by Diana Nixon
Was it just me, or was Christian really hiding something from us.
“Was he there with you and Amanda when I was in the pueblo?”
“Yes. All the time. Why?”
We started to walk to the dorms and I said, “He’s been acting weird. And I wish I knew why.”
Evan thought about my words for a moment. “I didn’t notice anything weird in his behavior. You must be imagining things.”
“He didn’t say a word about my upcoming meeting with the tribe. As if he knew there was nothing to worry about.”
“Well, you had my protection with you. Where is it, by the way?” Evan looked at the single medallion on my chain.
“I gave it to Tai. He wanted to touch it. Apparently, he could feel it was created with the help of silver magic, so I gave it to him, as a gift. Hope you don’t mind?”
“No, not at all. I’ll make another one for you. They told you to come back in two days, right?”
“Yep.”
Evan stopped at the dorms and looked at me intently, saying, “What are you not telling me, Eileen?”
I smiled, hoping he wouldn’t see my lies, which he had always been so damn good at seeing. “Why do you think I’m not telling you something?”
“I can feel that.”
Well, of course he did. “Your feelings are wrong. Amanda told you everything about what happened in the pueblo, right? I didn’t hide anything from her.” Well, not exactly. But I thought it was too early for Evan to hear about Songaa’s assumptions about his masterminding abilities.
Evan gave me a warning look, but I ignored it. Even if he knew I was lying, I preferred to keep pretending I was not.
“Let’s go inside,” I said, turning away from his piercing eyes. “It’s getting cold here.” Then I remembered something I didn’t get a chance to ask Evan about. “Why didn’t you come to breakfast this morning?”
Evan rubbed the back of his neck, sighing. “I didn’t want to see Will.”
“Why?”
“See…his mother visited me in my dream.”
“What?” Now that was something I never expected to hear from Evan. “What did she want?”
“My mother asked her to talk to me.”
“Was that about Tara?”
Evan didn’t respond. He looked up at the night sky, and took a deep breath, before he said, “She said we can’t save Tara. And that she will die anyway…”
I felt like the air was knocked out of my lungs. Despair was not a good enough word to describe what I felt at the moment. True they say – hope is the last thing to die…
“She said Tara knows she’s gonna die. She asked Marion to freeze her to stay alive a little longer.”
“Oh, my goodness…” I put my visions from Evan’s dreams and his words together, and the puzzle in my head was suddenly complete. “She is trying to help us!”
“That’s what Maribel said. But…I don’t understand…how is she gonna help us?”
“I can be wrong, but I think she knows something about the hermits who attacked us. And if my assumptions are correct, she’s trying to see who was standing behind the attack.”
“It must have been their leader or someone from the clan.”
Songaa’s words came into my head. “No… There was someone else responsible for what happened at the wedding.”
“How do you know that?”
“The head of Waroi had a dream about the Clarions coming to the church. Only he didn’t know they would attack us. He said the order was given later, when someone who gave it knew no one would be able to predict the attack. He also said that it had been someone outside the clan. Someone he had never met.”
“That’s weird… Who else would want to kill us?”
“I don’t know. But I guess that is what Tara is trying to find out. She’s using the bond that was created between her and the Clarion who attacked her with the deadly spell.”
“Oh, no…” Evan whispered, sitting on the stairs. “Maribel was right after all.”
I sat next to him, and wrapped one arm around his shoulders. “Tara has always been a fighter. We all know that.”
“I can’t believe this…she knows she’s dying, but she’s still trying to help us.” Evan lowered his head, and though I couldn’t see his eyes now, I knew they were filled with tears. He was so full of pain, he forgot to hide his feelings from me, and I could feel every single thing his soul and his heart were filled with. I hoped Amanda was not thinking about Evan now. Otherwise, she would feel them too.
Quietly, I said, “We need to be strong. For Tara.”
“You know … I thought I was ready to say goodbye to her, but I’m not … Not even close.”
I swallowed, feeling tears running down my cheeks. It was so unfair to know that Tara was actually alive, but we would never see her again. After everything she had done to me, to us, I couldn’t believe we were losing her, with not a single chance to make her stay with us. She didn’t deserve to die. She didn’t deserve to leave us so soon, right after everyone thought she would finally be happy with Martin. Poor man, he didn’t even remember marrying his love… Will he ever be able to fall in love again?
My phone rang in my pocket. It was a call from Christian.
“Eileen, is everything all right? Where are you?” He must have felt my devastation.
“At the dorms. I’m here with Evan.”
“I’ll be there in a few.”
I hung up the phone and turned to Evan, saying, “You didn’t want anyone to know about your conversation with Maribel, did you?”
“I hoped no one would notice my absence at breakfast.”
I smirked. “Right. As if you didn’t exist at all.” I rubbed his back gently. His shattered emotions made it hard for me to breathe freely. But surprisingly enough, I didn’t try to block them. It would just be a temporary protection from the pain that I was sure would overwhelm me again, sooner or later.
I knew it would be hard to recover from losing Tara, no matter how much time passed. She was one of those people who had always been there for every one of us. Even now, that she was dying, she still wanted to help us. Even hurt and suffering, she still refused to leave this world without doing something good first.
My thoughts switched back to Evan’s meeting with William’s mother. “Did Maribel ask you not to tell Will about your meeting?”
“No. But I thought it would be for the best.”
“Why doesn’t she want to see him?”
“Because it will kill them both.”
“Oh… I didn’t know it was that dangerous.”
“Neither did I. But turns out she can’t look into the eyes of another Lord or Mistress she’s related by blood with.”
“But she could at least call him. Did you tell her how much Will needs her?”
“I did. But I guess she’s not ready to get in touch with him, not just yet anyway. That’s why I needed some time to stay away from him too. I didn’t want him to feel his mother’s energy in me. The illusion where I saw her was her creation; its traces were still all over me. I was sure he would feel them right when he was supposed to see me at breakfast.”
“Too bad they can’t see each other. What a stupid rule, right?”
“It’s another unfair thing that we need to live with.”
Just then, I saw Christian coming to the dorms.
“Thank God, you are okay.” He ran up to me and locked me in his embrace, enveloping me with his love and warmth that I bet he knew I needed so much to feel.
“What did Patrick want to talk to you about?” Evan asked.
“Classes.”
“Classes?” I repeated, a little surprised. “Are you having problems with history?”
“No, it was about different classes.”
Evan and I shared a puzzled look.
“What happened to you two?” Christian asked, switching his eyes between Evan and me. “Why am I feeling so much sadness radiating from you?”
“Why don’t you guys talk without me?” I said. “I need to see Amanda.”
“Will you stay with her tonight?” Evan asked. I knew he was not ready to see her. He didn’t want her to know about Tara, or how upset he felt about whatever was going on with her.
“Sure. See you in the morning.” I gave Christian a quick kiss and left.
When I entered my room, I saw Amanda sitting on my bed, with her legs tucked and her arms wrapped around them.
“What did the old man tell you about Evan?” She asked, getting straight down to business. Not that I hoped she would miss me blocking her during my last conversation with Songaa.
“Evan must not know about it,” I warned her.
“Okay.”
I sat next to her, not sure how to say the things that I would gladly keep to myself, at least until I knew more about the whole masterminding thing. But then, I thought Amanda deserved to know the truth. She, of all people, knew how much Evan needed support. Especially when it came to his newly discovered gift.
“He said that Evan can use the power of his masterminding to make people forget about their gifts.”
“Do you believe this?”
“We know so little about masterminding. But I guess its possibilities are limitless.”
“Then why would Clarions want to kill Evan?”
“Maybe they never thought about using Lords’ power to ‘heal’ themselves.”
“What about Waroi’s abilities to heal gifted people? They didn’t tell you anything about it, did they?”
“I will try to know more next time I go to the pueblo. I didn’t hear any songs while staying there today. Probably they sing only when performing the rituals. Now, shall we call it a night? It’s been a long day. We need to rest.”
“Have you seen Evan?”
“I have. Why?”
“He’s been so thoughtful today. And he wouldn’t let me read his thoughts or feel what’s in his heart. Did he tell you anything about what is going on with him? Though I guess I know the answer.”
“You do?”
“It’s about Tara, isn’t it? Since the day he found out she was alive, he’s been so distant… Do you think he might still have feelings for her?”
“Oh, Amanda… It’s not just about what he used to feel for her. It is not easy to know that the person you love is one step away from death. But I’m sure Evan’s love for Tara is different from what he feels for you. He cares about her, that’s true. But you are the only girl he loves more than life itself.”
Amanda’s features softened, as if those were the exact words she wanted to hear from me.
“You don’t think I’m being selfish, do you?” She asked with notes of guilt in her voice.
“Of course not. I would have the same doubts if it was Christian’s ex-girlfriend that he wouldn’t be able to stop thinking about.”
“I’m worried about Tara too. Don’t think I can’t wait for her to die. I would do anything in my power to make her live.”
“I know.”
Amanda stood up and went to the mirror. She took her hairbrush and started combing her hair, staring absently at her reflection in the mirror. “I feel so guilty,” she said quietly.
“For what?”
“I don’t know. I just have this feeling inside me, and I can’t get rid of it. As if I were the reason for Evan breaking up with Tara.”
I came to stand behind her, and put my hands on her shoulders, saying, “You think too much, my friend. Evan and Tara broke up a long time ago. Why would you feel guilty about that?”
Amanda put the hairbrush down and turned to look at me. “Because my intuition never lies. And it doesn’t matter how many times Tara told me she was okay about Evan and me dating, I know she still had feelings for him.”
“But, Amanda, she has married a different man!”
“So what? Many women marry the men they don’t love.”
“Darling, you need to calm down and stop torturing yourself. It was Tara’s choice, not yours. She knew what she was doing. If she decided to leave Evan, no one could make her change her mind.”
“But it didn’t make her happy...”
“How do you know that? She looked happy to me.”
“I just know it, Eileen. I just know…”
She turned away from me and went to her bed. Obviously, the conversation was over.
I didn’t ask any more questions, or try to make her believe that she was wrong. Because deep down inside, I knew Amanda had a point. It was hard to believe that Tara’s love for Evan would disappear just like that. The only question was why she broke up with him so abruptly. And something was telling me that the eye color of her so-called love that she saw in one of her visions was not the only thing that made her leave Evan.
Later that night, when I was in my bed, deep asleep, I felt someone breaking into my dream.
“Sorry, Love, but I needed to talk to you without witnesses,” Will said, sitting on the edge of my bed.
“What happened?” I asked, worried. I looked at Amanda’s bed, but of course, it was empty. Will had created a dream where no one would be able to see or hear us.
“I’m leaving for New York tomorrow to see if I can find out more about the local hermits’ plans on joining in the war against Dever. But first, I needed to tell you something… Remember the time when Salazar, the Lord from the Brotherhood, was trying to get into my mind?”
“Yes. That was when he and Elizabeth were planning on coming to Dever, right?”
Will nodded. “I think the story repeats.”
“What do you mean? Is someone trying to get into your mind again?”
“Yes.”
“But the other Lords are dead.”
“But not the Mistresses.”
“Do you think it’s your mom trying to get in touch with you?”
“It is not her, I would know if that was her.”
“Then who do you think is the Mistress that is messing with your head?”
“I can’t be one hundred percent sure, but I guess she once used too much masterminding and accidentally revealed herself, when trying to break the bond she had created between our minds. I mean I know what she looks like.”
“Did you recognize her?”
“No. But I heard someone calling her Carine.”
“Carine? I have never heard that name before. Do you think she’s French?”
“Anything’s possible. I will try to learn more about her if she tries to break into my mind again.”
“Okay, thanks. I will ask around about her. Maybe someone recognizes the name.”
“Just don’t tell Evan about this conversation. Something’s telling me that her interest in me is not accidental. She knows I’m close to the Master of Lords. The question is what she needs from him.”
“Mistresses can’t hurt their Master, can they?”
“Unless they know how to use magic, which is impossible. I guess that is why she’s using me. She can’t get to Evan’s mind, but she can get to mine.”
“Can she affect you? I mean can she make you fall in love with her?”
Will laughed. “Thank God, no. My love life is out of her reach.”
“Good. At least we know she can’t make you obey her.”
“There’s only one girl who knows how to do that.”
I smiled at Will. “Speaking of which…how are things between you and Mel going?”
“Crappy. She’s very stubborn, you know?”
“I know.”
“That’s why I decided not to try the limits of her patience. I will give her some time to miss me while I’m away. Maybe then, she will finally let me talk to her, at the very least.”
“Good luck with your trip, and with my cousin.”
“Thanks.”
“And, Will…be careful when in New York.”
“It’s my home, Eileen. I know every damn thing about the dark side of the city.”
Chapter 10
Two days later, the
morning I was supposed to pay the Waroi tribe another visit, something unexpected happened. I received a text message from an unknown number. It said I should be careful with the people I make friends with.
“What is it, Eileen?” Amanda asked, seeing my confused expression.
“Do you know who this number belongs to?” I asked, showing her the message.
“I think I do. It looks like….” She went to her bedside table, took her phone and started to scroll down her contact list. “Oh, my God…”
“What?”
“Look.” She turned the phone so I could see the name, flashing on the screen.
“Martin? You mean Tara’s Martin? How did you get his number?”
“When Tara and I went to Gloster to buy flowers to decorate the church, the battery in her phone died and she used mine to call Martin. She told me to save the number just in case I wouldn’t be able to find her or something like that.”
“But how does he know my number? And why would he text me?”
“That’s a good question…” Amanda said thoughtfully. “He was supposed to forget about us and everything related to Dever.”
“What if he didn’t?”
“That’s impossible. Will made sure his memory was clean.”
“Then what the hell does his text supposed to mean?”
“We need to call Will,” I said, dialing his number. But to our mutual disappointment, he was out of the coverage area.
Amanda spoke, “Send him a message and tell him to call you back as soon as possible.”
So, I did.
“Do you think we should ask Peter to pay Martin a visit?”
After he told us that my mom and Melanie’s were fine and there was nothing to worry about, we asked him to keep an eye on them, at least until Catherine returns to Norfield. Needless to say, he was not thrilled about the idea to babysit them, but since it was Mel’s idea and she herself told him to do that, the poor man didn’t have a choice but to follow her order.
“He’s not gonna like it,” I said.
“But we need to make sure Martin doesn’t remember anything. Otherwise, we are screwed.”
“You are right. I will ask Mel to call Peter.”
“Don’t worry; I can do that for you. You’d better get ready for the meeting with the tribe. Has Evan made another amulet for you?”