by Nixon, Diana
“Well, there is nothing strange here. Paola, Lillian’s daughter, also had all the powers of her mother, but she was the last Fairey girl until recently. Therefore, all her abilities had to go to the next girl in our family. In some ways, Eileen is half Wizardy. She has Medellin’s blood in her veins.”
“Then how do you explain the fact that Eileen sees a ghost of Medellin, who is trying to separate us?”
“What are you talking about, Christian?”
“I was with Eileen on the lake, and she saw her there. And then Medellin’s ghost subjected me to herself so I couldn’t move, couldn’t see, speak or feel anything.”
“That’s weird. I don’t know how to explain this.”
“I still don’t understand why you had to bind yourself to Frederic?”
“It was necessary in order to bind you and Eileen. In addition, she has been bound to Amanda, who for some unknown reason wasn’t the one who could take the curse off.”
“I don’t understand how they are bound?”
“Just as Frederic and me – by the bond of friendship.”
“That can’t be true. Evan said that all bonds are seen to Wizardy, and he has never seen anything like this between them,” I admitted confused.
“No? That is also very strange.”
“And Camilla's granddaughter saw the challenges that Eileen will have to endure without me. She said that some lines on her palm are lighter than mine, so there is something that we cannot predict. I don’t know what to do and I don’t know how to help Eileen cope with the difficulties!” I groaned in despair.
“Christian, as far as I know, the lines of fate can only be changed under compulsion. A person changes the future, yes, but he cannot change what was destined to him initially.”
“Whatever it was, it’s another question which none of us knows an answer to,” I said. “And what does Alexis has to do with all this?”
“Alexis? Nothing, in fact. Why?”
I told my father about everything that we had been able to find out from the diaries of Camilla, including the fact that Alexis has also put a foot there. But unfortunately, he knew nothing about the mysterious Erik. He asked me not to say anything Eileen, until he talked to Frederic.
“Now that you know the truth, I think he would like to tell her everything himself,” he explained. “I know that Frederic has been guarding Eileen for all her life, and he never stopped loving her. I know this better than anyone else, trust me.”
“Okay, I won’t tell her anything. I’ll say that we haven’t managed to talk.”
“Thank you, Christian. I really appreciate the way you accepted all of this, considering how much I have hidden from you.”
“I have to ask you for one more favor. If you learn of anything else that is important for me to know, you must tell me.”
“I promise,” my father said in response.
We agreed to have dinner downtown together with my mother and I left.
Returning to my room, I found there Evan, resting on my couch.
“Sorry, I had to use my special key,” he said apologetically, pointing toward the door. By his special key, he meant his magical abilities, due to which locks have never been a barrier for him.
“As you can see I stopped paying any attention to you doing that a long time ago. So why did you come here?” I asked, leaning on the edge of my desk.
“I have some news.”
“News - it's good,” I said sadly.
“Frederic Fairey is her father,” blurred out Evan.
I didn’t need to ask who he was talking about. It was quite clear that he meant Eileen.
“Judging by your reaction, that’s not news to you. What bad luck! I wanted so badly to be the first one to guess everything,” he said disappointed.
“You're right. It’s not news to me anymore. I have just spoken with my father, and he told me everything. How did you know about this?”
“Digging a little in the university’s history, I learned that Gabriel from the legend of the Black Lake was one of the Fairey. Since then, everything has begun to take shape piece by piece. The fact that Frederic was so concerned about the birth of her illegitimate child, and then, what Patricia Clark had to do with all that. True, I still don’t understand how she met Camilla.”
“I forgot to ask dad about that. But Eileen’s mother had no connection to Dever. And one more thing - he asked not to tell Eileen about her father. I hope I'm the first one you shared your discovery with?” I asked.
“Yes, but don’t you understand, Christian? Eileen has the blood of Wizardy in her veins, and when she becomes eighteen, she will be able to possess magic. I have no doubt about it.”
Evan's words caught me off balance. It was something I hadn’t thought about.
“I realized that even before I found out whose daughter she was,” he continued. “I saw her reaction to my power. I used magic in front of her, and she reacted the same way as she did to the manifestation of the forces of all the other elements. She wanted to try to use magic herself, but didn’t know how. It was only because she hasn’t turned eighteen yet. And that is, as we both know, not so far away.”
“She can’t find out about that,” I said dryly.
An even bigger fear encompassed me with the thought of Eileen using magic. In contrast to all five elements, the use of magic was the most dangerous way to spend our energy. That is why only the best graduates of other faculties and hereditary Wizardy themselves were able to continue training on the same faculty - all of them were strong, and knew perfectly well how to control their abilities without coming to complete exhaustion. Eileen, however, didn’t know anything about that control.
“I hope everyone will follow my instructions about the distribution of our responsibilities, and won’t interfere in on someone else's, otherwise either Amanda or Darcy will figure out who Gabriel was,” noted Evan. “We need to talk to them. And the sooner we do it, the better,” he added, taking his cell phone and dialing someone's number.
Chapter 20. Vulnerary plants (Eileen)
“Hi Evan! Yes, of course, I can. What's the matter?”
What a genius Evan was to call Amanda at that very moment! For a tenth time already she’s been trying to tell me that last night no one wanted to offend me, that everything my friends are doing is only for my own benefit.
“Eileen, do you mind if I leave you for a few moments. Evan needs something.”
“Of course. Give my ears a small break.”
Amanda shook her head smiling.
“We're not done yet,” she said, going out into the hall.
I didn’t need her lectures to continue any more. I already knew that I behaved like a naughty child. Besides, I needed to talk to Christian, so without my pesky friend, I decided to visit her brother.
He opened the door before I raised my hand to knock on it.
“Eileen, what's wrong?” he asked worried, apparently feeling my nervousness, but not realizing that he himself was the cause of it.
“Nothing. At least, nothing worth being guarded about it all the time,” trying to laugh it all off, I said.
“Come on in,” he said.
“Christian, I wanted to talk about yesterday and the day before yesterday, and about... well, everything,” visibly nervous I began, twitching the edge of my sleeve.
His answer was just a nod of the head. He was standing a few feet away from me, his arms folded across his chest and he nervous too.
“Evan explained everything about Vanessa. But I still don’t understand why you didn’t just tell me about her yourself to begin with.”
“Eileen, I really thought that there was nothing to talk about. I couldn’t imagine that she would react like she did when I said that nothing was between us. And I certainly never imagined that she would do something so stupid in front of all of us.”
“Christian, that night complicated everything even more and I...”
He suddenly came closer, ran his hand through m
y hair, bent his head and kissed me. I can’t say that it was really a surprise to me. No, I had waited for this kiss from that failed Friday night. I knew that I must step back and say all the things I came here for, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t move, afraid that he would let me go, and I would fall, losing my balance and all the safe security I felt in his arms. I moved closer, pressing my palms to his chest and felt my heart beating wildly. His muscles tensed and I realized that my response to his kiss was too passionate and unexpected. He could barely control his own passion and his feelings, flowing into me, confirmed my thoughts. The butterflies in my belly were killing cruelly the remnants of my common sense, making me feel myself helpless.
“Christian, please, don’t do this,” I whispered, finding the strength to stop him. I tried to take a step back, but he wouldn’t let me.
“I missed you,” he said, embracing me even tighter, his lips still inches from mine. “This is entirely my fault, I should have told you about Vanessa. Will you forgive me, Eileen? These two days were a real torture for me.”
He reluctantly let me go and stepped back, without taking his intense gaze off me. I was dying to find myself in his embrace again and barely managed not to lose my balance. For the last few moments, I couldn’t move, and only now was I really able to catch my breath.
“If you don’t want to see me, I will understand,” he added.
I closed my eyes trying to gather my mixed-up thoughts and find my voice.
“Christian, do you really think I could stop craving you?” I said, stepping aside. “I came to say that I am comfortable with the fact that you will keep an eye on me. I should have said that yesterday. And I know how important it is for us to be together. I can feel it. And damn this stupid bond, but this ability to feel your emotions really drives me crazy!”
Christian tried to display something like a smile.
“Well, you are not alone in your craziness,” he said, sitting on the bed. “I feel like I am in some strange world, Eileen. In your world, in fact. You absorb all of me - my feelings, my emotions and thoughts. I’m always with you, no matter where you are, or what you do,” he said wearily.
I sat down beside him and stroked his hair.
“Seems like both of us are hostages to each other,” I said quietly breathing in his amazingly intoxicating scent. It wasn’t a perfume, it was something unique, something that belonged just to him. Even when he wasn’t around I could feel it in the air. I could recognize it everywhere.
“Actually, I don’t mind being your hostage,” he said turning to me, “but sometimes I think that it would be better if I didn’t know your feelings. Because in most cases, it just makes me feel even more helpless, and even more vulnerable.”
“Nobody blames you for what is happening, Christian. It's our fate, remember?”
“We are able to create our own destiny, Eileen. But I want you to know one more thing…,” he said touching my chin with his fingers as if trying to memorize the lines of my face forever. “If I ever stop feeling you, I still will always think about you. I will still be looking for the way to find you.”
“I know that,” I said looking into his eyes and enjoying his proximity.
For a while we were both silent. I couldn’t help thinking that in the past few days, our relationship had brought us nothing good, besides pain and frustration. What if we were not bound? Would we still feel the attraction to each other? Maybe we just both have become hostages of someone’s plan, someone’s life or revenge? What if we really never were meant to be together?.. I couldn’t imagine my world without him. He was the center of it and losing him was the worst punishment ever.
Determined to keep those thoughts to myself, I asked about something else.
“You know, I saw your father today. Why he already came back?”
A strange feeling of anxiety came to me from Christian.
“Honestly, I don’t know,” he said. “I haven’t seen him yet.”
“Are you worried because of the upcoming conversation?”
“Exactly - worried,” quickly replied Christian.
“Maybe we both should talk to him?” I suggested.
“No! That’s... I have to do it alone,” he said.
“Okay. But you will tell me if you learn something new, right?”
“Of course,” Christian smiled encouragingly.
“I should go now,” I said, rising. “Amanda, Anna and I have agreed to spend the day together. So… see you tonight, then?”
“Yeah. Maybe by that time I’ll find out something new about all of this,” he said, pointing in the direction of laying papers.
“Okay,” I said quickly walking to the door.
“Eileen,” Christian called me.
I paused, my hand already on the doorknob.
“Yes?”
Without saying a word, Christian came up to me and touched my forehead with his lips.
“Be careful,” he whispered in my ear.
I nodded silently and left still feeling his breath on my cheek. Despite everything, Christian still continued to worry about me. Despite everything, I still wanted to be with him…
“Eileen! There you are!” Amanda exclaimed. “We have been looking for you everywhere! You know what Anna came up with? We still haven’t seen Embry’s ability to heal. So she proposed that we become her patients for a little while. What do you think?”
“What if I’m not ill?” I asked hesitantly.
“It’s impossible,” Anna said. “You may not feel physical pain, but your soul can suffer or you may be in a bad mood, or have nightmares.”
“Is there a flower that can improve your mood or get rid of bad thoughts?” I asked.
“Of course! The forces of nature are very diverse, they give and take.”
“How do you know what to heal a person from?”
“All the energy in our hands helps us. We usually scan your hands and body and say whether you need some treatment or not.”
“Okay, so, what do you see? What’s wrong with me now?”
Anna stopped in front of me, closed her eyes and began to scan. Was it just me, or did the aromas of the plants around us actually become stronger now? The smell of something sweet and bitter burned my nostrils. Maybe this is how nature helps to identify diseases?
“Just as I’ve expected, in your case, Eileen, a physical state is not in need of healing, that can’t be said about your soul,” Anna said. “That’s weird…” she added confused. “Have you recently had an injury?”
“No, not that I can remember. Just a few scratches maybe. Is that it?”
“No, I mean something that is bothering you. I just can’t figure out what it is.”
She took my hands in hers and began to watch them closely.
“I think there is something wrong with your hands,” she said.
Recently, lots of things have happened to my hands, but there were no injuries.
“Hi, guys! What are you doing here?” Darcy asked, running up to us. “Hey, Anna, since when have you been reading palms?”
“She is not reading my palms. Anna has just seen that there might be something wrong with my hands, but I’m more than sure that haven’t hurt them lately,” I replied.
“Let me see,” asked Darcy. “I’ve read your palms, maybe I’ve missed something. No, everything it's like the first time,” she said, “the same light stripes.”
“What stripes?” Anna wondered.
“Some of the lines on Eileen’s palm are lighter than usual,” explained Darcy.
“How did that happen?”
“I don’t know. Honestly, I’ve never paid attention to it,” I shrugged indifferently.
“Maybe that was the reason for my suspicions,” said Anna.
“Only one person besides you has read Eileen’s palm,” Amanda said suddenly. “Nora. Do you remember that, Eileen? She even used some liquid.”
“Wait, what are you talking about? Someone else has read Eileen’s fate?” asked D
arcy.
“Yes. Before we found out about Dever, Amanda and I visited one of the Feta. Her name was Nora and she lived in Norfield.”
“She said she was Feta?” Darcy asked in surprise.
“Yes. We thought she was a fortune-teller, but she corrected us.”
“She had no right to tell you this!” Anna flared.
“Perhaps she told us about herself knowing that we also have some relevance to Dever,” I suggested.
“What did you mean when you said she used some kind of liquid?” Darcy recalled.
“She used some blue liquid in order to read my destiny.”
“Feta doesn’t use anything like that,” wondering, Darcy noted. “We, of course, possess the power of water, but we don’t need any help using our gifts. If only...”
She didn’t finish, but I already knew what she hadn’t said out loud. Feta used water only as a basis for different spells. Nora might have made it so that the lines of my destiny changed their color. And that could mean only one thing…
“Eileen, I forgot, I need to talk to Evan,” said Darcy, looking at me with a hidden meaning that said to keep my guesses to myself. Amanda’s facial expression said that she had guessed everything as well.
“What's wrong?” Anna asked puzzled.
“Nothing. Ah, I just remembered that I recently hurt my hand burning it a little,” I said. “That is probably the reason of tingling on my palm.”
“Then it explains everything. I'll help you,” Anna assured me, and the three of us went on into one of the Embry’s gardens. This one was full of multicolored lilies. White, yellow, orange, tiger and even bright red that I’d never seen before. Those flowers were everywhere, as if we were swimming is the ocean of beautiful delicate petals.
But even their beauty wouldn’t make me forget about Nora. I didn’t abandon the idea that she might have tried to hurt me intentionally. But why? It was the first time in her life she'd seen us. She knew nothing about my bond with Christian, or about the old curse. Or did she know something?..
“Here,” Anna said, stopping, “just exactly what we need.” She bent down and picked a few bizarre green leaves. “It's arnica. It will help to get rid of the effects of the burn. Put it on your palm once a day today and tomorrow, and everything will go away.”