by Nicola Marsh
The water shimmered, took shape. I leaned forward, peered harder, seeing the moon’s reflection morph into something else entirely.
Something that made me want to scream.
The baby in the crib I’d seen during the divination experiment in Crane’s class? The one with the golden eyes?
It had grown.
Into a girl my age.
And she was staring straight at me with hatred in her topaz eyes.
CHAPTER TWENTY
“What did you see?” Dyfan leaned so far forward across the altar he would’ve fallen on top of me if he moved an extra inch.
“Yes, tell us,” Lia said, glancing between the bowl and me, as if she half expected what I’d seen to materialize before us.
So I did what any sane teen would do when faced with an adult inquisition.
I lied.
Crinkling my forehead, I pretended to ponder. “I saw the Arwen symbol carved into a tree. A huge tree. Not sure what type.”
“Anything else?” If Lia had rubbed her hands together in anticipation I wouldn’t have been surprised, she appeared that eager.
“A bright sun. Super bright. It blinded me to everything else.”
Joss stood behind Dyfan and I glimpsed the flicker of a smile on Joss’s stoic face. Times like this, it was handy he could read my mind.
“I see.” Dyfan stroked his goatee like a history scholar. He was such a poser. “The sun is symbolic, as is Arwen.”
Lia wasn’t so trusting. She scanned my face, searching for the tiniest tell I was lying. Too bad for her, I’d mastered the poker face from a young age, masking my sadness every year I didn’t hear from Mom on my birthday.
After what seemed like an eternity, Lia nodded, apparently satisfied. “That was an admirable first attempt at scrying. Well done, Holly.”
“Thanks.”
While Lia gathered her paraphernalia together, Dyfan stepped around the altar and laid a hand on my shoulder. It took all my willpower not to shrug it off.
“You are wise to pay attention to the signs.” He indicated the temple around us. “What we just did here? Magic can show you the pathway to achieving your ultimate goal.”
What a lot of hooey. Sounded like a generic promise from a fortune cookie. Lucky me, my very own Magic 8 Ball.
He removed his hand and I nodded my thanks.
“Stay warm, Holly.” Lia pressed her palm to mine, and unfortunately, I had to repeat the goodbye with Dyfan before they left us alone.
Joss waited before the pair reached the top of the temple steps before speaking. “You don’t like him.”
“He gives me the creeps,” I said, rubbing my arms. “I can’t pinpoint why. It’s just a feeling.”
“Most of the Sorority has the same feeling. The only one who has any time for him is Maeve, and even then I think it’s because she’s a natural peacekeeper.”
“Yeah, I noticed that the first day you took me to his place.”
“Smart girl.” I basked under Joss’s approval. “So what did you really see in the scrying bowl?”
I pinched the bridge of my nose, remembering where I’d first seen those unnerving golden eyes. “I saw a girl about my age, indistinct features, apart from these freaky, angry eyes the color of amber. The hatred … ” I shook my head to dismiss the memory of how I’d felt when she glared at me: numb, icy, terrified.
“Do you know her?”
“Nope.” There had been something vaguely familiar about her, like she was an old classmate or something, but I couldn’t quite recognize her. “Though I have seen her before.”
The puzzled frown on Joss’s brow deepened. “When?”
“In divination class at school. We did an ashes experiment and scryed with that. I saw a baby in a crib and the baby had those same weirdo eyes.”
“That doesn’t make any sense.”
“Tell me about it,” I said, not liking the permanent confusion that tainted everything about this quest. “I asked the scrying bowl to show me what I’d face in defeating Cadifor and that golden eye chick appeared.”
A spark lit Joss’s eyes. “Maybe he’s going to use her to get to you somehow? A new student at C.U.L.T.?”
“Maybe.”
If Joss’s guess was accurate, I’d spend a lot of time looking over my shoulder at school because Golden Eyes had radiated palpable hatred.
“Anything else?”
I shook my head.
His hand rested on my waist to steady me while the other made a beeline for my forehead. “Time for you to head back.”
“Okay.”
But it wasn’t. I wanted to linger a little longer with him, to explore the connection we shared here in this sacred place. Every feeling I had seemed amplified somehow, like being closer to Bel’s flame accentuated what was important in my life.
Right now, I was looking at him.
I saw a mesmerizing mix of need and admiration and awe in Joss, like he couldn’t believe someone like me would be interested in someone like him. If he only knew that’s how I felt whenever I was around him.
He grinned, and I wanted to slap myself upside the head. Of course he knew. The guy could read my mind. Argh! “Stop smirking and send me back already.”
I braced for his touch on my forehead, for the inevitable heat, for the backward propulsion that made my stomach twist. Instead, his fingers drifted down from my forehead before he traced the outline of my mouth with his fingertip.
My lips parted in shock. His touch was feather-light as it skated across my bottom lip and lingered there for a long, exquisite moment.
I held my breath, wondering what he’d do next. I should’ve known it would be the responsible thing.
“See you next weekend.”
Before I could blink, he’d made the Arwen sign on my forehead and I’d catapulted back to C.U.L.T.
This time the churning in my gut had more to do with growing feelings for my warrior than the astral travel journey.
As I left the shed, I realized I’d be scrambling for another alibi. I’d told Raven I’d be spending the night with Nan. With the time difference between Eiros and Wolfebane negligible—how convenient the Innerworld operated on NYC time, being behind its veil and all—it meant only two hours had elapsed since I’d teleported there and back, landing me smack bang back at school after dinner on a Saturday night.
The campus was crawling with kids, some heading into town on special leave passes, some kicking back down by the river, some heading for the farthest corner down near the woods to smoke and drink and party. That corner was not far enough from the shed where I now crouched. I eased open the door and took a peek out to ascertain whether the coast was clear. When nearby voices grew distant, I slipped out and made a run for the dorm.
Too easy. I skidded to a stop outside the corridor leading to my room and entered at a more sedate pace, knowing this would be the hardest part. Raven’s room was two doors down from mine, and if she happened to see me again … I’d already lied several times tonight. I didn’t want to make it a habit.
Coast clear, I headed toward my room, stopping dead when I spotted Quinn. He straightened from where he’d been squatting. Probably sliding something under my door.
My heart gave a strange twang as I realized I’d missed him, missed his normality. Funny how in a short space of time I’d come to see C.U.L.T. as a safe place to hang out when initially I’d preferred to be elsewhere. For now, it was my sanctuary, and Quinn was a huge part of that.
I took a step back. Too late. Quinn glanced up. “What happened? Raven said you were spending the night with your Nan?”
Hating the glib lie, I shrugged. “The nurses had a full house with relatives taking up spare beds, so I came back.”
“Right.”
He might’ve believed me if I followed up by breezing past him, opening the door to my room and entering. Instead, I stood there like a doofus, shuffling my feet, absentmindedly patting the bag of crystals in my pocket, and obviously unco
mfortable.
“What’s up with you? Really?”
“I’ve just got a lot going on. With Nan, with trying to keep up here, with getting a handle on the visions.”
His lips compressed into a thin line and my heart sank. He didn’t believe me. “If that’s all it is, why do you radiate guilt, like you’ve got something major going down?”
I wanted to tell him the truth, every sorry bit of it. But I couldn’t. This was my responsibility: finding Arwen, saving the world, yada, yada, yada. Besides, I didn’t want to taint the friendship we had. While Quinn seemed accepting enough of the magic stuff that went on here, and even craved a little power of his own, I liked that I could be the old me around him. That we could talk about normal stuff and not have every conversation centered on my stupid quest, which would definitely happen if I blabbed. I spent enough hours in the day focused on Arwen and crystals and Cadifor and teleportation and Eiros and mastering tasks.
“I can’t talk about this right now,” I said, walking straight up to him, in his face, where he’d have to move to avoid a full-frontal body clash.
He stepped back at the last moment, but not before I glimpsed something that blew me away.
A flicker of excitement in his eyes.
Freaking great. As if my life wasn’t complicated enough already.
Quinn was a great guy. We had loads in common, being newbies and all, plus he was nice and was currently here in the town I loved, the town I wanted to spend the rest of my life in. All pretty powerful pros, but the major con? Joss, and my conviction that what was developing between us was special, even fated.
I didn’t want to jeopardize my friendship with Quinn by rejecting him, but I didn’t want to give him the wrong signals, either. Best to pretend like I’d never seen that giveaway gleam and make a run for it.
I quickly opened the door and stepped inside, increasingly awkward. Usually I wouldn’t think twice about inviting him in. Rules here were pretty lax; Brigit treated us like adults and expected us to act like them, including using complete discretion with the boy/girl thing in dorm rooms. But tonight wasn’t the night for chatting or debating the next bestselling YA novel or who had the guts to prank Crane at the end of the semester.
Nuh-uh. Tonight I needed to get rid of him ASAP.
I searched for the right words while he slapped his head. “I’m an idiot. All this secretive behavior? Involves another guy, doesn’t it?”
At last I could tell a partial truth. “Sort of.”
Frowning, he folded his arms. “Who is he?”
“Just a guy I recently met.”
“Where?”
Damn, he wouldn’t let this go. “Around.”
“Is it serious?”
I shrugged, trying to play it cool. If serious was a warrior connected to me by an ancient bond, a warrior who could read my mind, a warrior who I wanted to hold me in a way I’d never imagined before, hell yeah, it was serious. This too, I could answer honestly. “I don’t know. There’s too much other stuff going on for it to really work.”
This cheered him up. “Can’t say I’m not disappointed.” I managed a tight smile and he took it as a sign of encouragement. “You know I don’t have to spell out how much I like you, right?”
“Uh … right,” I said, flattered by his declaration, but spoiling it with a blush that must’ve made me look like a beet.
“And I’m always here for you.”
“Thanks.”
“And if it comes to a fight, I’ll take this other guy down.”
Picturing Joss and Quinn locked in mortal combat, I struggled to keep the grin off my face. “My hero.”
“You better believe it.”
When our smiles faded, we moved back to awkward. I hated it; we’d been so comfortable with each other since the first day I’d arrived.
He turned to go, spinning around at the last minute. “Does Raven know?”
“No.”
A slow smile eased the tension. “Well, well, well, Goth Girl’s not going to like that.”
Happy the tension had eased, I laughed. “I’ll tell her. Eventually.”
Quinn laughed and tapped the side of his nose before walking away, giving a brief wave over his shoulder. As I watched him turn the corner, my lightheartedness evaporated.
I had friends, real friends, for the first time in my life.
And I was deliberately lying to them.
“Okay, people, get out your crystal balls.”
A few nervous titters swept the classroom, no one sure whether Crane was serious or making a rare joke, as he strode to the front of the class.
Planting his hands on his desk, he eyeballed us all, a smirk clueing us in.
“For those of you without a sense of humor, that was a joke. What isn’t a joke is the art of crystallomancy, another powerful form of divination you all need to learn.”
I balked, none too keen on seeing that golden-eyed freak again.
Raven elbowed me, raising an eyebrow. “You okay?”
I nodded, not willing to draw Crane’s attention and his wrath yet again. For some reason, he didn’t like me. I’d handed in every assignment on time and took copious notes as he droned on, but it wasn’t enough. Whenever he saw me in class, his disdain rippled over me like he’d doused me in water.
“If you haven’t done your pre-reading, let me bring you up to speed.” He carefully slid a large chunk of sparkling purple amethyst from the black bag on his desk. “Crystals have been used since the dark ages to heal and bring balance. They work through resonance and vibration.”
He held the crystal up to the light and rotated it, but the only vibration I felt was Raven’s suppressed laughter when a dork from the back made a spooky woo-woo sound. “For our purpose, crystals can also open the door to other worlds, especially crystals with fault lines and occlusions like this one.” He pointed to a large crack running down the center that only served to enhance its beauty.
“Your homework this week will entail each of you meditating with a crystal, losing yourself in it, seeing what arises from your heightened awareness, and jotting those findings in a journal.”
After sliding the purple chunk back into the bag, he pulled out several small shiny crystals shaped like wands. “When you meditate, start with red to energize and awaken your senses, then move through the spectrum of colors. And always, always, earth your energy again with a black crystal.”
Deathly silence filled the classroom. Not one student was game enough to ask what happened if we forgot this last step.
“Now, on to the most important properties of crystals and how they apply to divination.” Crane placed the colored crystals on the desk. He slipped his hand into the bag and pulled out two colorless crystals, one flat like a stone, the other so multifaceted it caught the sun streaming through the window and sent shards of light scattering across the walls. Shame Crane was such an uptight jerk. Divination could easily have been my favorite subject.
He held up the stone first. “This is a seer stone, a natural water-polished stone that is cut to reveal an inner world. It’s an invaluable aid to scrying as it can show the past, the present, and the future.” He weighed it in his palm and rubbed his thumb over the smooth surface. “Some also believe you can program a seer stone to take you back to a specific timeframe to access knowledge from then.”
As he said the words, his beady eyes fixed on me. I stiffened, trying to make sense of his words as they jumbled in my head.
Slowly a vague idea formed, coalescing into something so profound it took all my willpower not to leap from my chair and run from the classroom to head to Eiros this very second. What if I could use a seer stone to access information on Arwen’s whereabouts? Somehow get information from the time of Bel himself? I couldn’t lose.
“Miss Burton, you appear to be interested in this discussion. Maybe you could answer my next question. What’s this?”
He held up the multifaceted stone and I gawped. The crystal matched the o
ne from Drake’s bag of tricks, the one I’d been using to teleport to Eiros.
“Trans-channeling crystal,” Raven whispered, masked by the fakest sneeze I’d ever heard. At the same time, Quinn’s hand shot up as he asked, “Excuse me, can you clarify something about the seer stone? You mentioned programming it. How does that happen?” I could’ve hugged my friends at that moment.
Crane had no option but to answer Quinn’s question before returning to his precious faceted crystal, and by that point, the heat was off me. “Miss Burton?”
“A trans-channeling crystal?”
“Correct.” His sneer in Raven’s direction clued us in that he hadn’t bought my friend’s distraction technique. “This crystal is a rare formation of three seven-sided facets. It’s highly valued, for as its name suggests, it can channel energy or information from higher sources, and then assist in expressing what it has learned.”
Tilting it pointy end up, he said, “The added bonus is that this crystal can also be used to send long-distance energy or thought transmissions, can open intuition, and can attract wisdom and communication from higher realms.”
“So it’s actually a combination of a channeling and transmitter crystal?” a nerd from the front asked and Crane nodded.
“Exactly. Questions?”
I tuned out as other students fired questions at a rapid rate.
Me? I had a lot to think about. If I could master a seer stone, maybe I could go back in time, even as far back as Bel, and gain vital info on finding Arwen. And mastering the trans-channeling crystal for other uses apart from teleportation would allow me to transmit thoughts to Joss and the Sorority long-distance. While I seemed to have a handle on teleporting between worlds, a part of me was terrified that I might not be able to come back. Spending the rest of my life with Joss might not be a bad thing, but leaving behind everything I’d ever known, everything that was dear to me, especially Nan, wasn’t negotiable.
Could I do it, find a way to use a seer stone and a trans-channeling crystal? All very nebulous and far-fetched, but considering I’d managed to recognize incoming visions, teleport with a crystal, become one with the Triple Flame and scry, maybe I wasn’t half bad at mastering otherworldly stuff.