by Diana Nixon
But still, Tara let him go. I couldn’t even begin to imagine letting Christian go, live without him, knowing that he could fall in love with someone else. It was not my selfishness that wouldn’t be able to accept it, it was my heart that would die if I lost him.
I stopped at the door to Evan’s bedroom, but I didn’t knock. I could feel the traces of Amanda’s energy behind the door. So, I thought I would give them space and time to talk. Evan needed her, regardless of how distant he had been lately.
I went to my room, where to my surprise, I found Christian, sitting on a couch, with my phone in his hands. I forgot to take it with me when I left campus.
Shoot, he must be angry at me.
One glance at Christian’s gloomy expression was enough to know that something was wrong, and it was not just about me leaving the phone in the room.
“What happened?” I asked instead of greeting him.
“Why didn’t you tell me about the messages from Martin?” He asked in response, nodding to the phone in his hands.
“I didn’t think it was important. Wait. Did you say ‘messages’? I thought there was only one message from him.” I sat next to Christian, took my phone and checked on what I had missed, which turned out to be ten text messages.
“Catherine is with him,” he said, before I got to the message saying that I should have been smarter than to leave her in Norfield, unprotected.
“What the hell…” I scrolled down the rest of the messages, and everything, including my mother’s sudden desire to visit her sister started to make sense. “Martin’s working for Clarions!” I gasped. “And he made Catherine come to Gloster, and now she and Melanie’s mom are in trouble. Oh, no… How could Peter let that happen? Does my father know about it?”
“Yes. Martin sent him a couple of messages saying that your mom and Patricia are with him now, and that we won’t see them unless we reveal our location and let Clarions come to Dever.”
“But finding us is not the only thing that Clarions want.”
“I know. But I don’t think Martin knows about the rest of their plans. He’s just a pawn in their game.”
“I thought Will made him forget everything. How is that possible that he still remembers us?”
“I think he had been under some sort of an anti-masterminding spell even before Will decided to remove his memories.”
“I have never heard about that kind of spells.”
“Neither have I.”
“So what do we do now?”
“Your father says we need to do whatever Clarions want us to do. At least about the location revealing part. As for the rest, I guess we need to come up with an emergency plan.”
“Well, we were going to invite Clarions to Dever anyway, but if we tell them where we are now, they will be here in less than twenty-four hours. And we are not ready to face them so soon.”
“I think we don’t have a choice, Eileen. We need to tell them where we are.”
The pictures of Dever on fire that I saw in one of my visions caused by the Waroi songs filled my mind. “We can’t go back to Britain. It will destroy us,” I said.
“That’s what your father said.”
“I need to talk to him.”
I rose to my feet, but Christian caught me by the hand before I could take a step away from the couch.
“Your father is not in Dever.”
“What do you mean he is not in Dever?”
“He’s on his way to Britain.”
“What?” I sat back on the couch, hoping I hadn’t heard Christian correctly. “Just don’t tell me he left to meet with Clarions.”
Christian didn’t respond.
“Oh, you have got to be kidding me… How did Patrick let him go there alone?”
“Your father is one of the strongest magicians of all time. Trust me, Eileen, he will be fine.”
“Don’t you understand? Clarions won’t let him take my mother away from them just like that.”
“He went there not for your mom. We know they won’t let her go just like that. He went to Britain to give Clarions the directions to Dever’s new location.”
That was it - the moment that I knew would come, sooner or later. Only I didn’t know it would come that soon. Until now, everything, including stories about Clarions’ desire to outroot magic, seemed a little surreal. As if it were not us who would face them.
“We need to tell the tribe about their arrival,” I said.
“We still have time.”
“No, Christian, you don’t understand. The boy that my father wanted me to bring to Dever is…”
“Dominick’s son, I know.”
I stared at him in disbelief. “Then why the hell didn’t you tell me anything?”
“I couldn’t tell you, Eileen.”
“Because of my bond with Evan?”
“It’s not just about the bond you share…”
“Then is should be about the bond that you and Evan will share, once you become one of the seven ‘secret’ Keepers, right?”
Now it was his turn to look surprised. “Who told you about the Keepers?”
“Looks like you are not the only person here who has secrets, right, Christian?”
“Was it Songaa?”
I crossed my arms, saying, “I think it’s time for us to be honest with each other. Don’t you think so?”
He sighed, running one hand through his hair. “I knew that keeping secrets from you wouldn’t do me any good.”
I smirked. “You should have listened to your famous intuition, Mr. Fairey. After all, it is what makes you - Fairey Keepers - so special.”
“Ha-ha, very funny, Miss Congeniality.”
“What else shall I know about the bonds, Keepers, Clarions and whatever it is that you have been lying to me about?”
“The number of Clarions waiting for the war is bigger than we expected… But good news, Will has managed to make a part of New York hermits to play for us.”
“Has he masterminded them?”
“No. They agreed to come and support us without masterminding.”
“What did he tell them to make them play for us?”
“The truth – that if they support Clarions, they most likely will die.”
Shivers run up and down my spine. All of a sudden, I felt like I was not even close to being ready for whatever was coming.
“I can’t believe this is happening,” I said quietly. “Who would have thought that one day hermits would want to destroy our world?”
Christian put one arm around my shoulders and pulled me to his chest. “We need to be strong. We can’t give up.”
Suddenly I remembered my conversation with Songaa and said, “You need to leave Dever. You and Evan need to leave. As soon as possible!”
He looked at me, frowning. “I won’t leave you alone here.”
“But it’s for the best! Don’t you understand? If Evan and you stay here, you will be the first people that Clarions will try to attack.”
“You forgot about Amanda. If I die, she will become the next Keeper.”
“Right. Then you should take her with you.”
“No, Eileen. We will stay here and we will fight for Dever.”
“Do you know that Evan and Tai can’t be in the same place, at the same time? And if we bring the boy here, his meeting with Evan will kill both of them!”
“We will hide Tai.”
“Where?”
“Somewhere neither Evan, nor Clarions will be able to find him. In Madeline’s hut, for example.”
I shook my head, feeling the worry growing within. “It is too risky, Christian. Evan knows about the hut, he will be able to find it. Besides, Songaa won’t let Tai anywhere close to Dever, knowing that Evan is still here.”
“Make him let the boy come here.”
“How exactly am I supposed to do that?”
“Try to make him believe that Tai will be fine. We will protect him.”
I smiled sadly. “We can’t
be sure we can protect ourselves, not to mention taking responsibility for someone else’s life.”
“Everything's gonna be all right.”
“How do you know that?”
“I don’t. But I want to believe that it will.”
“Oh, Christian…” I leaned into him, not knowing what to say. Believe in good – was the only thing that we could do now. “We need to talk to Evan. He needs to know about Tai.”
“No, Eileen. Not now.”
“Why not?” I moved to see Christian’s face.
“We don’t know how Evan will take the news. We can’t risk and distract him from what is really important now.”
“I have a plan on how to know more about Clarions’ plans.”
“You do?”
“But for that, I need to see Evan.”
Christian looked at his watch. “Considering my sister is not here now, I don’t think he’s asleep.”
“How much time do we have until my father brings Clarions to Dever?”
“They will be here by tomorrow night.”
So little time, I thought to myself. “Okay, we need a new plan.”
And so, Christian and I started to think of how to make everything ready before the arrival of our enemies. We also called his parents, the heads of Dever’s faculties, Darcy, Kevin, Elena, Melanie, Evan and Amanda. Together, we made a map with Dever and its surroundings, where we marked the locations of every one of us – the places where we were going to be when Clarions arrived. We made sure the entire Dever’s territory would be guarded properly. We also told the guards to increase protection measures. In mere hours, the university turned into a battlefield, waiting for the biggest war in the history of our world to begin.
We also needed Waroi’s help. So the first thing I was going to do in the morning was to pay the clan another visit. Though I still had no idea how to make Songaa let Tai come to Dever. And to be honest, I still doubted it was a good idea to bring the boy to Dever while Evan was still here.
“Are you sure you wanna stay?” I asked Evan. We were having a break. Christian’s mother made everyone tea with herbs that would help us save energy and intensify our powers.
“Like I said, twenty-four hours is not enough to make me change my mind. Not even for you.”
“But you said you would leave if needed.”
“Eileen, I will stay. Period.”
Oh, he was being just that stubborn.
“Okay. At least promise me you will be careful.”
“That I can promise you. If you promise the same thing.”
“Deal.”
Though we both knew that being careful had never been on the list of our strongest qualities. But neither of us wanted to proceed with the argument. Again, we both knew it was pointless. Stubbornness was an essential element in our blood.
We spent the rest of the night checking and re-checking our plan, making sure we didn’t miss anything. It was important to be ready for whatever was coming. Around seven in the morning, we got a call from my father. He said he was on his way to Gloster and that he would call us as soon as he talks to Clarions. And for that, he was going to meet with Carine Verbeke – the Mistress who after another ‘visit’ into Will’s head promised to help us find Alistair.
Meanwhile, Christian and I went to the gates, to make sure the guards were ready for the arrival of Clarions. There were around twenty of them, guarding the main entrance to the university. They were holding weapons that I had never seen before – they looked like compasses, only of a bigger size. Christian said they absorbed dark magic, weakening its owners, which could be very helpful, considering it was Clarions’ favorite kind of magic to practice.
Students, except those from Wizardy faculty, were told to stay in their rooms that had been locked with spells that wouldn’t let anyone in or out. We didn’t want any one of them to get hurt. That’s why only teachers, hereditary wizards and well, our friends, were allowed to join in the ‘fun’.
My phone buzzed in my pocket. It was a message from Will. He said he would be in Dever in about half an hour.
“Eileen!” One of the guards called my name. “Looks like you have a guest.” He nodded to the gates where Tai had been waiting for me.
“Oh, dear Lord! What is he doing here?”
“Who?” Christian asked.
But I didn’t answer. I rushed to the gates, hoping Evan wouldn’t show up out of nowhere. His unpredictable ‘family reunion’ was the last thing that we needed to deal with at the moment.
“Tai, what happened? Does anyone know that you are here?”
“Is it true that my father is not my father?”
“Who told you that?”
“Is it true?”
“Well…”
“So, you knew, didn’t you?”
“Tai, it’s a little more complicated than it seems.”
“Did you also know that your friend, Evan, who created this amulet,” he touched the silver piece on his neck. “Is my brother?”
I sighed. “I couldn’t tell you anything.”
“But I trusted you, Eileen!” He said in a trembling voice. “And you lied to me… Just like my so-called family have been lying to me all these years.” I saw a lonely tear running down his cheek. But he quickly swept it away, turned around and started to walk away.
I couldn’t let him go without explaining a few things first.
“Tai, wait!” I ran after him.
“I don’t want to talk to you!” He snapped. “There’s nothing you can tell me to justify the number of things everyone has been hiding from me.”
“But I’ll try anyway.”
Then everything happened so fast… Tai saw something behind me, walked around me and started to run back to the Dever. I turned around; blood froze in my veins. Evan was there, standing at the gates, with his hands on his hips. What the hell was he doing there?
“Nooo!” I shouted as loud as I could. “Tai, stop!”
But it was too late. As if in a slow-motion movie, the boy ran up to Evan and jumped into his arms, locking his small hands around his neck.
My heart missed a beat. I think I stopped breathing, not knowing what to do or what to expect.
But the most surprising thing happened next. Evan put Tai on the ground and smiled, looking right into his eyes…
“Hey,” he said to Tai. “Are you a friend of Eileen’s?”
By the time I stopped next to them, I thought about the hundreds of scenarios of this meeting’s possible outcome.
“She told me so many cool things about you,” Tai said to Evan, as excited as ever.
Evan smirked. “Did she?” And then, his expression suddenly changed. Tai put his small palm on Evan’s cheek, and my friend became so quiet, as if he felt something that no one except him and Tai could feel.
“Impossible…” He whispered, stunned. “Who are you?” His eyes switched from Tai to me, as if he wanted me to object to his suspicions.
Tai didn’t hesitate with the response. “I’m your brother,” he said. He put his hand down and took a step back, still watching Evan.
“Eileen? Would you be so kind as to explain what is going on?”
I had never seen Evan so shocked. There were so many things he needed to hear, but I didn’t know what to start with.
“Why don’t we go somewhere we could sit and talk?”
“You mean inside Dever?” Tai asked, suddenly getting a little nervous. I could feel that, as well as Evan could.
“Yeah, let’s go to my room,” he said. He forced a smile, took Tai by the hand and together we walked through the gates.
“Eileen, is everything all right?” Christian asked. But as soon as he saw Tai, his eyes turned into two big moons. Unlike Evan, he knew who Tai was.
“Find Kevin, and tell him to come to Evan’s room,” I said. “Evan and I need to talk.”
He didn’t ask any more questions. He nodded, took his phone out of his pocket and started dialing someone’s number
.
Only when Evan, Tai and I came to Evan’s room, did he find the ability to speak again.
“Dominick is his father, isn’t he?”
I nodded.
“Who is his mother?”
“Tai, do you want a cookie? Evan has plenty of them over there.” I pointed to a cookie jar on Evan’s desk. My badass friend had a sweet tooth.
The boy nodded and went to take a cookie.
“Amitola, Songaa’s daughter is his mother.”
Evan sat on a couch and looked at the boy. “How is that possible? She’s so young. She could be my elder sister, but definitely not my father’s lover.”
“Remember the saying? Love all ages yield surrender. She was nineteen when she met your father. She fell in love with him. It could happen to anyone.”
Evan’s jaw tightened. He lowered his head, as if he didn’t want me to see the emotions crossing his face, and took a few deep breaths.
“I know what you are thinking,” I said, sitting next to him. “But Dominick was not cheating on your mom.”
“Then how can you explain the fact that he conceived another baby, with a different woman, while being married to his wife?”
“Amitola said it happened just once…”
“But it looks like one time was more than enough to get pregnant, right?”
“Evan, please.” I looked at Tai who seemed to be so focused on emptying Evan’s cookie jar; he didn’t pay any attention to what we were talking about.
“She left right after she realized that being with Dominick had been a mistake.”
“How very thoughtful of her.”
“Anyway, it is not Tai’s fault that his parents, let’s say, were not meant for each other.”
Evan sighed again. “You are right. But look at him? Can you feel how strong his powers are?”
“I guess you can feel it even better than I can.”
“And he can mastermind.”
“Not really. But I think he will be able to, when he grows up.”
