G knew she was always getting into some sort of trouble, like her encounter with the wounded wolf or other weird situations, like thinking she heard whispers from a plant, but the past week was something else. Aside from the odd people she’d seen all over town and the way nature behaved with her, everything appeared to be related to Mr. Blau.
And Mr. Blau, well… he was unusual all around. Just a few days ago, she caught him moving a half dead person into a house. But even more than that, he was simply too different from anyone G had ever met.
Unlike the rest of her teachers, Mr. Blau wasn’t obsessed with G’s birthmark, crazy necklace or her famous shady past. He didn’t find her strange, and he sure did his best to avoid speaking to her for more than a few minutes. Every time she was near Mr. Blau, G felt some kind of powerful wave inside her. Like a magnet, as if they were connected, as if he knew her. The more she looked at him the more questions she had, especially since Mr. Blau was on a mission to either ignore her or treat her like a child. At the same time, when at a distance, he was always watching her.
What’s his problem? And where did he and the rest of the strangers come from? She kept asking herself this last question, hoping their origin had something to do with hers.
After school, she offered to clean the orphanage’s kitchen for Miss Brown, thinking the housework would keep her busy enough to not feel the anxiety of facing him tomorrow morning. But she was wrong.
Whether sweeping, doing the dishes or cleaning the pantry, all she could think about were the different ways to approach Mr. Blau and how it would play out.
Chapter 5
The Red Dagger
“THIS IS BULLSHIT!” screamed Priyam, causing the entire library to look at her.
“Sorry…” G mumbled to the unwanted audience. “What’s bullshit?” she whispered.
“I finally got Hugo to give me the Renaissance tickets, but he wants a date in exchange,” said Priyam as she punched at her phone’s touch-screen.
“And you didn’t see it coming?” laughed G.
“No! I thought he was smarter than this.” She turned off her phone in frustration almost hurting her finger with the force she used to smashed it against the button.
“You talked to him for weeks, he probably misunderstood you.” G looked at her watch, her heart pounded faster with each passing minute bringing her closer to talking to the mysterious teacher.
Rolling her eyes, Priyam threw her phone to the open side of her bag. “Three weeks! Every single day I talked to him I made sure I started with the phrase: Where are my tickets? How can anyone misunderstand that!?”
G chuckled. She took a fast glance at her watch and went back to reading her book, but she couldn’t concentrate on the words. There were too many questions, too many thoughts. “Priy, have you noticed strange things lately?” she asked.
“No, because nothing strange ever happens in this freaking town… except for you, of course.” She winked.
“Thanks... How about new people? Have you seen the new people around? ” G whispered.
Priyam looked around and leaned closer to G. “It’s tourist season,” she whispered back, not really sure of why they were even whispering.
“Well, yeah. But…don’t you find them a little weirder this year?”
“Yes, and I blame Hipsters.”
G looked for the millionth time at her watch and began to shake her leg. She dried her sweaty hands by rubbing them on her jeans, but the sensation of trapped energy was still there. She had previously checked Mr. Blau’s schedule. She knew he was going to be in his office, but she felt uneasy with the idea of going. What if he’s with someone else and I can’t talk to him? What if that someone else is Synthia…? I seriously hope not…
“What’s going on with you?” asked Priyam.
“I need to see Mr. Blau,” she said sheepishly, thinking that once she admitted it to her best friend, she might find the courage to actually go for it.
“Get in line,” smiled Priyam, and her previous frustration vanished into the memory of Mr. Blau and his sexiness.
“I’m serious: there’s something about him,” G explained.
Priyam sighed, leaning her head against one of her palms. “His accent? His body and intense stares?”
“No. I feel like there’s something more going on with him.”
“Besides his accent, his body and intense stares?” gasped Priyam faking shock. “Like what?”
“I don’t know. Something strange. Something… different.”
“He is pretty smart for a twenty-one year old.”
“Yeah I guess- Wait, how do you know he’s twenty-one?”
Priyam turned her computer around, and G saw Mr. Blau’s face and resume. “I hacked into the school’s files. I even found out he was only sixteen when he started college. How freaking cool is that?”
G took the computer and read his profile. She was usually against Priyam using her computer to hack and spy on people, but this time she was not just in favor of it, she was also very grateful. G checked all the pages that mentioned him. Lots of languages, he graduated early from Oxford, tons of offers and merits. “He makes me feel anxious and stressed but calm at the same time, and he is strange,” said G as she cyber-stalked him.
Priyam bursts into laughter. “Sweet little child...” said Priyam patting G’s hair. “That means you have the hots for him.”
“No, I don’t! He stresses me out. Yes, he’s handsome, but his attitude is worse than how good his looks are. He’s one of the meanest people I’ve ever met,” snapped G as she brushed away Priyam’s hand.
“Yes, you do have them. It’s been so long you probably forgot how to recognize them.”
“I’m serious! I’m not attracted to him. Something wrong is going on, and I need to talk to him. How about if you come with me?” G asked making the biggest puppy eyes ever.
Priyam’s eyebrow lifted with curiosity but she felt something was off. She remembered how G once begged her not to look over the orphanage’s window when a guy she thought was cute used to walk near Bobby. She was sure G wouldn’t invite her willingly to stalk a guy, no matter how gorgeous he was. “Why would I do that?”
“Synthia is probably going to be there,” G admitted. “And I know how much fun you have annoying her.”
Priyam scoffed, “Used to have fun, now it’s become insanely boring.”
“What happened?”
“She’s too dumb to understand my sarcasm… or anything else. It’s like talking to a lamp with tacky taste.” Priyam grabbed the books in front of her and placed them in a cart next to their table.
“Come on! I really need to talk to Mr. Blau and she keeps stalking him,” G begged her. She couldn’t go another week with the kind of stress the bizarre occurrences were causing her.
“Oh, do you, little minx?” Priyam teased G.
“Please? I need a distraction.” G made the sweetest face she could think of in order to convince her.
“Fine. I’ll help. Only if you tell me all the dirty secrets later.”
“There won’t be any dirty details.” Priyam turned around and faced her with a know-it-all expression on her face. “Fine…” G relented. “I’ll tell you all the dirty secrets later.”
* * *
G walked to the second floor and hid next to a locker. She could see Mr. Blau’s office door but she wasn’t sure if the coast was clear, not until she heard Synthia’s screams.
Nerves pulsing through her, G tipped-toed to the door and walked into the office. On the inside, G found Mr. Blau at a bookcase in the corner arranging some old books. Her heart pounded, she felt her breathing increase. She was afraid of him, but eager for the truth. Edan glanced at G, sighing in a way that implied annoyance. “What do you want, Red?”
“G,” she said and closed the door behind her, trying not to make noise.
“Excuse me?”
“My name is G, not Red.”
“What kind of a name is G?” he mo
cked.
Feeling off, G took a strand of her red hair and tucked it behind her ear. “What kind of a name is Blau?”
“That’s my last name.”
This is going nowhere. Why was it that instead of answering my questions, this man was creating more? “What’s your first name?” she asked unsure why the name wasn’t even on his records.
Mr. Blau scoffed with amusement. “As if I would tell you, now if you’ll excuse me.”
“I just got here.”
“Well, I’m busy.” Mr. Blau continued with his task of arranging the books as G stood there staring at him.
He turned around and ignored her as if that would magically help him make her disappear. Unlucky for him, she wasn’t going anywhere. “What?” he asked tapping his shoe on the wooden floor.
“I have questions,” G said as she walked to his desk.
Mr. Blau grabbed a book and glanced at her with a bitter look, his mouth twitching from one of its corners as if he ate something sour. “I don’t do tutoring.”
“It’s not about class.”
Mr. Blau chuckled making G feel like punching something. “Why would you expect me to answer your questions when I don’t answer questions I’m actually being paid to answer?”
“I’m willing to give it a try.” To prove her stubbornness, G sat down on top of his desk. Just when Mr. Blau was about to reject her, Max, one of G’s classmates opened the classroom’s door.
Mr. Blau slammed the books on the desk and pointed at the classmate. “Out.” Without a word, Max, timid and shy, turned around and ran out of the office. Mr. Blau turned to his book task. “Try.”
“How old are you?” she asked already knowing the answer.
“Why would you care?”
Douche… “Well your face looks around twenty but your choice of clothes and stuck-up attitude makes me think you’re in your mid-thirties,” she baited him.
“Are all your questions going to be this juvenile?”
Ignoring Mr. Blau’s sarcasm G continued. “Why are you here?”
“As you must already know, this is, in fact, my office.”
“I meant in Truckee.”
“I got a job,” said Mr. Blau as he extended his arms around him, pointing out the obvious.
“You are an Oxford graduate with a specialty in four languages and you end up teaching chemistry in this school? I don’t believe that’s the reason you moved here,” she said pointedly, regretting letting him know that she already knew all those details about him.
“I don’t care what you believe, and stop looking into my files.”
“I didn’t have to,” she lied, hoping he wouldn’t notice. “The department head can’t shut up about you,” G said to cover the fact that she’d been researching him as much as she could.
“Humans…” Edan whispered against his teeth.
G slid off his desk and walked closer. She noticed Mr. Blau stiffen. He seemed calm and composed but there was something about his movements that made G think he was nervous. Nervous about what, she couldn’t tell. “Why did you agree to hear my questions when you refuse to answer them?”
“Because I wasn’t expecting your questions to be this half-witted.” He flashed a cynical smile.
G stood in front of him and pointed at a bunch of books. “Give me those.”
“Why?”
G snatched the books away from his hands. How stubborn can this man be! “It’s called helping.”
“Why would I need the help of someone who can’t even reach the bookshelf?” he asked with a mocking tone.
G kicked a small bench and stood on top of it. She placed the books she snatched in their place and turned to Mr. Blau in order to get more.
Mr. Blau held the books out of G’s reach. “If I give them to you, will you shut up with the questions?”
“Maybe,” she said.
Mr. Blau passed her the books, and she smiled victoriously. “Who was the dead man you were carrying the other morning?”
Mr. Blau coughed. His hand pounded his chest trying to regain composure. “He was not dead, he was… inebriated,” he said feeling his blood boil with anger. “And besides, do you have any self-preservation instincts? Some common sense?” He let go of the books he was holding causing them to slam on top of the desk. “What if he was dead? What on earth would you be here talking to me?”
G laughed. It was the first time she’d actually seen Mr. Blau show an emotion other than annoyance and boredom. His face changed so drastically that she wanted to see more. “So, who was he?”
“Shut up!” he said irritated at her for missing the whole point.
“But-”
“No,” he snapped trying his hardest not to smack some sense into her head. “You said you would shut up if I gave you the books.”
“I said maybe,” she smirked. Mr. Blau was being as obnoxious as ever but at least he was talking to her. “Where are you from?”
Mr. Blau stood quiet, he kept moving his books and tried to ignore her, but in the end, once more, he gave up. “England, obviously.”
G felt a knot in her stomach, she knew her next question would make her look like a freak but she couldn’t hold it back, not anymore. “Where are you really from?”
Mr. Blau flinched at the question and accidentally hit the pile of books from the shelf making them fall on top of G.
“Watch out!” he screamed. But it was too late, G was already falling.
Mr. Blau jumped over the desk, tackling G to cushion her fall. G opened her eyes and realized she was sitting on top of Mr. Blau cradled in his arms.
Her back was against his chest and his arms were around her. Suddenly, G had a vision.
The image was unstable. She saw herself around the age of three. She was running, not remembering why or when, just that she needed to escape. As she ran, the lights shut down behind her. Hiding between the shadows was a man running towards her. He was dragging one of his legs while running, but he still ran fast, catching up to her. His skin was as white as the snow and his neck, face, and back were covered by stripes made from black symbols. His teeth were black and his eyes were yellow.
G reached a hallway with a dead end. She turned around to lift her hand, and the man threw a curvy red dagger with black crystals directly at her face. Out of the shadows, the six-year-old version of the boy from her dreams slid by her side and hugged her the same way Mr. Blau hugged her in the office. The boy lifted his arm, and the red dagger cut his right forearm instead of her face. He stretched his hurt arm directly to the attacker, and a wall of blue fire shot from his palm.
“Are you alright?” Mr. Blau asked. He was shaking, his eyes studied her nervously. He carefully stroked G’s hair. So careful, as if she was made of delicate porcelain.
G, still in her daze, looked at Mr. Blau’s arm and saw the same scar the little boy would have had. She moved her hand and caressed the scar. “A red dagger with black crystals,” she whispered.
Mr. Blau froze. “What?” His features turned from a caring person to the same cold Mr. Blau she’d become accustomed to. His body went rigid and his jaw clenched.
“What?” G snapped out of her dizziness. She couldn’t remember how she got there, why Mr. Blau was hugging her, and why the hell she was caressing his arm.
“What did you say?” asked Mr. Blau.
G tried to remember what happened, but she couldn’t. She could only remember up until the moment she slipped. What happened? Why can’t I remember anything? Was it the tumour? “I… I didn’t say anything,” she said hoping Mr. Blau didn’t know anything about her tumour.
“Leave,” whispered Mr. Blau.
“But…”
“Get out of my office… NOW!” he yelled.
G stood up and ran for the door. Her mind was spinning trying to figure out what was going on.
* * *
Edan leaned against the desk. He had trouble breathing. Edan heard the office’s back door open. “Don’t you think you’re be
ing a little too hard on her?” said Donovan from across the room.
“No,” said Edan as he composed himself. He placed a hand on the desk and pulled himself up.
“You say that now, but when she finds out who she really is, she will whoop your ass,” Icarus squeaked. “I agree with Icarus, she’s very sharp. She’s starting to get suspicious about us.”
“She might be,” Edan agreed. “But she’s irrational, impulsive and has no notion of danger whatsoever.”
“She’s not that bad.”
“Not that bad?” Edan asked slamming his hand on the wooden desk. “She came to confront me about a dead body she assumed I moved into the house, Donovan! How is that not completely irrational and mental?!”
Donovan pressed his lips as hard as he could to suppress his smile. “Stop. You worry too much, Edan.”
Edan looked at Donovan as he sat down in one of the office chairs. “She remembered the first time the palace was attacked.” Edan looked at his forearm where the dagger’s scar was.
It was then that Donovan understood the gravity of the situation. Edan had every right to be terrified. “That’s impossible,” he said.
“I’m telling you what I saw and heard,” Edan said. “She remembered the dagger. She remembered the bloody crystals on it.”
“But the necklace?” he asked while Icarus jumped to the nearest bookshelf.
“She’s getting stronger, and no necklace can stop her,” said Edan. “Not even if Hans forged it.”
Donovan reached out to pet Icarus. “Have you told Mor?”
“No,” Edan replied, heat rising in his body. “She isn’t picking up.”
Donovan chuckled. “She never picks up. Why don’t you just go to her?”
Edan knew Klog Mor would have answers, but he also knew the danger in leaving G alone, especially now that her memories seemed to be resurfacing. “I can’t, I’m afraid of what could happen if I leave my post.”
“Nothing’s going to happen,” he assured him.
Edan wasn’t as sure. The situation was so fragile that any false move could cost them and he wasn’t willing to bet on it. “She still has one year left. I’m not going to risk it,” Edan explained.
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