Shadowed (Unbound, Book 2)

Chapter Fifty Four

           

"I—" I shook my head and looked down. "I don't know what you're talking about."

She laughed, shaking her head. "My gift is empathy, remember? Zach wasn't sure—he thought it might take a while—but I can feel it, and your power. You've recovered more than just your memories."

"Zach had me read from a book."  I sighed and took a deep breath. "I woke up and felt dizzy, and then it all just clicked." I snapped my fingers. "It was slow at first, of course, which I'm grateful for. You have no idea how it feels to sit and have lunch with someone you barely know, and then get up to leave remembering they are one of your best friends. By the time I met with Zachariah again, I remembered everything but what happened during my accident."

"That's why you haven't told anyone?"

I looked down to my hands, twisting my fingers, and felt her watching me. Luna's patience with my silence spoke more to me than anything she could have said. But my reasons for keeping my progress to myself were so intertwined, I couldn't reveal just one and expect her to understand.

"You know, after the accident, I kept dreaming about these bars, which I thought were a jail cell. They were sharp, though, and vertical, and cut my hand when I grabbed them. It was like my skin molded to them, it burned so bad, and I couldn't pull away. It made me feel crazy, but then Onyx kept barking at the wall..." I laughed and rolled my eyes. "I thought she'd caught my crazy! Neither of us was nuts, though. I remembered that I put my mother's Book of Shadows in the register in the hallway outside my sitting room before the trip."

Luna's eyes flickered to the book and then to me. "That's good, right?"

"Sure, I'm over the moon to have it back, but that's not my point."

"What do you mean?"

Placing my hands on my knees, I pushed myself up from the log and turned to Luna. "Everything is hidden. Zachariah said losing my memory helped me to see people for who they are, and he's right, but all I see is lies." I blew out my breath and my shoulders slumped. "Secrets. There's so much I don't understand, things I've always seen but never thought to question." I started ticking off problems with my fingers. "What happened to cause my accident? What is Duvessa capable of—why is she coming after me and how can she get away with it? Why make some guy look like Calin and trick me?

"That, of course, leads to me wondering how I can stop her." Sighing, I dragged my hand through my hair and tilted my head to the sky. "Then there's Devland and Calin and Maible... And my life in Briarville, if that still exists. How do I go back to my family there without resolving the problems here? I don't know what I feel about Calin, but I know I don't want to leave him. Maible needs my help gaining access to the powers I know she has—why can't she access them?"

"That's a lot."

"Yeah, well, don't even get me started on Devland or your head might pop."

"Nothing you say about your father will surprise me."

I glanced back down and held her gaze, dropping my hand back to my side. "He's been putting charms—curses, really—on stuff to make me keep forgetting my past and serving me tea that does the same. He lied to me about everything. I don't have a studio like he said—I've always painted in my room, though my art is gone—and he enrolled me in school as Nora Dwyer? How did he get the teachers and students to go along with that? Everything I brought with me from Briarville is missing from my room and somehow—I have no clue why—he has a hold over Maible. She does everything he says!"

"You plan on taking Devland on?"

"Yes." I nodded and sat back down, watching the flames eat the wood in the campfire. "When I first arrived here, he wasn't trying to hide. He spelled my phone so I couldn't touch base with anyone outside of Wickenton but when I confronted him, he didn't even try to hide it. That was easier. At least I knew what I was dealing with, you know? But this..." I shook my head. "What kind of father would do that? Why? It's so drastic, I think what he did is a symptom of a larger issue Devland's trying keep hidden, and I need to know what that is."