Crimson Echo (23 page)

“I’ll fix it, I promise. I’ll let her know right away.”

“Just forget it.” I turned and headed toward my Social Studies class.

            As I walked through the halls of Emporia I remembered the look on Kane’s face as I walked away from him— it was a mixture of shock and hurt. His blue eyes searched my face and he squinted as I spoke those last words. The more I thought about
it the more pain it caused me and I couldn’t allow myself to leave it the way I had.

           
When I reached the door of Mrs. Adam’s Social Studies class the last bell rang and I deliberated for a split second and then turned around and ran back to the cafeteria. The Lunch room was still clearing out and I thought I might have a chance to actually catch him, but he wasn’t anywhere in sight. 

           I started to head back when I couldn’t find him
and I’m not sure if it was the leather or sheer determination, but I decided to go to his side of the school. I remembered Mrs. Ragsdale telling us that fraternizing on opposite sides of the school was strictly prohibited and anyone caught in the halls of the other wings would be severely punished.

            Kane had been to our side many times and nothing had ever happened to him, possibly because his mom ran the school— either way I didn’t care, I had to set things right with him. I shoved Mrs. Ragsdale’s voice out of my mind and opened the large doors that led to Kane’s side of the school.

            Holding on to the strap of my bag for extra security I held my head up and walked through the hallways like I belonged there. I figure if I acted the part I would be able to make it through without being noticed too much. I walked by a group of students without even being looked at like an outsider.

           
I don’t know what I was so scared of— they were all people just like me, only richer. I swallowed the large lump in my throat and continued down the long hallway until I reached the first classroom. Peeking through the rectangle shaped window in the door I searched for Kane. There must have been nearly fifty classrooms and I searched through every one of them until I found Kane.

            The last window pane I looked into was the right one. Though what I saw wasn’t quite right.
Kane stood at the front of the classroom teaching a group of students. He commanded the room and had everyone’s undivided attention— that wasn’t the strangest part though. Inside the room at least twenty students sat at long tables and in front of each one of them floated a large textbook.

           Quietly, I watched as every book slowly spun in the air. They all concentrated deeply on controlling their books. I knew automatically why we weren’t allowed on this side of the building. I couldn’t imagine what would happen to Kane and the rest of them if any other human had seen what I had.  The room was completely silent except for the sound of Kane’s soothing voice.

   “Very good everyone,” Kane praised the class. “You’ve all mastered levitation. Now I want you to apply the invisibility spell that we learned yesterday.”

            Every student concentrated and then one by one the books started to vanish. Kane showed he was pleased with them by softly praising them again. I watched in amazement, waiting for his next command when a boy in the back row turned and starred at me.

            Three things happened at once: first I gasped, then every book reappeared and hit the tables with a thud and lastly I ran. I didn’t get very far before Kane appeared in front of me flanked by about ten men all dressed in black. It all happened so fast, I hardly had time to re-act. Kane’s Eyes were fierce as he turned around to hide me behind himself.

“She’s mine!” He snarled. “I’ll handle this.”

“She can’t be here sir.” One of the men said as he squared his shoulders. “We’ve taken all the necessary precautions. The barrier should have blocked all human access.”

“Are you sure there aren’t any glitches?” Kane pulled the man aside.

            The other nine men stood in complete silence and watched me as I waited for Kane to finish talk
ing to the tenth man. I looked down at my hands and shoved them in my pockets to try and stop them from shaking. All nine men were on guard as I strained to listen in on Kane’s conversation.

            When Kane had finished his conversation the men disappeared and Kane escorted me down the hallway and out of the back entrance of the school. He held onto my arm and moved quickly until we were a safe distance awa
y. Suddenly he turned on his heels and grabbed me by the shoulders.

“What do you think you were doing?” His tone was serious.

“I… I…” I was so startled by everything that just happened I could hardly form a coherent sentence and it didn’t help any that Kane was so angry.

“Well, what were you thinking coming over here? Do you know how much trouble I could be in?”

“I… I didn’t know.”

“How could you be so foolish?” He shook me. “I’m taking a great risk just by being with you, don’t you see that?”

“I just wanted to apologize for the way I acted at lunch. I didn’t think it would cause any trouble.”

“You don’t ever think, do you? You just do whatever you want, whenever you want. No consequences or repercussions for your actions.”

“That’s kind of harsh. Look, I’m sorry, but maybe if you didn’t keep everything from me I would’ve known why I shouldn’t have come over here!”

“I keep things from you to protect you. I thought you understood that.” He sighed.

“I’m sorry.” I repeated with a frown.

“I’m sorry too.” He sighed as he pulled me into a hug. “I shouldn’t have let me temper show like that.”

“So, you teach magic here? I thought you were just a student.”

“I never said I was a student, you just assumed.”

“Don’t you have to be an adult to teach classes or does that not apply to you?” I tried to make my words sound as angry as I was.

“I’m a lot older than you think I am.” He admitted.

“What?” I staggered. “How old are you?”

“A lot older than you.”

“How much older?”

“I was born in the seventeenth century. I’m a little over three hundred years old, but that’s not important right now.”

“What
is
important then, keeping me in the dark and away from everyone that’s not human?”

“I’m already forfeiting my blood line to be with someone like you, don’t you understand?”

“Someone like me?” I felt the sting of his words settling into my chest. “You don’t have to worry about me holding you back any longer than!”

“Tristan wait, that’s not what I meant.” He called after me as ran away from him.

            I ran around the enti
re school until I reached the parking lot. I wasn’t sure if he would be there or not, but I figured he wouldn’t run the risk of being caught using his powers in public. He could have stopped me if he really wanted to— I was thankful that he didn’t try though.

          
As I ran to my designated parking space I realized Kane had driven me to school. My hands shook with anger as I fumbled through my back pack for my cell phone. I started to dial Faith’s number when another realization hit me. She wasn’t there to get me out of this mess. All I wanted to do was apologize for my behavior and smooth things out with Kane, but instead it had all gotten so turned around.

            I hadn’t noticed
how cold it was outside until I had been standing in the parking lot for awhile. I felt a chill and wrapped my leather coat tighter around myself. I knew I couldn’t go back to class and face any boring lectures for the rest of the day, so I started walking home and decided it would be best to hide out until school was over for the day.

           
I didn’t know how long it would actually take me to walk home, but it would give me plenty of time to think everything over before I faced Kane again. As I began to walk down the side of the road I couldn’t help but think about how excited Faith would have been if she had been here to see me skipping school.

            I was
constantly jealous of how free Faith always seemed, like nothing could ever touch her. She was always unfazed by rules and consequences. As I remembered all of the good times I had with Faith over the years, it only made me miss her that much more. I couldn’t think of anyone better to talk to about all of this witch stuff than Faith.

            My stomach churned when I thought back to the way Kane acted back at school. I had seen him mad before, but it was nothing like this. He was usually so kind and controlled. I could have sworn the veins in
his neck had popped out as he yelled at me. It seemed like even now, after I’d known him this long he was still keeping secrets from me.

            I hated that he still kept things from me. I thought we were past all of the secrets by now, but I guess I was wrong.
The fact that Emporia was a magic school and that Kane taught magic to other witches was the biggest secret of all. I wasn’t sure how I would be able to trust him after this onslaught of new information.

            After a few hours and possibly a touch of frost bite I made it home.
I skipped using the front door as usual and made my way through the yard and up the steps to my room. I pushed all thoughts of Kane out of my mind and hurried inside to get out of the ridiculous leather outfit that I had deemed appropriate this morning.

            As I stripped down and replaced the l
eather with soft cotton pajamas I decided it was going to be one of those days to watch talk shows and eat chocolate frosting in bed. I ran down the stairs and rummaged through the refrigerator until I found a half used cup of icing. After grabbing a large spoon and a glass of cold milk I turned the thermostat up and then headed back upstairs.

            Once I was back in my room I pulled the covers up to my chin, flipped on the television to a random daytime talk show and mindlessly watched as the host interviewed some ‘D-list’ celebrity. I never heard a word that was spoke
n as I sat numb in the middle of my bed wrapped in my quilt. 

            It wasn’t long before I was reaching for the chocolate icing and feeding the pain that woul
dn’t seem to go away. After completely gorging and making myself sick I passed out. I could hear the television in the background while I dozed. Though I wanted to fall into a deep sleep, it never came.

                                                                   Chapter Ten

                                                     The Great Employment Search

            I awoke to what I can only assume to be a chocolate hangover— one that was sure to be repeated. My head pounded and I felt like it could explode at any minute. It was official; I had overdosed on chocolate frosting. Looking down at the chocolate icing stain on my pillow only made me more nauseous than I already was.

           The sun was already setting as I wiped the sleep from my eyes and rolled out of bed. I discarded all of the paraphernalia into a trash bag and hid it in the bottom of my waste paper bin beside my bed. I quickly made my bed and flipped the chocolate stained pillow over to the clean side and headed downstairs to see if my mom had made it home yet.

            As I entered the living room I heard paper being rustled and spotted mom at the kitchen table going through a
pile of documents. She was so engrossed she hadn’t noticed me walk in. Quietly, I walked past her and grabbed a glass from the cupboard and began to fill it with water from the sink. The knobs squeaked as I turned off the faucet.

“Oh, Tristan.”
Mom jumped and grabbed her chest. “You nearly scared the life right out of me. I didn’t see you come in.”

“Sorry, I was trying to be quiet.” I took a seat at the kitchen table across from her and took a sip from the glass of water.

“Rough day? I see you’re already in your pajamas.” She eyed me suspiciously.

“Everything’s good. I was just tired when I came home from school, so I took a nap.
What do you got there?” I changed the subject and tried to get a better view of the paperwork in front of her.

“I’m just trying to figure out these bills. We’ve had to do some repair work at the shop and it ended up costing a lot more than we had anticipated. We had to have all the plumbing redone…” She stopped herself. “Look at me going on and on. I’m sure you don’t want to hear about all of this boring stuff, do you?”

“No, it’s okay, I don’t mind. How bad is it?”

“It’s nothing you need to worry about. I’m sure your father and I will figure it all out and it will all be fine, I promise.”

“Mom, I’m not a kid anymore. I think I can handle it.” I assured her as I took a drink of water.

“Honestly, we’re doing okay. I’m just making sure we can cover next month’s rent, that’s all. We may have to cut back a little for the next couple of months, but other than that there’s nothing to worry about.”

“If you need me to cover some shifts at the shop I don’t mind.” I volunteered. “I can come up there every day after school and even close if I need to.”