by RM Walker
He rounded the corner of her road to see her front door slam. He ran up the street, vaulted the gate, and skidded to a stop outside the door. He knocked, praying she’d open the door.
“Who is it?” Lynda called through the closed door.
“It’s me, Matt, Mrs A.” He put both hands on the door frames and rested his forehead against the wood. “I need to speak to Lily, please.”
“Wait a moment.”
“I’ll wait. I’ll wait for her, Mrs A. Please, tell her I’ll wait for her.”
He’d wait, and if she didn’t want to see him, he’d wait here until she came out. She couldn’t stay in there forever.
The way to get answers is to ask questions
“Matt’s out there.” Her mother stopped in her bedroom doorway. “He wants to talk to you. What happened, Lily?”
“Nothing.”
Lily couldn’t look at her mother. She’d run from Matt’s rejection straight into remembering her mother’s. She sank onto her bed and covered her face with her hands. She had no idea what to do.
“Darling, he’s waiting outside the door. I can tell him you don’t want to talk to him, if you want.” She leant against the door frame. “He didn’t hurt you, did he? You can tell me.”
“No, he hasn’t hurt me.”
“You’re eighteen. I know it hurts, I know you think you love him. And you probably do. But first love rarely lasts, it’s just a beginning for you, not the end.”
Lily couldn’t tell her what it was. She couldn’t tell her he was mad at her because she’d made out with his cousin. Or that she’d made out with the twins and enjoyed every second of it. If she thought she was evil now, she had no idea what she’d think of her after she heard all that.
“I’ll tell him you don’t want to talk to him.” She pushed away from the door.
“No, wait.” Panic flooded her.
She looked back at Lily, one hand on the doorframe. “Do you want me to send him up?”
“You’d trust me up here? With him?”
“I wasn’t born yesterday. He was here last night, wasn’t he?”
Her mind went blank, she couldn’t say it was him, and she couldn’t say it wasn’t.
“Lily, do you want me to send him up or away?” Frustration crept into her voice.
“Send him up, please,” she whispered.
Her mother shrugged and went down, and it wasn’t long before she saw Matt’s dirty blonde hair as he came up.
“Hey.” He stopped in the doorway, his hands in his pockets.
“Hey.”
“I was cruel to you this morning. I was out of order, I’m sorry.” He didn’t move from the doorway.
“It was too much for you. I’m sorry too, Matt.” She bit back the tears that wanted to flow. Nate said he hadn’t meant it, that Matt had been jealous only, but Lily wasn’t convinced. Matt had acted on instinct, his subconscious told him it was wrong, even if he didn’t know it.
“I don’t want to lose you, any of you, but I can’t—”
“Don’t!”
“Don’t what?”
“Don’t give up on me, please.” He came in and closed the door.
“I won’t come between you all. I’m not going to be the reason you fight.” Misery enveloped her.
“You aren’t. You won’t be. I was jealous, and I wasn’t thinking straight.”
“It’s because you were thinking straight. I felt like you caught me cheating on you.”
“You weren’t cheating on me.” He shook his head. “I didn’t think you were cheating, I was jealous and an asshole.”
“You were jealous because it’s not normal to walk in on your girlfriend wearing your cousin’s t-shirt. Your subconscious realises it isn’t normal.”
“Fuck my subconscious and fuck normal. I don’t want normal. I want you.” He pointed at her and then towards the door, breathing heavily. “And I want them. I want you all. And I forgot that for a while, but I won’t forget it again.”
“And if you come up here again, and I’ve got Nate’s shirt on? Or I tell you I’ve been making out with the twins? Tell me honestly.” She watched him carefully; his tongue may lie but she hoped his eyes wouldn’t.
“I’ll get jealous.”
She’d asked for honest and he’d given it to her, but it still broke her heart. “And that’s why this could never—”
“I haven’t finished. I’ll want it to be me. But I won’t fuck up again. I need them, and I need you.”
“Matt, jealousy will eat away at you.”
“It’ll get easier.” He caught her hands and tugged her to her feet.
“No. It won’t—”
He pushed his lips against hers to silence her. He buried his face into her neck, his arms wrapped around her hips. “Don’t give up on me, please,” he whispered. “Give us a chance to prove to you we want to do this. I want to do this. I want you to be my girlfriend, and I want you to be theirs too. Please, forgive me, I love you so fucking much. I can’t lose you.”
Lily threw her arms around his neck, tears falling at his words. “I love you, Matt. I love you.”
He exhaled, pulling her up against him. “Bloody hell, I love you, I love you, I love you.” He swung her from side to side, her feet dangling, his face in her neck. “We will work this out, and you will never regret it, I promise.”
“WHAT’S WITH THE FRANTIC, cryptic message to meet you here? What’s wrong with dropping in like you usually do?” Jonas set his glass of beer onto the table and pulled up a stool.
They’d got Matt up to speed on what happened at the lake, but they had no idea what it meant, if anything. They’d agreed to meet Jonas, ask him if he was hiding them. Depending on his reply, they’d decide whether to tell him about her dream or not. Nate had sent him a text asking him to meet them at the Blue Pig in Porthaven. It was neutral ground and there were no relatives behind the bar.
Jonas pulled a face when no one spoke. “Do I have to do twenty—” He looked at Lily, his eyebrows shot up. “Are you pregnant?”
“Why does everyone assume I’m pregnant?” she exclaimed.
“Not saying you are, but there are many accidents.” Jonas sent her a smile. “So, no baby on the way, who’s died then?”
None of them responded, and Lily nudged Nate with her elbow.
He sent her a glare and pushed up his glasses. “We just wondered, or rather, we wanted to know. We thought we should—”
“Are you covering their magic?” If she waited for Nate or the others to get around to it she’d be old and grey.
“Fuck sake,” Nate hissed. “I was just saying that.”
“No, you weren’t, you were procrastinating.” She looked back at Jonas. “Are you?”
“What do you think?” He picked up his beer and took a sip, his gaze holding hers.
“I think you are,” she replied.
He tipped the glass at her in a salute. “Clever girl, how did you know?”
“Why?” Nate demanded.
Jonas pulled a face at him and looked at Matt. “Do I really need to answer why?”
“You covered their magic to protect them,” Lily said, nodding. “Because they’d be in danger if you didn’t.”
“Exactly,” he agreed. “I set the spell as soon as I knew what you were, what you could do, especially Matt.”
“Why didn’t you tell us?” Nate asked.
“It was years ago, and I’ve never thought to tell you.”
“Can you remove it?” Matt asked.
“Yes, but why? It’s for your protection. How did you work it out, Lily?”
She bit her lip and looked at Nate before owning up. “It was my fault. I’m sorry. Drew told us.”
“Drew?” Jonas barked.
She winced, shrinking down between Matt and Nate.
“It’s not your fault,” Nate told her, and looked back at Jonas. “We weren’t careful, Drew saw something, but he said he already knew we were fae.”
“H
e did? How?”
“You wiped the memory of a boy called Johnston when we were kids,” Josh said, opening his packet of crisps.
Jonas nodded. “I remember him. He saw you heal the bird, and I covered it. How did Drew find it?”
“He was poking around in his memories and found it. He removed it and got him kicked out of college.” Jake dug into his packet of crisps.
“What?” Jonas straightened. “He did what? He can’t do that. That’s a violation.”
“Drew was protecting me. Johnston was threatening me, and Drew altered his memories of me and he found you,” she said.
He lifted his eyebrows and snorted. “Highly unorthodox and immoral. He had no right to do that.”
“I prefer it to being raped.” Lily arched an eyebrow at him, and he had the grace to nod in acknowledgment.
“Well.” He blew out his breath. “At least we know it still works. If it wasn’t for you he’d never had found them.”
“It isn’t her fault,” Nate snapped. “You can’t blame her for Johnston being a perverted little wanker.”
“I wasn’t blaming you, Lily. I apologise if you thought I was. Nate, please, do try and watch your language. You haven’t crawled out of the sewer.” He drained his beer and put the glass down. “I know he’s your father, Lily, but be careful around him. Those spells, Obscurus Arcanum? They’re not called dark magic for nothing.”
“He explained why he did it,” she said.
“Just don’t take anything at face value. Sometimes people don’t tell you what you need to know, no matter how much they may want to.” His gaze met and held hers, and a shiver went down her back.
He winced, and a tiny trickle of blood seeped from the corner of his mouth. He took out a handkerchief and wiped it away quickly.
“You’re bleeding,” Nate pointed out.
“I bit my tongue; just being clumsy.”
Matt reached out, but Jonas jerked back, glaring at him. “Not here, Matt, never in public.”
“Sorry, instinctive,” Matt muttered.
“Is there any other reason I was summoned from my fireplace this evening?” He smiled at them.
“Lily had...saw...” Josh looked at her. “You tell it.”
“There’s a shield around this table, you can say what you need to, no one will hear anything except casual conversation from here,” Jonas told her.
For the fourth time that day she recounted her dream. The twins picked up from where they’d woken her.
“I thought she was choking.” Josh rubbed the back of his neck. “She was flipping, grabbing at her throat, and gurgling. It was freaky scary.”
“Where were you? The Quarry?” Jonas asked.
“No, Dozmary Pool,” Jake answered him.
“Bodmin?” Matt sat up. “You went without us?”
“Keep your hair on,” Jake drawled. “We didn’t take her to the Inn, just the pool.”
Matt pulled a face and sat back. “Thanks, I guess.”
“Yeah, but the pool?” Nate exclaimed. “That place is special, we should all have been there.”
“Enough.” Jonas heaved a sigh and looked at her. “Did the twins explain what the pool is?”
“Yeah.” She picked up her glass. “I could feel it was special there.”
“You connected with the magic. I’d have been more surprised if you hadn’t.”
“You think it was a vision?” she asked.
“I’m not sure. It all seems a bit metaphorical. Arguing with Drew, hiding the boys. Maybe it was your subconscious playing over all the angst you’ve had recently.”
“My angst?” She stared at him, not sure what to make of that.
“It’s a magical place, you were asleep. The energy in the area would be enough to bring your fears to the front of your mind.”
“I’m not scared of a horse riding, sword wielding maniac coming anytime soon,” she retorted.
“Dreams are never very reasonable.” He smiled at her and looked across at Nate. “So where are you headed now? Back to yours?”
“No, we’re staying at Matt’s tonight.” Nate drained his drink.
They’d accepted everything he’d said, they had no more doubts. Lily wasn’t sold on it though, he was too vague about her dream, too dismissive.
“Have you heard anything?” Josh asked Jonas. “About his ring?”
“Yes, I have actually. I told you it was an ancient symbol, going back much further than the Council, and they weren’t the only ones to use it. It’s a symbol well known to Alchemists. Drew could be an Alchemist. He seems to have his fingers in a lot of pies, it’s not too much of a stretch to add Alchemy to that.”
“So the Council didn’t bind him?” Matt asked, his hand slid onto her thigh.
“The Council didn’t bind him.”
“He’s lying about not being able to see you.” Nate slid his arm around her shoulders.
They were convinced that Drew had lied to her, but Lily wasn’t so sure. It wasn’t just wishful thinking either, she was certain there was something Jonas wasn’t saying and because of that the jury was still out for both of them
“I’d ask him—” Jonas breathed in through his nose.
“Are you okay?” Matt began to get up, but Jonas held up a hand.
“I’m fine. I’m sorry, Lily, I really am. Don’t blindly believe everything, no matter how much you may want to.” He held her gaze and again she got the feeling there was more to what he was saying.
“I’m sorry,” blurted Nate. “I doubted you. I didn’t want to believe it.”
Jonas waved a hand. “I should have told you the moment you were old enough. I just didn’t think about it.” He stood up and looked around at them all. “Are we good?”
“Yeah, more than good, thanks, Jonas,” Matt said. The others followed suit, and Lily knew for them it was over. Jonas hadn’t lied. End of story.
“Great, well I’d best get on.” He patted Nate’s shoulder. “Take care and just be careful. I’ll let you know if anything else comes back.” He gave a wave and left.
“You okay?” Matt rubbed her lower back.
“I’m fine.” But she wasn’t, her mind was in a whirl, but she knew, for the moment at least, they wouldn’t accept any doubt she raised.
“Sorry, Lil,” Josh murmured.
“I don’t know Drew well, it’s not like I was close to him,” she replied and picked up her orange juice. But that hadn’t stopped her from imagining what it would be like to have him as her father.
They sat in silence as they finished their drinks, trying not to think about the possibility Drew was lying. She set her empty glass on the table and glanced at the twins. They were glaring at Nate and Matt, arms folded, and eyes narrowed, and it grated on her.
“What? What is it now?” she demanded.
“You knew we wanted to go there as well,” Nate said to Josh, ignoring Lily’s question. “Look what happened when we weren’t all together.”
“What do you think you could do against a nightmare, Nate?” Josh sneered at him. “That your mere presence alone would prevent it?”
“No, of course not,” Nate snapped. “Why there though? You knew!”
“We didn’t think,” Jake said. “We’re sorry, okay? You two were fighting, Lily was upset. We just took her out on the bikes and ended up there.”
“We didn’t even know where we were headed till we got there,” Josh added.
“You could have turned around,” Matt pointed out.
“Stop it.” She slapped her palms onto the table and winced at the sting. “I refuse to do this.”
“Do what?” Nate asked her.
“Do I really need to spell it out?” She shook her head. “You were fighting this morning, but you tell me it’s okay because it won’t happen again. Now, here you are, less than a few hours later doing the same thing again.”
“No. It’s not the same,” Matt argued. “It’s not they took you out.”
“It’s whe
re they took you,” Nate finished.
“And we’re sorry,” Josh tried again. “We really didn’t think. We only took her to the pool, we didn’t even drive past the Jamaica Inn.”
“But you knew we all wanted to go.” Matt sat back and folded his arms, still glaring at them.
Anger flashed up and she tapped her nails on the table. “I’m never going there again.”
“Why not?” Matt turned to her in surprise.
“Well, I assumed with all the fuss you two are making this was my one and only chance of going there.”
“That’s not it either. I wanted to see how your magic would react when it connected with the magic there,” Nate said.
“You’d have been disappointed then, nothing happened.” Her irritation drained into exhaustion. “Guys, I really can’t do this. I can’t keep making you get angry with each other. I just—”
“You told us you loved us,” Josh blurted. “You can’t drop that on us and then walk away.”
“I’m not saying—”
“You told me too,” Matt exclaimed.
Nate grunted and stood up. “I need a piss.” He stalked away his back rigid.
“Oh, well done,” she snapped. “I haven’t had a chance to tell him I love him too yet.”
“Bugger.” Matt moved to get up.
Lily pushed him down as she got up. “I’ll go and talk to him. You all need to get your heads on straight; I won’t be the reason to tear you apart. I love you, I love you all, but this isn’t working right now.”
She left the table and followed Nate down a narrow corridor with a floor so uneven she could have been out at sea, or drunk. She called his name, but he went into the men’s toilets, the door shutting behind him. She rolled her eyes and leant against wall, waiting for him to come out.
Several minutes later, and after two other men had gone in and out again she lost patience. She slapped a hand over her eyes and pushed open the door.
“I’m coming in,” she called and stepped inside, letting the door close behind her. “I can’t see anything, but I apologise anyway. Nate? Nate? Where are you?”
“For fuck’s sake, this is the men’s. You can’t come in here.” Nate caught her arms and tried to bundle her back out.