In the Shadows (4 page)

I feel the need to at least explain that much. I don’t want my best friend thinking anything scandalous about me.  But I can’t help but feel a little irritated. Doesn’t she realize that I wouldn’t just blow her off for nothing? That there are about a million other things going on in my life right now?

Of course she doesn’t. She has no idea. That’s the problem, I remind myself.

“Whatever Mia. It doesn’t matter. The fact is that you have been acting weird for weeks now. I don’t understand what is going on with you. I mean, I know you have a boyfriend now but—”

“It’s not that,” I assure her. “It’s just--it’s just complicated. I wish I could explain—”

“I thought you could tell me anything,” she says sadly before turning around and walking away from me.

“Wait a second!” I call after her. She stops and turns around with her arms crossed.

“What?” she asks, her voice dripping with irritation.

“You just said you thought
I
could tell
you
anything but what about you?” I ask. “I heard about Seth
this morning
. Why didn't you tell me? I mean, are you okay? Do you know what happened? I don't understand why you wouldn't tell me?”

“Because you're never around anymore.” She shrugs like she's gotten used to it but I can see the tears start to well in her eyes before she turns and walks away from me again. A part of me wants to chase my best friend down and fill her in on all of my secrets but I can’t.

I walk out of that smelly gym remembering how just a few months ago Hannah, Seth, Grey, and I attended the Homecoming dance together in this very room. Things were so different then. That was back before I knew anything about Álfheimr or Light Elves and Dark Elves.

That was a time when I was just an ordinary teenage girl with a crush on a swoon-worthy boy and the most serious thing I had to worry about was whether or not he was going to kiss me good-night.

Things were totally different now. 

Chapter Five

B
efore I head home, I send Jacoby a text asking him to call me later. I still haven’t had a chance to really talk to him yet with Ethan’s appearance and everything that followed.

What’s Ethan doing here? What’s it going to be like with three babysitters at school tomorrow? What’s Adele’s story going to be? Will she ‘live’ with Grey too?

Grey and Jacoby have a house here in Manhattan just off of Tuttle Creek Blvd. I don’t think that they ever actually stay there though. They just keep it up for appearances and to have a legit address on file. As far as this small Kansas town knows, Grey and Jacoby are cousins. Jacoby’s parents died leaving him an orphan but his uncle and aunt took him in. There really isn’t an uncle or aunt to speak of, of the human variety anyway. Grey just uses a little elfish memory manipulation to
persuade
people to believe that story. Elves don’t really like messing with humans’ heads like that, but Alberico thinks it’s a necessary measure to ensure my safety. 

The drive home seemed to take a million years but finally I’m sprawled out on my bed about to fall asleep when I hear the front door unlock and open and my mom’s and Paul’s voices carry up the stairs.

“It’s just not like her. She better have a good explanation for it.”

Before I even have time to sit up, Mom barges into my room with Paul trailing closely behind her.

“Where have you been?” she demands.

“At cheerleading clinics?” I answer slightly confused since I told her I had cheer clinics tonight before I left for school this morning. Oh crap. School. Better just act innocent.

“You know very well that’s NOT what I’m talking about! Why weren’t you at school today?”

Crap. Crap. Crappity crap crap.

“Well, uh, um, I just, uh,” I stutter, unable to come up with a reason why I skipped school since telling her the truth was obviously out of the question.

“
Senioritis.
” I hear Jacoby’s voice inside my head. “Or blame it on me. Tell her I convinced you to skip with me and we spent the whole day out at the lake.”

“She already hates you enough, I’m not throwing you under the bus like that!”

“Exactly, she already hates me so it will be easy to convince her I coerced you into it.”

“I don’t like this idea.”

“You better hurry and say something before she gets even more pissed at you for ignoring her.”

“Um, I just felt like skipping today,” I try to explain. “Everyone else does it and I’ve never done it before so I thought I’d try it. I don’t see what the big deal is. It was a one-time thing.”

“What?! That is hands-down the worse excuse I’ve ever heard!” She throws her hands up in the air in exasperation. “Everyone else does it so you thought you’d try it—seriously, Mia? And I’m sure if they were all jumping off a cliff you’d want to try that too?”

“It depends.”

“On what?” She practically growls at me.

“On if there’s a lake under said cliff.”

“This isn’t a joke.”

“It kind of is, Mom. I mean, didn’t you ever skip class in high school?” She blinks and I can tell from her reaction that she did but doesn’t want to admit it.

“That’s beside the point, young lady.”

“Look, I’m sorry. Really, I am. I just needed a mental health day. I won’t do it again. I promise.”

“You better not. I’d really hate to have to ground you,” she threatens. “Consider this your official warning.”

“Got it.”

“Okay, well, Good night.”

“Night, Mom.”

I lay back down on my bed and shut my eyes. As exhausted as I feel, my mind’s still spinning.

“
Is the coast clear
?” Jacoby asks me using Mind-speak.

“
Yes
.” I reply and a moment later he appears in my room.

“Hey, Lark.” He saunters over to my bed and sits down beside me. My heart starts to thump having him here, sitting on my bed. I’m not sure which makes me more nervous, the hot boy next to me, or the fact that my mom could walk in at any moment.

He pulls me closer and I snuggle up to him. I inhale his woodsy scent and exhale a breath of sweet contentment.

“How was your day?”

“Let’s see, it started off with yet another nightmare, then I find out my best friend's boyfriend is missing and she didn't feel like she could talk to me about it—Best Friend of the Year over here,” I add sarcastically before continuing, “Ethan is back, then of course there’s the fact that I completely forgot about cheer clinics which made Hannah even more mad at me than she already was. I doubt she ever speaks to me again now. Oh, and then to top it all off I had to listen to Mom lecture me about skipping school—for the first time ever I might add. Other than all of that? It’s been pretty good. It’s better now though,” I answer as I snuggle up closer to him. “How was yours?”

“You had another nightmare?”

“Yeah.”

“The same?”

“Of course. It’s been the same for weeks now. Ever since—“

“That night,” he finishes for me. “I’m sorry Lark. I should’ve been there this morning. If I would’ve known you had another nightmare I would’ve stayed,” he assures me guiltily. He knows how these nightmares affect me.

“It’s okay. I was just a little shaken up. Grey helped though.”

“You talked to Grey about it?” He seems a little stunned that I would confide in someone else. The truth is Jacoby may be my boyfriend but Grey is one of my best friends. I had been reluctant at first to share my fears with Grey but afterwards I did feel better. 

It’s funny now that my feelings for him are strictly platonic how easy it is for me to talk to him. Before, I was always worried about whether he liked me back or not. Now that we are just friends I realize how good of a friend he has always been.

“Well, yeah, I mean, he was there and he could tell something was bothering me so he asked and I told him. It wasn’t a big deal.” Even though Grey and I are finally “just friends” like we should be, I don’t want to give Jacoby any reason at all to be jealous of him so I think it’s time for a change of subject. “So how was your day?”

“Smooth change of subject there,” he says with a smile like he knows exactly what my motive was. “It was fine. Maybe good even. I’m not sure yet.” His expression turns thoughtful and it’s only then that I remember Isobel asked him to meet with her. I had been so distracted by everything else today that I never did ask what it was that Isobel wanted to tell him.

“What is it? What did Isobel want to talk to you about?” I ask as I sit up so that I can face him. I may not be able to see his aura to know his mood but I have become pretty good at deciphering his expressions.

“It’s nothing. I’m not sure I want to talk about it yet.” His eyes are sad and there’s only one thing that can trigger such emotion in him.

“It’s something about your parents?” I say the words quietly, testing the waters, not wanting to make him upset but at the same time encouraging him to open up to me about it.

I can tell he is reluctant, not because he doesn’t trust me but because he is still very much affected by what happened to his parents. I don’t think he has forgiven himself even though I’ve tried over and over to explain that it wasn’t his fault. Dugan hunted them because of a prophecy predicting that a Half-blood would be able to free the Dark Elves from the curse placed upon them by Sόl. Jacoby was just a kid. He had no idea he even was a Half-blood. His elf mother, Cordelia, had kept that from him to try to protect him. 

“She took me to our home. The one where I lived with my mom and dad.”

“Are you serious? Where is it?”

“It’s in Missouri. A small town called Diamond. There’s nothing there. In the town, I mean. There isn’t anything remotely interesting about it, unless you count George Washington Carver National Park, which I don’t because to be honest, I don’t find peanuts to be all that exhilarating. It’s just a small town surrounded by lots of wooded area and farmland. It’s a place someone could easily disappear in. Except—“

Except they still weren’t able to hide from Dugan.

“Was it hard? Seeing it, I mean.”

“At first.” He shrugs, “She wanted to try to find the campground we were camping at that night so we were looking for some clues.”

“But why?”

“She thinks there might be an entrance to the Underworld there. She wants to find it and block it off.”

“An entrance to the Underworld? But how--?”

“The humans working for Dugan, the ones he doesn’t value enough to give an amulet, have to have a way into the Underworld.”

“Oh. Oh, that’s not good. But it makes perfect sense. You think it’s in the forest you were camping in with your family? Did you find the campground?”

“Sorta, it’s over by this river called Jack’s Fork. It has several caves along the bank and there are rumors of a bottomless pool of water in one of them called Jam Up or something like that. Isobel seems pretty convinced that’s where we’ll find the portal to the Underworld. So now it’s just a matter of getting to it.”

“What do you mean?”

“You can only get there by floating down the river. Obviously once we’ve been there once, we can transport there but the first time it’s going to be tricky. I guess the cave is hidden from view.”

“How will you find it then?”

“Isobel suspects I’ll be able to find it better than anyone.”

“Why?”

“She said that it might have its own— its own sort of aura. Sort of like an interruption in the atmosphere.”

“Do you think that’ll work? That you’ll be able to see it?”

He shrugs. “Maybe. I guess we’ll see. We’re going to check it out this weekend.”

“This weekend? Can I come too?” This is such a big deal I feel like I should be there for him. Not that he would ever admit to being upset. I can’t imagine how hard it will be to be taken back to the place where his parents were murdered.

“Of course,” he finally smiles. It's not his usual grin, but it's a smile nonetheless and I'm glad that I asked if I could tag along .

I’m not ready for him to leave yet so in a moment of bravery (or stupidity if my Mom happens to check on me at some point in the middle of the night), I ask Jacoby, “Will you stay until I fall asleep?”

He leans in and kisses me gently, causing tingles down my spine and filling my stomach with warm fuzzies. “I’ll stay as long as you’ll let me.”

And with that, despite how busy my brain had been trying to process all of this new information, I fell into the most peaceful slumber I’ve had in days. 

Chapter Six

             
A
s I’m heading to lunch on my first day at school with all three babysitters, I realize it’s not going as bad as I had expected.  Adele’s pretty discreet and doesn’t follow me into the stall when I have to use the restroom after all. Though we do have gym together, so she is in the locker room while I change, but I guess there’s really no way to avoid that. 

              My only complaint is that it’s her first day and already she’s better than me in all of my classes. Apparently Adele’s a bookworm too, only instead of filling her mind with fantasy stories about wizards, vampires, and werewolves like me, she enjoys reading textbooks.

              Nerd alert.

              Seriously, who enjoys reading text books? I mean, I read them because I want to do well in school, but it’s not like I get any enjoyment out of it—other than the good grades anyway. I read for fun and to escape the mundaneness that is reality, to get lost in make-believe worlds where good always triumphs over evil.

              Of course, I haven’t been reading much lately—probably because my life has turned into a fantasy novel. Maybe that’s why Adele reads human textbooks, she’s been living in this mythological world her entire life, and maybe she likes to escape the fantastical with the mundane.

              Whatever her reason behind reading books like Fundamental Molecular Biology and Physical Chemistry is, it doesn’t matter. All that matters is that she’s totally showing me up in our classes and I’m not sure how I feel about that yet.