by Sarah Kleck
“All I know is that you’ve been indoctrinating Jared forever with this shit!” Colin was really beside himself.
“What? What are you talking about?” I said. “Tell me: Why should Jared keep away from me?” I asked again, this time more forcefully.
The brunette woman in riding gear unexpectedly stepped toward me. “You have no idea who you are, do you?” Her voice was more penetrating and deeper than I’d expected based on her feminine appearance.
I was startled. “Who I am?”
“Enid, please,” Karen Mayflower pleaded.
“No, Karen. She must know,” the rider interrupted her sharply. “That’s the only way we can prevent the worst.” Enid fixed me with her blue-gray eyes. “Have you never wondered why you are different from other people?” she asked me. I felt Jared stiffen next to me.
“Different?” I asked. “I’m not different.” I had taken a defensive posture.
“Oh really?” The rider laughed but without appearing haughty.
“Enid, please!” Karen pleaded again. “She already knows too much—you’re endangering all of us! Especially Jared!”
“Can’t you see that it’s already too late for anything else?” Enid said.
“But the Prophecy!” Karen said.
“What prophecy?” I asked.
“The Prophecy of the Nymphs of Avalon,” Jared said with a firm voice. He seemed determined to resist Karen and tell me the truth.
“Nymphs?” I asked.
“Yes, nymphs,” Enid said. “Elfin nature spirits that are at home in the forests of Avalon.”
Serious dizziness overcame me. Avalon? Nature spirits? For a moment I was unsure if this all was just a dream, and I toyed with the idea of pinching myself so I’d wake up, but then I felt Jared’s hand in mine. Its strength and warmth steadied me. He was here in flesh and blood, touching me. No, this was no dream—Jared was definitely standing with me, and my heart was fluttering like the wings of a hummingbird. That meant there were only two possibilities: either these people were playing a really nasty prank on me, or . . . it was the truth.
“Perhaps we should not overtax Evelyn right away. After all, this is all very new for her,” Professor Martin said.
Jared looked at me. “You’re probably right,” he said. “But she still has a right to know who she is.”
Before I was able to say anything, Enid came a few steps closer. In an imploring tone, she said, “Did you ever hear or read anything about how Merlin died?”
“Merlin?” Didn’t Ruth say something about that? Something about a cave? Yes! She had told me about Nimue and had said that some legends relate that she had killed him to steal his magic. But Ruth didn’t believe this version of the story.
“I once heard he supposedly was buried alive by a lover in a cave,” I said skeptically. Where was this supposed to lead?
Enid nodded. “Yes, that’s the way it’s written in some traditions.”
Colin snorted contemptuously and opened his mouth to speak, but Enid looked at him with raised eyebrows, silencing him immediately. Apparently, he had far more respect for her than for Karen Mayflower.
“And do you know who his lover was?” Enid asked me.
“Nimue,” I said. “The Lady of the Lake, so I was told by Ru—. By a friend.”
Enid smiled at me. “Yes, that’s right.” She took another step toward me. “Some members of the Order”—she looked briefly at Karen and the redhead—“are convinced that these traditions are true, and, if transferred to the Prophecy, would mean that Jared will be killed just as Merlin was: by the hand of his lover.”
Jared will be killed, I thought, feeling naked terror. My thoughts took me to the narrow passage where I’d overheard Jared’s conversation with Aiden. She will kill you, Aiden had said.
“What is that supposed to mean?” I asked.
“Enid,” Professor Martin said, “isn’t all this a bit much so soon?”
I looked back and forth between the two of them. “What has all this got to do with me?” I wasn’t going to leave this place until that question had been answered. “Do you really believe I’d kill Jared?” I was barely able to utter those words. The thought that I’d even harm a single hair on his head was absurd and utterly insane, not to mention the fact that I was physically incapable of it. And what was all that babble about Merlin and Nimue? “Are you trying to say that I’m like Nimue?” I looked at them all with curious eyes.
“Not quite.” Now it was Jared who answered my question. He breathed in deeply and squeezed my hand a little tighter. “You are not like Nimue,” he said. “You are Nimue!”
For a moment, I stood there stunned, unable to make a sound. Again, thoughts raced through my head. I only found my voice a few seconds later.
“What?” I said. My eyes widened with incomprehension as I looked around. I was supposed to be Nimue? That couldn’t be true!
Enid seemed to have anticipated this reaction. She smiled gently. “Did you ever wonder about how you react to water?”
“How I react to water? That can’t be . . . I’m not . . . You must be mistaking me for someone else,” I stammered, shaking my head.
Enid paused, looking at me earnestly. “Isn’t it true that you feel best in water?” She was now standing right in front of me. “That it even has a healing effect on you?”
I let Enid’s words go through my mind. She was right—water did have a stronger effect on me than on most. One might even say a healing effect, as Enid had called it. But . . . how did she know? I looked suspiciously between her and Jared.
“Evelyn,” Enid said, bringing my attention back to her blue-gray eyes, “how many generations back can you remember in your family?”
“My . . . No idea. Except for my parents and my sister, I never got to know anyone in my family. I only know my grandma from an old black-and-white photo that had been on my mother’s nightstand.” I frowned.
“Your family is dead, right?” Enid asked carefully. “Your parents and your sister.”
I nodded hesitantly, trying to swallow the lump in my throat. “How do you know that?”
She took a deep breath. “The Order has been watching Nimue’s descendants for generations,” she said, lowering her gaze. For some reason, I couldn’t rid myself of the feeling she was keeping something really important from me. “When we heard of your sister’s death . . . we thought Nimue’s bloodline had died out,” she continued, gently shaking her head. “Until you suddenly arrived at Oxford. Do you understand what I’m saying?” She gave me a moment before continuing. “You are the last of Nimue’s bloodline—the last daughter of the Lady of the Lake, the Guardian of Avalon.”
“How do you know?” I asked.
“Believe me, Evelyn, it’s the truth,” Jared said and Enid nodded.
“But . . . how can you be so sure?”
Enid hesitated a moment, while I watched from the corner of my eye how Aiden was desperately trying to comfort his mother, who was breaking down in tears.
“Because there’s an ancient magical link between you and Jared,” she said. “Jared’s magic immediately reacted to you. And he has . . .” She stopped to look at Jared as if she were asking him for permission.
“I’m deeply in love with you,” Jared said, looking intensely into my eyes. “I’ve been in love with you since the very first time I saw you.”
CHAPTER 14
I was lying motionless on my bed, staring at the ceiling. I hadn’t closed an eye all night, though I tried. I turned from one side to the other, fluffed my pillow, got up, walked around the room, lay back down, and then started all over. I didn’t even shy away from counting sheep. All without success.
In the meantime, morning had come, and the first rays of the sun shone through the rain-wet window and slowly crawled up the covers until they tickled my nose. The night was finally
over and, as with so many nights before in recent weeks and months, I hadn’t slept at all.
But it was different this time. I hadn’t mourned my parents and Zara the whole night, hadn’t fallen into self-pity, hadn’t cried or grumbled over what I must have done to experience so much suffering in my life. No, last night it was something entirely different that had kept me awake. Instead of sleeping, I’d whiled away the hours racking my brain over what I had just learned. (Though sleep would surely have helped to process the events of recent days in my dreams.) I didn’t get very far—admittedly—but I had become ready to accept some things as they were.
First: Jared was the last descendant of Merlin the Magician. Like his legendary ancestor, he had special abilities.
I accepted that.
Second: At least two of my professors were members of a centuries-old secret society whose mission was to protect all descendants of the great Merlin—and, therefore, Jared.
I accepted that, too.
Third: Colin, who was dating my friend Sally, was the descendant of the famous King Arthur—so far, so good.
Although I could only give these matters credence with the full force of my imagination, I had at least decided to accept them.
What caused me considerably more difficulty was that I was a magical being or, at least, descended from one. From Nimue, to be precise—the Lady of the Lake, Guardian of Avalon. The thought caused the hair at the back of my neck to stand up.
No, that couldn’t be right. There had to be some confusion.
But . . . what if it were true? What if I really were the last in the bloodline of the Guardian of Avalon? Even if I didn’t really dare believe it, I had to admit Enid knew things about me that no one else knew, without ever having met me. She was right on the mark regarding the effect water normally has on me. It’s necessary to all human life, but as far as I could remember, it had always somehow been different for me. Water seemed to be the source of all my strength—it made me stronger and more balanced, helped me focus and simply feel better. And, as Enid had said, it accelerated my wound-healing processes. It had always been the same with Zara. So maybe there was something to it. But then I asked myself: If I really were descended from a magical creature, why didn’t I have magical abilities?
As much as I thought about it, I couldn’t get any further. There was no choice but to let matters take their course. One thing—and this was the real reason for my sleepless night—was far more important to me just then: Jared was . . . in love with me!
A hot sensation spread from my stomach with a pleasant tingle through my entire body—from my toes to the tips of my hair.
I’ve been in love with you since the very first time I saw you. I heard his voice in my thoughts, and for a moment I lost myself in the vision of having been alone with him.
I jumped up from my bed with joyful anticipation. I would see him again in less than an hour. I could hardly wait. I hastened into the bathroom to get ready for the day. I jumped in the shower, brushed my teeth, and combed the knots out of my wet hair. After I had blow-dried it, I decided to leave my hair down in the hopes of pleasing Jared. I quickly got dressed, slipped into my coat, pulled on my boots, and left. I rushed down the stairs to the entrance area of my dorm, flung open the door, raced down the stone stairs outside, and barely managed to slam on the brakes on the edge of a huge, deep puddle that had formed outside the entrance. I stood on the lowest stair with flailing arms, trying to regain my balance, when I heard an amused chuckle.
“Why are you in such a rush?” a soft melodic voice asked. I looked up, surprised, and saw Jared on the other side of the little pond. My heart’s rhythm was immediately confounded.
“Please don’t tell me you’re frightened of getting wet,” he said with a broad grin and gave me his hand. “That would be remarkable, wouldn’t it?”
“Jared . . . what are you doing here?” I asked and attempted to rein in the butterflies fluttering about my stomach.
“Picking you up, of course,” he said with a beaming smile as if it were obvious he’d be waiting outside my residence in the morning. Damn, he looks so incredibly good!
“Why?” I asked while he helped me step over the puddle. Although I was looking forward to nothing else in the world, I was confused and felt a bit ambushed. I had actually thought I’d have a little more time to think about what I’d say to him.
He looked at me skeptically. “You’ve got Narcissism and Destructiveness with Bronsen, don’t you?”
“Yes . . . but . . .”
“But?” he said, smiling again. “Would you rather go by yourself?”
“No—of course not. I just find it . . . lovely that you’ve come to pick me up,” I said and was finally capable of giving him a smile.
“Now you know how I felt yesterday when you lay in wait for me when I was running,” Jared said happily.
“Oh,” was all I could say.
He laughed. “Shall we?” Jared asked after his ringing laughter had shrunk to a warm smile. He nodded in the direction of the lecture halls.
I nodded and walked beside him while taking a moment to process what was happening. Jared had waited for me outside my dorm to go with me to the college. He had come here just to spend time with me. The butterflies in my stomach were going wild. During the night, I’d been very worried Jared might change his mind, but he had really meant it: he’d no longer keep away from me. All of a sudden, I remembered Professor Mayflower’s face when she heard those words from his mouth. It cost Jared a lot to resist her will—that much was obvious. He must be really serious about me, or else he would have never taken this on—at least I hoped.
Incredible! I felt my life had turned around 180 degrees within twenty-four hours. Jared had confided his greatest secret to me, he had—for my sake—opposed Karen Mayflower, and he confessed to me he was . . . in love with me. When he accompanied me home last night, I had felt closer to him than ever before, though there had been no more than a quick kiss on the forehead. All the barriers, fears, and secrets that had stood between us had been torn down, just like that. There was only the two of us.
While we walked side by side to the main entrance—I walked as slowly as possible to spend as much time with Jared as I could—an unaccustomed sensation arose in me. I couldn’t name it, nor could I tell whether it was good or bad. It felt as if two worlds were colliding inside me. On the one hand, there was the new magical world that I couldn’t get enough of, but it also frightened me tremendously. A world revolving around old legends, secret societies, mystical places, legendary figures, prophecies, and magic. Though I’d seen it with my own eyes, much of it was still difficult to grasp. Occasionally, I caught myself questioning if I’d dreamed it all—even though the best proof of the existence of these things was walking right beside me. As inconspicuously as possible, I cast a probing glance at Jared and was again racked by nagging doubt—he was almost too beautiful to be true.
But then on the other hand, juxtaposed to this new, magical one, was the old world—my ordinary life as a college student. This included lectures and seminars, professors, daily lunches at the dining hall, incomplete assignments waiting for me at home, study groups with Sally and Feli—No! I clenched my hands into fists. Felix was no longer part of either of my worlds.
“What are you thinking about?” Jared asked. I could see from the look in his eyes that he had felt the change in my mood.
“Hmm . . .” I said, hesitating. “To be honest, I was just thinking of Felix,” I said.
Jared took a deep breath. “I don’t think he’ll dare come near you again.”
“What makes you so sure?”
“We’re keeping an eye on him.”
“We? You mean the Order?”
Jared nodded. “Let’s put it this way. Felix is permitted to stay in Oxford under certain . . . conditions. Should he violate them, he’ll have to face t
he consequences.”
I opened my mouth to ask what he meant by consequences but then thought I might not want to know the answer. “Do you think Sally and I should go to the police?”
“You’re free to do so. I just didn’t want to pressure you into it.”
I nodded.
“And?” Jared asked after I’d been silent for a while. “Are you going to report him?”
“I’m thinking about it,” I said, frowning, while trying to chase Felix out of my mind. I was still chilled by the thought of what he wanted to do to me and what he’d done to Sally. Suddenly, the memory of my last visit to see her arose . . . How terribly pale she’d looked.
“Do you know how Sally’s doing?” I asked. I felt guilty because she’d completely slipped my mind during the events of the last few days.
“Colin was with her yesterday evening,” Jared said in a soft voice. He seemed more at ease with this topic than the previous one. “He said she was like new. Maybe she’ll be back tomorrow.”
“Thank goodness,” I said and breathed a huge sigh of relief. Then, I thought of something I still wanted to ask Jared. I bit my lower lip.
“Well, ask!” Jared said, grinning without looking at me.
“You know that’s pretty eerie, don’t you?” I said, smiling.
“What?” he asked as if clueless, but his face betrayed him.
“That you know what I’m feeling before I do,” I said.
Jared shrugged and played innocent. “So, what did you want to ask me?” he said, now a little more serious.
“Well, I visited Sally two days ago . . .” I looked at Jared out of the corner of my eye to size him up.
“And?”
“She told me you’d been with her.”
“Yes, I was with her,” he said as if there were nothing to it and looked at me questioningly.