by Diana Nixon
When Christian and I turned to the others, we saw them standing in a circle, leaning over someone’s body….
I came closer and gasped. “Oh, my God! What happened to him?” I kneeled near the unconscious Evan and touched his hand. It was ice-cold.
“We need to take him to Mrs. Webber,” Marion said.
“What? Why?” I felt panic rising slowly inside me. I knew that something was wrong, because when I tried to listen to Evan’s feelings, there were none….
My father and Patrick took Evan’s body, and hurried to Mrs. Webber’s office. I couldn’t understand a thing. I froze. My thoughts were messed-up, and the only thing that I noticed were Amanda’s tears, running down her cheeks. She closed her mouth with both hands, and followed her father out of the Great Hall.
I looked at Marion. “What’s going on?” I could almost hear how fast her heart was beating.
She swallowed and blinked a few times, as if she was trying not to cry. “I’m not sure how to explain, Eileen … but apparently, Evan’s bond with the ring and the brotherhood was stronger than we expected.”
“What? What are you saying?” I was too shocked to think straight.
“When Melanie cast the spell against the Dragons’ leader, it didn’t kill Elizabeth. She disappeared, and she’s still alive. Which means….”
“Wait a second, but if the other Dragons died, their leader must be dead too, because their death was supposed to follow the death of the leader, right? And if Elizabeth wasn’t the one, then who was their true leader?”
Marion’s lips trembled, and she shook her head, as if she couldn’t say aloud what I had already figured out on my own.
“Oh, my God … Evan was the one, right? He was supposed to take his father’s place, but Elizabeth didn’t let him … she wanted to save him, but she didn’t know we were about to destroy the brotherhood. And we … oh, no … this is impossible! We killed Evan?” I said my last words almost in a whisper, because I felt like I was about to faint, and I wasn’t strong enough to stop the darkness swallowing me.
The last thing I remembered was Christian screaming my name, and my head hitting the marble floor.
I woke up in a beautiful garden, full of lilacs and orchids. I looked around and there was no snow, but a sunny summer day, welcoming me. I rose to my feet and walked to one of the benches, where a man was sitting, with his back to me.
“Evan?” I asked, surprised. “Where are we?”
“It’s one of the best places in the whole universe,” he said, smiling. “We are in heaven.”
I looked around again and saw light-blue clouds, swimming under our feet and above our heads. Not good, I thought to myself.
“What are we doing here?”
“I don’t know. But the place is cool, isn’t it?”
“Are we … dead?”
“Maybe.” Evan shrugged. “I don’t really care. It’s so good to be here. Feels like freedom.”
I wasn’t sharing Evan’s joy. “Look at me!” I said, sitting next to him. He turned around slowly. “How do you feel?”
“Great, I feel great. And so do you.”
“No, I don’t think so.” I frowned. I was like in a dream that I didn’t know how to get out of.
“You did what you had to do, Eileen. And you were amazing.” Evan put one arm around my shoulders and smiled. “It’s over. The fight is over. And you won.”
“I did?” I didn’t remember any fight.
“Of course, you did! You destroyed the Dragons!”
I flinched at the mentioning of the Dragons. Something inside me was saying that what was happening now wasn’t real, because in reality….
“Oh, no, Evan … I didn’t win. I lost. And I lost everything. Including you.” I looked at Evan, and his eyebrows pressed together.
“You can’t lose me, Eileen. I promised to be always there for you, remember?”
“Yes, you did,” I said in a trembling voice. “And I promised to protect you. And I failed. I let you die….”
The moment I said that, Evan’s silhouette and the heaven we were in disappeared, melting in the clouds surrounding us.
Bright light blinded my eyes, and I screamed in pain.
No, I wasn’t in pain. But Evan was….
“It’s okay, it’s okay, Eileen,” someone said. But the pain inside me was too strong to bear. It felt like someone was tearing me apart, torturing my body in the cruelest way. I screamed again, and the pain increased.
“Do something!” another voice shouted. But I didn’t even care to open my eyes to see who was there with me. My body was on fire. Literally.
Was I back to the century when witches were burned alive? I didn’t know, but it felt like that. Even a small move made me want to kill someone, because it hurt like hell. I wasn’t sure how long I would be able to stand this torture, but even thinking was painful.
“Come on, Baby, take this,” the voice said. “It will make you feel better,” he added, trying to make me swallow some liquid.
But my body refused to accept it. I spat it out. A strong hand made me open my mouth again and poured another portion of the same liquid into my throat. “I’m so sorry, Honey, but you need to swallow this. Please, don’t make me hurt you anymore.” I tried to do what he said, and this time it worked. The warm and thick liquid slid down into my stomach, and I breathed a sigh of relief, as if I were an addict, dying to get another dose of a drug.
“That’s it,” the sweet voice said again, and a palm caressed my cheeks. “It’s over now. You will fall asleep, and when you wake up, you will feel better. I promise, Eileen.”
Lips touched my forehead, and I drowned into the sweet oblivion of another dream.
Next time I woke up, the story repeated: awful pain, screaming, drinking and falling asleep. I didn’t know how many times I went through the same scenario, but when I was finally able to open my eyes without dying to punch someone in the face, it was dark outside. I didn’t recognize the room. The walls were painted in a disgustingly muddy-yellow color, reminding me of something that I didn’t even want to think about.
Someone was sleeping in a chair, near my bed. When my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I recognized Christian.
“Hey,” I shook him by the hand.
“Eileen? Oh, thank God, you are okay!” He locked me in his embrace and I almost vomited, as apparently I was still too weak. “Sorry,” he said, hearing my groan. “How do you feel?”
I didn’t know what to say. “Like shit,” I muttered.
Christian didn’t laugh. He put his palm on my forehead, and asked if I wanted some water. I didn’t. All I wanted now was to die.
“How long have I been like this?”
“For about four days.”
“Oh, well, it’s not as bad as I thought. It felt much longer.”
“Your bond with Evan has been restored, and you can feel everything that he’s feeling at the moment. Including his pain.”
“Wait, you said Evan? So he’s … alive?”
“Yes, he is. Though he’s too weak to talk, or move, or eat.”
I felt relieved. But just for a moment.
“Will he survive?”
Christian couldn’t hide his emotions from me, and I knew how painful my question was.
“We don’t know,” he said quietly. “We are trying to do our best to save him.”
“How is it even possible that he survived the spell?”
“The fact that he was in a different illusion saved him. But the spell was very strong, and it hurt him a lot.”
“Who would have thought that destroying the brotherhood would bring us more trouble? Where’s he now?”
“Next door. With Marion and Mrs. Webber.”
“Can I see him?”
“I don’t think it’s a good idea, Eileen. The fact is that … the closer you are to each other now, the more pain you’ll both feel.”
“But I feel much better today. Does it mean that Evan feels better too?”
Christian shook his head. “No. You weren’t the one who suffered from the spell’s power. What you feel is just a part of what he feels. And I bet he can still shield himself from you and Amanda, as not to make you suffer. So you will feel worse when his powers get weaker.”
“In other words, he’s still trying to protect us, being at the point of death.” I smirked at the thought. There was Evan for you: always caring and protective.
“We think that you should stay away from him for a while. It will lessen his need to spend his powers on protecting you from the pain he feels. Amanda has already left Dever. She’s staying with Tara, at her house in Gloster.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” I said firmly. “I will stay away from this building, but I’m not leaving Dever.”
“Okay.” Christian took a deep breath. “You will stay in Medellin’s hut.” I nodded and closed my eyes again, feeling the need to sleep.
I could feel Christian’s presence. He never left me until the next morning, when he helped me to leave the awful room, and accompanied me to the Black Lake, where Medellin’s hut was.
It was still freezing outside. But in addition to the weather, I could feel the cold inside me. Once or twice I called Amanda. Unlike her, I couldn’t eat, or sleep. Five days of being in a coma were more than enough to sleep for the rest of my life.
Dever was officially opened for the students, and a new semester began. I wasn’t allowed to attend any of the classes, and Amanda was studying at home. Christian and Lucas did their best to take care of us, while others were trying to keep Evan alive.
There wasn’t a day when I woke up without pain. Every morning was like hell. Apparently Evan felt worse in the mornings, because the amount of potions I had to take was incredible. They all tasted awful, and I could only imagine what Evan could have said about them. If only he could talk….
Chapter 34. Saying Good-Byes
One day Will came to see me. He didn’t leave Dever, as he didn’t want to go back to NY, where nothing but an empty apartment was waiting for him. As well as all the other Dragons, his father was dead. But he didn’t seem to care.
“How was your day?” he asked, taking off his coat.
“As usual.” I shrugged indifferently.
“You know, I was thinking about the bond between you and Evan, and I thought that I could help you see him.”
“Really?” I asked excitedly.
“Yeah, I remembered the day when I played with your dream, making you see him there. And I think I can try the same thing now. But….”
“What?”
“Are you sure you are ready to see him? I mean, I saw him today, and it was not a pretty sight.”
“I don’t care, Will. Please, I need to see to him. Please!”
“Okay, okay, just don’t tell anyone about that. I don’t think Christian will like the idea of you visiting Evan’s dream. He knows how painful it can be for both of you.”
“How painful can it be for Evan?”
“He won’t feel any physical pain. But I’m not sure about his emotional state. No one knows if he wants to see you.”
“Well, I guess there’s only one way to find out.” I knew that if I were Evan now, I would want him to be able to see me. Even if it would be only in a dream.
“Okay, let’s try,” Will said. “Sit here, on the couch. And don’t move. Just look into my eyes.”
I did what he told me. I was so happy, I could actually see Evan after weeks of being apart from him, and I was ready to jump from a cliff just to get into his head.
With the Lord of Mind helping me, getting into Evan’s dream was easy. I knew how to pierce into people’s dreams, but being a walking vegetable was really hard to make myself do the trick.
It took me about ten seconds to realize that the world around me didn’t exist anymore. All I could see was the burning fireplace in front of me.
“So you finally made it here.”
I turned to the voice, and saw Evan’s smiling face. He didn’t look sick, but wasn’t as perfect as usual either. His hair was messy, and his shirt looked like he had been wearing it for days.
“Do you even remember how to shave?” I asked, hugging him.
“I don’t think I will have a date any time soon. So I let myself relax and enjoy the silence in my head.”
“How do you really feel?” I asked, joining him on a small couch that looked very familiar. “We are in Paris, aren’t we?”
“Yes. This is the only place I could make myself concentrate on. It was the easiest one to imagine. The moment I felt you piercing into my head, I did my best to take us away from that awful yellow room they are keeping me in. Where are you staying by the way? I could barely feel you during the last … week?”
“Weeks actually.” I smiled slightly. “I’m staying at Medellin’s hut, and you’ve been unconscious for three weeks.”
“Wow, that’s the longest of my dreams.”
“I guess you will stay awake for at least a month when you wake up.”
Evan lowered his head, saying, “If I ever wake up again.”
My heart sank. “Of course, you will! You can’t leave us, remember? Not after what we had to go through!”
“Yeah, well, my mother put us through one hell of a fight.” Evan said that with the expression that usually went before vomiting.
“You think she did that intentionally?”
“I thought it was obvious! Why? You don’t think so?”
“She was scared when she realized that I knew who she really was. Maybe she was afraid I would tell the other Dragons about her. Because I think no one knew that Elizabeth took your father’s place. Even Walter. She had some plan that I messed up. And I saw her eyes before she disappeared. She was sorry, Evan. She didn’t want that to end up like this,” I said, pointing to him and to me.
“It sounds kind of … too good to be true.”
“Well, I think we need to find her to find out the truth.”
“I don’t think she will let us find her, Eileen. She’s been hiding for six years. Six fucking years! And she never, NEVER let me once know that she was alive!”
“Calm down, Evan. I’m not saying that you need to forgive her or anything. But I think you both deserve a chance to talk and get answers to your questions.”
“Well, maybe one day, when I’m ready to see her again, I will try to find her. But not now. I need some time to get used to the idea of seeing her again. It was like seeing the ghost of a person that I buried many years ago.”
I put my hand on Evan’s shoulders. “We will do it together. Like always.”
Evan smiled sadly. “Thank you, Eileen. For coming here today, and for everything you have ever done for me. Just promise me one thing.”
“Anything.”
“If I don’t make it out of this shit I got stuck in, you will live just the way you always wanted to.”
“Evan, don’t….”
I didn’t want to say good-bye. I couldn’t.
“No, listen to me. Please. Whatever happens, promise me to be happy.”
“Oh, Evan….”
“I want to see you and Christian together. You deserve to suffer for the rest of your life from each other’s craziness.” We both smiled. “And I want to see you wearing a beautiful wedding dress, with a long bridal veil and flowers in your hair. And I want to see Christian signing his death sentence, swearing to spend the rest of his life with you. And I want to be there when all of the above happens, but if I can’t … promise me to do your best to get everything that I never managed to get. Live, love and enjoy every single moment of your life. And no matter how far away I will be, you will always be a part of me or, well, whatever will be left of my bones.”
“You are one hell of a friend to have, you know that?” I said, wiping away the tears that were blinding my eyes. “I will do it only if you promise to come back to me, to us.”
Evan looked into my eyes saying, “I promise to do my best not to
forget you, Eileen. Ever.” Then he kissed my forehead, and the dream disappeared.
I was in the living room of Medellin’s hut again, with Will sitting by my side.
“Did it work?” he asked softly.
“Yeah, it did.”
“Okay. Do you want me to repeat it again?”
I shook my head. “I don’t think Evan will let me into his head again.”
“What did you do?”
“Nothing. But he has already said his good-byes.” I paused, trying to get a grip on myself. “Do you mind leaving me alone for a while?”
“If there’s anything I can do for you, just let me know. Okay?”
I nodded and went silently to the bedroom.
I closed the door behind me and slid slowly to the floor, letting the tears flow. There was no sense in pretending. I couldn’t be strong any longer. And I didn’t want to be strong. I knew that Evan couldn’t feel me, as I could barely feel anything, except the physical pain he felt from time to time.
I couldn’t believe he said good-bye.
Was he sure he wouldn’t make it out of the painful prison? Or did he do that just in case he wouldn’t make it? I truly hoped to see him safe and sound.
And I didn’t even want to think about any other scenario. He had to live!
I think I cried myself to sleep, because the next thing I remembered was Christian, touching my palm and saying something into my ear.
“You need to eat,” he repeated, after I ignored his first phrase.
“I don’t want to.”
“I know. But you haven’t eaten anything for ten hours. Please, Eileen, don’t make me force you again. I can’t see you like this, and you know that I will do anything to make you feel at least a little better.”
Arguing was a lost cause. Especially considering my emotional and physical exhaustion. “Okay, I will eat,” I said, sitting up.
“That’s my girl.” Christian smiled, giving me a tray. “Will said he could bring one of the horses here, and you could take a ride.”
“I think I need to do something after all,” I said with a mouth full of croissant. “There’s no point in staying seated here day after day.”