by Willa Alders
“Ara sweetheart, Caleb and I have to go somewhere; Avery is going to work with you the rest of today for training. Avery be nice, and go easy.” Carmina said hugging me and then walking back to Caleb.
“I will.” Avery smiled putting his arm around me as they disappeared as she swooped them both off the cliff.
As soon as they were gone he took his arm off of me. From the look on his face I knew that he wasn’t going to take it easy. He had just said he would. I knew training today with him was going to be hard and fast and probably a very painful. Especially after what I had done to him earlier he had a score to settle with me.
“Go.” He shouted taking off running toward me.
I took off getting away from him. He took a tree, by one hand and uprooted it launching it toward me. It had smacked me right in the arm which shot a pain up through my arm to my shoulder. I ignored it though; I had to fight him back. Before I could do anything, or have a chance to react Avery had picked me up, and slammed me with one hand into another tree. This was definitely him getting even with me. I got up and fixed my shirt.
When I did he conjured up a fireball, and threw it at me. The fireball hit me in the same arm making the pain worse, but I ignored it again, even though it did knock me over. This time I didn’t get straight up, I laid there for a moment. I was starting to get the point he was making. He was pissed about more than just the water on his head earlier. I could tell that much. He came over and hurtled me again against another tree. When I got up this time he threw several fireballs at me over and over. They kept hitting me in the same arm and after the tenth one, I figured he had gotten over being mad so I was done letting him do whatever to me. I decided it was time to fight back. I stood up and froze him with my other arm. He stood there still and motionless which was nice. I took a fireball that I had conjured up crashing it into his side. That would hurt when he became unfrozen, and there wasn’t anything he could do about it.
I took off running while he was still frozen picturing a tree top and swooped to one. When I landed I busted the same arm against a branch which I had to bite my tongue not to scream. This arm was really becoming a nuisance I thought. I sat on another branch waiting for him and listening for him to unfreeze. He did shortly after, I heard the fire ball hit him and he yelled my name. I peered down looking for him from the tree. I didn’t see him at all. I kept listening and nothing happened until someone tapped me. It was Avery.
“Boo.” Avery said causing me to fall out of the tree.
When I landed I looked up and Avery was in the field as well. Great I thought he duplicated himself. Just what I needed was two Avery’s with only one arm working. The other Avery dropped down as well. I looked back and in front of me trying to figure out which one was the duplicate. Was the duplicate Avery in the field, or the Avery that jumped down from the tree? I wondered. Either way they were both there to train me. Shit I thought again, I knew I had to blow one up. I figured I would blow up the Avery to my right, and not the one to my left. Which I thought was the real Avery and not his duplicate. This would be very hard and very interesting because I didn’t for sure know which the real Avery was. I only hoped I would blow up the right one. Regardless both Avery’s were definitely not taking today’s training on me very easy at all.
“Let’s go.” They both said in perfect sync.
We started fighting then. Both Avery’s were throwing punches and kicks at me. They were taking turns picking me up and tossing me around like volleyball. I was landing shots, and fighting back but it wasn’t enough. We were all good fighters. We all had strength on our side which was a good thing if this was a fair fight, but it wasn’t. I wasn’t just dealing with one of him I was dealing with two Avery’s’ and this was a different story. There was no way I could win this fight even if I was the best fighter in the world. Avery one and Avery two had the upper hand with this match. That was for sure.
“Your opponent may duplicate themselves, so how do you fix that?” Both Avery’s said in unison walking toward me.
“Uhm?” I said trying to think of an answer on the spot.
“Wrong answer think Ara.” They said in sync again launching me in the air.
I came back down, and stood up. I realized what they wanted me to do. I stood and released my hands again. I threw everything I could at them with my hands sent stuff flying hitting them with it. Then I froze one of the Avery’s. I hoped the one who was unfrozen was the duplicate because I had three fireballs in my hand then. I released them they hit the one Avery, and he shimmered back into the frozen Avery. Good it was the duplicate I had hit and not the real Avery. Avery unfroze then. I blinked this time hitting him with a log without moving. This time he sat down. I knew he was done. He had gotten me to do what he had wanted me to do. I walked over to him and sat down as well.
“Feel better?” I asked standing up.
“Yeah much thanks, damn you’re getting good. We have to get Caleb and Car to see you in action sometime soon. Is your arm alright?” He asked caringly pointing to where I was holding it.
“Yea, it’ll be fine. It’ll heal soon enough.” I said looking down at it feeling intensity of the throbbing pain all at once.
“Are you sure? It doesn’t look fine.” Avery said. I nodded. “Move it then.” I tried and I couldn’t.
“Great I broke it here let me see it.” He said standing up. “I’ll fix it. This may hurt. Do you trust me?” He asked.
I nodded again. He touched my arm. He was saying some weird chant then he grabbed my arm. When he did, he jerked it hard and quick. I heard it pop in and out then back in again. I let out a howl in pain. When I did my arm no longer hurt as bad. It was no longer broken. It was back in place and fixed like nothing had happened.
Once he was done, I looked at my arm it was fine. It was no longer out of socket, and it felt better. A little sore but nothing that wouldn’t be ok in the next few hours anyways because I would heal quickly. I pulled my sleeve back down on my shirt and smiled.
Avery looked at me then his eyes full of something I didn’t want to acknowledge. It was hard to ignore what he was feeling because he was so easy to read. What he was feeling went beyond any anger he had and any concern of him getting in trouble with Carmina. There was much more going on with him I could see that, and I could see what I was doing right now letting him be close to me –was hurting him, and there was nothing I could do.
“Better?” He asked and I nodded. “Sorry about the pain.”
“It’s alright I’m glad it’s fixed. Saves us the hassle of having to explain any of this to Caleb or Carmina about what happened.” I said smiling at Avery.
“Yeah, true that would be all we would need right now. Have them mad at us again, well maybe not you but that is all I would need is to be chewed out again by those two. Come on Sam is having a party sometime tonight and we need to go get ready. Can you swoop us to his house? It will be quicker than walking back down.” He said walking with me toward the edge of the cliff.
I nodded that I could, as I grabbed his hand. I hoped Avery realized my landing may not be wonderful or smooth. I pictured Sam’s house and twirled. We were both picked up and swooped into Sam’s kitchen. As I suspected our landing was not as nice we crashed into Sam’s island in the middle of the kitchen. Sam came walking down the hall in a towel at the commotion we had caused. It looked like he had just not gotten up not too long ago and got a shower.
“Rough night?” I asked grabbing water out of his fridge and handing Avery one.
“Yeah man, rough night didn’t sleep. Didn’t sleep today either rough day, what about you?” He said rubbing the back of his head.
“Yeah well I had a very good night; today has been a different story. It was a long rough day for me.” I said sitting down on the barstool.
“Yeah looks like it; looks like you got Avery good in training.” He said sitting down on his couch.
“Nah, I may have gotten him good but he got me better. He had to fix my arm, he
broke it in training.” I said getting up from the stool.
“Nice.” Sam said sarcastically as Avery sat down and picked up the Xbox controller. “So text Archer for me Ara, and tell him the party is in an hour. You need to get ready kid. You look like hell no offense.” He smiled watching Avery play the game.
“Thanks Sam, I’ll text him and I’ll go get ready.” I said walking by him and smacking him in the back of the head.
He laughed and I headed back to my bedroom in his house. I grabbed a towel and a washcloth out of the closet. I turned on my IPod for music and turned it up. I turned the screen on my phone to text Archer. Hey I’m back. Sam is having a party in an hour. He wants you here. I do too. I hit the send button. He responded back saying that he was on his way, so I shut my phone off. Then I went and turned the shower on and got in.
CHAPTER 12 ARALYNN
When I got out I wrapped a towel around me and grabbed the remote to change the music as I looked out the window. People were already arriving. Great I thought. That was quick, meaning I had to lock the door before anyone else arrived, and decided to come in this room and do things that typical teens did at parties. I saw Kilyn and Carter get out of their car. I looked closer out the window and saw Archer’s car which made me smile. I didn’t see him though; I figured he was talking to Sam.
I saw Avery and the girl who had been at the house earlier. I looked for Archer around his car he was nowhere near it again he was still nowhere to be seen. I opened the bathroom door singing to the music. I grabbed clothes out of the closet and when I turned around Archer was standing there. He startled me and I jumped. He smiled then leaned in and kissed my cheek.
“I’m sorry beautiful I didn’t mean to scare you.” He said hugging me.
“It’s alright.” I said brushing my hair. “Avery let you in here or Sam?” I
“Avery, nah. He was outside with that girl who was at your house earlier. Sam did though.” He said pulling his mouth into a little side smile that I was in love with.
I smiled at him as I put on the jeans and the sweater I had taken out of the closet. I braided my hair back and put on a bit of makeup. I looked in the mirror. Archer came up and wrapped his arms around me.
“You look very pretty.” He said.
“Thank you.” I replied kissing him softly as we headed out of the room then outside.
We were walking through the crowds of people when Kilyn came running up to me. She smiled at us as she grabbed my hand. I knew she wanted to hear about everything that had gone on the other night. I knew there was no way she wouldn’t want to know.
“Sorry, Archer, I’m going to steal her for just a moment. Please forgive me.” She said to him. He looked uneasy but nodded.
“I’ll be back soon I promise.” I said kissing his cheek as we walked off.
“So how is he?” Kilyn asked me as we headed away from the crowd.
“He’s good. It’s all amazing.” I smiled at her.
“Oh really, how good? Come on girl, details. I got pointers if you want some.” She said extremely over excited.
“Good. I’ll tell you more in detail tomorrow. I think I’m good and he is too in that department.” I laughed shaking my head as we dodged a kid who was already staggering around.
“Ok, ok, I get it too private. So after school we’ll go get something to eat and shop for our outfits.” She smiled and I nodded.
“Yes, but I do want to get back. I’ll see you tomorrow in class presentations and tomorrow afternoon.” I smiled at her heading back toward Archer.
She nodded at me I walked through the crowds of teens and college kids. I found both Sam and Archer on the stoop of Sam’s porch talking about me I guessed. They were laughing. This ought to be good I thought as I walked up to them.
“Talking about me huh you two?” I asked them. Archer smiled, and Sam put his arm around me.
“Hey beautiful,” Archer smiled at me. “Sam was just telling me that you kissed his cheek. He’s trying to make me jealous I guess. I said it was alright because I was the one who ended up with you.” Archer said laughing.
“Yes you did and nice try Sam.” I said to him cracking a smile.
“I had to I’ve only waited six years.” He said sarcastically. “Bout damn time!”
“Yeah, yeah.” I said hitting him in his arm. “Talk you later. Go find yourself a girl.” I smiled at him as Archer and I turned and walked away. “He’s my brother you know that right?” I asked Archer.
“Yea, I know beautiful. No worries.” He smiled and laughed as we headed to where everyone was dancing at.
We walked through some of the crowd, and joined in when we found an empty spot where everyone was dancing. We ended up dancing right next to Avery and the girl who had been at the house earlier apparently her name was Madison. Avery and her seemed to be getting pretty close lately .I wondered what he was really doing with her; he could be trying to make me jealous or he could really like her. I couldn’t tell he was so hard to read lately. As much as I hated to think this –I was hoping he was just trying to make me jealous because she definitely wasn’t his type and I would know. She was as far from his type as could be. He liked friendly and sarcastic girls. Madison was rude, stuck up and not friendly at all. But then again his type could have changed after everything that had happened recently. He could be totally into a snobby human now. I didn’t know.
I tried not to think too much on that right now. I figured I would get to the bottom of this later on with Avery. I would ask him what his deal was, and why he was being such an ass towards me. I also wanted to know if there was any other reason other than the obvious reasons he didn’t like Archer. Plus I wanted to know if this thing he had going on with Madison was serious. But for now I was content just dancing with Archer out on the driveway. Someone kicked the music on higher, then Avery made a point to prove that the girl he was with and him were going to out dance Archer and me. I looked at Archer and he smiled, which meant he was game.
So we were dance battling Avery trying to figure out who was going to win. We were pretty much equal through each song. It was all fun until Avery started doing stuff with the girl like going at it without doing anything too provocative. He made his point I wasn’t winning this one.
I blinked and sent a beer can under his foot when he stepped backwards he would trip over it I hoped. Sure enough he did exactly that falling flat on his butter. Archer and I looked at each other and laughed a bit as we headed away from where everyone was. I knew Avery would be mad later which I was ok with. He wasn’t playing fair so neither would I.
“That was insane that he tripped over that. Thank god because I didn’t want to make him look bad.” Archer laughed holding my hand as we headed up to the bluffs.
“Yes that we were.” I smiled at him.
We walked in silence. It didn’t take too long to reach the top of the bluffs. It was a far walk but it seemed as if we covered it quickly. When we got to the top I looked out of the side and stared into the water. I was thinking about that I needed to tell him my secret soon, it was becoming too much to try to keep inside-too much on me to have to continue to lie to him.
“What’s wrong beautiful?” He asked coolly.
“Nothing, well something there’s something I want to tell you.” I said to him.
He leaned in and touched my arms with a soft smile. “What’s that beautiful?” He asked.
“Well….” I started off to say. Then when I tried to finish a bunch of kids came running up to the top of the bluffs screaming and yelling.
Great I thought there was never going to be a good time for me to tell him my secret. The teenagers were starting to yell at each other and I knew there was a fight getting ready to break out. I sighed and shook my head because my plan was ruined for now.
“It can wait; I just want a moment by ourselves.” I said sadly.
“I know beautiful. Come on.” Archer smiled grabbing my hand as we headed away from the kids.
We walked down the hill slowly hand in hand. Our movements were equal. There was nothing more perfect than that. But my mind still raced that I would never be able to tell him. I stopped about halfway where the trees shadowed us. I turned toward him. He looked at me.
“I love you.” I smiled at him. He kissed my cheek when I said this.
“I know this beautiful. I love you too. Is that what you wanted to tell me?” He asked quietly.
“No, it’s not but I hope it will help.” I said pausing when more kids came running up.
“Whatever it is, it doesn’t matter to me. I love you and you are mine. That is all that matters to me.” He smiled kissing my lips gently.
I couldn’t do anything but kiss him back. His arms held me close and tight. I felt safe and secure right there. I wanted him and wanted him forever and no one else. In fact I wanted it so bad that it made me want to cry because I knew he was human. I knew I shouldn’t have allowed myself to fall in love with a mortal. I knew that because he would die, and there I would be all alone again. I knew this was impossible when I began. I had to tell him… NOW……it was already hard enough.
As much as I wanted to stop, I couldn’t make myself. I let my hands linger around his neck and his hair. His lips soft and moist moving along with mine was enough to get lost in. Which was making it all that much harder for me to get the courage to tell him my secret. I just wanted to forget about it and freeze us in this moment for eternity. Nothing would be more perfect than right now.
Before we could do anything else or before I could stop I heard Sam and Avery heading up the hill. Sam clapped as he came up, and Avery stood there arms crossed as he snorted at us. We stopped kissing instantly. Archer mouthed that he loved me. Then before we could do anything Avery was up in Archer’s face.
“Dude, slow it down with my sister.” Avery yelled like a testosterone idiot his chest was kind of puffed out once again.