by Diana Nixon
Oh, God… How I wish I could say something, anything to take his worries away. I couldn’t stand hearing Christian’s desperate words. I loved him so much.
“The Evan we knew is no longer alive,” Marion said. “Now, we need to wait for the new Evan to be born.”
“What? Are you kidding me? What about Eileen? She didn’t have a blood transfusion, but she is as still as Evan is. Does it mean that she will-”
“No, nothing will change about Eileen. But the bond that she and Evan share is too strong to break. If we try to separate their minds now, they will both die.”
Christian’s voice turned into a whisper. “I can’t believe it’s happening. Promise me she will wake up. Promise me, Marion!”
“Calm down, Christian. Marion did her best to save Evan.”
My father was there too. I was so glad to know that he was near.
“You do realize that whatever happened was the only way to help Evan, don’t you?” He said to Christian.
“We should have thought about the bond! We should have foreseen that it would affect Eileen too, and not just Evan!”
“We didn’t have a choice, son,” my father said.
A new vision formed in my mind, damping the voices and turning the foggy surroundings into a bright-blue room, filled with someone’s quiet laughter.
“Come on, Sunshine, you can do this,” Elizabeth said, helping little Evan to his feet. He looked up at her and giggled, trying to take his first step.
“Don’t help him,” Dominic said. “He needs to learn how to do things without anyone’s help.”
“He’s just a kid, Dom. Don’t expect too much from him.”
But it looked like Evan wasn’t listening to his mom. He looked at his father and frowned a little, as if he didn’t like the way his words sounded. Then he pulled his small hand out of Elizabeth’s and ran…
I smiled mentally, watching him. So very stubborn our Evan.
My senses were coming back, little by little. The pain was replaced by new sensations that I couldn’t describe. I’d never felt anything like that before. I could swear I felt my heart start beating in my chest again. What a relief…
Now, I was standing in front of a huge cake with seven burning candles on top of it.
“Make a wish, son.” I looked up and saw Elizabeth’s smiling face again. Her eyes were unbelievably bright, as if someone was illuminating them from the inside.
I looked down at the cake, made a wish and blew out the candles. What was the wish about? I didn’t remember. Was Evan blocking that part of the memory? Why?
A woman came up to me. She was about Elizabeth’s age, with sandy hair and emerald eyes, contrasting with her porcelain skin. She kissed Evan on the cheek and gave him a present. It was a book written in a language that I didn’t know.
“Isn’t it too early to give him this?” Elizabeth asked, taking the book. One thing about it looked familiar — a symbol written on its dark-green cover. It was made of gold and looked just like those symbols drawn across the ceiling of The Great Hall.
“The sooner he starts learning the language, the sooner he will be able to feel the new power,” the woman said.
Elizabeth and Dominic shared a worried glance. “Thank you for such a wonderful gift, Maribel,” he said, accompanying her to the exit. I could swear he seemed like he couldn’t wait for the woman to leave his house. The last thing I managed to catch from that memory, was Evan’s eyes following the woman. Something about her felt wrong...
“Her pulse is stable,” Mrs. Weber said. She was the local doctor of Dever. My mind was back in reality now, even though my eyes still refused to open.
“What about Evan? Can he hear anything?” Christian asked. Somehow, I knew that Evan and I had been staying in different rooms.
“I’m not sure. He doesn’t react to my words. The only thing I can tell for sure, is that his blood pressure and heart rate are getting back to normal.”
I heard the footsteps and realized that Dorothy Weber was gone.
“Well, crap… I’m seriously tired of trying to break through the walls of their minds.” Will. He was there with me now. “Besides, my migraine is getting worse, and I seem to be unable to concentrate on anything but rum.”
“I thought it didn’t affect you,” Christian said, with a smirk in his voice.
“It helps me more than anything else does. Though, yes, I wish it had a stronger effect on me.”
“Why do you think you can’t get into Eileen’s or Evan’s heads?”
Will laughed quietly. “I’m sure Mr. Smart-Ass Murray did his best to keep me the hell out of his mind. And since he’s controlling Eileen’s mind now, I can’t break through hers either.” There was no love lost between Evan and William, even though Will did a lot to help us destroy the Dragons brotherhood; they wanted nothing but my powers and immortality, that to their huge disappointment, didn’t exist.
“Why don’t you ask Anna to help you get rid of your migraine?” Christian asked Will.
“I don’t know why, but her herbs don’t work on me. At least not when it comes to my migraines.”
Weird, I thought to myself. After all, a migraine was just another physical complaint. It should have been cured by Anna’s herbs. She was one of the best students in Embry and she knew how to treat any known disease. Or was Will’s migraine caused by something non-physical?
The sudden change of the picture in front of my eyes scared me. It showed the very woman I saw on Evan’s seventh birthday, watching him playing with a wooden stick. Now Evan was about ten. He was alone, but didn’t see the woman, hiding behind one of the trees in a garden. Kevin, Evan’s older brother, came to bring him a plate of sandwiches.
“Mom thought you were hungry,” he said, leaving the plate next to Evan’s feet.
“Does she know about you skipping school?”
Kevin’s expression hardened. “How do you know that?”
Evan shrugged. “Heard it somewhere.”
“You won’t tell her anything,” Kevin said firmly.
“Or you will turn me into a frog?”
Kevin frowned, watching his brother curiously.
“Stay the hell away from me,” he snapped, heading back for the house.
I don’t know why, but most of Evan’s memories looked weird. Somehow, his mind always tended to reveal something that brought more questions and secrets. The last time I followed him into his memories about his past, it showed the best and the worst of his days. But all of them meant something very important.
The image disappeared; the voices returned.
“Can you stay with Eileen for a while?” Christian said. “I need to go check on Evan.”
“Sure, no problem,” Will replied. “We will have so much fun together.”
“Don’t make me regret leaving her with you.”
I would roll my eyes if I could. Christian was still afraid of Will hurting me, for some reason.
“I’ll behave.”
“You’d better.”
After I heard the door close behind Christian, William came to my bed and sat on it, taking my hand in his.
“I know you can hear me, Eileen. So listen carefully, because as always, I don’t get much time to talk to you privately.” Will paused, listening to the footsteps in the hall. Apparently, he didn’t want anyone to hear whatever he was going to say to me. “So, my dearest friend, I think I know how to stop your suffering. Remember the day you used Kevin’s mind to escape to Paris? Evan followed you there. If you try to do it again, I’m sure he will follow you again, because he can’t break the bond you share. You two need to go to a place with no pain. It will help you survive the next couple of days. I lied to Christian, I don’t have a migraine. Someone is using my mind to find out what is going on here.”
What?
“But I don’t want to block whoever is behind this, because I want to know the name of this person. As far as I know, only the Lords of Mind are able to pierce into each other
’s minds. Which makes me think that Elizabeth was not the only Dragon who survived the battle. We saw another Lord there, and I’m sure they are working together now. I bet you are dying to find out what she’s up to. That’s why I need your mind to take Evan somewhere you can be together, mentally of course. But I’m sure it will help lessen the pain. Crap, I’m so sorry you two have to go through this mess, but I’m sure it will be okay, after the twelfth day is over.”
Okay, Will’s plan sounded a little ridiculous, considering that my mind could barely work and I couldn’t even imagine making Evan obey me.
“Gather all the powers living inside you and use me to send your mind to Evan. It’s okay if you screw it up, it’s still worth trying.”
I didn’t know what made Will think that his plan would work, but I was more than willing to try it. I took a deep breath, and tried to block out everything except Evan. Will was still holding my hand in his, so I didn’t have to try hard to connect my energy with his. The connection was too weak to pierce into Will’s mind, and for a second, I thought his idea was a lost cause, when suddenly I felt something like a slight push that brought me closer to the light, shining at the end of the tunnel that I guess was the bridge between Evan’s mind and my own.
I reached out my hand and tried to take a few imaginary steps. It felt like the light was so close, though I still couldn’t touch it.
“Try harder,” Will said, tightening his grip on my hand. “You are almost there.”
My powers refused to obey me. The harder I tried to concentrate on the light, the more I wanted to give up, because the pain that I felt while watching Evan’s first memories was coming back, blocking my senses again and making reality too hard to hold on to. One more step, and I found myself falling into dark water. The moment I sank into the depths of the water, I lost my breath. I was no longer in Dever, but back in the car that took away the life of Dominic Murray…
Chapter 2
Eileen
Again, I was sitting in the passenger seat, seeing nothing but the muddy water outside the windows. I turned to my left, expecting to see Dominic’s body there, but to my surprise, his seat was empty. Then I turned around and realized that I was alone in the car, neither Evan nor his mother were there. Where is everyone? I felt panic starting to build beneath my skin. Something was seriously wrong with this scene, I clearly remembered it being very different.
“Evan?” I called, hoping he would be able to hear me from wherever he was now.
Silence.
“Will?”
No one answered. Okay… I needed to get out of the car. If only I knew how to do that.
I tried to unfasten the seat belt, but it didn’t work. My heart fell down to my feet. Water started flowing into the car and my feeling of panic intensified. There were no more voices in my head, nothing that could tell me what to do to get out of there. I stopped fighting with the seatbelt, and looked around again, trying to figure out why Evan’s or my mind tagged me to the damn car. There must be something very important that we missed the last time we saw this memory. Only now, I felt something scratching my back. I reached out my hand and touched the seat behind me. I couldn’t see what was there, but it felt like a medallion hanging on a chain. I pulled it as hard as I could and tore it off the chain. Why didn’t I see it last time I was in the car? Water started flooding the floor and I felt my feet sloshing in my shoes. What the hell? As far as I could remember, last time I didn’t feel any water, I was protected by Marion’s spells and nothing about the memory could affect me, but now…
“Oh, my God!”
I was no longer under anyone’s protection. No magic was working and I saw and felt everything as if I were really going to die, right here, in this car. It also meant that this time, Will’s version of the tragedy that he created in Evan’s mind, was replaced by something very real. It also explains the existence of the medallion. Apparently, it was charmed and no one could see it, but now I could clearly feel an unknown energy radiating from it and I didn’t like it, at all.
More water filled the car, but I still couldn’t figure out how to get out of there. I looked at the oval, silver medallion and caressed its smooth surface, when suddenly I saw the letters appearing where my fingers touched the metal. They were written in bright-blue, shining as if it were illuminated from the inside.
“Astar motaridad,” I read the inscription. I wish I knew what that meant. But the moment I read the words, the scene around me changed. I gasped at the force of the wind blowing right into my face and screamed, falling into a newly formed darkness.
My flight lasted no more than a few seconds, and when I opened my eyes again, I was standing in the middle of a field filled with bright-red roses. The place didn’t promise anything good. I looked around cautiously and saw someone’s silhouette in the distance. Only one person could be there with me now.
“Evan!” I called.
He turned around, and I could swear, I felt relief filling my heart. Was it Evan’s feeling, or was it mine? I guess we both felt the same now.
“Eileen, thank God!” He said, embracing me. “I knew I was about to see you. I could feel you trying to pierce into my mind, but then I found myself standing here and you were nowhere around, and I started to panic. I thought something went wrong and you got stuck somewhere and I wouldn’t be able to find you. What the hell took you so long to see me?”
“Well, hello to you too, troublemaker. You could have been at least a little more polite considering the circumstances.”
Evan smirked. “Sorry, Angel. But I knew Mr. Smart-Ass Fairey would never let me die in peace and quiet. What did he make you do?”
“Funny thing, you two call each other the same thing. And he didn’t make me do anything. He only said that we could finally meet and talk, while our bodies keep suffering.”
“That sucks, doesn’t it?”
“That doesn’t even begin to cover it. You made me go through hell.”
“Look who’s talking! You killed me, remember?”
I rolled my eyes. “Next time I’ll make sure you are dead for real.”
Evan smiled. “I’m really glad to see you, you know?”
“Figures. I’m the only person who is able to stand you without hating you to death.”
He hugged me again. “Now, tell me, what the hell are we doing here? I would prefer a less unfaithful place for this date.”
“It’s not a date, and actually, I thought you would tell me why we are here.”
“Did you think about this place while forming a bridge between my mind and yours?”
I grimaced. “I surely didn’t. But it’s not surprising, considering that my first attempt to get to you brought me to the car where your father died.”
“Your piercing skills suck.”
“Well, thanks, Evan. You know what the funniest thing is? Even half-way to the other side of the grave you keep playing that pain-in-the-ass part of yours. Shall I leave you here and go back to my body and enjoy the rest of my torture, alone?”
Evan shook his head, running both hands through his hair.
“I’m sorry, Eileen. I didn’t mean to make you suffer so much. I tried to break the bond, you know?” He looked so tired. But he was still alive and that was all that mattered.
“I know,” I said, taking his hand in mine. “There were days when I couldn’t feel you. Then one day, I made a huge mistake and came too close to the ward that you were staying at and felt everything. Every single thing that you felt during the blood transfusion, and whatever you felt after it.”
“Oh, God, I’m so sorry,” Evan said again, caressing my cheek with one palm. “Now that you are here, I feel alive again. As if I had never been killed.”
“It’s okay. It’s going to end soon.”
“How do you know that?”
“Marion said that it’s going to last for twelve days. And frankly, time is moving faster than I expected. Especially while watching all those memories of yours.”
<
br /> “Memories? What memories are you talking about, Eileen?”
I stared at him in confusion. “Those days from your past… Didn’t you see them?”
“Days like what?”
“Like the moment of your birth, your name’s day, your seventh birthday.”
“Wow, wait… Why didn’t I see any of that?”
“I don’t know. Maybe deep down in your mind you were thinking about those days, but only I managed to see them for real?”
“That’s weird. I thought you could only see what I let you see.”
“Apparently not.”
“Fuck.”
I smiled. “Don’t worry, if I see your naked butt in some girl’s bed, I will do my best to block out that vision. Now, I thought you would explain a few more things to me.” I took the silver medallion out of my pocket and gave it to Evan. “Do you recognize this?”
“No. Should I?”
“I found it in Dominic’s car. I think it was charmed.”
“It still is,” Evan said, turning the piece in his hands.
“Can you guess or feel what kind of charm was used on it?”
Evan possessed the magic of silver and he could do many things with the help of it.
“The only thing I can feel coming from this thing is the power of compulsion.”
“I didn’t know you could feel compulsion.”
Evan looked at me with a furrow brow. “Neither did I.”
“Then how do you know it’s a compulsion spell?”
“I don’t know. I touched the medallion and the answer came to my head out of nowhere.”
“Well, I hope it’s not a bad sign. Because we already have too many problems to deal with. By the way, do you know how to get back our real lives?”
“Oh, no, Eileen, don’t tell me William didn’t warn you.”
“Warn me about what?”
“We won’t be able to get us back to reality until our bodies are awake.”
“Which means we are stuck here for a few more days. Great. What shall we do then?”