms in front of her tiny frame.
I exhaled a breath at Tony and he nodded. We both stared at the subway entrance, hoping she’d pop up and explain herself.
“I saw Felicia with ...” The words, the truth, stuck to my tongue, unwilling to move.
Tony scratched his chin as he stared at the group. �
�She saw Felicia leave with a strange guy, probably her dad. He had on a really weird necklace. It looked like the mark of the Seer.”
Pushing up my jacket sleeve, I held up my wrist, the singed skin red against my pale skin.
Slowly, each of their faces fell like dominoes, one by one.
Bryan dropped my hand. It thudded to my side. “What are you saying, she’s a traitor? That can’t be true—no way. She’s been my best friend since middle school. It just can’t be true.”
“No one’s saying that.” Tony put a hand on his shoulder, staring him straight in the eye. “It’s just shady. She saw the symbol necklace. I saw it, too. It’s true.”
“Fine, you both saw some symbol on a necklace.” Bryan shrugged off Tony’s hand, edging away from me with a face full of too many emotions to name. “Maybe it doesn’t mean what you think it does. Maybe it’s a mistake. We’ll have to investigate.”
With a nod, he punctuated the end of his sentence like it was some kind of final word. And it burned me up inside. This guy really thought he knew everything, didn’t he? Obviously, he didn’t trust me even after all we’d been through.
“Great, investigate all you want. I’d start at the gallery. The symbol is right there on her painting. Figure it out for yourself.” The burning inside washed away as a flood of unshed tears beat against my eyes like river rocks ready to overflow. I couldn’t stand him or that sick expression all over his face anymore. I huffed and whirled down the subway steps in front of me.
Tony clutched my bicep, halting me on the second step. “Lucy’s right. Not here. We have to get out of here, find someplace secluded. We’ll hold a special meeting without Felicia, okay?”
“Since when are you allowed to call special meetings?” Bryan’s eyes exploded like fireballs aimed at Tony, even me.
“You guys do whatever you want, but I’m going to find out what that symbol means. With or without you.” I didn’t wait for a reply. I snapped my head around and marched down the dark subway stairs by myself. I’d figure this out on my own. I didn’t need their approval. I had resources of my own.
~
Darkness covered my dorm room, but I couldn’t sleep. Shanda’s breathing rose and fell in a hushed rhythm. I stared at the ceiling, transfixed by the glowing stars above my head, drawing my own constellations. The questions whirred among the plastic stars like a celestial carnival ride, counting down until midnight. Was Felicia really a Watcher? Did that make her some kind of spy? But what really irked me was that Bryan didn’t believe me. Nothing made sense anymore. That’s why I was going to sneak out at midnight … to find the answers on my own.
Gingerly I rolled over, the green numbers of my alarm clock glaring 11:45. I tapped my fingers on the comforter. I couldn’t wait any longer. Slipping out from under the covers, I padded across the fuzzy white rug to my closet and shimmied into the first pair of flats I found. Then I lifted my Montrose hoodie from its hook and slid Harlixton’s keys from their hiding place into the front pocket. Finally, my chance for some real chapel study time without any distractions.
Slowly, I closed the door behind me until it clicked. This late at night the hallway was dark, with creepy shadows. I shivered and zipped up my hoodie.
I tiptoed down the hall and crept back stairs straight into the kitchen. Making a beeline for the sink, I slid the window open. I hopped up onto the counter, swung my legs out the window, and shimmied down the siding until my flats found the dewy grass. Shutting the window behind me, I raced across the empty lawn. Dew soaked into my flats, squishing between my toes.
As the night chill whipped around me, I huddled into my hoodie. Skirting buildings, I slinked through the shadows until I reached the back side of the chapel. Now what? Mr. Harlixton hadn’t exactly given me detailed instructions when he handed me the giant old key.
Leaves rustled behind me, and I turned to see Laura and Brooke creeping toward me.
“Hey!” I whisper-screamed, waving them over. “What did you guys follow me?”
“It wasn’t hard to do in that crazy outfit of yours.” Laura pointed at my pajama pants.
“Nice PJs. Purple stripes go great with silver ballet flats." The moon glinted off of Brooke’s glasses as her lips curled.
Laura tiptoed closer in dark jeans and a black hoodie, almost identical to Brooke’s outfit. “Looks like some of us aren’t used to covert operations.”
“You got me there.” I gnawed on my bottom lip. “What’re you guys doing here?”
“I’ve always wanted to try this.” Laura rubbed her tiny hands together.
“So you don’t think I’m crazy?” My lungs stilled as I waited for her answer.
“No way. You and Tony definitely saw something. Now we just have to figure out what.”
I exhaled a sigh of relief. “Thanks. I’m glad you’re here then.” After my outburst at the gallery, the fact that they still went along with my nutty idea meant only one thing. Somehow I’d made friends at this school. Real friends.
“There’s a secret entrance back here. It looks like it’s been bricked over, but it’s not.” Laura tapped on the red bricks until her knuckles found a hollow one. When she twisted it to the left, the brick whooshed aside to reveal an ancient, almost decrepit, door.
“How’re we supposed to get in?” Brooke peeked around my shoulder, as if the old door would jump out and bite her.
“With these.” I stuffed my hand into my hoodie pocket, hoisting the keys into the air.
Moonlight washed over the shiny metal key, slanting strange lines on the wrought-iron skeleton key. Laura nodded at me as if she approved, while Brooke’s jaw dropped.
Footsteps crunched behind me, heavy by the sound of them. Bryan led the black-clad trio of Guardian boys, his eyes on the keys dangling from my hand.
“Where’d you get those?” With rough fingers, he clawed at my forehand.
“Mr. Harlixton gave them to me, just in case.” I wrenched my arm away from him. “Guess someone doesn’t know everything.”
Nostrils flared as his breath steamed up the chilly air. “Just open the door already.”
“Fine.” I whipped my head around so hard my hood drooped back.
Brooke leaned over and whispered in my ear. “I’m sorry. I thought it was a good idea to call Bryan in case we needed backup.”
“It’s fine, Brooke.” I gritted my teeth, but my hands shook as I cleared dirt away from the rusted lock. With a sharp motion, I slid in the giant skeleton key and pushed on the weathered wood.
Flashlight in hand, Bryan edged past me, his wet sneakers squeaking across the tiled hallway. He twisted the library doorknob. “It’s locked.”
“Oh ye of little faith.” I jingled the keys in his ear, squeezing in next to him. “Got it covered.”
A puff of hot air warmed my neck as I unlocked the door for everyone. The other four trickled inside, but Bryan just stood there beside me. When I turned to him, his eyes trailed their way down to my pants, then my feet, taking a while to get there.
I glared at him, wrinkling my forehead. Would I ever figure this guy out? Let him mock my crazy outfit all he wanted. With a flourish, I flipped my hair out from under my hood and flounced into the room. He was the one ruining my alone time in the chapel.
“Stop being such a baby.” Brooke’s jaw jutted out at her brother. “We came here to figure this out fairly. Let’s get it over with so I can go back to sleep.”
“Fine.” Bryan practically growled. “I’ll listen and try to keep an open mind.”
“Thank you. That’s all I’m asking.” She rolled her eyes at him, turning to me. “Who wants to go first?”
I chewed my lip and glanced at Tony, his dark hair highlighted by the moonlight from the window. “I don’t really know where to start. I guess at the gallery. I saw this strange symbol around Felicia’s dad’s neck, then on her painting. Suddenly the name for it popped into my head, the mark of the Seer—”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” He drew in
a sharp breath, the hollowness in his voice hitting me in the stomach.
“I tried, remember? Are you even listening?” I could practically feel his stare, but I just looked straight ahead. “Tony was right there, and the guy had just left. You weren’t close enough, if that’s what you mean.”
He puffed out his chest. Silence hung heavy in the room. Nobody asked me to elaborate and I wouldn’t volunteer any more details. No way.
“It still doesn’t prove anything.”
On my heel, I pivoted toward him, only to find a hard line chiseled into his jawbone.
It burned my eyes into slits. “Do you want to go back to that gallery and see for yourself?”
“Maybe I will.” He stared me down, as if he could get me to surrender.
“Be my guest.” I pursed my lips at him. “But you won’t catch me stepping one measly toe in that building ever again.”
“Enough. We’re getting off track.” Tony sliced his hand into the space between us. “My turn. All I remember was how Lucy almost fainted, like she’d seen a ghost or something. I went over to help her up. She pointed to a weird symbol on one of Felicia’s paintings and mumbled something about the Seer and Felicia. I told her to show me.”
“That’s when you raced out of the gallery.” Brooke adjusted her glasses like giant microscopes as she studied my face, then Tony’s.
“That’s right.” He leveled his gaze at her. “We followed them down the street. At the subway entrance, I saw his profile. He definitely had the symbol around his neck, the same one on the painting. It’s identical to the symbol on Lucy’s arm, too.” He crossed his arms in front of his chest, angled at Bryan like some kind of guy challenge.
“So you’re saying Felicia’s dad is part of the Watchers, Felicia, too? That she’s some kind of double agent?” He squared off in Tony’s direction.
“No, I think it’s more than that.” He dropped his arms and smacked his forehead. “Her dad looked just like the priest who attacked us. If that’s the case, do you really think we can trust her?”
Montrose Paranormal Academy, Book 1: The Nexis Secret: A Young Adult Urban Fantasy Academy Novel Page 22
