“Of course he’ll have questions, Aurora. This is why we need to get our stories straight. Everyone – you, Lucas, Nicholas and I have to be on the same page.”
“What do you mean?” I asked, staring daggers at Emmett. I couldn’t believe he was suggesting we pull Henry farther into this mess. I’d been trying to keep him out of it - safe from his father, safe from the upcoming war.
“If we need his help we’re going to have to tell him why we need it,” Emmett replied.
“You said last night, before we got to the cabin, that Henry would believe anything I said because he was in love with me. Why can’t I just make up something half-plausible if you’re so certain I can convince him of anything, no matter how ridiculous it sounds?” I crossed my arms in front of my chest triumphantly. I’d like to see Emmett try to counter that.
“You could lie to him again, yes,” Emmett said. “Make up some story that has nothing to do with the truth. But is that really the route you want to take? At some point, Henry is bound to find out at least some of what we’ve been keeping from him. And do you think if, when that day comes and he’s already a powerful warlock, he’s not going to run to his father when he discovers that his best friend betrayed him?”
“I hadn’t thought about that,” I muttered. I groaned. “So what do you propose?”
“That we tell him about the meeting – minus his father, of course. Explain the need for Henry to help in this shape shifter repellent spell. Hell, you can even tell him you’re supposed to come into some huge power and kill Tobias’ enemy Senara. Really, you can tell him everything about the truth except for one small detail.” Emmett glanced over at me to gauge my reaction.
“It’s a pretty big detail and if he ever finds out that I kept it from him, he’ll hate me forever,” I whispered.
“So he won’t find out.” Emmett’s voice was hard. “None of us will tell him, and there’s absolutely no way Henry will ever see a meeting for himself. You just tweak the details. Say it was some cloaked figure reading from the book. He’ll never know.”
“And if for some reason he does discover the truth, you plead complete ignorance,” Emmett continued. “You’re supposed to be in a trance at these things, anyway. David won’t know you recognized him, and Henry won’t find out the warlock reading the spells is actually his father.”
“Until the war happens and he sees what side his father is on,” I added.
“That’s down the road a little ways, I imagine, if at all,” Emmett said. “I’m talking about the here and now. Ensuring our own safety. If Henry’s as talented as his father, he can probably help us in other areas too, like protective spells for your family.”
I could feel my resolve cracking. The way Emmett was selling this, it would actually be beneficial not just to us, but to Henry’s safety as well.
“And think about it, Aurora,” Emmett said softly.
I expected him to continue right away, but he didn’t. “Yes?” I finally prompted him.
“If Henry’s fated to become a powerful warlock, wouldn’t you rather be a part of his transformation? Otherwise, he’s likely to start practicing on his own, or worse, with the help of his dad. At least if you know about it you can influence him not to use his ability for evil.”
“But Henry would never hurt anyone. He’s nothing like his father.” My voice was barely above a whisper. I wasn’t arguing with Emmett. I was trying to convince myself.
Chapter 13
I wasn’t sure if I should call Lucas after what Emmett said about the phone lines not being safe, and I didn’t know if he was even at his apartment or still with Nicholas at the cabin. I really wanted his advice before I waylaid Henry and talked to him about the shape shifter spell, but there was no time to waste!
After Emmett dropped me off, I texted Henry to see if he wanted to come hang out at my house. I was tempted to say that I needed to tell him something, but Emmett’s paranoia was rubbing off on me.
Sounds good. Or do you want to come here instead? My parents are at work, Henry texted back.
I’ll walk over now, I replied. That was even better. My house was so much smaller than Henry’s and my parents and even Kayla were home. It would be difficult to talk in private.
During the walk to Henry’s house, I rehearsed what I was going to say to him, how I would convince him that this was the right thing to do.
But I couldn’t help feeling a tiny twinge of guilt. What if I didn’t push him in this direction and Henry never decided to practice magic? Did I really have the right to lead someone’s future down a certain path? Henry was Ivy League bound; he’d probably study law, just like his parents, and become a successful attorney within the next ten years. If that’s what he truly wanted, who was I to ruin it?
By the time I got to his house, I decided all I would do is feel him out on the subject. If Henry was dead-set against it, I’d just have to tell Emmett that we needed a plan B.
“Hey, Henry,” I said, walking through the garage and into the kitchen. Henry was sitting at the kitchen island, drinking a huge glass of some murky looking liquid.
“What’s that?” I asked, pointing.
“Protein shake,” he replied, taking the last gulp and getting up to place his glass in the sink. “It’s supposed to help with muscle recovery after training. I played basketball for three hours this morning.”
“Wow,” I said.
“Yeah, I’m trying to pull out all the stops. I really want to make the team,” Henry said.
“You’ve got no idea how good you are!” I exclaimed. “They’ll probably make you team captain.”
Henry grinned. “Thanks for the vote of confidence. So what did you want to do this afternoon?” he asked. “Did you finish your back to school shopping? We could go to mall if you need to, or just hang here and watch a movie or something.”
“Let’s just chat and then decide,” I replied.
“Yeah, I want to know more about what happened last night! When I saw you leaving Bunny’s party I thought you were ditching me for vamp boy.” Henry’s cheerful expression had darkened.
“Nothing like that. Come on, let’s go sit down.” Avoiding looking him in the eye, I walked past Henry and headed into the family room, then flopped down on one of the long couches. Henry sat down next to me. I kicked my shoes off and sat cross-legged on the couch, facing Henry.
“The reason I left actually had nothing to do with Bartholomew and Thomas,” I said nervously.
“Ah, so you really did ditch me for Lucas then?” Henry’s tone was light but I could hear the hurt in his voice.
“No, no, nothing like that,” I said quickly. “Remember when Emmett told us about that underground meeting?”
Henry nodded.
“Well, they had another one of them last night, and I had to go to it.”
Henry’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “What for?” he demanded.
“Tobias thinks I’m going to kill his nemesis,” I replied.
“This is getting weirder by the second,” Henry muttered.
“Let me start at the beginning.” I proceeded to tell Henry everything, except the one thing he could never find out. I also pretended that yesterday was the first I knew of me being involved in the underground meetings. I didn’t want Henry thinking I was keeping things from him.
“You could have told me last night,” Henry said. “I would have gone with you! Protected you.”
“No, you couldn’t have,” I argued. “That’s why Nicholas was there. I agree – it was really dangerous, but nothing bad happened; we’re all still safe.”
Henry let out a long sigh. “Well, I’m glad you told me today. I hope you’re not planning to go to any more of these things!”
“Not if I can help it,” I said grimly. “Basically, it’s a race against time. I need to figure out this power I’m supposed to have before Senara finds out a prophet said I was going to kill her. And before Tobias gets a hold of me again.” I shuddered.
&
nbsp; “There’s something else I need to talk to you about, too,” I said, changing the subject.
“Really? I can’t believe there’s more!”
“Yeah,” I replied nervously. “Remember when I said you came to my bedroom window and threw rocks at it?”
“Let me guess – that wasn’t a bad dream? Did Emmett say I was sleepwalking or something?” Henry asked.
“No, it wasn’t you,” I whispered. “It was a shape shifter.”
“O….kay,” Henry said slowly. He looked skeptical.
“It really wasn’t just a bad dream,” I said defensively. “I talked to Emmett about it and he said we need to do this spell that will make it where shape shifters can’t take on our form.”
“We?” Henry questioned.
“Well, yeah, ideally we wouldn’t want a shape shifter to be able to mirror you, me, Lucas, Nicholas, or Emmett.”
“Makes sense.” Henry nodded slowly. “How can I help?”
“You kind of need to be the one to say the spell,” I hedged.
“Me? Why?”
I couldn’t bring myself to say the word warlock. I refused to believe that was Henry’s future. “Emmett said it has to be you because you have a natural talent for casting spells.”
“Wow. That Emmett guy freaks me out sometimes,” Henry said.
“I know, it’s silly, right?” Henry was taking this much better than I’d imagined. He hadn’t laughed in my face. At least Henry seemed receptive to the suggestion.
“No, he freaks me out because he knows so much without ever being told,” Henry replied.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“I didn’t want to tell you, Rory,” he started.
“Uh-oh. Tell me what?”
“It’s nothing bad,” he said quickly. “I just felt weird about it. Or embarrassed. Maybe a little of both.”
“Even though Lucas thought you and I were safe from the twins, I couldn’t shake this nagging worry that they were going to come kill us – or just our families – to settle the score with Lucas,” Henry continued. “And they probably have a vendetta against me now, too, since I staked one of them.”
“It’s also crossed my mind,” I admitted. “Although not so much after I found out the order to kill me was called off.”
“That made me feel better, but only slightly. Anyway, I was just so sick and tired of sitting around feeling helpless, that I decided to do something about it. I’m not dumb enough to think I can go find the twins and kill them myself – and honestly I have no desire to even try that. But I realized there was something else I could do. Magic. Spells. That kind of thing.” Henry paused.
“Really?” I asked in surprise. Before I approached Henry he was already thinking about casting spells?
“I found someone online advertising a book they claimed would help you cast any spell you could imagine. I figured it was a scam, but there was nothing to lose except a little bit of money. So I called the guy and he shipped the book to me.”
“Can I see it?” I asked.
Henry hesitated. “Maybe in a minute.”
“Sorry,” I said. “I want to hear the rest of this. Have you tried any spells from it?”
“Yes, and I didn’t think it had worked after I got your text last night that the twins were around.”
“What was the spell for? Banish them from the city or something?”
“No, better than that.” Henry grinned. “It was to turn them into blubbering idiots any time they thought about you, me, or Lucas. If one of those names popped into either of their heads, their thoughts were supposed to immediately go cloudy and doing even simple things, like driving a car, would seem like a monumental task. The cloudiness would pass after a few hours, but if they got our names into their heads again, it would come back.”
“That’s awesome! So basically thinking of us makes them stupid and they can never come after us?”
“That was the plan. I was hoping it was working – I really had no way to test it, unless I tracked one of them down and got in his face.” Henry laughed. “It was quite satisfying to cast that spell, to be completely honest.”
“How did you do it?” I asked him.
Henry shrugged. “It was so odd. I guess I can show you the book. I – I just don’t want you to think I’m some weirdo.”
“Henry, I would never think that! Why would you even say such a thing?” I demanded.
“Because the entire book is in a different language – I have no idea what language – but I can read it.” Henry was studying his hands when he spoke. “Even I think I’m a freak.”
“You’re talking to a reanimated corpse,” I joked, hoping I could make Henry feel better. “Nothing you could say is going to make me think you’re a freak.”
Henry looked relieved. “Thanks, Rory. I was scared to tell you. I guess Emmett figured out I had a knack for this type of stuff?”
“He must have,” I said vaguely. “So you’ll do it?”
“Of course! It’s for a good cause, and to be honest, it’s kind of fun.”
Not too much fun I hope, I thought, picturing Henry reading from that giant book in the underground meeting instead of his father.
“I’m really glad you know now,” Henry was saying. “I can’t stand keeping secrets from you.”
“I don’t like keeping them from you, either,” I admitted. But there’s still one secret that’s necessary to keep.
“Let me read up to find the spell we need, then maybe we can all convene later this week? If it’s like the last one, I’ll have to get some odd items and prep stuff, but it shouldn’t take too long. It will be much more enjoyable than studying the boring subjects they teach in school.” Henry grinned.
“Definitely,” I said. I knew I should be happy that Henry had jumped at the opportunity to perform the shape shifter spell. So why was I filled with an uneasy dread?
Chapter 14
On Monday morning I was a bundle of nerves. Even though I had told Lucas I would rather be helping him than going to school, thinking about my fucked up situation 24/7 was mentally exhausting. It would be nice to get back to something normal, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t nervous as hell about it.
Henry was picking me up. I was glad; I wouldn’t have to walk in by myself with everyone staring at me. Although, considering the entire senior class (and then some) had been at Bunny’s party on Saturday, maybe they had gotten the stares and whispers out of their system.
I was having an impossible time picking out what to wear. I must have tried on ten different outfits before deciding on a black wrap-around skirt and a blue t-shirt.
When I walked into the kitchen, Henry was sitting at the table, eating a huge waffle. “I didn’t realize you were here!” I exclaimed. “You should have called me. I must have lost track of time.”
Henry glanced up. “No worries. I knocked when you didn’t come out right away and your mom invited me in for breakfast.”
Mom, who was standing at the sink loading dishes into the dishwasher, turned around. “Kayla wouldn’t eat breakfast and you don’t eat so there were tons of leftovers,” she said. “It’s nice to see someone enjoying my breakfast.”
“This is the life, Audrey,” Henry said to my mom. “My mom has never been that great of a cook, and she doesn’t really have time, anyway. Breakfast is usually Pop Tarts or cereal for me.”
“You know you’re welcome to eat breakfast or dinner with us anytime,” my mom offered.
“Thanks.” Henry stood up from the table. “I guess we’d better get going. You ready?”
I shrugged, trying not to let on how nervous I was feeling. But I knew Henry would see right through it. He always did.
When we got into the car, Henry turned to me. “Come on, Aurora, I know first day jitters are normal – I’ve got ‘em, too, but you look like you’re going to a funeral, not school. It can’t be that bad, right?”
“It just feels strange,” I said honestly. “I’m not the same pe
rson I used to be. I – I can’t explain it.”
“You don’t have to. Not to me; not to anyone.”
I smiled gratefully at Henry. He knew what to say to make me feel better.
When we pulled up to the school, there were already a ton of kids milling around outside, laughing, chatting.
Homeroom assignments were always posted in the hall by the principal’s office, so we headed there first. Henry was high fiving guys and greeting everyone we passed.
Geez. I could tell he was popular at Bunny’s party, but does he know the entire school?
And then it hit me. I’m not the same person and neither is Henry.
I pushed away the wave of sadness I felt at the realization.
“Looks like you’ve got Mr. Ramsey for homeroom,” Henry said, scanning the list. “Ugh! I’ve got Ms. Draper.” He scrunched his face into a sour expression. “There will be no talking, children. You will spend your homeroom time reading and present a book report each month,” Henry said in a perfect impersonation of Ms. Draper.
I laughed. “How’d you get so lucky to have the only homeroom teacher who actually gives you assignments?”
“Ah, it’s cool,” Henry said. “I need to beef up my reading list, anyway. You know, so I can look smart for the college applications.”
I didn’t answer. My parents had been super understanding since I got back, but they were starting to give me university brochures and mention how I should “really start thinking about college options.”
It actually made me want to laugh. Sure, I was worried about my future, but college was the last thing on my mind.
Henry and I parted ways to go to homeroom. As soon as I was alone in the hallway, my anxiety went through the roof. A few kids said hi to me, but for the most part everyone was busy chatting with their friends. A whole year gone from school and I didn’t seem to have any friends any more.
You didn’t return anyone’s phone calls over the summer, I reminded myself. Of course my old friends had given up on me.
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