Five

The rest of the trip was a blur. Nothing weird happened, so I had turned my mind to more important things…like school.

  When I pulled into Le Mans Hall’s humungous circular driveway, my mouth fell open. This was going to be my home for the next four years.

  The building was amazing—sort of gothic mansion meets military barracks. The square bell-tower loomed above us, nestled between a regal set of flanking wings.

  Were the rumors true? Had a student really hung herself up there? I shrugged off the tiny shiver that raced through me and stepped out of the car.

  Shielding my eyes from the late morning sun, I found the fourth floor. Which room was ours? A view of the lake was probably out of the question for freshmen, but there was always a chance.

  With the ornate moldings lining every wall and the marble tile gleaming under the fluorescent light, our dorm had an old-world cool factor. We took our things to our room, which surprisingly, was pretty great.

  A bunk-bed rested tight against an aged ivory wall. Two small closets were nestled in the corner. The other walls held a couple of dressers and a desk. We even had a small living area and a private bathroom. All we needed now was a comfy sofa and a shower curtain. Speaking of curtains, I peeked out the window and smiled. The small lake glittered softly below us.

  Too bad I didn’t have time to explore; I still had to call Aunt Grace. After we unloaded our things I told Cassie I was going to park the car. She didn’t even ask to go with me, but she did wish me luck. Since we arrived, she’d lost some of her agitation, and I hoped we’d be able to talk things out.

  She probably didn’t want to be in earshot of my conversation with Aunt Grace. I didn’t want to hear it either, but I couldn’t put it off any longer. I wasn’t about to make her come along for the torture.

  After I shut off the ignition, I pulled out my phone. Exhaustion from lack of sleep and my weird trip here washed over me. I had to put that guy out of my mind. Nothing else had happened, and I already convinced myself that Cassie had been reacting to the guy not an imaginary pegasus. I’d probably dreamed it up because last night had been the first time in years I had gotten up the courage to even be outside at night. And the motorcyclist? Well, thinking more about him could wait for later.

  True to her nature, Aunt Grace left twenty-four messages. Getting angry before I made the call wasn’t the best idea, so I decided to skip them.

  I wasn’t surprised at all when she answered on the first ring. “Hi, Aunt Grace,” I said, a little less enthusiastically than I had intended.

  Her exhale might have been a world record. “Rayla, thank the heavens and the stars! Where are you, girl?”

  From her tone, I was in the land called Trouble. She had probably figured out I wasn’t at Snow College already. I set into my speech, hoping she wouldn’t interrupt me. “Grace, I made a decision—”

  “Where are you?”

  “I know you won’t be happy with it, but—”

  “Rayla, you have no idea what you’ve done!”

  “This is my life, and I feel it’s time—”

  “You feel?” she said in a huff. “Where are you?”

  She was not going to give up, so I decided to get it over with. “Notre Dame.”

  “Indiana!”

  No—Paris. “Yes,” I said calmly, waiting for her to lose it.

  Her tone lowered, deflating like a spent balloon. “What have you done?”

  That wasn’t the response I had expected. “Like I was saying, I decided—”

  “Did you ever consider I’ve been so strict with you for a reason?”

  Of course I had, but I wasn’t buying her excuses anymore. I had finally taken control of my life, whether she liked it or not. “I thought you were just being overprotective because of Mom.”

  There. It was out. I hadn’t found the statement as hard to say as I thought I would.

  She sighed. It was a lonely sound. “I guess I should’ve just told you, but I was hoping to keep you from ever knowing about what you are.”

  I chuckled, picking at the steering-wheel. “You aren’t going to tell me I was actually born a boy, are you?”

  She harrumphed. “This is serious, Rayla. I didn’t think you would ever be this foolish.”

  In what messed up universe was choosing a great school over a mediocre one foolish? “What are you talking about?”

  Her voice held an accusation I didn’t miss. “Why didn’t you tell me you still wanted to go to St. Mary’s? You haven’t mentioned it in over a year.”

  “Are you kidding? You would have never let me come!”

  “You’re darned right! I can’t protect you now. None of us can.”

  Would she always treat me as a child? “From what?” I asked. “I’m not that pathetic. I can take care of myself, you know.” Hadn’t I already proven that last night? Besides, I wasn’t about to make excuses for trying to be an adult.

  She didn’t say anything for a while. When she finally spoke, her voice was so soft I could barely understand her. “I’m truly sorry I failed you and your mother.”

  “What does this have to do with Mom?” Was she about to tell me I had cancer or something worse? Had my mom passed on a congenital anomaly of some kind? Had she really died a horrible death that Aunt Grace refused to let me see?

  Would I finally get to name what had stolen my mother from me?

  I braced myself for something terrible. I had never known Aunt Grace to exaggerate—ever, but she had to be now. Her tone insinuated that I was in real trouble.

  Her voice was strained as though it was hard for her to talk. “I can’t tell you. It’s too risky. They’ll only find you sooner.”

  They? “Who in the blazes are you talking about?”

  She whispered, “You need to be very careful, honey. There’s more to this world than you can see. There are people who want you. Your life is about to change in ways you can’t even imagine.”

  Huh? “Aunt Grace, I don’t know what has gotten into you, but what you’re saying doesn’t make any sense. Are you telling me to come home? Because if you are—”

  “No, Rayla,” she hissed. “You can’t come home! I have to think about more than you, now.”

  I snorted. When had she only thought about me? I had been the last one in her household she even bothered to glance at most days, let alone think about. “Would you get to the point?”

  Her exaggerated groan was loud and clear. “Oh, to heck with it. They’ll find you soon enough anyway.” She huffed a couple times as though she was trying to control her temper before continuing, “Fae lords will be coming for you.”

  I sat there for a moment, blinking at the trees ahead of me, sure I had misheard her. “Uh, would you mind repeating that?”

  “Good grief, girl, listen to me! There’s no telling how long we’ll have. Fae. Lords. Will. Be. Coming. For. You.”

  I sputtered, “Fae. Like in Faeries?” A vision of thumb-sized men with iridescent wings riding miniature horses galloped through my mind—my favorite childhood fantasy. I laughed until tears formed in my eyes.

  Many times, I had imagined being swept off my feet by a fairy prince. He had cast a spell on me to make me fae. My wings had been pink and purple, my hair a silvery light-blue.

  Her voice couldn’t have sounded more hysterical. “Yes!”

  I laughed uncontrollably. I couldn’t help it—until an image of a lone rider on a tricked-out Harley turned pegasus popped unbidden into my mind. My joviality turned into an elongated, “Ohhhh!”

  Her tone kicked up a few decibels. “Have you seen them already?”

  I huffed. “How should I know what a real one looks like?” The motorcyclist couldn’t have been fae, could he? Even if fairies did exist, which I wasn’t saying they did, that man was anything but diminutive.

  Any second Aunt Grace was going to yell just kidding then laugh her butt off. I waited. And waited.

  What came out of her next startled me. “They are stunning, cunning, and can be lethal
.”

  For once in my life I wished I could see her expression. “Come on.”

  “You will listen to me! You can’t allow yourself to be alone with any boy!”

  I knew her game. She wanted to scare me into coming home. Unbelievable. She was still trying to control me from more than a thousand miles away. “I can hold my own with men, Aunt Grace.” If she only knew the situations I had gotten myself out of already, she would probably disown me.

  “You say that, now. You don’t know how they can get to you. If they wouldn’t follow you, I would insist you come home.”

  That was all it took. My temper skyrocketed. “I don’t care who’s after me. You can send freaking King Kong. I’m not leaving! I need my degree.”

  “You’ll never get to use it!” Something clattered in the background followed by a loud bang. “Why do you think I’ve tried to interest you in other things?”

  She usually didn’t resort to breaking things when she was angry, but I wouldn’t have been surprised to find out she was trashing the living room as we spoke. My fingers tightened on the steering wheel. “Uh-huh, like an uncomplicated career at the pig farm?” I regretted the words the moment they escaped my lips. I didn’t mean to be rude to her, but my brain to mouth filter wasn’t working.

  A self-conscious whine worked its way into her voice. “It’s been good enough for me.”

  “How can you go there every day?” Grace was a strong woman, but she had given up on herself way too soon. “You could have been so much more.”

  “How I live is more important than my occupation,” she said. “Besides, you have no idea what I do every day!”

  I dreamed of being so many things, but a production worker in a stinky factory wasn’t one of them. “I know enough to not want to follow in your footsteps.”

  “There’s no chance of that happening now. You’ve ruined any choices you did have.” The heat in her tone faded to despair. “I’m afraid the ones facing you will only lead to misery.”

  Her faith in me was comforting. “Yeah, ‘cause I couldn’t possibly make a right decision on my own.”

  “I didn’t say that. You won’t have much to choose from, sweetheart.”

  The condescension in her tone blasted through me like a pistol shot. “I hate it when you call me that!” I was an adult. It was about time she treated me like one. The pregnant silence stretched to near bursting. For a moment, I thought she hung up on me then I heard her breathing. I tucked the phone against my ear and crossed my arms. I wasn’t going to say anything until she did.

  “Rayla, please, let’s not fight. I’m only worried for you.” Even though I didn’t want it to, her love for me seeped through the phone and into my heart.

  I took some deep breaths to calm down. “Tell me what’s really going on then.”

  She spoke measuredly, as though she carefully chose her words. “That’s exactly what I’ve been trying to do. What are you asking?”

  “I want the truth. Did you send someone to follow me here?” I didn’t think she knew any world renowned magicians, but anything was possible.

  “How could I do that when I didn’t even know you left the state?”

  I ignored the hurt in her voice. “Something strange happened on my way here.” She gasped, but I continued, “There was this creepy guy—”

  “Only one?”

  Wasn’t that enough?

  She wouldn’t even let me finish a sentence. “I did say guy, as in singular.” Funny how she didn’t comment on the creepy part.

  She sighed, her voice calm when she finally spoke. “They run in packs during the hunt.”

  I snorted out a chortle. “What am I? A prize boar?”

  She didn’t even laugh. “You’d be surprised.”

  I would be astonished. Despite Cassie’s insistence, I was no cover model. There had to be a reason Cassie got dream dates throughout high school while my own social life could have used some work. Once she started liking football, she was way more popular than either of us thought possible. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get into it.

  I still couldn’t figure out why Brody Smith, captain of the football team, had picked me instead of her. Man. I so needed to stop thinking about this. I couldn’t afford to let him enter my mind again.

  Back to the topic at hand, I asked, “Let’s pretend for a moment what you told me was true, and fae lords really are hunting me right now. What could I possibly have that any other girl here doesn’t?”

  The word she whispered floated through the airwaves like an ephemeral prayer: “Power.”

  Her statement shocked me so much that I sat there dumbfounded. Power could mean so many things, but at the base it was control. At the moment, I could hardly manage my emotions. “I’m quite sure I can’t leap tall buildings in a single bound, or run faster than a speeding bullet. Trust me, I’ve tried. What sort of power do I supposedly have then?”

  “You are an Elemental. You were created for the fae.”

  Gah. Was she on drugs? “What the heck is an Elemental?”

  “You can manipulate matter, Rayla. The squadron of lords will hunt you down until one of them claims you. Once bonded, your power will enhance his.”

  This sounded like the makings of a bad late-night movie. “I’m not saying I believe a word you’re saying, but I’m suspending disbelief once again just to clarify something; why would they have waited until now to come for me? And if they are so dangerous, why haven’t you come to get me?”

  “It’s complicated. I would be there in a heartbeat if I could. There’s something you need to understand. I have to protect—” Her words cut out. She said something else I couldn’t put together. Gobbledygook was all I heard, then “shielded.” There were more non-words. The last one I made out was “mom.”

  “I can’t understand you, Aunt Grace. What did you say?”

  Just like that the jumbled words were clear. “It’s beginning already.”

  “What is?”

  The mixed-up sounds started again then, “…talk to Cassie. She can see...” She emphasized see in a way that made me think Cassie had lied about the pegasus. Maybe I wasn’t crazy, after all.

  “What does Cassie have to do with this?”

  “…stay with her, okay? Keep away from Notre Dame!”

  All I could hear were partial words and silence after that. “You’re breaking up. What’s wrong with Notre Dame?”

  “…talk…Cassie…”

  “What?” The call dropped. I tried her again and again, but my calls wouldn’t go through. Even thought she’d probably kill me, I decided to send her a text:

  Phone died. Call later. Luv U!

  I didn’t even get to tell her what that guy had done. I doubted she would’ve dismissed him so quickly if I had.

  Cassie was making my bed when I entered our room. When she looked up at me, her eyes flew wide. “That bad, huh?”

  If she only knew how surreal that call had been. “Aunt Grace just told me fae lords want me for some sort of power I have. You said they don’t exist. Which of you is correct?”