Grey Eyes: Book One of the Forever Trilogy

Chapter Thirty

Three days had passed since I’d seen another person’s face—well, aside from the guardian who brought me my food twice a day.  At any given moment, I knew there were literally hundreds of people just across the short hall, packed into the Council Room, but they might as well be on Mars as far I was concerned.  I had gotten my first glimpse of the enormous and elaborately decorated room when I was presented to them, not five minutes after returning home.   The silence that greeted me that day was deafening.  Chris’ dad, positioned at a podium near the front, was the only one to speak, and it wasn’t a glad to have you back.  He announced that I was being formally charged with crimes against nature, for both being and concealing a conjurer, for concealing a vampire, conspiracy to mislead the public—he continued naming charges, but it was at that moment that I noticed the Elder Witches, my grandmother in particular, with their arms bound behind them, down in the front row.  I was able to meet her worried eyes for just a second before I felt my own arms being jerked painfully behind me, my own wrists being tied together.  Then all hell broke loose.  People were on their feet, faces filled with anger, some screaming at the top of their lungs, both at me and at the Elder Witches down in the front row.  Chris’ dad tried to calm them down, but it was a futile attempt.  It wasn’t until a ball of fire exploded into existence mere inches from my face that the guardians decided it a good idea to pull me out of the room. They carried me across the hall to the bare windowless room where I had listened to Mrs. Moorer being taunted by my grandmother through some boy’s cell phone, where a recently deceased friend of mine had first contacted me with her mind. 

I could still hear them across the hall sometimes, and although I was certain it was nothing I wanted to hear, I still found myself thankful for a reminder that the outside world hadn’t ceased to exist.  The hours of solitude could be unbearable at times, and it was maddening to have no way of knowing whether the people I cared about were okay.  Questions and worries floated around the room, taking turns with their attacks, mocking the futility of my existence.  I was scared for my grandmother, seeing her bound like that had shaken me more than anything else had about this ordeal.  If she wasn’t in control, then who was?  What would happen to her?  Or my mother—would she be guilty by association?  Then I would think about Taylor, wondering how badly she’d been hurt by Aiden.  Again, someone else was suffering for an attack meant for me—I should never have gone to her house in the first place.  And, of course, I worried about the boys who’d fought to protect me.  There hadn’t been time to hide Tristan properly, Darren and Taylor had been hurt too badly to wait, so I just moved him into a closet and hoped for the best.  The guardians arrived within minutes of my phone call; though looking back, it was probably because they were already out looking to arrest me.  Both Tristan and Darren had been hurt so badly, they could both be dead if I was being completely honest with myself.  My mother said that I was the eternal optimist, but even I was finding it immensely difficult to stay positive now.  All of the people I cared about were in some kind of trouble, and as much as I wished otherwise, it seemed impossible, even to me, that all of them could come through this unscathed. 

Two were already dead.

My dreams were my only escape.  I was still visited by new memories of Tristan whenever I drifted into slumber, and for a time the world would become magical again, and I’d be reminded of why it was I felt so strongly about him.  I tried to resist the dreams at first—I hadn’t chosen to save Tristan, so it didn’t feel right to have him come to my rescue via a memory.  But was it a choice, really?  I was going to die in a matter of months, and if Tristan was still alive when I did, then he was going to end his own life.  Darren still had a chance for a family, a life, a future—if that blow from Aiden hadn’t killed him already.  But my willpower could only take so much, being awake was both painful and exhausting, and after the first night’s blissful reprieve, I found myself trying to sleep as much as possible.  I would take naps as often as my body would allow, only being upset with myself once I awoke at how easily I abandoned everyone and everything to disappear into some fairytale fantasy land.