by Diana Nixon
“Sounds perfect. Except for the rose petals,” I said, grimacing. Now everything that was associated with roses made me feel sick.
“Okay,” Christian laughed, “no roses.”
“Will you join me?”
“Hmm… I don’t know. You sure my presence won’t ruin your peace?”
“You know I never mind your presence. Especially, if it’s about to ruin my peace.”
Chapter 16
Evan
The night was snowy and windy. There were bright-white flakes falling from the cloud-filled sky; the flakes that covered the ground from previous snowstorms were blowing all around me. The effect was almost hypnotizing. It was also so cold my teeth were chattering, and my whole body was quivering. I was walking down the road that led to the dorms, when something caught my eye. It was the entrance to the Embry’s jasmine garden with a beautiful forged pattern that decorated it. There, in the middle of one of the metal flowers was a symbol written in the language that I recently acquired the knowledge to translate without an effort. It said, “In the velvet of petals, we find our magic.”
I stared at the words, and felt a shiver run down my spine. Why was I the only person who could read them? Why did everything around me seem so much more intense now? Every breath I took seemed to be filled with even more oxygen, everything I touched seemed to be ready to turn into whatever I wanted it to be, and that doesn’t even begin to cover the fact that my feelings and emotions were simply out of control. I felt everything so deeply, whether it was passion, sadness, anger or any other emotion; they all felt like they came from the deepest part of my soul, pushing out of my body so fiercely. I felt like I might explode at any moment. I no longer held moments of calm where I felt at ease and peaceful.
I remembered the time Amanda and I spent in her house today and my heart started beating faster. Every inch of my body craved her kiss, and to feel the touch of her hands, and the feeling of her silky skin touching mine. I couldn’t stop thinking about her. It had been the only illusion I had ever been to that I never wanted to break. But I wasn’t afraid of it. I didn’t even think about the future, only right now mattered. And right now, she is mine and only mine. Of course, she still needed to talk to Lucas and explain things to him, but deep down inside of me, I knew that it wouldn’t change anything. We were already in love with each other. And our love was so powerful; I wondered if I could move the mountains with its force?
Did Eileen and Christian feel the same about each other? Was what Amanda and I shared as strong as the magic of our supernatural world? Or was it possible that it was even stronger than that?
Never in my life had I wanted anything as much as I wanted to be with Amanda. I didn’t know how to explain it, and surprisingly enough, I didn’t want to find an explanation for how we felt for each other all of a sudden. I was so consumed with her; I think I could probably watch the world collapsing in front of my eyes and do nothing, except sit there and watch while it fell to pieces, simply knowing that after everything is over, she would still be by my side. Yes, being with her, I wasn’t afraid of anything. No matter what was about to happen next, I knew she would help me deal with it.
I looked at the symbol one last time, it was now half-coved with the hypnotizing snow that was falling and blowing around. Then I turned away from the symbol and made the chilly trek to the dorm. While I was walking, I thought about tomorrow, hoping that the new day wouldn’t bring any more unpleasant surprises.
It took me forever to fall asleep that night, but when I finally did, I had a dream.
I was standing in the middle of a small room. There was only one window; all the walls were white. The door behind me opened and I saw two women entering the room. One of them was wearing an all white pyjama looking pant and shirt set, so I thought she was a nurse. The other woman looked familiar, only a few seconds later, I realized that it was the same woman that gave me the book, Will’s mother. She was pregnant, and she could barely walk.
The nurse helped her to the bed and said, “You have a visitor, waiting outside. Shall I let her in?”
“Her?” Maribel asked, a little surprised. “Who is she?”
“I don’t know. She only said that she was an old friend of yours.”
“Oh, okay. Let her in.”
“I will give you five minutes, no more than that. You are too weak to have visitors.”
Maribel nodded slightly, and pulled the blanket up to her chest. When the nurse left, she closed her eyes and leaned back against the pillow.
The door opened again and I saw my mother entering the ward.
“Elizabeth, what a pleasant surprise!” It looked like Will’s mother was really happy to see her.
“How are you doing?” My mother asked, moving one of the chairs closer to the bed.
“Not good. Every inch of my body hurts. I can’t even eat without vomiting.”
“Poor thing. Did Joseph come to see you?”
Maribel shook her head, and lowered her eyes. “He said he doesn’t want this baby to be born.” She caressed her belly through the blanket.
“He has no right to say that. The baby will be his own blood! How could he say that about his own child?” She asked incredulous.
“He will share my blood as well.” Maribel looked up at my mother and a silent message passed between them. “We both know that Joseph never wanted a child this way.”
“But he can’t do anything to change it, this is happening whether he likes it or not. There isn’t anything anybody can do to change the baby’s fate, not him, you, or anyone else.”
After a short pause, Maribel said, “I’m scared.”
“Why? Did he threaten you or something?”
“He told me to get rid of the baby.”
“Unbelievable! Son of a bitch, he can’t tell you what to do with your baby. You don’t think he will try to hurt you, do you?”
“I don’t know. That’s why I’m scared. You know I can’t protect myself while I’m asleep, so I’m scared to close my eyes even for one second, I’m terrified of falling asleep.”
“Why don’t you make him believe what you want him to?”
“I can’t. We’ve been married for five years. He will immediately know if I try to change what he thinks or feels towards the baby.”
My mom rose to her feet and started pacing the room. “We can’t let him hurt you. You’ve been dreaming about this baby too long to let Joseph take him away from you.”
“What do you suggest?”
“I will protect you.”
“How?”
“I will make an elixir that will protect you and your child from any magical influence. If Joseph tries pulling anything with you whether you are asleep or awake, he will fail.”
“Oh, Elizabeth, you will really do that for me?” A few tears rolled down Maribel’s cheek.
“Of course, I will. We are best friends! I would never let anyone hurt you.”
“Do you think he will get angry when he finds out about me and the baby being protected against his magic?”
“Don’t think about it. If it’s what we need to do to save you and your son, that’s what we will do, regardless of how angry your precious husband can be. Do you trust me?”
Maribel nodded. “Always.”
“Okay, then give me a few hours to make the elixir. Can you stay awake for a few more hours?”
“I can stay awake as long as you need, to save my baby’s life, I would stay awake forever if it were necessary.”
My mother smiled slightly, kissed her forehead and left, promising to come back soon.
As soon as the door closed behind her, I woke up, feeling the drops of sweat rolling down my temples.
What the hell was that? I jumped from my bed and got dressed, without even knowing why. Then I stopped and thought back to everything I had just seen. So Will’s mother and mine had been friends. Okay, I didn’t know that. The next thing that I couldn’t understand was Maribel’s fear of Joseph. He was a
very powerful magician, but it didn’t mean she should be afraid of him, unless…
“It can’t be possible,” I said to myself, as a new theory popped into my mind, it was almost like a light switch turning on. I had to talk to someone, anyone, right now. I pulled a sweater over my shirt and ran out into the hall. I knew who I needed to talk to and it wasn’t just anyone, I needed to talk to William.
“Just don’t tell me you can’t fall asleep without me,” he said, obviously not happy to see me standing at the threshold of his room, in the middle of the night.
“Sorry for interrupting,” I said, seeing sleepy Melanie, coming out of his bathroom. “I needed to talk to you, and unfortunately, it couldn’t wait.”
“Make yourself at home, then,” Will said, letting me in.
“Hey, is everything okay?” Mel asked, climbing back into the bed.
“I’m not sure. I had a very strange dream.”
“I didn’t send it,” Will said.
“I know. Though I still can’t understand how I could see something that I never actually saw in reality.”
“What happened in your dream?”
“Your mother was talking to mine.”
Will’s eyebrows rose in surprise. “Really? What were they talking about?”
“About you, actually. Your mother was pregnant and she was afraid of your father hurting you and her.”
“Oh, I see. Well, I can’t remember that day, so I don’t think I can help you.”
“Actually, I wanted to ask you something about your mother. Do you know if she possessed any supernatural powers?”
“I don’t know. I don’t even remember her face, but according to Eileen, she had emerald eyes, like Fairey’s.”
“Didn’t you ever ask your father about her?”
“I did, all the time. But he hated it when I spoke of her, and he always had a few choice words for me when I did. He hated that her own son could actually have the audacity to bother asking about his mother.”
“Okay, it may sound a little weird, but is it possible that your mother had the same gift that you have?”
Will smirked. “That is by far the stupidest question you have ever asked me, or anyone else for that matter.”
“Thanks, but still, do you think it is possible?”
“Masterminding is strictly a gift for men. No women have ever possessed it. But who knows?”
“In the dream, your mother said that she couldn’t protect herself while sleeping, and we all know that only Lords are helpless in their sleep.”
Will rubbed the back of his neck, staring at nothing in particular. “Well, that’s really weird. Maybe we shouldn’t have killed my father after all. At least, he would have been able to answer our questions if we had let him live.”
I smirked. “Do you want to bring him back from the other side?”
“No freaking way.”
“Okay, thanks for your time,” I said, heading for the door. “Sorry for waking you guys up.”
“No worries, you know I don’t need much sleep,” Will said.
“I bet. Especially with that girl in your bed.”
“I can hear you, Evan!” Mel shouted after me. “Remember my warning?”
“Um, which one, Sweetie?”
“All of them?”
I smiled at Will. “Be careful, man. I’m sure she could kill you before you even had the chance to wonder what she was doing, let alone why she was doing it.”
“I could kill you both before either of you started asking questions as to what I was doing and why I was doing it,” Melanie added.
I wished them good-night and went back to my room. Though, half-way there, I thought I would also pay Amanda a visit. I hoped she wouldn’t be angry to see me at that time of the night.
“Are you out of your mind, Evan? It’s four in the morning!”
Instead of answering, I pulled her to my chest and kissed her lips. I didn’t even realize I missed them so badly. “I was awake and I thought you wouldn’t mind helping me get back to sleep.”
“You can’t just come here and kiss me like this,” she said, looking out into the hall. “Someone might have seen you!”
“So what? I’m almost your boyfriend.”
“Almost is the key word here. Technically, I’m still dating Lucas, remember?”
“Don’t remind me that. I hate the thought of seeing you two together again.”
“Well, you have to find a way to keep your mouth shut, at least until I talk to him.”
I smiled. “I will gladly keep my mouth shut, especially if you keep it shut with your lips.”
“You are impossible, Evan. You know that?”
“You have called me worse. And hey, no one said it would be easy to be my girlfriend.”
“I already regret letting you know about my feelings.”
“Don’t be a scratch-cat, come here.” Eileen wasn’t in the room, so there was no point in being quiet and keeping my distance from Amanda.
I pulled her to the bed and kissed her again, hoping it would be enough to finish with the talking, at least for a little while.
Falling asleep was obviously an unachievable goal that night. Not even Amanda’s presence could help me calm down and close my eyes. With one arm wrapped around her, I was lying on my back, staring at the ceiling. I couldn’t get rid of the feeling I had that the answers to my questions were somewhere near. I also felt like I was missing something very important.
According to the legends, there has always been only one Lord in each of the founding families, which meant that two Lords of the same family couldn’t exist at the same time. Could it be the reason for Will’s mother’s disappearance? If she really was one of those rare people who were able to mastermind others, it might explain the situation a little better.
One more question that I couldn’t answer was my mother’s involvement in all of this. She never told me anything about the Lords of Mind. The topic has never been discussed in our home. Or maybe I simply didn’t remember it? After all, Eileen saw some of my memories. Memories that I never knew existed in my head. What if someone was blocking them? Was that my own mother’s handiwork?
In other words, I spent the next couple of hours, trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together, and when I thought my mind could actually use some sleep, I realized that it was dawn and that I needed to get up.
“I can almost hear your never-resting mind working,” Amanda said sleepily.
“Of course you can. You can actually read it.” I smiled, kissing her forehead. “Did you sleep well?”
“Not really.” She sat in the bed, running one hand through her dark-brown locks. “I had a very strange dream.”
I didn’t like the sound of that. “What was it about?”
“Eileen’s father, actually. And well, me. But I don’t think it was a memory, I’ve never been to the place I saw in my dream.”
“What place was that?”
“It looked like a very old cathedral, half-ruined. I saw Frederick and me standing at the entrance, talking to some stranger.”
“What were you talking to him about?”
“About the children that were predestined to change the world.”
“Can you remember what the stranger looked like?”
“Yeah, it’s kind of hard to forget a face like his. He had bright-blue eyes, dark hair and a tattoo that went from his right cheek all the way down to his collarbone.”
My breath caught. “A tattoo… Did it look like three intervened snakes?”
Amanda stared at me in surprise. “Do you know him?”
“Yes. He was my grandfather.”
“But I have never seen him in real life before. How could I see him and be talking to him in my dream?”
“Are you sure you were yourself in that dream?”
“Um, what do you mean, Evan?”
“I mean, maybe you were watching the scene through someone else’s eyes.”
She frowned, silently th
inking about the dream. “You are right. I can’t tell for sure that it was me talking to your grandfather.”
“Can you remember anything else about the talk you witnessed in your dream?”
“Your grandfather looked a little nervous. He kept looking around, as if he were afraid that someone would see him talking to Frederick. He said making kids responsible for the mistakes that were made centuries ago, was insane.”
“What else did he say?”
“He said the day evil begins dominating over good, the prediction will start coming true.”
“Did he say anything about what prediction he meant?”
“No. He only said that Frederick and whoever I was in that dream, needed to be careful with everything that might bring – oh, my God – you closer to the edge.”
“To the edge of what?”
“I don’t know. But now, I can clearly remember your grandfather mentioning your name. Do you know what it all means?”
“Have no damn idea. But I doubt it’s anything good.”
“Eileen’s here,” Amanda said a second before I heard the door opening.
“Morning,” she said, walking to her bed. She didn’t even look at us, which I thought was a bad sign.
“What happened?” I asked.
“Jeez, Evan! What the hell are you… Oh, God, seriously?” She looked at the two of us incredulous. “Don’t you love doves know that Lucas is back?”
“What?” Amanda jumped from the bed as if it was on fire.
“I thought he was coming back next week,” I said, slowly getting out of her bed.
“Well, he said he missed his girlfriend and couldn’t wait to see her again,” Eileen said, sighing. She was obviously in a crap mood and it didn’t have anything to do with Amanda and me sharing the bed.
“Hey,” I said, walking closer to her, “Is everything all right?” I couldn’t see Eileen’s aura, and she wouldn’t let me feel what was bothering her at the moment. I didn’t like it, because I could almost smell another secret hiding behind those turquoise eyes of hers.
“Don’t look at me like that, Evan,” she snapped, turning away from me. “It just wasn’t the best night.” She rubbed the bridge of her nose and sat on the edge of her bad.