“Great idea. Not at all.”
“Are you done yet?” Dorian hollered from the bathroom.
“Coming.” She laughed, not the least bit embarrassed. In high school, she was kind of a prude. It was true, being loved and loving the right person made all the difference in the world. I bit back more jealousy. Once, I thought Gabe and I had the same kind of love or at least we were getting there.
I swallowed my irritation. “I’ll let you get back to… whatever,” I said, smiling wryly. Snow deserved all the happiness in the world.
“Alright. Love ya, Cin.”
I blew a kiss. “Love you, too.” Snow waved and disappeared out of sight, heading into the bathroom. I spoke the words to shut the connection between us and took a deep breath.
When I returned to the kitchen, Leo was gone. “Leo,” I called.
There was shouting upstairs. I ran up to my room. Gabe had Leo backed against the wall, his forearm at his throat and a sword at his stomach. “What the—Gabe, stop!” I yelled. My heart flip-flopped at seeing him again. At the same time, I couldn’t let him hurt Leo.
“You know this douche?” Gabe growled.
I sprang into action, hitting him on the arm and trying to pull him off the prince. “Yes. And he isn’t a douche.”
“You moved on already, huh? That was quick.” Gabe shoved Leo, his piercing green eyes scrutinizing me, questioning. Behind him, Leo coughed and leaned over, trying to catch his breath. I knew I should go over and help him, make sure he was all right, but Gabe’s gaze held me captive and I didn’t want to be let go.
“I haven’t moved on,” I said, swallowing down my need. “He’s helping me with something.”
“Cin.” Gabe swallowed hard and took one giant step forward, scooping me into his arms and pressing my body against his.
I was momentarily lost in him, his strong arms that were so familiar. Gabe smelled like light and crisp air and some kind of cologne… and … I missed him desperately.
“Gabe.” My body fit into every one of his hard lines and I longed to kiss him. “You— ” I stopped. Saying any more would lead to fighting, and I wasn’t ready for that. Not yet. I didn’t want to let him go.
“When I sensed you were back, I came over. And found this clown in your room,” he motioned toward Leo, “and no sign of you.” Gabe hugged me tighter. “Cin, I’m sorry,” he whispered into my hair.
I met his gaze, my face hovering just below his, and he kissed me. Softly and filled with questions, like feathers against my skin. Everything else was forgotten and I kissed him back with all the love still in my heart, opening my mouth to allow him in.
Leo cleared his throat. “Um, I’m still here,” he said, irritated.
I heard him but couldn’t make myself care. My body begged me to forget everything. Forgive Gabe. Give him the chance to explain. Snow gave me the details, but I wanted to hear the words from him. After what he said, I deserved an explanation. And, I realized, I wasn’t quite ready to forgive him. He deliberately hurt me then threw me away. Sure, he was begging for my forgiveness now, but what if he changed his mind again? I wasn’t sure I could survive the hurt a second time.
“Sorry for what?” I asked, breathing heavily, my knees trembling from the intensity of our kiss. “Saying you never loved me? Breaking my heart into tiny pieces and then leaving? Lying? Or maybe it’s your complete asshole façade.” As I spoke tears welled in my eyes. “Tell me, Gabe. What are you sorry for?” I pleaded with my eyes, begging him say something that would tell me everything was okay.
“I’m going to… step out,” Leo said.
Neither Gabe or I acknowledged him.
Gabe gritted his jaw and I watched the muscles in his face clench and release. “Why don’t you ditch that guy and then maybe I’ll believe you’re actually sad about me leaving and we can talk.”
He was so arrogant. “You have no idea what you’re talking about or what’s going on because it’s always about you. I matter too and I have a lot going on right now. Which you’d know if you ever bothered to focus on someone besides yourself.” I turned away, wishing I could make him disappear. Gabe wasn’t supposed to be around me anyway. It was like a commandment or something. “Stupid chayot rules,” I whispered.
Gabe touched me and it was like fire, the heat of him burning through my shirt. “You’re right,” he said. “You can tell me everything.”
I missed him. Terribly. Missed the way my body reacted to his touch. Missed our time together. But there was Polly, and Mizrabel, and Quilla, and a whole world that needed saving. And I belonged to their world. They believed I could help. I wouldn’t let them down. Not only that, but the last time we talked, he said things I couldn’t forget. “I can’t right now.” I took his hands in mine and squeezed, hoping he would show me he understood and take an interest in what I was doing. He didn’t. I sighed, thinking I could still ask him for help. “I’m looking for something,” I said quietly, feeling defeated. “It’s a glass lyre. Ever heard of it?”
Gabe snorted. “Sure.” His eyes darkened again. “It’s said that possessing the lyre will give the owner untold power. Why?” Distrust filled his eyes.
He loved me, but only as far as it mattered to him. “Do you know where it is?” I asked through clenched teeth, wishing things could be different.
“No.” He shook his head and let out a mirthless laugh. “Ask the false prince to tell you why he’s lying.”
I was confused. “Lying?” I glanced at the closed door, wondering what Gabe meant. Did he know Leo? I thought about what I saw when I found them and wished I knew what they said to each other.
Leo came back in the room like he was listening on the other side of the door. “Shut the hell up,” Leo said, interrupting my thoughts. “If I’m a false prince then that makes you a play angel.” Leo was so mad his entire body shook.
Holy merde, I thought. “Are you lying?” I asked tentatively.
“What would I have to lie about?” Leo threw his hands in the air and moved to stand near me, but I stepped closer to Gabe.
“I don’t know.” I shrugged. “You tell me.” My eyes kept going back and forth between the two men and I couldn’t help but feel a little sorry for myself. Despite everything, I still loved Gabe. I knew I was being an idiot, but the feelings wouldn’t go away.
Gabe rolled his eyes. “I don’t have time for this shit.” He went to the window and pushed back the curtains. “The glass lyre is a who, not a what.” He slid the windowpane open and stepped over the sill, straddling it. His eyes held mine. “Leo knows that.” Without another word Gabe stepped over the edge and dropped out of sight.
“Gabe,” I whispered. He kept leaving me. Someday, I was going to have to do something about that.
Chapter 23
Leo came up behind me and touched my shoulder. I shrank away, repelled at having someone other than Gabe touch my body. I was still mad at Gabe, but I didn’t love him any less. I couldn’t shake the fact that Leo might be lying.
Stupid boys.
“Is it true? The glass lyre is a person?” I asked the question but already knew the answer. Gabe had no reason to lie about that.
Leo went over to my bed and sat. He stared ahead, not looking at anything. “I hoped to wait until we found it… him or her or whatever.”
I growled. “Well which is it? An it, a him, or a her?” The words came out clipped, sarcastic—my way of dealing with things I didn’t understand or was afraid of. Also, I was tired and needed this day to be over. So tired. A spell from The Eye of Abernathy flitted off my lips. “Bohemia coverith irreavilth.” That would keep us invisible to anyone who came into the room. I should’ve done that in the first place instead of asking Snow if we could stay at her old house next to Pops’. My limbs were heavy with exhaustion as I made my way over to the bed.
“Why did you do that?” Leo sounded frustrated, but he looked as tired as I felt.
I pulled back my covers, got under them, and rolled away from
him. “I can’t do this anymore tonight.”
“Cinderella?”
I sighed heavily. “Get some rest.” My heart still ached. “Sleep next to me if you want, but don’t try anything. I’m not interested. Got it?”
He didn’t respond, but I knew he heard me, so I took a deep breath. “Night, Leo.”
I heard first one and then the other of his shoes hit the floor. He lay down and adjusted the pillow next to mine. After several minutes, his breathing deepened. I tried to sleep, but after several hours, I carefully got up and went downstairs and out the front door.
One moon—Earth’s moon—hung full in the distance. Thousands of stars twinkled against the dark night sky. Puffs of smoke billowed from random fireplaces like dancing phantoms. I looked back and sighed. This used to be my home, I thought, nostalgia creeping over my skin like tiny spiders. I focused and spoke the word that would allow me to travel like a ghost. “Abrevas.” I skimmed along the ground, past and through fences and trees, down streets, through random houses and garages, even a bookstore until I reached Professor Pops’ house. But I didn’t stop there. Without a second thought, I went through the front door, past the kitchen, and down the stairs to the basement. The door at the bottom was closed but I went through it into the enormous room filled with stuffed or waxed or… whatever figures. It was the Museum for the Supernatural.
I moved past the vampire, werewolf, fairy, and troll, each enclosed in their own casing, and over to the wall where the secret stairs were located. It looked like an ordinary wall. Flat. Painted a light cream. A picture of a seaside landscape hung in the center, but I knew it was all a mirage. I went through it and floated down the stairs and into the secret room.
Mizrabel’s words ran through my mind so many times, until it clicked. This secret room under Pops’ library.
“Lumia.” At the word a blue light appeared over my head. “Lithlia.” The light rose toward the ceiling and got brighter. This room was the same as the last time I was in here, complete with a TV, a bean bag chair and the hole where the twisty slide exited. There were shelves on either side of the TV, filled with movies, statues, a potted plant in desperate need of watering… and a glass lyre.
“Really?” I walked over. The light followed, causing the beautiful instrument to sparkle. It was the height of a hardbound book and a bit wider. I picked it up. The glass was smooth and heavy. “I thought you were supposed to be a who,” I said, grazing my fingers against the long, thin glass strings. It didn’t make any noise, just shone soundlessly. “This can’t be right.” I spun in a circle, at a loss about what to do next. Had Gabe lied? Or maybe this wasn’t the glass lyre I was looking for. Maybe it was just a coincidence. It seemed too easy. Gabe would’ve known if it was down here, and if he did, why not tell me, or use the power it supposedly contained for himself?
Dozens of questions thumped inside my head, making it hurt. I was so tired. The bean bag chair looked way too comfortable, and my head hurt way too much. So I did the most logical thing possible—I sat down on it. The soft material hugged my body.
It felt wonderful. And I realized, for the first time in a long time, I felt safe. No one knew where I was. Closing my eyes, I allowed my mind to wander over the past. The time I spent in Polonias with Leo, Quilla and Polly. Meeting Leo’s father. Wandering their old castle filled with tapestries, large paintings, and fireplaces bigger than an SUV. My mind went to one fireplace in particular and the painting hanging above it. I was only in there twice, but I walked past it every day on my way to the kitchen.
The painting was of a family. A man, a woman, and two sons. The woman and sons smiled, but the father kept his face stoic. On his head he wore a large golden crown, as did the woman. I guessed it was the king and queen when they were younger. There was something familiar about the boys, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. Was it their eyes, the way they wore their hair? Perhaps it was the clothes. Exactly the same, right down to the boots…
***
I dreamed of dancing clowns, their faces covered in white paint, red Styrofoam pinched on their noses. Orange curly hair bobbed on their heads. They wore white one-piece suits with various colored polka dots, and they rode a unicycle, one clown doing the pedaling while the others sat atop his shoulders. There were hundreds of them rising toward the ceiling and they were all the same, exactly like the one below. I looked up, trying to see the top-most clown, and a huge clown face appeared on the ceiling, its evil black eyes glaring.
He opened his mouth and said something, but I didn’t understand the words. Over and over he repeated the same thing. I could tell by the way his mouth moved, but there wasn’t any sound.
I shouted for him to tell me again, keeping my eyes on the cycling clowns, but no matter how hard I listened, I couldn’t hear the words. The movements of the clown pedaling the unicycle became more sporadic until it seemed he was trying to run me over. As one, their faces watched me, staring. Noises came from their mouths, like a thousand buzzing wasps, but I couldn’t make out what they said. Finally, I couldn’t take it any longer and covered my ears.
One voice cut through the sounds of the others and I heard it as clearly as though I spoke it…
***
“They’re twins,” I whisper-shouted, sitting straight up, knowing that was the word the clown from my dream spoke repeatedly. I was still in the secret room. The blue light from my spell continued to shine overhead, bathing everything in its peculiar glow. The glass lyre rested on my lap. I had no idea what time it was or how long I slept. Grabbing the lyre, I rose and was about to put the instrument back on the shelf when something shimmered in the glass.
It scared me so badly I nearly dropped it. Instead I took a deep breath and peered closer, figuring it was just a shadow cast by the light I conjured. “What the—” There was definitely movement inside the glass, and I was about to figure out what was going on when noise sounded on the stairs. Male voices. They were irritated. Before they found me, I quickly pulled a book from a row on an upper shelf, stuffed the lyre behind it, and slid the book back and whispered the words I used earlier to make Leo and me invisible. “Bohemia coverith irreavilth.” Then I dove for the bean bag chair and acted asleep.
Keys jingled and then the door opened.
I rubbed my eyes, pretending to wake up, and glanced sleepily at Professor Pops, Gabe, and Leo. They stood in the doorway, various forms of shock and surprise and worry spread across their features.
Gabe, my mind shouted, happy to see him again so soon. My heart started pounding. He looked amazing, if a little disheveled. He studied me shrewdly as though he knew I was faking, but I played innocent.
Professor Pops came forward and held out his stand. I took it and stood. “Hello, Cindy. Have a nice sleep?”
“Hi, Pops. Sure,” I said, unable to take my eyes from Gabe.
Leo stepped in front of him, looking angry. “I woke and you were gone. I hoped to find you here.” He crossed his arms.
I was surprised he knew where here was.
Gabe took my hand. “I was worried when Leo said he couldn’t find you.” Relief radiated from his face. It was obvious he was concerned, but it was his own damn fault. He lost his right to worry when he told me he didn’t love me anymore. He couldn’t expect me sit around and sulk, even though that’s what I wanted to do.
“Don’t you have humans to save?” I asked sarcastically, though I squeezed his hand.
He gave me a look I couldn’t read. “I didn’t ask for this job. I didn’t’ want it. I can’t believe you thought—”
Leo interrupted. “We don’t have time for this,” he said, huffing. “Did you find the glass lyre?” He searched the room, looking along the shelves. I held my breath, hoping my magic held up and praying he wouldn’t be able to sense the lyre. He went through the shelves and the drawers before straightening. “There’s nothing in here.”
Professor Pops gave me a look. He knew the lyre was down here and was surprised I didn’t share that knowl
edge with Leo. Before he could say anything, I gave the slightest shake to my head. He seemed to get my meaning and nodded.
“Mr. Henry, are there any other secret passages in your house? Any other rooms that might hold the glass lyre?” Leo walked over to the circle where the slide ended and looked inside. “What about up there? What’s at the other end of this?”
Gabe responded. “That’s the library. There isn’t a glass anything in that room. It’s filled with old books, a map of the world, and stubborn dust.” At one point, the library was Dorian’s room, but after he married Snow, they returned the room to its original purpose.
Professor Pops patted Gabe on the arm. “It’s okay. We should let Leo look, verify for himself. Who knows? He might find something.”
Gabe gave him an odd look before agreeing. “Did you want me to take you up?” he asked Leo.
Leo gave him an unhappy look. “That would be great.”
The two of them went to the stairs. “You coming, Cinderella?” Leo asked.
“I’ll catch up with you in a few. I need to talk to Professor Pops alone.” Leo and Gabe went, and I waited until they reached the top of the stairs. Then I went to the shelf, moved the book, and pulled out the lyre. “Revealith.”
“I had a feeling you found it.” Pops wore a peculiar expression, as though he was thinking a question, but didn’t ask because he already knew the answer. “Why not tell Leo?”
I shrugged. “I intended to, but something held me back.” I handed Pops the glass instrument. “I thought I saw something—someone—inside the glass.”
“Really?” He studied the lyre, turning it over, searching for what I meant.
A face appeared inside. “There!” I shouted and then lowered my voice. “Did you see? It looked like a guy.” He looked like Leo, but that couldn’t be right.
Professor Pops checked over it again. “I didn’t see anything.”
I took the lyre back. “Gabe told me the lyre was a person, not a thing.” I studied the instrument more closely. “I swear I saw the face of a man.” The words of a spell came to mind. I opened my mouth to speak it, but Leo’s voice sounded from the top of the stairs.
Deadly Witch: Cinderella Reimagined with Witches and Angels (Seven Magics Academy Book 4) Page 12