I took a deep breath and nearly smiled when I entered the library for my final class of the day: study hall. Having upset the popular kids at lunch, and Liz, I really didn’t want to think about what that afternoon would be like, especially when Tabitha realized I wouldn’t be coming home to clean before she had friends over.
So, I stuffed my book bag under one of the reading tables, checked around to make sure nobody was watching, and then disappeared into my previous dreamscape. I had business to finish on Cyeor. Borphan waited for me at the front gates, where my army stood by, delaying the battle until they received further command from Yours Truly.
“Where have you been?” Borphan asked, raising one eyebrow a little higher than normal.
“It’s not polite to question your Empress,” I reminded him.
Borphan bowed. “My apologies.” He returned to his usual, upright position. “The Dred’s leader sent a messenger this morning.”
“And?”
“They claim we have several of their clansmen held captive in the prison.”
My forehead crinkled. I couldn’t remember if we did or not, or if that was something my imagination had made up. I was obviously getting too involved in my dream worlds. “Do we?”
Borphan shook his head. “No, Empress. The last date of a Dred execution was under the solstice of the two moons, and only after the blue moon graced us with its presence.”
“So, it was a long time ago?”
Borphan nodded. “The Dreds are mistaken. They are starting this war for no reason.”
“Have we sent a reply messenger to let them know we don’t have their men?”
Borphan’s face, especially around his eyes, wilted, and he looked at the ground. “We did, Empress. He returned without his head.”
I’d heard enough. The Dred clan would pay for waging war against my people, my kingdom. None of the other creatures who lived on Cyeor were ever that volatile, and they certainly never chopped off heads. The time of being fearful was over. The age of valor was now.
“Ready the men,” I said.
Borphan turned around, barking orders at the horde. Armor and weapons clattered as the men ran in different directions, taking their places in the stony fortress. Archers assembled inside the towers, ready to release blazing arrows at any moment. I stared out at the Dred’s camp. What would happen if we ambushed them while they slept? Why was it that the majority of wars and battles were fought when both sides were awake? It was like some secret, unspoken rule to attack only when both sides were ready.
But the Dreds didn’t look ready; they looked comfortable. Living off my land. Sleeping in my kingdom. Preparing to kill my people.
“Borphan!” I called without redirecting my gaze from the horizon.
He appeared almost instantaneously. “Yes, Empress?”
“We attack tonight.”
Borphan bowed and took his leave, more than likely meeting up with the commanders to discuss battle tactics. I’d review those plans later, but at that moment, my mind was far more concerned with going to Liz’s house after school, and whether she’d forgive Dee and me for being a little too honest at lunch.
“Is that her bag?” asked a female. It sounded like Brittney.
“I think so.” And that sounded like Jessica.
Oh, no. That wasn’t a good sign. Whispering voices could only mean one thing: someone was near my last physical spot. Whenever I disappeared into my imaginative worlds, my body vanished in real life, but I was able to hear voices or sounds from the general vicinity of where I was previously. And if there were voices around that area, it meant I couldn’t return and reappear out of thin air; that’d lead to a cluster of problems.
“What are you doing?” a male said. Ryan?
Great. They were all hanging out in the library. What were they up to? Why weren’t they in class?
“Fine,” Jessica said. “We won’t touch it. It’s probably disease-ridden, anyway.”
Ugh. Bitch.
When I was certain they all had left and I couldn’t hear their voices anymore, I transported myself from the planet Cyeor to the school’s library. Nobody was nearby, and my book bag was still in the same position I left it, but there was a wadded up piece of paper lying on the table. I picked up the note and unwadded it. Inside was a simple-but-cryptic message: We know your secret.
This was not happening to me. There weren’t people watching my every move. Nobody knew my secret. At least, that’s what I told myself, so I could slow down my erratically-beating heart. It helped some, but not entirely.
First of all, there was no way anyone knew of my ability, not even my mom. I’d been too careful when I traveled. Was a school library the best place to disappear? No, but nobody was ever in there, except for the Media Specialist. So what if Jessica, Brittney, and Ryan noticed my book bag? For all they knew, I left the room for a minute to grab a book from my locker and left the bag there until I got back, thinking no one would disturb it.
“Can I talk to you for a minute, Ashling?”
Ryan’s voice jolted me out of my thoughts. Oh, God. Did he see me reappear?
I peered up at his looming, six-foot-something figure. “Is this about lunch?”
He hesitated, then cautiously slid into the seat across from me. “About that… Things got a little out of hand earlier, but I don’t want you to hate me.”
I snorted. If this was one of those lines he used to convince all girls to like him, it wasn’t going to work on me.
“I don’t hate you, but I don’t like you, either,” I said.
“Yeah, sure, of course.”
I shot him an evil glare. What’s he getting at? What was the real point of him being here?
“Are you apologizing because your conscience is getting the best of you?” I asked.
“What?”
I let my hands fall onto the tabletop, which earned me a ssshhh from Mrs. Stamell, the Media Specialist.
“Why are you here?” I stated, sighing loudly, hoping he’d hurry up and move on to wherever the conversation was headed.
“Well, last I checked, this is where I go to school.”
“Nahhh. Really?” I rolled my eyes. “I’m asking why you’re here, right now, in the library. You probably haven’t picked up a book since you were in diapers and your mom read you bedtime stories.”
“I wanted to talk to you about something,” he said.
“You never talk to me, Ryan, unless you want to poke fun at me in front of half the student body. So, this had better be pretty damn good.”
He choked up. Like, could not get a single word out. His mouth opened and closed. Opened and closed again. My rising eyebrows had to have set a new world record, being so close to my hairline.
“Spit it out!” I blurted.
But that was the exact moment Jessica decided to grace us with her presence, which ruined everything. Ryan caught that I eyed her, and he turned around, standing so quickly the chair toppled over.
“Hey, babe.” He extended his arms, like he half expected her to run into them.
She didn’t.
Instead, she glared between him and me, crossed her arms, and huffed. “What, exactly, is going on here?” Her tone wasn’t the quietest, and Mrs. Stamell glanced up more than once, like a fight was about to occur, and she wasn’t sure if she should call the principal.
Ryan grappled for something to say, but settled on nothing.
I really didn’t feel like dealing with Jessica or Ryan any more today, so I made something up. Not like I do with my mind, though, just something to get them away from me.
“Apparently, your boyfriend lost his watch in here and came back, searching for it,” I lied.
Jessica narrowed her eyes. “Is that so? And where were you ten minutes ago?”
I snorted. “Not like it’s any of your business, but I was using the restroom.”
Scrunching up her nose, Jessica turned on her heel and ordered, “Let’s go.” And, like a dog, Ryan followed her command
.
That was possibly the strangest conversation, and interaction, I’d ever had.
My cell phone buzzed, and I fumbled through the contents of my bag to find it. It was Liz.
I’m over it. Come over after school for drinks?
After the day I had, how could I turn her down? I was stoked to update Liz and Dee about my weird conversation with Ryan, but it sucked I couldn’t tell either of them about the strange note left for me on the table, or the fact that I was a freak who traveled through her imagination as easily as blood traveled through veins.
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