Chapter 29
At exactly midnight, everyone was in a circle, lighting candles in front of them. Josh had come back after half an hour of being gone, and seemed a lot calmer. However, he still wasn’t looking anyone in the eyes.
I was in the middle of the circle with my blouse in hand. As I stood there, one of the girls I hadn’t met yet started chanting some unintelligible words, which I assumed were Latin or something.
The others repeated what she said, and Carly nodded my way, signaling me to drop the blouse. I did so and it burst into flames before reaching the floor, disappearing quickly into thin air, leaving nothing but a pile of ashes.
I remembered Luke for a moment, and how he was ashes now, too. But after a moment, I forced the thought out of my mind before I fell to the floor crying.
Carly had explained to me before we started what would happen. The ashes capture Kyle’s essence, and so then I had to pick them up and say something in Latin Carly had taught me.
“Tueri me,” which was supposed to mean protect me in Latin.
Then, everyone else started chanting more things, and I had to keep an image of Kyle in my mind for as long as possible, or until Carly told me they were done. I thought of that first day I had met Kyle, at the store, before the kidnapping, before he got in my car. Just when he was buying that computer. That wasn’t my best memory of him, but it was my favorite. It was the one before he went insane, or I found out about the whole werewolf thing, or he killed my brother. It was just Kyle. I almost liked that memory, at least more than the others I had of him.
Suddenly, I felt power running through my body, starting at my hands, where the ashes were being held. At first, I felt renewed and energized, but then, the surges of energy became painful, and I did everything I could to keep from screaming, but wasn’t very succesful. I wanted more than anything to drop the ashes. But when I looked at Carly, she gave me an encouraging smile, as if to say “Keep going, we’re almost done.”
I held onto the ashes as they started hurting more and more every second. After a minute, I was sure I would die from the pain burning through my veins. But then, all of a sudden, they stopped hurting. I looked at Carly and saw that no one was speaking anymore. She nodded at my expression, and I gratefully dropped the ashes.
“Well, that was… an experience I don’t plan on repeating any time soon.”
“What did it feel like,” Penny asked, strangely curious.
“Um, really painful. Like this power was trying to fill my body, and push out my own life energy, to make room.”
“Good.” I stared at her thinking she must be crazy, so she elaborated. “That means it worked.”
I looked at my watch. “It’s one in the morning? But that only felt like a few minutes!”
Gavin answered my confused statement. “That’s because it wasn’t in real time. When we cast spells, we step out of mortal time, and feel magic time. Well, that’s what we call it, anyway.”
“Okay, so am I good to go? Not that I want to leave you guys to do all the research, but classes start tomorrow, and my friends think I’m on a date, and…”
“Yeah, it’s okay. Just come back soon to help us.” I saw Amy walking over to me, “Bye. Safe driving.”
She gave me an awkward hug, and after a minute it was a group hug. Wow. These guys are so… loving. I looked through the crowd, and saw Josh was standing against the wall, arms crossed, looking like he could bite someone’s head off.
When everyone let go to give me breathing room, “Carly, are you comig?”
She looked at me and frowned. “No, I should stay here and help these guys. I’m the only one here with half a brain,” she teased.
Josh left his post on the wall and came over laughing without humor. “You think just because you got a scholarship to a college miles away, and are gonna leave us, you’re better than all of us?”
She laughed angrily. “No. But you, maybe.”
A few people made “Oh” noises, and one guy said in a falsetto, “oh no she didn’t,” and one girl said, “Mom and Dad are fighting again,” but everyone stopped laughing when Carly shot a threatening glance at her.
“Yeah, well at least I,” but I didn’t get to hear the rest of the sentence, because Penny stepped in, breaking them up.
“Look, guys, we’re all sick of this! Carly, stop being so mean! Josh stop being such a…” she looked at Carly for confirmation on what she called him earlier, “dickhead!”
“Whatever. Lainey, you should get going. You’re fine.”
“Okay.” So I ran up the stairs and left the house for my car. I turned on the radio really loud to keep me from falling asleep, and pulled out of the driveway. I pulled into the first starbuck I could find with a drive through, and ordered some coffee, downing it in a few gulps.
On the drive, I started thinking about when I would go back. I had classes until five o’clock, so tomorrow could work, except I ought to go out with Caleb so he wouldn’t wonder why things were so different. My classes on Tuesday ended at three, so I could go over for a couple hours, and be back by seven to hang with Caleb if he wanted to, or do homework.
I decided that was my best option, so I started trying to decide on what to tell Katie about my “date” and what to tell Caleb, about why I couldn’t go out with him tonight. That took me the rest of the drive. I decided to tell Caleb I had to hang out with an old friend from high school, and I was just going to tell Katie we went to dinner, and if she asks for any more details, I’d just say, “I don’t kiss and tell.”
It wasn’t an amazing plan, but I was tired, and operating on a cup of coffee. Not my best time for thinking. Besides, it would work, unless one of them got talking for too long.
I woke up at ten-thirty, took a shower, and got dressed in a blue blouse with a low neckline, over a yellow tank top. I always loved yellow and blue together. Then I pulled on some dark wash jeans and put the t-shirt that Penny had given me on my desk to take back tomorrow. I looked at the clock and saw it was only eleven o’clock, so I blow dried my hair quickly, and ran a brush through it a few extra times.
I grabbed my messenger bag and shoved my text book and notebook into it. I grabbed a couple granola bars on my way out the door, and got in the car.
“Okay, first class is in Jefferson hall. Which is…” I pulled out the map of the school I kept in my glove department, and found the building I needed to go to. I looked at the clock and saw it was fifteen minutes to noon. The drive would be five minutes, and so I decided to call Katie.
“Hello?”
“Hey. You up yet? Your first class starts in an hour.”
“Oh, crap! how do you know my schedule better than me?”
“I’m your best friend, it’s my job.”
“Right. So how was your date.”
“Good.”
“Where’d he take you?”
“Um, dinner. I don’t remember where, though.”
“So, how was it?”
I laughed, glad she couldn’t see me, because I must have looked like a mess. I hated lying to my best friend, but she didn’t know I went to see Kyle, and she didn’t know about Carly, so I didn’t have a choice.
“Um, let’s just say, I don’t kiss and tell.”
She was silent a moment. “Yes you do. Your first date, you did tell.”
“Well… whatever. Hey, I have to go to class. Bye.”
“Bye.” I hung up and drove to class. I was a few minutes early, but it seemed that everyone else was, too.
I walked around until I found a seat in the back of the class, that wasn’t next to anyone, but wasn’t isolating me from the rest of the class. I put down my bag and got out my books and pen and got ready to write as soon as the teacher got there. Sure enough, right then, as soon as the clock on the wall said 12:00, a middle aged man walked in and smiled at us.
“Hello, freshman. So, for the next semester, I will be your teacher. I hope I can get you to accept the joys of calculus as much as I do. I am…” he turned to the chalkboard behind him and wrote his name on the board. “Professor Roberts.”
He started going over his rules, such as if you miss a day, you have to talk to someone else in the class about getting the work, because he won’t be bothered.
After about five minutes, he began the lecture, and it lasted an hour, and I was so glad when it was over. As I started gathering my things, I heard a voice behind me.
“Hey, babe. I’m Nick. You want to make out… I mean hang out with me, sometime?”
I looked up to see a guy standing in front of his friends, who were laughing at his line, and I was instantly disgusted.
“You know what, sure. How about after my class, um, how to be a slut 101 this afternoon?” I faked a smile and walked away.
“Aw, come on, babe, don’t be like that.” He grabbed my arm and I turned around to face him.
“What is it with people grabbing my arms lately?” I pulled my arm away and walked away quickly.
He followed right behind me. “Come on, we could have fun.”
“Not interested.”
“Hey, I’m talking to you. Look at me.”
He tried to grab me again, but we were exiting the classroom then and I started running. I was outside when I turned around and saw he was right behind me. “I’m not interested.”
“She said she isn’t interested. Now I suggest you leave her alone.” I was relieved when I saw Caleb walking around the guy, and I saw he grabbed the guy’s shirt and pulled him away from me. “And if you ever come near her again, You’ll have Hell to pay. You understand?”
Nick looked him up and down and nodded. Caleb was a lot bigger than him, taller and stronger looking.
“Okay. So I’m going to let go of your shirt, and I want you to walk away. You understand that?” He nodded, so Caleb let go and he walked away, brushing off his shirt as he cursed himself.
“You okay?”
I nodded and gave him a give. “Thanks.”
“Who was that guy?”
“A creeper in my Calc class.”
“You know, you could get him expelled for that.”
“Yeah, but I don’t think he’ll try anything like that again.”
“You sure?”
“Not with you around, you big bully.”
He laughed and we walked away to my car.
[A/N: What do you guys think? So I know one of you is team Kyle, but do we have any Caleb fans now? What do you guys think of Josh and Carly? Why do you think Kyle and Lainey had that dream? Oh, so I decided what my next book will be about! I can’t wait to write it! And, this story’s almost done! Just a few more chapters! What’s meant to happen will finally be happening!]