As the words of changing the past left my mouth, their possibilities widened my eyes.
I glanced up at the others for the first time.
"Our trips through the portal made Shane's life here possible," I continued. "I don't care if he didn't have his soul. He was determined to reconnect to it. It was his destiny." My heart rate doubled as the words shook out of me. "We need to go back to change the outcome again."
The three of them stared at me with concern, as if I'd lost my mind. My teeth ground together in annoyance.
"No, Brynn," Poorva murmured. "Nothing changed. It only became more clear."
Like a sucker punch, her callous comment knocked the air out of me. I gasped through the spasms of my cramping diaphragm.
With a nervous cough, Blake spoke up.
"It's not safe to mess with time," he stated. "The butterfly effect would ripple through every detail, potentially having the power to change existence as we know it."
His calculated intellectual response made me want to fly over the table and choke him.
We were talking about Shane for Christ's sake. We had to try!
"Well, I don't care if I disrupt time," I warned. "I'm going back for him."
Courtney sat up taller, unblinking, and I held her eyes with mine.
If anyone here were going to back me up on this, it would be her. Saving her sisters was still consuming her every thought, and I watched the wheels turning in her mind.
Poorva repositioned herself in her seat, leaning over the table with an authoritative posture.
"Ms. Kelly said we couldn’t do that," she stated. "We need to continue moving forward, not back. We have to stay focused on the new project-closing the portal to end the Dark Witch's curse."
My throat tightened.
"How can I close the portal when Shane is on the other side?" I snapped. "That's not an option."
With my mind spiraling into full panic mode, I grasped at whatever straws were left.
If our new project was focused on closing the portal, it would shut down my ability to ever reach Shane again. There was no way I could agree to that.
Were they insane?
Courtney's glazed eyes stared into nothingness. Ending her ability to continue to try to save her sisters was clearly not sitting right with her either.
I knew I had an ally in her, and I wouldn't miss this chance for collaboration.
"What about the spellbook?" I spat out as a last resort. "We need to try that first before making any final decisions."
As the words shot out of me, Ms. Harrison entered the room. She heard my words and picked up on them immediately.
"Good morning, students," she said. "I see you are discussing next steps and entertaining possibilities of our approach."
We stared at her, hanging on each word as they left her lips.
"Understandably, you're grappling with how to change the horrible outcome," she sighed. "It's only natural."
My jaw fell open in anticipation of her next words, and I swore, if they were what I thought they would be, I was going to fly off the handle.
She continued, "But we all need to realize..."
Here it comes.
"...It was meant to be."
Chapter 2
Hell no.
She didn't just say that.
If one more person said, "It was meant to be," it would be their last spoken words.
My lips curled from the mere hint of them.
They were the easy way out—a means of accepting what happened and moving on.
And I wasn't ready to do that.
At this point, I'd come to expect the statement, and that made it even worse.
Killing Ms. Harrison for saying the words may have crossed my mind, but it wasn't a sensible solution. I knew that much. But fully restraining my murderous reaction was beyond my control.
Instead of throwing a violent tantrum, I launched up out of my seat and flew out of the advisory room.
Leaving X-block before it ended was a first. But staying there, with all those sullen, defeated faces, was not an option.
Pounding my feet down the hall, I clenched my fists tight in hopes of punching something. And just as I turned the first corner, my target landed right in front of me.
Laney.
She halted in place at the sight of me, half-expecting to be hit.
Two mortal enemies squaring off in the middle of the high school corridor—the tension in the air was palpable.
But something was different this time.
Laney's evil scowl had been replaced with jerky facial movements and rapid blinking. Rubbing the back of her neck, she lowered her eyes as if searching for something imaginary to look at.
"Shouldn't you be in your advisory?" I hissed.
She shrugged one shoulder. "I needed air."
"Mm." I looked past her to see if anyone else was coming.
No witnesses. No crime.
I didn't care anymore, though. It didn't matter to me that she needed air or that she had a new nervous tick.
Nothing she said mattered to me anymore.
"I'm sorry about what happened," she murmured.
Nothing she said mattered... wait... until now.
"Excuse me?" I snarled.
How dare she even mention what happened, let alone offer condolences.
"It shouldn't have gone that way," she said. "It's not what was intended to happen." She paused. "It wasn't meant to be."
Finally!
Someone said what I wanted to hear.
It wasn't meant to be.
I hesitated, fighting every bone in my body that reminded me to avoid her at all cost.
"I agree." I narrowed my eyes on her. "I just never expected to hear that from you."
Laney cleared her throat as she shook out her hands.
"I don't know what's going on anymore. I don't know what's real and what isn't," she mumbled, pulling her hands down her weary face. "It wasn't supposed to end in more death. I'm supposed to be able to fix things, but now..." Her eyes remained focused on the floor. "Now, I have blood on my hands." She gazed at her trembling fingers.
I shook my head in annoyance.
"Um, sorry, Laney, but you always had blood on your hands. Do you see yourself?" I huffed. "You've caused so much heartache for so many people. I don't even know why I'm talking to you right now."
"Because you know I can help you," she spat.
My breath stuck in my chest.
"What the hell did you just say?"
"I can help, Brynn. I want to help." She lifted her eyes to mine, and they shone with pooling tears in the lower lids.
It had to be a trick.
She was full of shit, trying to trap us in another one of her twisted deceptions.
But still, I couldn't stop my next words from falling out of my mouth.
"How, Laney? How can you help? I tipped my head, studying her.
"I'm not sure yet. We could try to reach his spirit, maybe catch it before it crosses over." Her shoulders slumped. "Or maybe it already has."
"He's not dead, Laney." My teeth ground together. "Don't speak of him like he's dead. If I can get back to him, before the wounds drain his life force completely..." Ideas raced through my mind of how I could save him before he was gone forever.
"I'm sorry, Brynn. But he did die."
My eyes closed tight, fighting against having to look at her ever again.
"You're such a bitch, Laney." My voice cracked. "How do you even do it? How do you crush people every day without a care?"
"Believe me. Please. I'm not trying to hurt you. I've seen it. With my own eyes." She wiped at a tear that dropped down her cheek.
I shook my head, pushing away her unwanted words.
Turning away, I strained to look at her from the side.
She continued, "I've seen his gravestone, Brynn."
And with that, my face flushed with a surge of adrenaline-filled blood, nearly popping my head off.
&
nbsp; I launched at her, ready to do whatever it took to stop her mouth from spitting more venomous lies.
She darted to the side, avoiding my attack.
"I swear," she begged. "I'm not lying. It's at the old family cemetery, behind the grounds of the homestead. And there's more. About Dom. About Courtney."
"Stop!" I covered my ears and turned from her.
It made no sense for her to offer any form of assistance. She was a liar and a conniver.
The vulnerability in her eyes exposed a new layer of truth, though. One that had me wondering if there might be something useful there.
Maybe she wanted to share her connections to the darkness. Perhaps she had ways of conjuring things that Ms. Kelly would consider unethical.
If it all led to finding Shane, then it couldn't be all bad. Right?
I exhaled and prepared my new response for Laney. And just as I opened my mouth to speak, the bell rang, filling the hall with stampeding students.
A steady current of rushing students carried me through the hallway, washing me up by my APUSH classroom. I dragged myself from the undertow and stumbled through the rows of desks, reaching for the lifesaving buoy of my seat.
Beached and slumped in my chair, I gasped for air, recovering from my confrontation with Laney and the ensuing assault on my senses. Shaking my head to clear it, I stared at Ms. Harrison's empty desk.
Where the hell was she?
A few moments later, she bustled in, fumbling with her bags and binders. She dropped her pen and apologized to the class for being late.
Nothing new.
But this time, I studied her, wondering what went on in X-block after my quick exit. It was dramatic for me to leave in such a huff, but I seriously had no other choice at the moment.
"Good versus evil," Ms. Harrison addressed the class. "That is the concept discussed throughout all of history. What is good? And what is evil?"
I pressed my lips together and glared at her.
She continued.
"Who is right? The governing powers or the rebels?" She paused and surveyed the room. "That is the discussion of the day."
My vision went red as she proceeded to open class discussion around what sounded like a Star Wars discourse—the Empire versus the rebels. It was a rebellion that suddenly intrigued me.
As I struggled to tolerate the slow-ticking minutes, all I could focus on was the fact that the rebels had been in the right from my perspective.
Suddenly, I couldn't be sure if Ms. Harrison had intended this interpretation for me, or if she accidentally messed up the metaphor that she thought would straighten me out.
With her, it was impossible to tell. But the one good thing about her rant was the fact that it distracted me from Shane's obvious absence from the room.
As soon as the thought of him popped into my head, it was destructive-downhill from there.
I slunk deeper into my chair as the voices in the room blurred into a hum of indiscriminate sound. My vision clouded, and I allowed myself to sink into the drowning darkness.
Even the most painful place in my soul with the memory of him was better than a more tolerable place without him.
I allowed the pain.
It was the only thing that let me feel him again.
The rest of the day became an event of standing and sitting, waiting and breathing. The basic functions to just get through it were all I was capable of.
By the final bell, I was a brittle, empty shell that could shatter from the least bit of pressure. Avoiding certain death from contact with anyone, I exited the building from the rear.
The backlot was where most of the faculty parked, so I knew I could avoid as many students as possible with that route. I went straight for the memorial bench under the shade of a baby maple to wait until most of the students had cleared out.
Pulling the hood of my sweatshirt up over my head, I slinked into the safety of its protection. I sagged into the bench and stared down at my trembling hands.
The sound of revving engines filled my ears as students made their great escape. As the rumble dulled and then disappeared altogether, I knew my moment of departure had arrived. But my muscles resisted the act of standing, particularly in response to going home.
Home was, by far, the most challenging place to be. With no distractions, no structure, and Mom poking at me with annoying requests, I just wanted to sleep. But no matter how much I slept, I was still exhausted.
As a first attempt at moving, I pulled a strap of my backpack up onto my shoulder. Resisting having to stand with the weight of it pulling me down, I lifted my gaze in the direction I needed to go.
With a startle, my eyes widened as I stared at the dark silhouette of a large person walking toward me. With the low sun behind him, I couldn't make out his details, but I was sure I didn't know him. I hadn't seen anyone with such broad shoulders and a powerful stance at this school, ever. A gladiator arena would have made better sense.
My heart rate doubled as he moved toward me with purpose. By instinct, I rose to my feet, preparing to dart away from him.
"Brynn," his low voice resonated through my bones.
Shit.
Who was that?
I narrowed my gaze, attempting to see his features better. Holding my hand over my eyes to shield the sun, I studied his confident movement and powerful legs.
If he had bad intentions, there was no way I could outrun him. I'd be overpowered in two seconds flat.
"Who is that?" I asked, keeping a commanding tone in my voice.
He moved closer, stepping away from the blinding sun.
My eyes shot wide as my jaw fell open.
Without hesitation, I dropped my pack and ran to him.
"Dom!"
I could barely get my arms around him. He had practically doubled in size, with muscles upon muscles. But I held on like he was a lifesaving floatation device in the middle of an angry sea.
"You're back," I gushed. "Are you okay?"
His strong arms hugged me back, and then he released me.
"Yeah, I'm all healed up." He rubbed his side where the musket ball had wounded him. "How about you? You look like you could use some sleep."
I pulled my fingers through my knotted hair and grimaced from the thought of how it must have looked. I punched his arm in response to his teasing and surprisingly pulled my hand back in pain. His arm was solid as rock, and I was sure it had crushed the bones in my fingers.
"What the hell? Have you been working out or something? On the juice maybe?" I teased right back.
He bared his teeth. "I'm not exactly sure what's going on with me, to be honest." He looked down at himself, then shrugged.
Well, whatever was going on with him, it was amazing. He had become a perfect specimen of a human male. He had already been crushing it in that department, but now, it went beyond words. I couldn't stop staring at him and his gorgeousness. Somehow, his jaw was more square, his eyes deeper blue, and his Adonis-like physique was just mind-numbing.
"I'm just glad you're back," I murmured, trying to look anywhere but at him.
"I needed to come find you," he said. "This...." He looked down at himself. "It's like it's a response to something coming. Like my body's preparing for battle. One that's just out of reach." He paused. "I was hoping you might know something."
A shudder ran through me.
His words made sense. We were all in defensive mode, hiding behind our armor, but the response was noticeably manifesting itself in Dom's physical size and strength.
I wondered if our defenses were generating something amazing inside me, too—something that maybe couldn't be seen.
I hoped so.
"Come on," I said. "We should get out of here before anyone sees you." I glanced around with a guilty scan.
I could only imagine the amount of attention he would get, looking the way he did. And particularly after being absent for so long. Dom would be full-blown celebrity status as soon as he showed his face back in s
chool.
"I left my Jeep parked at the woods." He jerked his head in its direction. "Wanna walk?"
I reached for my pack, and before I could grab it, he swiped the bag as if it were weightless. Slinging it over his shoulder, he appeared to have no response to its heavy bulk. I gladly allowed him to take the burden.
We walked in silence for a while, navigating the back roads toward the town woods. I kept my eyes on the ground, knowing we'd have to talk sooner or later. About the real stuff.
Images flashed through my mind of the last time I saw Dom. He had been in his wolf form at the Dawson farm, helping us escape the hysteria of the witch hunt. As he led us to the portal, he shifted back to his human form at the last moment, grabbed Courtney, and shot into the whirling light.
My heart swelled in my chest, thinking of his determination to save her.
To save all of us.
And then his crushed soul when he realized Shane hadn't made it through.
The burden of guilt had weighed heavily on Dom's brow, darkening his eyes. I noticed the heft of it still remained in the lines of his forehead and the pressure he held in his jaw.
"I can't stop thinking that it didn't have to happen that way," he murmured.
I lifted my gaze to his.
He continued. "Something doesn't feel right about it. Like there was an unexpected ripple in time that wasn't supposed to be there."
I rubbed my hand over my eyes.
I wanted to think the same thing. I'd thought of the idea a million times. But then my mind jumped back to what Laney had said. She said it was all true, and that Shane's gravestone proved it.
"No." I shook my head. "He's really gone."
Dom stopped in his tracks and stared at me.
"Are you serious? You're giving up on him?" he snapped.
My breath caught short in my chest—his accusation stinging.
"I'm not giving up on him," I shot back. "I'm accepting reality." The shake in my voice annoyed me.
"Shit, Brynn," he huffed. "If anyone was to keep fighting for him, I thought it would be you."
Without warning, my temple flared, reddening my face to near explosion.
His judgment of me sent rage through my veins, and I just wanted to shut him up.
Urban Mystic Academy: Fourth Project (A Supernatural Academy Series Book 4) Page 2