by Diana Nixon
“Eileen, it’s not fair!” Little Amanda said, looking at me. “You were supposed to count to ten and not to five!”
“Now, it’s your turn to hide,” Evan said.
“Eileen, run!” Christian said, laughing. “What’s wrong with you? Don’t you know how to play hide-and-seek?”
I stared at them, stunned. I couldn’t understand what was going on. We were kids again, and we were playing in a place that was supposed to be a secret. I looked up into the sky, and the words of the old spell protecting Dever were still there, as if I had never destroyed them.
Could it be possible that the dream was not just a dream, but a memory? Could Evan, Christian, Amanda and I have known each other for that long? Then why didn’t I remember Evan when I first saw him? And why was Amanda the only person that I was sure I knew as long as I could remember myself?
I looked at the field again. My friends seemed to not even notice my presence now. They were still playing and laughing, running around the ocean of roses and enjoying the sun that I thought I had never seen shining so brightly.
Then I tried to come closer again, and failed, bumping into an invisible wall that I couldn’t go through. Did it mean that something was wrong with me? Did it mean that I was somehow different?
I opened my eyes and stared at the burning fireplace again. The voice in my head spoke, “Yes, you’ve always been different, Eileen.”
“Elizabeth? Are you in Dever now?”
“No, I’m still waiting for Salazar to cross the magical border. He’ll be here soon.”
“What did that dream mean?”
“You have already answered that question, Eileen. Evan, Amanda, Christian and you met many times before the day you came to Dever.”
“Then why don’t we remember that?”
“You were not supposed to.”
“Why not?”
“Because bringing the four of you to the only place that would never stay in your memory, was the only way to create the bonds that you share. No one could ever know about what we did to you.”
“How am I different from the others?”
“You had always been special, Eileen. You were the youngest of them, that’s why it was decided to turn you into Evan’s guardian angel. We played with your age difference, and so it happened to become the key to your ability to help and protect Evan. Besides, we all knew that one day, you would inherit your father’s powers. Which only made the decision even easier to make.”
“I assume that your husband never knew about what was going on in that field?”
“I couldn’t tell him that I wanted to break everything that he had been trying to build for years.”
“What about Darcy’s grandmother? What was her role?”
“She was our unofficial instructor. It was her idea to create the bonds. Not just between you and Christian, but between the four you. I bet you have noticed how similar those lines symbolizing the bonds are. Some are golden, others are silver. But one thing that all of them are based on is blood. No matter what happens, the four of you will always be able to save each other by sharing your blood.”
I sighed, leaning against the back of my chair. “I don’t even know whether it’s a blessing or a curse.”
“It’s the cruelty of the world we live in. Nothing here is an accident. Don’t you ever forget that.”
I smirked. “Thanks for the warning.”
“I can’t talk more, Salazar is here.”
Now, I could see a tall, young man coming over to Elizabeth. He was wearing a long, dark cloak; his hair was a mess.
“Are you ready?” She asked, taking him by the hand.”
“Yes, ma’am. I’ve never been as ready as I am now. Time to show what real powers are.”
Chapter 21
Evan
“Where are you?” I texted to Amanda. I haven’t seen her all day and now, I was getting really impatient to talk to her. How was her discussion with Lucas? I knew she wouldn’t tell him anything about us. Considering the circumstances, it was better to leave things just the way they were now.
I went to Amanda and Eileen’s room and knocked. I didn’t feel their presence, but that didn’t necessarily mean anything. We have been masking our auras for so long, it was not surprising that we kept hiding them even when we were alone.
“Girls, are you there?”
No one replied.
Then I saw one of our friends walking down the hall. “Hey, Anna, have you seen Eileen or Amanda?”
“Sorry, I haven’t. Oh, there’s Eileen!” She pointed to the other end of the hall.
“Thanks,” I said to Anna and ran to Eileen. “Where the hell have you been? How’s Amanda? Did you talk to her?”
“Slow down, Evan.” Eileen stopped, looking at me in confusion. “What are you talking about?”
“Lucas, their conversation… Come on! Do not tell me you don’t know what’s going on!” I could hear how desperate I sounded.
“Oh, right,” Eileen said, shaking her head slightly. “I didn’t have a chance to talk to her. She and Christian went to Gloster, to help Tara with her wedding preparations.”
“Now?” I looked at my watch. It showed half past nine in the evening.
“They will have to stay with her until the wedding.”
Eileen sounded a little nervous, but I thought it was due to the mysteries we have been dealing with recently.
“Have you seen Frederick?” She asked, a little nervous.
“I thought you were calling him Dad now.”
“Right. So have you seen him?” She looked around frantically, as if she were afraid of talking to me.
“Is everything all right?” I asked, touching her hand.
She flinched, pulling it away from mine. “Yes, I’m just a little nervous.”
“Did you find out anything different about the Lords or … my mother?”
She shook her head, wordlessly.
“Okay, do you need my help with anything?”
“No, thanks, Evan. Go get some sleep.” She kissed me quickly on the cheek and rushed to the exit.
Only later, I realized that I didn’t see the silver light that I normally saw when our hands touched. What the hell did that mean?
Some time later, I thought I would finally fulfil my promise to send William a dream about his mother. I hoped after seeing and feeling her there, he would be able to find her in reality.
I went to his room, but I didn’t knock. First, I needed to make sure that he was asleep already. Putting my palms on the wooden door, I tried to focus on his energy and it told me that my assumption was correct, I could use my dream-sending gift now. I wasn’t sure how much Will’s mind could remember about his mother, so I thought about the day of his birth and hoped he would be able to see that day in his dream. I never failed when I sent dreams to people, but somehow now, everything felt different. I didn’t have to spend as much energy, my powers seemed to be more than willing to obey me.
I shook my head, as a new thought came to mind. It was more than ridiculous, as I sure as hell couldn’t possibly know how to mastermind all of a sudden, could I?
I made sure my spell was working and left, hoping to get at least a few hours of sleep. On my way back to the dorms, I saw something strange on one of the doors of the Academic building. I came closer and felt my pulse accelerating at the view of a symbol that said the following, “Under the blanket of shades, the truth is hidden. In the vortexes of brown, the lies die.”
I stared at the words, trying to understand their meaning. Less than a few seconds later, the realization hit me. The words were said about the Vero clan, meaning that the truth had its own shades that its descendants and the students of the same-name faculty could see in people’s auras. And brown was the color of eyes that the Veros all shared.
I thought back about the other times I found other symbols all around Dever. Now the words I could see through the symbols made sense. All of the words were about one of the founding
families or about Dever’s faculties. The only thing I couldn’t understand was the connection between them. Somehow, it was hard to believe that seeing meaningful symbols spread all over Dever was just a coincidence.
It was almost midnight when I stopped at Eileen’s bedroom. I needed to talk to someone, but since Amanda was gone now, Eileen was my only option. But when I was about to knock on the door, something happened. For a second, I thought I was losing my mind, because I surely couldn’t actually feel what I thought I felt, right?
I took a step back, staring at the closed door. I could swear I felt my mother’s energy behind that closed door. The feeling was gone almost as quickly as it came on, but I was still too shocked to move. Leaning against the wall behind me, I closed my eyes and tried to feel Eileen. It was always hard to feel her when she was blocking me.
Suddenly the door to her bedroom flew open and she looked at me, surprised.
“Evan? What are you doing here?” She looked cautiously into the empty hall and waved for me to come in.
“You okay?” I asked, trying to figure out what the reason behind my weird feelings could have been.
“Yeah, why?”
I shrugged, looking around the room. “No reason. I wanted to talk to you, but I didn’t know if you were alone. I couldn’t feel you.” I turned around and looked at Eileen again, and again, I thought she looked a little nervous.
“Why are you still awake?” I asked. Her bed looked untouched, and she was still wearing the same outfit I saw her wearing about an hour ago.
“Couldn’t fall asleep.”
“Did you even try to?”
She sighed. “No. I can’t stop thinking about your mother and everything that has happened recently.”
“If I didn’t know better, I would have thought you were getting ready to leave tonight and find her. You are not trying to do any of that, are you?”
Eileen laughed quietly. “Don’t worry, I know how much you wanted to join the fun. Anyway, what did you want to talk about?” She walked over to a coffee table and poured a cup of tea. “Want some?” She asked, taking another cup.
“Yeah, that would be great, thanks.” I took my cup and sat on the couch. “Remember those symbols and words I told you about?”
Eileen’s cup froze half-way to her lips. “Yes,” she said carefully. “What about them?”
“I think I know why I keep seeing them everywhere.”
She put her cup back on the table. “Really? Why?”
“I think they symbolize the powers we possess. As if each of our gifts were buried in those places, where I see them.”
“Well, that makes sense,” Eileen said.
“Do you think the founders of Dever did that on purpose?”
“Why would they do that?”
“I don’t know. Maybe Dever has never been just a university, but some place where everything started; a place where the world of supernatural was created?”
Eileen’s eyes met mine and I don’t think I had ever seen so much pain in them. It was like she was about to start crying.
“Hey, you sure you are fine?” I rose to my feet and came closer to her. Though she didn’t let me touch her. “You are so jumpy today.” I smiled down at her. She also looked a little scared, and I wondered what could be the cause of that?
“Why don’t we talk about it tomorrow?” She said. “I think I’m finally ready to call it a day.”
“Okay.” I didn’t want to insist on discussing anything else, because I could clearly see that her thoughts were wrapped around something that she was not ready to talk about. She always had that thoughtful and a little lost expression when she was worried about something.
“Let me know if you need anything,” I said before I headed for the door.
“Hey, Evan… Did I tell you about the book that I found in the closed section the other day? I think you should check it out. It was written in symbols.”
I frowned, feeling that something was wrong about this whole conversation. “Okay, I will.” Eileen knew me too well to believe that I would leave it for tomorrow, and after I left her room, I went straight to the library to see what was so special about this particular book.
The closed section was not supposed to be visited by students, but I hardly cared. Carefully, I unlocked the door and let myself in. Unlike the rest of the rooms in the library, this one was huge and dark. I couldn’t see the end of the shelves in there. Only now, I realized that I forgot to ask Eileen where she left the book. Fortunately, I knew a few finding spells, which helped me find it.
The moment I came to the shelve I needed, something changed. All the lights in the room went on, and I flinched for a moment, afraid someone would catch me there. I waved my hand, and the light went off again, leaving a small ball of light over the book wrapped in a dark-red, velvet cover.
Something was telling me that holding the book in my hands was a bad idea, but I couldn’t help myself. I took the book and opened it.
What happened next couldn’t be described in simple words. I was swept up by a hurricane of words and symbols that I hardly managed to decipher, stunned by the crazy speed in which they were flying from the book. I could see places and scenes that I had never seen. I could hear people talking in my head. I could feel the powers of all the elements tickling my skin. Not that I could rule over all of them, but somehow, the book was showing me what it would be like to possess all of them at once. For the first time ever, I realized how hard it was for Eileen to control her powers.
When the words and sentences became clearer, I sat on the floor, took a deep breath and tried to focus on one particular page.
It showed that rose field that I remembered so well. The only difference was that now I could see that there were other people there. No, they were not the members of the Dragons brotherhood. One of them was an old woman that I didn’t recognize. There were also two young men who looked like younger versions of herself; I suppose they were probably her sons. They were holding hands with two young girls, one blonde and one red-head. Two little boys were running around the five of them, laughing. Then the old woman stopped and took a few small items out of her dress pocket. They were all made of silver.
“These are symbols of my powers,” she said, giving one piece to each of her sons. “Now, you will all inherit them.” The moment her children took the pieces, they felt forces of all the natural elements. The wind, the fire, the water, the earth… “In addition to that, your wives and children will also receive these gifts,” the magician said. “Use your powers carefully. And never let them take control over you. The first granddaughter I have, will be gifted with the power of my magic.”
I shook my head, hoping to force the image away, but it refused to leave my mind. It started to change, showing me other people walking through the field. At first, I couldn’t believe my eyes, because they looked so much like those people who we saw in the portraits from The Great Hall. They were the founders of Dever.
There were seven of them, the heads of the families. At some point, they stopped walking and formed a circle around one of the trees, and joined their hands.
“It’s time to make the sky fall,” Medellin Wizardy said. Her eyes were crystal-blue and as bright as mine. She looked up into the night sky, and I could see letters and words begin to form up there. They were shining like small stars illuminating the endless, magical field. Also, I could see Dever, with all the symbols I found forming in the places where I found them.
“From now on, the world belongs to us,” Medellin said, after the words of the spell formed the sentences high above the ground. Then it became dark again, and the scene in front of my eyes changed.
Now I saw my mother standing in the field. She was not alone there, but in company of Frederick and Patrick Fairey. Christian’s mother, Amelia, was there too, along with Darcy’s grandmother, Stefanie. They were holding roses in their hands. Wordlessly, they began to rise their hands up towards the sky and then they drew a thin wall of
gold and silver patterns that I knew so well. They were all the symbols of the bonds that Eileen, Amanda, Christian and I shared… But the scene changed so fast, I didn’t manage to see anything else.
Now, I could hear children laughing around me. Their faces were a little blurry, but the harder I concentrated on their images, the better I could see their faces. I could see myself there with them. The other children were Eileen, Amanda, and Christian. We were running around the field, playing hide-and-seek. Nothing seemed strange about the scene, except for one small detail… I could clearly hear every thought that went through my friend’s minds…
I gasped and shut the book, unable to continue watching the images it was showing me. It couldn’t be real… None of it could be real. But somehow, I now understood almost everything that the book showed to me.
The first image depicted the creator of Perriart collection. The only part I didn’t understand about the depiction were her words about the powers. Was she the creator of all of Dever and every other detail within its boundaries? Did it all begin with her?
The second image delineated the founders of Dever inventing the spell to protect it. Now, I was also sure that the symbols I found were not just symbols, but they were actually the keys to the doors hiding the origins of each one of the powers we possessed.
The next image described people that I knew. But I couldn’t believe that the book was illustrating the truth. Because if the image was real, my friends and I were predestined to be bound together many years ago.
But the most unbelievable image was the very last image I witnessed. It couldn’t be possible that I possessed the power of reading minds. Only Amanda could do that and I didn’t remember a single moment where I was capable of reading people’s minds. The book had to be wrong about the last image. At least, I hoped it was wrong.
I looked at the book I was still holding in my hands. I was damn scared of opening it again. Even though there was something about the thing that was pulling me to read it again. I looked at the words written on the cover, and realized that I hadn’t paid any attention to them. They said that the book was written for the Lords of Mind only, but I wasn’t one of them. So how was that possible that I managed to open and read it?