Discovery: Altera Realm Trilogy (52 page)

"I was hoping you could help us. We're looking for some friends of ours who came to town a few weeks ago. A woman, dark hair, young, violet eyes. And a man, with dark hair also and rather big," Noelle said with a few key motions.

"She's depressed, and he's brooding. Both most likely buzz kills," Gabe added with a smirk.

"I know the two. Although 'depressed' and 'brooding' don't really fit the bill," she said, pointing to the back of the room.

Gabe and Noelle turned to the set of Colinton tables in the back. Hunter and Syney were there, each with a cue in hand. Noelle gave him a questioning but relieved look. He shrugged and led the way. They stopped a few feet away from them. Hunter leaned down to make a shot just as Syney jumped up and sat on the edge of the table next to him. She smiled at him and ran a hand through his hair. He stood up and gave her a look.

"What?" she asked.

"That's cheating."

"It's not. I have no idea what you're talking about."

"You can't distract me!"

"I obviously can."

"Not with it being fair!"

Syney laughed at him as he moved to stand in front of her. He tossed the cue onto the table and kissed her.

"Oh," Noelle said quietly. She looked at Gabe with wide eyes.

Gabe cleared his throat exaggeratedly.

Hunter and Syney looked over at them. Instead of looking guilty or as if they'd been caught, Hunter smiled, and Syney jumped off the table. "Noelle!" she yelled, and embraced the other girl.

Noelle hugged her back. "Hey! What are you two doing?"

"Playing a game, obviously. This town is amazing!" Syney said, her voice filled with enthusiasm. "Their market is, like, ten times better than ours. You should see the stones and gems they have."

Noelle nodded. "I'm sure they're great. But we really need to get you two back to the palace. It's getting harder to pretend that you're still there."

"Oh, we're not going back," Syney said.

Noelle stared at her. "What?"

"We like it here. Besides, there's no good reason to go back."

Noelle looked at Hunter. "Some help here."

He laughed. "Not from me. I have no reason to go back either."

She looked at Gabe, who had been watching the exchange with little interest. They were obviously charmed. No one could be that happy naturally. He shrugged. "Charmed."

Noelle looked shocked. "What? Are you sure?"

"Mostly. But there's a spell you can do to check."

"Not here. I'm pretty sure the woman at the bar did it. She keeps looking over here," Noelle said, throwing a smile over to the barmaid. "Syney, where are you two staying?"

"Upstairs, silly."

"Can we see it?"

Syney nodded and led them up the stairs.

Once they were there, Noelle sat Syney and Hunter at the foot of the bed and looked at Gabe. "OK, so the spell... I know this..." She looked off into the distance, her face scrunching up.

Gabe stared at her, trying not to laugh. She looked cute when she was thinking this hard. He looked away quickly. He needed to stop thinking about things like that. He glanced at Syney and Hunter, who had taken the opportunity to start kissing each other, as if they were alone. He shook his head. He couldn't stand this any longer.
"Revelare caeca,"
he said, not out loud but into her head.

Noelle scowled at him. "You could have just told me out loud, you know."

"I could have," he smiled. "But where's the fun in that?"

Noelle looked back at the two lovebirds and repeated the spell. She frowned. "I don't think it worked."

Gabe held out his hand to her.

She stared at it for a moment before taking it and trying the spell again. This time her eyes widened, and she smiled at her success. "Definitely charmed. I think."

Gabe didn't have to ask her what she saw, because he had seen it the second they had found Syney and Hunter. Along with their natural glow, they had a pink haze over them. "Do you know how to get rid of a charm?" he asked.

Noelle nodded. "I'm pretty sure I just have to ground them. Give them a pulse of life force."

Gabe nodded. "Sounds good."

Noelle walked up to Hunter first. She held out her hands and told him to take them. He did with little hesitation. Noelle closed her eyes, and Gabe watched her colors shift from pink to turquoise. A moment later the smile on Hunter's face fell, and he looked at Noelle calmly.

"Thank you," he said quietly. He looked at Syney, who still wore a silly grin.

Noelle moved to Syney, but she already had jumped up from the bed, shaking her head. "No way. I don't want it. I'm staying like this."

"But you're not you. Syney, you're under a spell called a charm. It released your inhibitions and made you forget about everything but love."

"And it feels good! I don't want to go back to what I was going through before!"

Hunter stood and walked over to her, taking her hands in his own. "You have to. All those things we kept pushing aside? We have to go back to them."

Syney's smile finally fell. "Fine."

Noelle pulled the charm off her as quickly as she had with Hunter.

Gabe got a little nervous once she was done with both of them. The "reveal" spell only worked for so long, and Noelle still hadn't noticed the curse on Syney. He felt lucky at first, since Syney was wearing a shirt that revealed her lower torso. The curse was right there, exposed. He was about to figure out a new plan when Noelle's eyes grew wide.

"Oh, what is that?"

Syney, who had seemed to physically return to her depressed state, gave the blonde a bored look. "What?"

Noelle dropped to her knees. "That pain you kept having. Was it right here?" She placed a few fingers on Syney's side.

"It's still there actually. But yes, that's the spot. Why?"

"Well, there... There's a curse there. And it's not very bright."

"What do you mean by a 'curse'?" Hunter asked.

"It looks like a curse. I have no idea which one, but it definitely is one."

"What does the brightness have to do with anything?" Syney asked, looking down at the spot.

"The longer a curse is on someone, the fainter it gets, until it disappears completely. At that point it can no longer be reversed," Noelle said, standing back up. "We need to get this off you now."

Gabe suppressed a smile. Finally something was going his way.

"Are there books about this in the Village?" Hunter asked.

"All locked up probably, and there's no way the queen will let us in," Noelle said, shaking her head.

"I know someone," Gabe chimed in.

They all looked at him.

"Of course you do," Noelle said, rolling her eyes.

"She has all sorts of magic books, even ones that are banned in the Village."

"Where is she?" Syney asked quietly, her skin looking paler and paler by the second.

"The Human Realm."

Syney nodded and headed to the dresser. She pulled out her clothes and shoved them into her bag.

"This isn't a good idea," Hunter said.

Syney stopped and looked at him. "I need this thing off me."

"We don't even know what it is."

She took a deep breath. "Whatever I've been feeling isn't getting any better. But I didn't feel it when we were charmed, which means it has to be magical, right? And if I can get rid of these feelings, then I have to, for my own sanity."

After a moment he nodded and packed his own clothes.

Gabe turned away from them, finally not able to keep back his smile. There were a few things he needed to do in the Human Realm, and all of them could be done at his old friend's place. It also would be a good place for Syney to pick up a little magic if she was interested, and he needed her to be interested. Everything was falling into place nicely. He just needed to keep it from going off track again, if he could.

Syney

Gabe led the way on foot, while Hunter took up the rear position on horseback, both a bit of a ways away, which left Syney and Noelle awkwardly riding in between them. Syney gave Noelle a few glances, not really knowing what to say. "I'm sorry I was sleeping with your crush" didn't seem like enough. She could go into the reasons she had done it, but it all would just sound terrible if she said it out loud, which would make matters worse. So she settled on silence, which seemed natural to her now that all of those horrible feelings had come back. She didn't want to look behind her—mainly because she might grab Hunter and run as fast as she could back to Colchin just to beg Willow to charm them again. She had no doubt the older woman had done it, which is why she had made sure to give her a hug and thank her before they'd left town. The last three weeks had been almost perfect. No, they had been exactly perfect.

She wiped a tear off her cheek and swallowed. She needed to keep herself together, at least until they got whatever this thing was off her.

"Can we just agree that nothing happened?"

Syney looked over at Noelle and shook her head. "I wish. I just don't think that's possible."

Noelle sighed. "I just don't want to not be...friends."

"Friends tell each other things, like when they like a guy."

"Or when they're sleeping with one."

The two stared at each other for a moment.

"I'm really sorry," Syney said quietly, even more tears welling up in her eyes. "I could give you all sorts of excuses, but I don't really want to."

"It's OK."

"No, it isn't. I should have said something to you."

"How about we just make a deal?" Noelle said. "From now on we tell each other everything. That way we won't have to go around guessing, and we can even help each other out."

Syney nodded. What did she have to lose? Her only big secret was Hunter, and Noelle knew about that already. "Deal."

"I would hug you, but I'm pretty sure you'd fall off the horse."

Syney nodded. She should have laughed, but she just couldn't. She really needed to get this curse off her.

Noelle sighed. "I kissed Gabe."

"I'm sorry...what?"

"On the way to Colchin. We had this moment, or at least I thought it was a moment, but he just walked away."

"Did he say anything?"

Noelle shook her head. "What do you know about him?"

"Not much. He was married once. She died."

Syney watched Noelle's face drop. "Oh," she said, turning to look ahead of them.

Syney bit her lip. "Was that something I wasn't supposed to say?"

"Oh, no, no, no." Noelle sighed. "I just wasn't expecting that. But I guess when you're almost a thousand years old, being married would tend to happen."

"He's what?"

Noelle nodded. "He told me earlier. It's interesting, because most Vampires choose to die after a lifetime or two. The ones who live to be really old are usually from big-name houses."

"Interesting."

They lapsed back into silence as they rode the rest of the way to the portal. They rode through the night, which was pretty tough. Syney mentally sang songs to keep her eyes open, but once they reached land that looked semi-familiar, she perked right up. She wasn't sure how she felt about returning home. She was hesitant to say that she was happy. They tied the horses to some trees and stepped through the portal. The second Syney took a deep breath of the air, she felt more relaxed. It was dark, but there was still a little color in the sky, which meant the sun must have just set.

She turned to Hunter, about to ask what they should do, when she noticed that Gabe was gone. "Where did he go?"

"Probably to get a car," Hunter said, avoiding eye contact. He had been doing that since they had left Colchin. Syney didn't like it but could understand it.

A few minutes later, Gabe drove up to them in a new BMW. Hunter folded himself into the passenger seat, while Syney and Noelle took the backseat.

"You could have chosen something a little less flashy," Hunter said, turning off the radio, which had been blasting.

"Relax. We're not too far. But we need to stop for some kind of food."

"No."

"Yes. Your hunger is killing me," Gabe said, pulling away. He drove a little ways down the road and into a gas station that had a store attached.

Noelle and Hunter went into the store, leaving Syney and Gabe alone in the car. She looked over at him across the dark car, but he ignored her, as if he were alone. Finally she got out of the car and moved to the front seat. She looked at him, and after a while, he looked back.

"What do you want me to say?" he asked, raising his eyebrows. "I'm not sorry."

"I don't want you to be. I just... I love you."

He shook his head. "No you don't."

"No, I do. Just not the way I do Hunter. More like the way I do Noelle. You're my best friend, and I need you to know that I care about you. And I don't regret what we did."

He stared at her, his head resting on the seat. "You should."

"You know, you're a good guy. You should stop trying to be the asshole in the room. It's not really you." Syney looked over at the store. Hunter and Noelle were little blobs of color in the back of the store—safe enough away. She looked back at Gabe, leaned forward, and kissed him lightly on the lips. After a moment she felt his cold hand cradle her cheek. She backed away, got out of the car, and returned to the backseat. Syney looked up and caught Gabe's stare in the rearview mirror.