Extraordinary (24 page)

Every inch of me was buzzing and alive. With my arms wrapped around his shoulders, I closed my eyes and felt as if I were floating high above the ground and the twinkling lights were stars illuminating our dance. I understood why people risked everything to feel this way.

“And here I was thinking it was your stare that I had to watch out for,” I whispered.

“You aren’t the only one affected, Alex.”

He placed my hand on his chest. His heart was beating almost as fast as mine.

“At least I’m not the only one.”

He twirled me around, his steps fluid as we waltzed beneath our make-believe stars. I had never danced this way before. But somehow my feet understood the steps in spite of my attention being focused on Tristan. 

“I have met you before you know,” I said.

“How’s that?”

“I had a dream about you and you have stuck with me all this time.”

“No wonder you were so quiet when we met. I thought you were either very shy or very terrified.”

“Definitely terrified. Mostly confused and slightly excited.”

He smiled the same smile he showed the day we met that was so genuinely joyful it created several lines that framed his mouth. I wondered how I had ever made it through life without that smile…or how my future would look without it.

“Did someone break your heart?” he asked. “Is that why your walls are so high?”

“That’s bold.”

“I don’t mean to be forward. You’re so guarded. I can’t help but wonder why.”

I did not answer, but instead rested my head on his shoulder to contemplate my response. This question had plagued me most of my life because the older I got the more “it” pushed me away from potential relationships—love, friendship, and everything in between.

The truth was I never let anyone close enough to break my heart. Loneliness didn’t control me and that was still accurate. However, I was beginning to see that I wasn’t conquering the fear of being alone; I was simply masking my terror of falling.

“I mistook being alone as independence and, as it turns out, it cost me dearly.”

Tristan halted our dance to take both of my hands into his. I tried to brace myself for what would come next, aware that I was already in too deep.

I could not run from him and could no longer deny my affection that was more obvious than the danger awaiting us beyond the property line.

“You assume that because you made a choice that you can’t change it, but that is why we have tomorrows. Every morning is a chance to reevaluate and reassemble.”

We sat facing one another under one of the trees. The cool grass smelled like pure summertime. Tristan never let go of my hands.

“You can’t control every aspect of yourself or your life,” he continued. “Love is beyond our control but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t look for it or be so afraid that you don’t recognize it when it comes your way.”

Love
.

“You sure do have a way with words,” I said. “Are you sure that isn’t your magic power?”

“Are you sure deflecting isn’t yours?”

I really wanted to say that I recognized my love for him immediately. In fact, I might have been so daring as to say I loved him since I saw him in my dream. I wanted to say that I sensed his love for me and that I finally understood the clichéd line ‘When it’s right, you just know.’

Instead, I utilized my predictable defense mechanism.

It was clear that I had disappointed him yet again. His smile was still there but the hurt radiated through his beautifully sad eyes. The iPod, still playing, serenaded us with a rather surprising and quite emotional love song. The man’s voice sounded familiar but I could not place him.  It was clear from his words that he was head-over-heels in love. I never imagined Blaze for a pour-my-heart-out-in-a-song type of guy.

“What I really wanted to say is—” I began.

Shuffling, I crossed my legs and regained control of my hands. Taking several deep breaths, I tried to ready myself for what I was about to say but I still wasn’t sure what words would roll off my tongue.

“I care for you Tristan. It’s insane to care as much as I do. We hardly know each other!” my voice cracked. “We are already too involved in this and, although this goes against my birthday resolution, we have to be realistic about this.”

“What is unrealistic about being honest about your feelings?”

“Do you understand that tomorrow we could be dead or, best case scenario, Sadie, Blaze, and I make it back home? This will hurt enough as it is without verbalizing every emotion bubbling up inside of me. I have yet to figure out how to accept losing my mother, now I have to figure how to accept losing you. It is unfair.”

“I will get all three of you home safely. That is my promise to you. But I wanted you leave knowing not a minute was wasted. You believe fantasy is better than reality, but in my reality I get to be with you and that is better than any illusion. Wouldn’t you rather it ends because it had to not because you were too afraid to experience it when you had the chance?”

Even if I were brave enough to admit that I agreed his words had formed a lump in my throat.

“Maybe we are just too different,” he said. “I believe that to love, even for a day, is better than a lifetime of regret. That's all I wanted—to be with you while I had the chance and carry that moment with me in the days after.”

For someone who planned out every possible scenario for every situation presented, I had somehow managed to miss the most important one. Tristan made an excellent argument, but I should have known that all along. There was no rational reason I should hold back, only worried excuses.

“You are right,” I said. “You can’t plan for love or loss. My thoughts are my way of protecting myself and they keep me on the safe path. The safe path is lonely and, honestly, it just confuses me. I never know how I truly feel about anything because there is a constant tug-of-war in my brain.”

My voice was almost a screech. I really had no idea how to be emotional.

“Why can’t you just go back with us? Mom got to pass through, why not you?”

“It’s just not that simple.”

“What does that mean?”

“Your mother risked her life to protect our town.”

“You are risking your life to protect us.”

“Alex, this isn’t a negotiation. The only way to protect your mother was to send her away. The Elders don’t concern themselves with every little thing and they certainly aren’t just handing out tickets to Earth in the town square.”

“The Elders? Are they like your authority figures?”

He nodded.

“Where are they? Why aren’t they helping us?”

“That’s complicated. Trust me, the last thing you want is them interfering.”

I honestly did not want to delve into that subject. The Elders sounded like a group of old guys I would find a great deal of annoyance with, especially since they did not seem keen on providing assistance or showing themselves.

No one who would listen had any power to change our fate. In a world of magic as we ourselves developed our own special blend of mystical ability, we had very little power over our own destiny.

This had to be enough.

I tucked myself beside of him, resting my head on his chest, inhaling the intoxicating, and already familiar, scent of Tristan. The music had stopped but the sound of nature serenaded us now. Crickets and birds chirped and whistled their own unique tune for our special night. Life almost made sense.  There were no more questions to ask or answers to be given. All was peaceful.

“Tristan?”

Well, maybe there was one question that needed an answer.

“Yes,” he breathed.

“What is your last name?”

“Cain.”

The two of us broke out into a silly laughing fit. We both knew it was absurd to love someone when you haven’t even had time to learn his last name. I could not believe I had ever tried to resist him. Regardless of the outcome, I knew that, in one way or the other, I would never be the same.

I couldn’t have cared less.

****

Chapter Nineteen

“You try it first,” I said.

“Chicken,” Blaze responded, placing two drops of the purple potion on his tongue.

We all awaited his reaction. I secretly anticipated awkward side effects.

This marked day four in Haliwick. We had awoken to find ourselves radically weakened. Originally, I blamed my condition on yesterday’s wrestling matches but this went far beyond physical fatigue.

Opening my eyes was exhausting. Pulling the covers back felt like lifting heavy dumbbells. Once I managed to get to my feet, I feared the weight of my body would crush my legs. My usual one hundred thirty pounds felt more like three hundred and I collapsed.

Tristan had carried my feeble, ineffective body into the living room. He had lingered in the hallway waiting for me to wake up since Sadie had had a similar predicament thirty minutes earlier.

Blaze was weak but his strength was far greater than ours, supernatural or not. He had slept on the couch and that was where I found him when I was placed in the chair across from him with great delicacy.

“How do you feel?” I asked Blaze. “Better? Worse? Poisoned?”

“Hey! I know how to mix a potion,” Tristan said. “Give me a little credit.”

I winked at him to let him know I was teasing. This time my flirting did not embarrass me.

“I feel better,” Blaze answered. “I can feel it recharging my body. Try it. It's…interesting. That’s for sure.”

Sadie took her two drops without further hesitation. Not to be outdone, when she tossed the bottle to me I immediately did the same. I tasted the drops as they touched my tongue. The mixture resembled a sour candy, tart and sweet. The liquid slid down my throat, somersaulted past my heart and lungs, and cartwheeled through my stomach, jolting me back to life.

By the time the effects reached my toes, Blaze was already facedown on the floor doing push-ups. Sadie twirled around the room like she’d inhaled fairy dust. Neither of which was that unusual for them.

“Now I remember why I never had a desire to try drugs,” I said.

My bobbing knees rattled the heavy wooden table on my right. The glass lampshade trembled and the cordless lamp itself wobbled across the table, dangerously close to the edge. Not sure how else to deal with my newfound burst of energy, I crossed my legs under me and knotted my fingers together in my lap. Sadie continued to spin around until she reached Blaze and stood on his back, which did not seem to slow his workout.

“We aren’t on drugs,” Sadie said. “This is lifesaving magic. Regardless, I’m just happy I can stand again.”

“So happy that standing on the plain old floor just isn’t enough,” I said.

“Exactly,” she said, reeling with excitement from being lifted up and down.

“I’m just glad it worked,” I said. “I feel so different. Stronger.”

Tristan's tonic had revived us. We hovered somewhere between life and death but with the potion we felt more alive than on most average days. Tristan entered the room carrying a tray of bagels and cream cheese.

“You have bagels here?” I asked.

“It’s a round piece of bread,” he said. “It’s not rocket science.”

“Oh, you’re so clever,” I said, reveling in our early morning banter.

We each grabbed a bagel and proceeded to eat in silence. If not for the high voltage magic jolting through my insides I might have believed we had all lost our strength again. We knew what came next. Each of us consumed our “round pieces of bread” as if they would be our last meal because it very well might. I suddenly wished he had made waffles.

After nearly an hour of silent contemplation and painfully slow chewing, our minds no longer had breakfast to dwell on.

“I guess it’s time,” Blaze said, ending the silence. “We can’t keep sitting here avoiding the obvious.”

“I know you’re right but it still doesn’t seem real,” I said. “I don’t suppose it is possible to truly get used to something like this.”

“I second that,” Sadie said.

“Does everyone understand the plan?” Tristan asked.

“It’s not that difficult,” Sadie said.

We had been over it a million times. The plan was practically tattooed on our brains.

"Escape, defeat, home," I said blandly.

Sounded simple but we knew it never would be. Life or death situations were never simple. We could walk out of the house and never make it past the barrier. We could make it to Katerina, only to be killed when we reached her. Some of us could make it. Some of us could die.

Or, we could win.

Winning for me was a catch-22. Winning meant leaving and leaving meant saying goodbye. Winning also meant Sadie and Blaze would survive, and that was all I could permit myself think about.

“It’s now or never,” I said. “Let’s go before this potion wears off or I lose my nerve.”