The Trinity War (Book 3 of the Trinity series)

Chapter 3

I stepped into the student lounge room of my dorm building, Rossi, expecting it to be completely quiet and empty. It was six in the morning and I figured most people were asleep, even the kids that were into extreme and excessive partying.

But I was wrong.

When I opened the door to the lounge, I came face-to-face with Abbey, Trey, Lance, Matt, and Oralie.

"Ummm..." was what came out of my mouth.

"Ok, she's alive. I'm going to bed now," Oralie said, getting up from her position on the couch and brushing past me. Matt got up after her and gave me an annoyed look before following her out the door. Now I was alone with my supposed friends and my boyfriend.

"Where the hell have you been?!" Abbey exclaimed.

"You guys didn't have to wait up," I said.

"Didn't have to wait up? You've been gone all day, Caley!" Lance said.

"I woke up in the morning yesterday and you weren't there. We called and texted you all day and you didn't answer. And now you're stumbling in at six in the morning looking like...looking like that and you expect us not to have been worried?!" Abbey said, her voice becoming screechy at the end in her hysterics.

"I'm fine," I said.

"You sure as hell don't look fine," Lance replied, crossing his arms over his chest. "Where were you all day?" he asked.

"It doesn't matter, ok? I just wanted to be alone!" I yelled, frustrated. I had an incredible headache and all I wanted to do was sleep. I was exhausted from the intense magic I had used at the Trinity Government, reading my mother's letter, and talking to Gerrard. I needed rest and my energy reserves were at an all time low.

"Alone?! Alone for what? Alone all day?!" Abbey exclaimed.

"Abbey!" Trey shouted, stopping her abruptly. She clamped her mouth shut and looked at him. "Just leave her alone. We'll all talk in the morning," he said.

I shot him a grateful look, but he looked back at me with a dark expression. He had no doubt been worrying about me just as much as Abbey had. But I wasn't lying when I said I had wanted to be alone. There was a lot I was dealing with and having people around to distract me wasn't going to help me make sense of any of it.

"Fine," Abbey said, her cheeks flush from the exertion of yelling at me. Lance grumbled in agreement and then stalked out of the room, mumbling a sleep good-night to all of us. Abbey shot me one last frustrated glare before turning on her heel and disappearing out the door, too. This just left me and Trey in the room.

"Look, Trey--" I began, but he shook his head.

"We'll talk after you get some rest," he said.

I nodded and looked down at my feet guiltily. I felt him come up to me and lift my chin so that I was looking into those multi-colored eyes of his that I loved so much. I was, once again, overcome with an intense emotion and I felt my eyes begin to water. He reached out and then pulled me into a tight embrace. I felt my shoulders shaking with the intensity of my sobs.

I loved him so much. It was so difficult lying to him, not being able to tell him anything that was happening to me. I knew that if I did, he would be so incredibly disappointed. But I knew he would come to forgive me. But I couldn't tell him because if I did, it would mean that he would be in danger. I had no idea what my future had in store for me, what my destiny held. The path in front of me was blurry and the unknown was dangerous and I couldn't risk hurting Trey because of that. Even though Gerrard had volunteered to help me, I was essentially alone. I was the only one that could break the curse.