by Sarah Kleck
“No,” Claire said, looked at me through narrowed eyes one last time, then turned and walked away. I was sure she was cursing me in her mind.
After watching Claire walk away, Jared whispered to me, “Everything okay?” He clearly felt her hatred and anger toward me. I could tell from his face that it was an effort to hold himself back.
“Don’t worry,” I said but couldn’t help wonder why these people hated me so much.
Together with Jared, Enid, Colin, and Professor Martin, I went down an arched marble stairway to the dining hall, which—apart from its size—resembled the dining hall of Christ Church College. The appearance of the dark wooden tables, which extended in two rows along almost the entire length of the room, felt familiar in the midst of this new and strange environment. I carefully looked over the men and women, who were already seated and helping themselves to tea, toast, oatmeal, eggs, baked beans, potato wedges, and bacon. As expected, everyone turned toward me and looked me over from top to bottom. At least they had enough manners to turn back to the food on their plates after a detailed examination. None of them looked familiar until I spotted a woman with short gray hair. No doubt about it—that was the librarian who wouldn’t let me borrow the Calmburry book. Now I knew why it wasn’t in its place the next day and then saw it weeks later in Karen’s office. Next, I recognized another person and held my breath. There he sat—the man I’d noticed at Zara’s funeral, the man who’d stalked me again and again and followed me to Oxford. Suddenly, it became obvious. He hadn’t followed me here from Fleetwood—he’d been sent to Fleetwood because of me! Or rather, because of Zara. After all, no one knew of my existence until I showed up in Oxford. At least, that’s what Enid told me. But how could that be? This man had followed me day and night. It was impossible that he hadn’t known who I was. And why didn’t he inform the Order about me? Or warn me, instead? Before I was able to think this through, Jared took my hand and led me across the room. Then, at the farthest end, he quickly took a seat, and I sat down beside him. Enid, Colin, and Professor Martin joined us.
Only when Jared motioned me to help myself to the abundance of food spread out generously in bowls and on trays at the center of the table did I notice a blonde head of hair sticking out from underneath Enid’s arm. It was a girl with baby blue eyes, and she stared at me from across the table.
“Jessie, don’t be like that,” Enid said, and when the little girl sat up, I noticed she was remarkably beautiful and probably about nine years old.
“Evelyn, this is Jessica, my daughter. She’s been all excited since she found out you were here,” she said with a laugh, which caused her shy daughter embarrassment.
“Hi, Jessica,” I greeted the little one and extended my hand to her across the table. “Pleased to meet you.”
“Hi,” the girl said with a faint voice, but then a beaming smile spread across her face.
“Help yourself,” Enid said, motioning toward the bountifully set table. I didn’t particularly feel like eating but took a piece of toast, spread butter and marmalade on it, and took a bite. It was delicious. I eagerly ate the toast and prepared another piece while Professor Martin poured me a cup of tea and pushed it over with a smile.
“Thank you . . . Professor.”
“Just Irvin,” he said.
Jared took my hand again under the table as if to say, “See, they like you.”
But I had my doubts. I looked around the room at the faces, finding some gave me friendly looks but others seemed distrustful or even hostile. One might think I would have become used to being watched by now, but it still left me feeling uncomfortable. I’d never been someone who liked being the center of attention. I counted eighteen people plus the four sitting at the table with me. Then there was still Karen, Claire, and the two oldest members of the High Council, whose names I’d forgotten. And not to forget Madison, who had disappeared without a trace with my amulet. That made twenty-seven adults—I thought Jared had said the Circle consisted of twenty-seven people. That meant everyone was here. Except for Madison.
“Jared,” I said.
“Yes?” he said, before placing a strip of bacon in his mouth.
“The Circle of the Order . . . Do they all live here? I mean, do you all live together?”
Jared laughed. “No, not normally. Every member has a job, and most have families. We gather here only on special occasions or under exceptional circumstances.”
“Are you saying I’m an exceptional circumstance?” I asked, which caused loud laughter at the table.
“No, my darling,” Jared said, still grinning, and kissed the back of my hand. “You’re clearly a special occasion.” Suddenly his expression hardened. “However, what happened in your room belongs to exceptional circumstances. That’s the real reason the members of the Circle are here today.”
“Though, in all honesty, they were all eager to finally see you in person,” Enid added with a smile. “The last survivor of Nimue’s bloodline, the Lady of the Lake.” Was there a hint of awe in her voice?
After breakfast Jared told me he’d give me a tour and show me everything.
“What shall we start with?” he asked.
“I don’t know what all there is to see here, but maybe we could start with your room,” I suggested.
“Okay,” he said, smiling, and led me to the south wing of the huge building.
“It’s nothing special,” he said as he opened the door. “The bedrooms actually all look the same.” It was true: his room was no different from the one I woke up in. Only a few personal items suggested who lived here. I noticed a framed photograph of four people sitting on a dresser. I stepped closer to gently brush my finger over the face of a wonderfully beautiful boy with bright blue eyes.
“That’s you, isn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“Then those are your parents and your sister,” I said while looking over the man and woman standing right behind little Jared and the girl, who couldn’t be much older than him. Except for the blonde woman, they all had the same dark-blue eyes. All four were exceptionally beautiful. Jared’s mother reminded me of a young Grace Kelly, his father looked like an athletic version of Professor Irvin Martin, and Laura, Jared’s older sister, who must have been about thirteen or fourteen in the picture, could have competed with any top model. The more I looked at the picture, the more I felt—rather, knew for certain—that I would have loved these people. I would have loved Jared’s parents and Laura as if they were my own family. Suddenly, I felt infinitely sad that I would never meet them. Was this feeling grounded in the magical link between our families?
“As I said, nothing special,” Jared repeated, which I interpreted as an attempt to distract me from the photo. Only then did I realize I had tears in my eyes, so I turned away and went to a shelf crammed full of CDs. I looked them over. Chopin, Debussy, Yiruma, Einaudi, Florence and the Machine, Coldplay, Ryan Sheridan, Travis, Kings of Leon, Metallica, Linkin Park, TOS—an eclectic mix.
“You have a pretty broad taste in music,” I said and smiled as Jared stepped behind me, put his arms around me, and kissed the side of my neck. He turned me around and pulled me close. I put my arms around his neck, pulling him even closer as our lips opened and I inhaled his breath. Then he gently pushed me toward the bed, and we let ourselves drop on it. My hands ran through Jared’s hair, clawed into it, and then moved back to his neck. He moved over me the next moment, raised his head, tenderly stroked my cheek, and looked into my eyes.
“I love you.” His words penetrated my entire being, shaking every fiber of my body. It felt as if I were about to burst into flames when he found my mouth again, rolled to his back, and pulled me on top of him. Now I was looking down on him as he brushed my hair away and firmly held me against him. The tips of his fingers began to glow in their unique golden way, and he held my face to look at it.
“I love you,” he repeated
, breathing heavily as the glow began to spread, first moving up his arms, then reaching his chest, and finally enveloping his entire face.
“I love you, too,” I said with a wavering voice. Completely out of breath, I sat up and pulled his shirt over his head. I stared at his flawless, glowing upper body, then kissed his chest all the way down to his stomach. His muscles protruded under the touch of my lips and relaxed again when I moved to another spot. Then he firmly took me into his arms and rolled us over so he was on top of me again. He breathed in heavy bursts and looked at my face.
“Do you even know how beautiful you are?” He kissed me so intensely I thought I’d lose my mind. He glowed brighter, more radiantly, as he carefully unbuttoned my blouse, pulled it over my shoulders and freed my arms from it. He pulled me up, kissed my neck down to my collar bones, let his hands run down my side, over my belly, my breasts, my hips. Breathing heavily, I settled back on the mattress, crossed my arms behind my head, extended my neck, and threw my head back. I felt on the verge of bursting when Jared bent over me to cover my body in kisses. Arriving at my navel, he gently brushed along my body with his fingers until he reached the top of my pants. Jared’s skin glowed so bright and radiant I was almost blinded. He slowly opened the button at the top of my jeans and pulled the zipper down—tooth by tooth. My body vibrated as he pulled the pants over my legs. Where his golden fingertips touched my skin, electrical impulses appeared to flow through my legs. In a single motion, he stripped off my tight jeans.
My hands went to the top of his pants once he was over me again. Compared with his gentle, practiced touch, my wild tugging and pulling on Jared’s pants seemed pathetic. But I couldn’t have cared less. Nothing other than him mattered at that moment. Finally, I managed to open all the buttons and pulled his pants down to his knees. Jared lifted an arm and quickly reached back without taking his eyes off me. Only a second later, he had rid himself of his pants and socks. Down to his skin-tight jockeys, Jared sat up, pulled me into a riding position on top of him, moved his hands along my back, and popped open the clasp on my bra. Now I was only wearing my panties while Jared held me firmly against him. My bare breasts touched his skin while he whispered my name with a pulsating voice. Without knowing what I was doing, I let myself fall back on the bed, pulling him down by the neck. I was ready. There was nothing I longed for more dearly.
Suddenly, there was a dull thud, followed by a deafening bang.
“What was that?” I sat up startled only to discover dense, white smoke streaming out of Jared’s sound system.
“Shit,” he said, jumped up, and tried to put out the flames leaping from the stereo system. Jared pulled the entire system from the shelf, carried it to the window, which I immediately opened when I realized what he was up to, and hurled the burning stereo out of the third-floor window into the inner courtyard of the headquarters.
We dropped back on the bed, panting, after the equipment had shattered on the pavement with a loud bang.
“I think I’ll show you the rest of the building now,” Jared said, and we were overcome for several minutes by a laugh attack.
“We have to seriously think of something if we don’t want to have everything blow up each time we kiss,” I said when we were getting dressed.
“We should,” Jared said with a forced smile.
The imposing library was probably the most impressive room Jared showed me during our tour. Maybe I’d find a few minutes to look around there sometime. After he’d guided me through the underground garage, similar to a small municipal parking garage, we stepped outside through the heavy, wooden entrance door, perhaps more aptly described as a gate. The first thing I noticed were the four mighty stone pillars, two to the right and two to the left of the door, which reminded me of the pillars of the Acropolis. After I’d gone down the stone stairs, I looked over the large lawn that extended before me. I walked a few steps and looked around. Only from there did I recognize that the area was surrounded by dense woods.
“We really are in the middle of a forest,” I said, walking on the lawn. When we arrived at the edge of the woods, where our tour ended, I turned one more time to look at the imposing sandstone building from a distance. “You once told me that the headquarters are a safe house,” I said, letting my gaze glide over the structure again. Except for the impressive size, I noticed nothing to set it apart from other houses of the same kind. There was no evidence that it was particularly safe. When Jared told me of it, I imagined security guards, alarm systems, unscalable walls, barbed wire—but from here, I saw nothing but a huge stone building in the woods. “How is it possible not to be found in this house?” I asked, turning to Jared, who—to my surprise—broadly grinned.
“What did you expect? Machine gun nests and land mines?”
I laughed. “Not exactly, but I figured at least video surveillance or something.”
“The headquarters aren’t protected that way,” Jared explained as we walked back. “A protective spell was cast.”
“How does it work?”
“That’s not so easy to explain. It’s hard to understand if you haven’t seen the before and after effect.”
I frowned and raised my eyebrows.
Jared grinned. “You can only see all this because I brought you here. Anyone who isn’t welcome in this place can’t find it. All a stranger would find here is an ordinary clearing in the woods.”
“Is that supposed to mean that if I’d come a few days ago, I wouldn’t have been able to see all this?” I asked, making a hand gesture toward the building.
“Nothing but trees and meadows,” Jared said.
“Oh.” I was stunned. Of course, I’d had to deal with the strangest things and . . . creatures in recent days and weeks, but the idea that magic could simply make an entire house, not to mention one of this size, disappear almost floored me. I wondered what might happen if a stranger—or, as Jared had put it, anyone who wasn’t welcome—found the clearing by chance. Would he simply trip over the stairs and bump into the massive walls?
“What if someone comes by here?” I asked, trying to imagine it. “You can’t just walk through the building . . . can you?”
Jared laughed. “No, of course not. You’re deflected. The protective spell makes the entire property invisible and anyone who comes here will feel a strong urge to walk away from the building.”
“Ah.” I nodded, still looking skeptical.
“Jared, may I talk to you for a moment?” Enid’s voice, which came across the lawn from the building’s entrance, interrupted us. She stood on the stairs. Jared breathed in deeply. He probably already knew what it was about and didn’t feel like talking about it—at least, that’s what it looked like. “Sorry for interrupting your tour,” Enid added when we had reached her.
“It’s all right, we were just about done, anyway,” I said.
“It won’t take long,” Jared said, kissing my hands. “Shall I walk you to your room?”
“No, I’ll stay outside for a little longer.” This garden seemed like a good place to reflect, and I had some catching up to do.
“Are you sure?” Jared looked at me, concerned. He seemed to feel bad about leaving me alone in a strange environment.
I raised my eyebrows. “You yourself said nothing would happen to me here.”
Jared sized me up. It almost looked as if he were playing through all sorts of horrific scenarios of what could happen to me in the next twenty minutes.
“Okay, then we’ll see each other later,” he finally said, gave me a quick kiss, and disappeared into the headquarters with Enid, who gave me an apologetic smile.
“I won’t play this game for much longer,” I heard Jared say in a threatening tone as the two vanished into the labyrinth of corridors.
I sat comfortably on the sandstone stairs, pursuing my thoughts. Jared and Enid were only gone for a few minutes when I suddenly noticed someon
e standing behind me.
“Lovely weather today, isn’t it?” I heard a male voice ask. I turned and suddenly froze. There he was—the man who had followed me everywhere for weeks. I would have preferred to run away when I saw him but suppressed the urge. Jared had assured me nothing would happen to me. I was safe in this place. So I forced myself to remain seated.
“Yes,” I said, sounding surprised.
“Please forgive me, but I haven’t been able to introduce myself yet,” he said with a smile, extending his hand. “My name’s Gareth.”
I accepted and shook his hand. “I take it you know who I am,” I said. It was more than strange to shake the hand of the man who’d followed and watched me for so long.
Gareth smiled apologetically. “I hope I didn’t frighten you. That was never my intention.”
“Well, somewhat,” I said. “A person isn’t often stalked like that.”
“I wouldn’t think so,” he said and sat down beside me on the steps.
“Is that your job? Tailing people?”
“You could say that. I’m a retired police officer, and, well, some old habits are tough to shake, you know.”
“My sister was a police officer,” I said without knowing why I told him that.
He nodded thoughtfully. “I know.”
Of course he knew. Why had I even mentioned it?
“I’m really sorry about what happened to her.”
“Yes,” was all I could say. We sat thinking. Then I said, “May I ask you something?”
“Certainly.”
“Why didn’t you tell Karen about me? I mean, you must have already found out in Fleetwood who I was.”
Gareth thought for a moment. Deep folds formed on his forehead. “My duty is to the Order, not to Karen Mayflower.”
“But she was the one who assigned you to me or, rather, to my sister, right?”
“Which doesn’t mean I approve of her methods. I still decide what I consider right or wrong. And that’s how I act.”