by Diana Nixon
“Yes. He had some disease that no one had a cure for.”
“Do you know where he lived?”
“No, but I know someone who does. It’s Peter, Peter Wilowsby.”
The name sounded familiar. “Isn’t he the blacksmith who hates Dever’s dwellers?”
Kevin nodded. “He’s also Jeremy’s father.”
“Oh... Do you know why it’s so hard to make an appointment with him?”
“As far as I know, he only works with the dark magic users.”
“Is he one of them too?”
“Well, he surely knows how to cast curses.”
I didn’t ask how Kevin knew that, but something told me that I knew how to make the blacksmith talk to us.
Melanie Clark was my cousin and a so-called power twin. But unlike me, she was born as a dark magic user. After casting the spell that destroyed the Dragons brotherhood, she got rid of her darkness and was pure now. But I was sure that she still knew how to fool the old man and pretend she could do the things that I knew he would admire.
“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Kevin asked, watching me curiously.
“I can’t read minds.” I smirked.
“What’s on your mind, Eileen? Are you going to ask Melanie for help?”
“Great idea, right?” I said, excited.
“Not really.”
“Why not?”
“What makes you think that she will agree to help you. She’s pure now, remember?”
“Yes. But I’m not going to ask her to use dark magic. I only want her to pretend she’s using it. And I think I know someone who could talk to her about it.” Amanda told me that Will and Melanie used to spend a lot of time together, and even though I haven’t seen them together yet, something told me that I would see those pink sparks all over my cousin’s aura. After all, Will was a good-looking young man and a typical bad boy; I was sure a former dark magic user would love to hang out with him.
“Just don’t get into any more trouble, Eileen,” Kevin said, accompanying me to the door.
“You too.” I smiled at him. “Elena Rosembry is a very powerful magician.”
Kevin laughed. “That's why I like her.”
“Watch out. I know you Wizardy brothers hate having your asses kicked.”
“Who knows, maybe I want her to teach me something new?”
I shook my head, still smiling. “I’m not sure I want to know exactly what you mean by that. Have a good day!”
“You too, Eileen.”
I left the room and headed back for the dorms, hoping to finally find out what was going on with my best friend.
When I entered our room, I saw Amanda sitting on her bed, with her chin resting on her knees.
“Don’t you think it’s time to have a talk?” I said, sitting next to her.
“About what?” She asked, staring blankly at her hands.
“Is it about Evan again? What did you read in his mind that distracted you?”
Amanda shifted uneasily. “Why do you think it has anything to do with Evan?”
“Because if it was about Lucas, I would have known all the details by now, you would have told me.” I smiled, but Amanda didn’t return my smile.
“So I am right. It is about Evan,” I said, suddenly getting worried.
“He has changed,” she said quietly. “His feelings, his thoughts, his powers — everything is different now. It’s so intense, I can hardly block him. He used to hide his thoughts from me, but now his mind is always open. As if he actually wants me to know everything that is going on in his head.”
“And what is going on there?”
Amanda took a deep breath before she proceeded, “Whatever he used to feel for every one of us is so much stronger now. His love for Tara… You know I thought his feelings for her would be different too. But I never expected to feel what I felt instead of that.”
“He still loves her, right?”
“No.”
“No?” I stared at her, confused.
“He doesn’t love her as much as he used to. He still cares about her, but more like a friend or a brother cares for his sister.”
“Hmm… Then why are you so worried about him?”
“Because I can also feel that his feeling for me got stronger.”
She looked at me with her eyes full of fear, and I finally realized what the whole thing was about.
“Oh, Dear… He opened his mind for you and you saw something that you never expected to see there, right?” She nodded, avoiding looking at me. “Does it bother you? I mean I thought you loved Lucas-” I looked at Amanda again and a new feeling sipped through the bond we shared.
Guilt…
“My goodness, you feel like you are falling for Evan again, don’t you?”
She didn’t respond.
“Do you think it might have happened because of the bond you two share? Because he stopped blocking you and showed you his true feelings?”
“I don’t know, Eileen!” She jumped up from the bed and started pacing the room. “The day he woke up after two weeks in a coma, I was so happy to know that he was alive. He hugged me, and you know… The rest of the world disappeared for me. As if those months that Lucas and I had been dating never existed. As if what I used to feel for Evan never went away.”
“Was it the same moment that you read those thoughts in his head?”
“No. He let me see them much later. And I can’t stop wondering, why he didn’t tell me anything?”
“Maybe because he doesn’t want to ruin what you and Lucas share?”
“Then why does he keep showing me his true feelings?”
I hesitated for a moment. “What if he doesn’t realize that you can see them? What if he doesn’t realize that his feelings for you are back?”
“Do you think I should talk to him?”
“Do you want to?”
“I don’t know.” Amanda rubbed her temples and sat back on the bed. “What if I’m wrong?”
“You can’t be wrong and we both know it.” With all the magical bonds that we shared, it was hard to ignore the things that were so obvious.
“I won’t tell him anything,” Amanda said. “At least until I know what I want.”
“What about Lucas?”
“Too bad Evan’s awakening didn’t intensify my love for him as well. I don’t know what to do. Lucas had done so much for me. He was there when Christian was missing, supporting me, every second.”
“I think you should stop thinking and let your heart decide what is best for you.”
“What if my heart makes the wrong choice?”
I smiled, hugging her shoulders. “We all know that hearts don’t lie.”
Chapter 6
Christian
The moment I realized that Eileen’s heart stopped beating, my blood froze in my veins. I couldn’t believe it was happening. It was like my worst nightmare coming true. I was watching her motionless body, horrified. Her skin was so cold and pale, but I still refused to believe that she was dead. Then Marion came and said she was still alive, but suffering.
I couldn’t see or feel any of that. The only thing that I knew for sure, was that I would never be able to say good-bye to Eileen, neither dead nor alive. Even now that I knew she was all right, walking, breathing and smiling again, I was still afraid of losing her. And considering the amount of dangers waiting for her at every step, I was sure I wouldn’t be able to relax, any time soon.
I went to the stable to take a horse ride. Since the day we first saw Nelly, a black, blood mare, she had become our friend and the best distraction from all the worries. Every time I rode her, it felt like she could actually feel what was wrong with me, taking some worries away. Sometimes I doubted she was real; she was more like a magical creature that was born to ease the pains that were torturing us.
“Hey, Christian!” Evan called, standing at the other side of the fence. “Come here, we need to talk.”
I didn’t like the sou
nd of that. Every time he wanted to talk, it meant new troubles were coming.
“What’s up?” I stopped the horse and jumped to the ground, tying the reins around the tree.
Evan gave an apple to Nelly and caressed her silky mane. The horse snorted, chewing her favorite dainty. “Good girl,” he said, smiling at her.
“Did you want to talk to Nelly or me?” I said, chuckling.
“Sometimes I think she knows so much more than we do,” he said, watching her.
“That makes two of us. So what did you want to talk about?”
“Remember the symbol written on the horseshoe that Eileen’s grandfather put on her bedroom door?”
“Yeah, the one that meant protection, right?” We still didn’t know if Steward Mitchell knew anything about our supernatural world, but we all remembered Evan’s grandmother’s story about her husband meeting Steward and giving him a magical amulet to protect the man from the dark magic that his aura was filled with.
“Well, I think we were wrong about the meaning of the symbol,” Evan said. “I don’t know why, but now I can see those mysterious symbols everywhere. And I can read and understand them.”
“Did that happen after your awakening?”
“Yes. One day, I went to The Great Hall just to make sure that the spell leading to the field where the Dragons died didn’t work anymore. I tried to recreate the fiery diamond that opened the invisible gates to the field, and then I saw those words written all over the pictures of the sun and the moon at the Hall’s ceiling.”
I looked at him, puzzled. “But we didn’t see any words there; only the symbols of the old-forgotten language that the founders of Dever used to write descriptions of different spells.”
“That’s why I can’t stop wondering if I am the only person who is able to see them.”
“Do you want me to go The Great Hall with you and check it out?”
“Yes, if you don’t mind. I’m not thrilled about the idea of losing my mind and becoming a total freak. Not that it ever worried me, of course, but-”
“But you’ve never felt like being so close to that, right?”
Evan nodded, running both hands through his hair. “Exactly.”
We took Nelly back to her stall and headed for the Hall.
It had always been the most majestic place all over Dever. With its globular, transparent ceiling, decorated with designed walls and flooring, and the portraits of the founding families taking one of the walls, it looked like a real heart of the world we lived in. We walked to Dever’s emblem drawn on the floor — a dark-blue oval with the letters N, P, M, symbolizing nature, power and magic written in gold — and looked up at the images of the sun and the moon.
“Do you see the words?” Evan asked.
I shook my head, saying, “No.”
“Crap. Does it actually mean that I’m the only one who can read them?”
“I don’t know. Where else did you see those words?”
“Everywhere: here, near the gates leading to the Black Lake, in one of the Embry gardens, even on one of the trees near the Administration.”
“And what do all those words mean?”
“They are just some meaningful phrases. But maybe they are meaningful only for me. Those I can see here, in The Great Hall mean “To life through the death.”
“Well, it makes sense. After all, the words were a part of the spell that almost killed you and Eileen.”
“There’s one more thing I wanted to talk to you about.” Evan hesitated.
“What is it?” I looked at him cautiously. “Don’t tell me it has anything to do with Eileen.”
“I didn’t just ask you about the horseshoe found in her house. The symbol that we saw there, meant death.”
My heart skipped a beat. “Are you sure about that?”
“Absolutely. Just like I’m sure about the rest of the symbols I can read now.”
“Are you saying that Eileen is supposed to die or something?”
“She has already died once. With me.”
“Yeah, but it wasn’t a real death.”
“It doesn’t change anything. Whoever added that symbol to the horseshoe, knew that one day she would have to die to get a new life or something like that.”
I took a seat on one of the chairs, trying to wrap my mind around Evan’s words. “Don’t you think it’s time to talk to your grandma again? Maybe she can explain what it means, or why you can all of a sudden read these symbols?”
“I’ll call her later today. By the way, have you noticed how bright Eileen’s aura has become? There are no traces of darkness anymore.”
“Yeah, I’ve noticed that. As well as the green color that is so bright now.”
“Which again, makes me think that the message put into the horseshoe is not just a black swan. Green is the color of life. And it has become brighter.”
“What about your aura? Show it to me.” Evan didn’t like anyone reading his aura, and he was really good at masking it.
“In my case, everything is a little different,” he said, letting his protection go, and showing me his aura.
As soon as I saw its colors, I flinched, blinded by their brightness. But unlike Eileen’s, it was gleaming with silver.
“Wow… That’s amazing!” I said, blinking. Soon my eyes got used to the light and I could see the other colors, filling Evan’s aura.
“So much purple,” I said, chuckling. “Who do you have a crush on this time?”
Evan shook his head, and his aura disappeared. “I don’t know,” he said, a little nervous.
“What do you mean you don’t know?”
“The only think that I know for sure, is that it’s not Tara.”
I frowned, afraid to ask my next question.
“And it’s not Eileen,” Evan said, as if reading my mind.
I sighed in relief. “Good to know. Do you think that silver color has anything to do with the fact that you are a silver magic user? It would explain a lot.”
“Yes, but I have been using silver magic for years, and never in my life have I seen so much silver in my aura. Have you noticed how pale the green color is?”
I haven’t. But now, that Evan mentioned it, I realized that the color of life was almost missing in his aura.
“It doesn’t mean anything,” I said. “Will’s aura doesn’t have it at all.”
“Yes, and we all know that he almost died even before he was born.”
“Well, at least you are alive now and I really hope you won’t go to the other side of the grave, any time soon.”
Evan smirked. “Amen.”
We talked a little about the things that felt different to him now, then he said he needed to call his grandmother Abigail, so we went to the dorms, where I hoped I would be able to catch up with Eileen.
She and my sister were in their room, both uncharacteristically gloomy.
“What happened to you two?” I asked, entering the room.
They shared a glance. “We better not talk about it now,” Amanda said, taking her jacket and heading for the door. We waited for her to leave, then I walked over to Eileen and placed a kiss on her lips.
“Should I be worried about my sister?” I asked, taking a seat next to her on a small couch.
“No. But I guess there are some things that might surprise you.”
“And what are they?”
“She asked me not to tell anyone.”
I sighed, hugging her. “Okay, then why don’t you tell me something else instead?”
“What would you like me to tell you?”
“Have you noticed any changes in your powers recently?”
“No, why?” Eileen looked at me, squinting. “Did Evan tell you something?”
“Well, a lot of things are different with his powers now. So I thought maybe you could feel something new with yours as well.”
“No, everything is the same.”
But there was one question I was dying to ask. “Have you been to T
he Great Hall after what happened there?”
“Yes, I have.”
“Did you notice anything new there?”
“Christian, what are all these questions about?”
Since Evan didn’t ask me to keep my mouth shut, I thought I could share the news with Eileen. “Evan can read the symbols now,” I said.
She frowned. “You mean the symbols that we tried to decipher before the fight with the Dragons started?”
I nodded.
“And why would you be telling me that? Fortunately, we managed to find the meaning of those that we needed to decipher.”
“That is not what I’m trying to tell you, Eileen. Evan can actually read them. You know, like to see the words hidden in them?”
“You mean he understands the language that we all thought was lost and forgotten, centuries ago?”
“Exactly.”
“Wow, that’s unexpected.” She leaned closer to me, putting her head on my shoulder. “What does he think about this new ability?”
“He’s not thrilled about it.”
“Why not? Isn’t it great that now he will be able to… Oh, my God!”
“What is it, Eileen?”
She jumped from the couch and put her hands on her hips, pacing the room. “There was a memory I saw while I was unconscious.”
“What memory?”
“A day from Evan’s past. He said he didn’t see any of those memories I saw, but there was one thing that I’m sure he should remember.” Eileen walked over to her desk, opened one of the drawers and took a paper and a pen. “In that memory, a woman came to Evan’s seventh birthday. She brought him a book with this symbol on the cover.” Eileen finished her drawing and showed it to me. “See? It looks so much like one of those symbols from the old alphabet. Do you think she somehow knew that he would be able to read it?”
“I don’t know,” I said, looking at the symbol thoughtfully. “Why don’t we ask Evan about it?”
We called Evan and asked him to come to Eileen’s room.
“What was the mysterious tone about?” He asked, coming in.
“I told Eileen about the symbols,” I said.
“Can you read them too?” He asked, looking at her.
“No. But I think your new talent is not just a coincidence.”