Spectral

by Duffy, Shannon

  Jayden’s sweet, smiling face peered up at me on the other side of the door. The trace of freckles that danced across his cheeks, more prominent now as the warm May sun had been shining on him.

  “Hiya,” he said, grinning. He was always so happy to see me. Right then I wished he were older so I could share this with him. It was too much to bear on my own, and the feeling of carrying rocks on my shoulders now felt like boulders. But Jayden oozed innocence and I wanted him to stay that way.

  “Hi, monkey. What ‘cha up to?”

  “Not much. Mom said to tell you it’s dinner time.” He thrust his thumb toward the stairwell.

  I couldn’t face Aunt Eva and Uncle Boris, or anybody for that matter. I mean, I’d just finished reading the most amazing yet disturbing information.

  About me. Being a Spectral. The millennium Spectral.

  A lump formed in my throat. I couldn’t face anybody. They’d read it all over my face.

  “I’m not feeling good, Buddy.”

  “You got the flu?” He stretched his hand up and touched my cheek. “You’re not hot, though.”

  “No, just a bad headache,” I leaned my head against the door frame.

  “I’ll bring your dinner up here.” He smiled. “Is that okay, Jewels?”

  “That would be awesome, Jayden, thanks.”

  “Harrison, remember?” He flashed a toothy grin.

  I tweaked his nose. “You’ll always be Jayden to me.”

  I sat at the desk in my room, head in my hands, thinking. And thinking.

  Soon, a rap sounded out on my door and Grandma Raine came in with a heaping plate of lasagna.

  “Oh, Grandma, I can’t eat all that.” I shook my head as she laid the plate down in front of me with a glass of water.

  Her face held a gentle expression as she passed me the fork from my plate. “Just eat as much as you want.” She leaned against the desk, facing me.

  “Okay, thanks.”

  “Is there anything on your mind you want to talk about, Jewel? You don’t seem like yourself lately.”

  “Just school and homework,” I lied, not daring to bring up the Spectral topic. I mean, if they wanted me to know, they’d have told me right? I reasoned. I ate a forkful of lasagna and realized how hungry I was. I downed some more.

  Grandma smiled. “We’re planning a big birthday party for you this year—”

  I almost choked and started coughing. Grandma handed me the glass of water.

  “Oh yeah?” I managed.

  “Sure. Turning seventeen is a special birthday.”

  You’re not kidding.

  “I’m sure you’re tired of all the moving and everything but I just want you to know that things should settle down soon.”

  “Did the police catch the bad guys or something?” I asked, going with the common theory that we were trying to evade criminals.

  “On your birthday, you’ll move one more time,” she said, ignoring my question. “But this time we’ll all move together.”

  My stomach twisted. “Again, Grandma?” I dropped my head in my hands. I knew it was inevitable but still, even I didn’t expect to move again so soon.

  “We’re going to go back to live with our family.” She looked away out the window as if pondering her words, then back at me again. “We have a very big extended family, you know. And they’re looking forward to meeting you.”

  My head began pounding and the blood drained from my face. If what I read in the book was true, once I’d been through my quickening, becoming all Spectral and all, their own powers would become strengthened. I was sure they looked forward to meeting me. I couldn’t say I felt the same. Becoming a witch and belonging to a coven wasn’t exactly my idea of normal.

  Grandma squeezed her hand around my shoulder. “Then you won’t have to worry anymore.”

  The tension began peeling away from my body. The longer she held her hand on me, the more relaxed I became, until it was as though I’d taken too much medicine like Gravol, or one of those red concoctions my mother had given me a couple times.

  I remembered all the times Grandma was around and how whenever she was near me, and touched me, my worries seem to wash away. Maybe since Grandma Raine was a part of my family, then she was a witch too. One with an endowment. The ability to calm, I mused. My eyes grew heavy until I couldn’t think anymore and Grandma lifted her hand off me and helped me up from the desk chair.

  I flopped into bed and tugged the comforter around me, grateful for my comatose state, and fell into a dreamless sleep.

  Until I heard a knock at my window.

  ***

  Startled, I bolted upright. I checked the clock and it read 3:08 a.m. Then it came again—another rap at the window. Being on the second floor, I didn’t understand how that was possible. A branch? I jumped up and walked to the window, rubbing my eyes. Roman stood in front of the window, a pensive look on his face.

  My breath caught. I opened my mouth to scream but instead clasped my hand over it. I didn’t want my family to come charging in. I edged near the window and Roman waved.

  I unlocked the window and turned the lever, opening it just an inch. Willow hopped on the ledge and meowed. I shooed her away.

  “What’re you doing?” I asked in a whisper. “Can you fly too?”

  Roman pointed to the ladder he stood on, which I’d not noticed until then. “Flying’s not my strong suit. A ladder, ya know? I’m not a levitator.”

  “Well, what are you exactly—besides stalkerazzi, that is. And what do you want?” I threw my hands up. I wasn’t sure what to make of the whole situation that had gone down earlier and now here he was knocking at my window at three in the morning.

  “Can I come in?”

  I wagged my head in disbelief. “Seriously?”

  Roman’s expression remained fixed, letting me know he was totally serious.

  “I dunno. No. What if someone hears and comes to check on me.”

  “I think I can handle that situation.” He smirked.

  “Just a little freezing action?” I chided, shaking my head remembering how he froze everyone in the bar earlier.

  “Something like that. But I promise to be quiet. So?” He put on a sad puppy-dog face.

  I grumbled but opened the window enough for him to fit through. I was more than a little curious to hear what he was going to say.

  Roman climbed in and sat on the floor, his back to the wall.

  “So, dish,” I said, plunking to the floor in front of him, legs crossed. “What was all that about earlier? What are you?”

  “I’m your guardian.” He looked sideways at me, and a smile crept across his face. “I thought I mentioned that.”

  “Guardian? From what? What is that supposed to mean?”

  “All your life you’ve been moving right?”

  “Right…”

  “Don’t you ever wonder why?”

  I rolled my eyes. “Duh…well yeah.”

  “But you’ve never really thought about it?” He lay on his side, stretching out. He looked so hot in his dark blue hipster jeans and black Metallica t-shirt but somehow I forced my eyes back to his face. Not that that made it any easier to concentrate. I ran my fingers through my messy hair self-consciously.

  “You look great,” he said as if sensing how I felt.

  “Of course I’ve thought about it,” I said. “I’ve thought about it every day all my life. It’s pretty much all I think about.”

  He lifted a brow. “And what have your parents told you?”

  I shrugged. “Not a lot. Criminals after us. Witness protection program—you know, your average run of the mill, family kinda stuff.” I rolled my eyes and lay down on the floor on my stomach beside him. I wasn’t sure if the tingling sensation inside me was something I enjoyed or feared. I reminded myself that maybe it should be fear, but still he did let me go when I asked him. “Why did you let me go today?” I asked, unable to resist.

  He lowered his gaze, until his eyes met m
ine. “Because you said that’s what you wanted.”

  “How does that work, exactly? I say I want pizza and you conjure it up for me?”

  His lip curled up with amusement. “Maybe if you ask real nice, I could drive to Pizza Hut and get us one. But no, it doesn’t work like that. I said I was your guardian, not your slave.” He rolled his eyes. “I don’t conjure either.”

  “What do you do then? What was that bubble thing back in the bar you did? I didn’t appreciate that by the way,” I scowled.

  “Don’t be so serious. You’ll get premature wrinkles like that.” He laughed and reached out and touched my forehead.

  I fixed him a look, pushing his hand away.

  “Okay, look. I have certain powers.” He looked at me as if for a reaction.

  I gave none.

  He threw his hands up in the air. “It’s like, stopping time but only for a short amount of time. I can’t sustain it for extended periods or anything.”

  My mind swirled, unable to comprehend what he was saying. It was like out of some movie or something. “Stop time? For real?”

  He made an x across his heart.

  “But what was that bubble thing?”

  “Now that I see your room, I would’ve thought you liked bubbles,” he teased. “Maybe if I’d have made the bubble pink, you’d have appreciated it more.” He rolled onto his back and folded his arms behind his head.

  I looked at my walls and put my finger in my mouth, mock-gagging. “What was it?” I insisted. “The bubble I mean,” I wasn’t going to let him off that easy.

  “A protective barrier—a shell. I wanted you to listen to me a minute.”

  “What did you want to tell me?” My chest tightened and I stared at him, observing his features as he spoke.

  Roman sat back up and took me by the hand pulling me to a sitting position beside him.

  “You’re not safe here, Jewel.”

  “What do you mean I’m not safe here? And how do you know my name?”

  “I can’t tell you.”

  I raised both my eyebrows at him. “You can’t tell me?” Now I was seething.

  “No.” He squeezed my hand tighter. “But we need to leave.”

  I jerked my hand away. “Leave? And why can’t you tell me?”

  “Some things are better left unsaid until the right time. But we don’t have much time. I need to get you someplace safe.”

  I opened my mouth, then shut it. I didn’t like that he was holding back like I wasn’t able to take it or I was too stupid to understand. Just like my parents.

  I found my words. “The right time? And let me guess—you decide the right time? About me. About my life? You’re pretty cocky aren’t you? And you’re not the only one who knows things, Roman.” I stood but kept my voice low, “I’ve been doing a little investigating myself.”

  Roman pounced to his feet. “Investigating? How?”

  Good. I’d gotten his attention. Maybe he’d take me seriously for a change. “Been reading up on stuff,” I shrugged. “Putting pieces together like a puzzle.” I stared down at my feet and then back up at him. “Something about a Spectral…”

  Roman’s face grew ashen. “You’re in more danger than I first thought. You have to stop reading those things. You’re not supposed to know those things yet. It can only bring more trouble. What else do you know?”

  “I’ll tell you what I know if you tell me what you know.” I cocked my head to one side and folded my arms across my chest.

  “This isn’t a game, Jewel.” He took me by the shoulders startling me. “Tell me what you know.”

  I shrugged out of his grasp. “All right, already. Something about witches and covens and the millennium Spectral witch who bears a mark…and on her seventeenth birthday goes all supernova…and well…I think I’m it. Is that about right?”

  Roman looked like he was about to heave and suddenly I felt bad for him. “Well, yeah…something like that…but how did you find out? You know too much already. Please don’t dwell on those things or check into it anymore.” His voice sounded pleading as he pulled me into a tight embrace.

  He felt so warm. My head rested against his chest, his heart pounding below my ear. Warm breath fanned against my hair and Roman’s arms around me trembled. All of that, along with his shaky voice, and the way he hugged me as if I were the most precious thing ever, made me realize something.

  He really cares. About me. But why?

  I inhaled his scent and gazed up into his troubled eyes that now stared intensely down at me. I stood on my tip-toes so that I was closer to his lips, heart fluttering. Roman palmed either side of my face in his hands. My eyes wandered to his lips, imagining them on mine.

  “Jewel?” My father’s voice came from outside my bedroom door. Instantly, Roman let me go, and held his hand up to the door. He dashed to the window.

  “You’ve got one minute before the spell breaks,” he warned as he climbed out onto the ladder.

  I leapt into bed, and tugged the blankets up around my neck. I concentrated on making my breathing even. I heard the door creak open but kept my eyes closed. “Jewel?” I heard again, but ignored it. After a moment, the door closed. I released a long breath.

  I glanced over to the window but Roman was gone. I held my hands to my face and inhaled. His distinct scent lingered, tickling my nose. I glanced at the clock. It was 3:52. My body screamed for sleep, but my mind screamed for answers. A number of deep, twisting fears invaded me. And after talking to Roman, my becoming the Spectral was the one that scared me the least.

  Chapter Ten

  I was running late for school Monday morning having overslept. Horrible thoughts raced through my mind at night and the few moments I managed to steal for sleep were haunted by horrifying nightmares. I forced myself to not open the Ancient Witchcraft book on Sunday or think of anything to do with it or my crazy life. I told myself I would take one day of a mental holiday. Just one. I deserved that, I reasoned.

  Roman came back to my window the next night but I wouldn’t let him in. I had a migraine that pounded relentlessly and I knew he would just give me more things to worry about or ask me to leave with him again. I knew I couldn’t leave. I wouldn’t leave. I would never leave Jayden. My parents were doing a fine job protecting me up until then, and I had no reason to doubt that would change.

  I dashed over the curb and toward the entranceway, noting the dark clouds scuttling across the sky. My sneakers squeaked against the floor of the mostly vacant hallway, my backpack slung over one shoulder. I made sure to pack the Ancient Witchcraft book that morning, for fear someone in my family would find it. I ran my hand over my dark hair that now sprung out wildly from its ponytail and fumbled with my wrinkly shirt. I groaned. Just when I was getting on track with a little style, I turned into night of the living dead.

  Classes were about to begin and I ran, not wanting to be late and any more of a spectacle than I already was, when suddenly I tripped on something and went flying through the air. I landed on my knees with a thud and fell forward until my face hit the floor. Hard. My backpack flew through the air and landed with a bang, several feet away.

  I looked up and saw Olivia. Her best friend, Amy, was in her usual place by her side. They were walking away, then stopped, Olivia turned her head over her shoulder smirking at me.

  “Klutz,” she snickered and Amy laughed.

  I knew she tripped me. I rubbed my jaw, thinking how I would end up with an enormous bruise, and crawled to my backpack when I saw that the Ancient Witchcraft book had flung out of it when Cruella tripped me.

  I squinted up at Olivia. “Just leave me alone.”

  She twisted around and placed her hands on her hips. “And what are you gonna do about I—” her words broke off and her face turned pale. She wasn’t smirking anymore. Her eyes fixed on the floor in front of me.

  I looked to see what was freaking her out so much, and saw the culprit was my book. The snake on the cover had come to life. The serpent co
iled and twirled around the dagger. I blinked, hardly believing what I was seeing. Its eyes glowed as its tongue slid from between its fangs. The snake hissed.

  Olivia and Amy backed away, jaws gaping.

  My hands trembled but I grabbed the book by the edge and tossed it into my backpack. The moment I touched the book, the snake returned to its original emblem.

  “What the—” Amy gawked.

  “What are you, some kind of freak?” Olivia spun around, grabbed Amy’s arm, and took off.

  “Apparently,” I murmured under my breath.

  The bell rang. Sighing, I stood and picked up my bag and headed to class. I snuck in and took a seat in front of Taylor, thankful the teacher didn’t notice.

  Taylor leaned forward and whispered in my ear. “What happened to you?”

  “No sleep. And Olivia.”

  “She’s just jealous.”

  I faked a smile. I knew Taylor was just trying to be nice. Saying Olivia was jealous was like something people say when they’re trying to make you feel better. I couldn’t imagine anyone being jealous of me. Let alone Little Miss Perfect.

  And then I saw Roman. He watched me, a look of concern spreading across his face. Yeah I’m late. Some guardian you are. I rubbed my jaw that had begun to swell and buried my head into my book.

  After class, I eyed my reflection in the mirror inside of my locker. My raven colored hair looked frazzled, the dark circles under my eyes appeared corpse-like, and sure enough, a bruise was forming on my jaw. I pulled my hair out of my ponytail with a groan, rummaged through my bag for a brush, and gave my hair a quick fix. Not great, but better.

  “Hey, Maple Leaf.” I heard Chase’s voice come up behind me. I turned to look at him and then twisted away when I saw the shocked look on his face.

  He touched my shoulder. “Hey, what happened to your jaw?”

  I shrugged. “Just clumsy, I guess.”

  “You’re hardly clumsy. I’ve seen you play basketball, remember?”

  Busted.

  “Let’s go and get you some ice.” He looked genuinely concerned and with the throbbing pain in my jaw, I didn’t think ice was such a bad idea. I closed my locker and followed him to the nurse’s room. “Something you wanna talk about?” he asked.