Luminescence (Luminescence Trilogy) (16 page)

He ran a hand through his sandy hair. “Unbelievable,” he muttered.

“I know right
.
”
Yes, s
omeone to share my disbelief.

“
Brianna
,
listen to me. You must b
e careful – witches ar
e unpredictable and treacherous,
”
he warned.

He
was telling me to be careful? Lukas
w
as a figment of my imagination.
And here I thought I had an ally in my astonishment of witche
s roaming the world. Guess not.

“He could be dangerous,”
he insisted when I didn’t respond
and just stood there glaring at him
.

What did he know of danger? I couldn’t help it, I snorted – which was defiantly a mistake. Gavin had done nothing but protect me from trouble. I doubted it would have made a difference to Lukas. Narrowing his eyes at
me,
he knew that I wasn’t taking him seriously. The annoyance rippled through him and sent a wave of caution in the back of my mind. He had decided to hate Gavin from the get-go. Nothing I could say would change that, his opinion was set in stone – it was written his stance. However
,
the need to defend Gavin was overpowering and difficult to disregard.

I shouldn’t have brought it up all and I instantly regretted the choice.
What had I been thinking?
That Lukas was a friend and I could confide
in him.
I couldn’t trust anything anymore.

“Brianna, I am serious,” he said offended
with clenched teeth
.
The veins in his neck even started to pulse in annoyance. I’ve never seen Lukas get upset. Prior to today, I wasn’t even sure he had a temper. I guess now I knew. The dark green of his eyes happened so fast, that I
was taken aback.

“I know you are. I’m sorry. It’s just that I can’t see Gavin hurting anyone,” I said defensively.

“Look there is a lot you don’t k
now.
”
His voice was stern with an underlying of impatience.

And apparently he did. Now that I thought about it, he wasn’t the least bit surprised when I told him Gavin was a witch. “What do you know about witches… other than they are dangerous
?
”

He sighed and sat the floor of
sand
.
And for the first time I looked around. We were on a small island surrounding by nothing but
the midnight
waters, exotic flowers and palms
. The moons reflection showed like a globe over the rippling waves.
His voice interjected my inspection of the island.

“More than you know. They aren’t all dangerous. There are good and evil just like in the human race. Not all witches use their gift with respect and understanding. Many abuse the privileges they were blessed with or get caught
up
in the power.”

Okay that all made sense. Good and evil always existed. I kind of expected that. What I didn’t except is for
Lukas to know so much about it.

He must have seen the emotions flickering in my eyes.
“Brianna I’m not trying to hurt you, just the opposite. I’m trying to look out for you,”
he argued.

I sunk into the sand next to him. “I just don’t know about anything anymore. I feel like I’ve lost grip on reality,”
I admitted, shifting
gains of
sand through my fingers.

“You haven’t,” he assured
, bumping his shoulder with mine
. “This is just beginning.”

Crap.
That’s what I was afraid of.

Chapter 17

I SAT BEHIND THE COUNTER
at
Mystic’s
.
M
y
aunt was
changing the displa
y for the next season
in the front window
. Organizing a list of stock that threatened to make me cross-eyed, I took a break sipping on some sweet tea.
My aunt had her sleeves rolled up as she worked. Kicking back in my stool I watched her drape a bronze fabric over the sill. She caught me watching her and grinned.

“How was Morris Landing
last night
?
Did you guys have a good time?
” she asked.

“It was defiantly filled with terror,”
I said thinking about my near death experi
ence.
Eliminating
that
tidbit
sounded like a
good
idea
. The last think I needed was her worrying about me every time I left the house.

“I don’t know how you guys find that trail fun.
It still gives me the heebie-jeebies and I haven’t been there in years.”

She had me there. That
was going to be the last ti
me I stepped into Morris Landing
voluntarily.

“
Though with Gavin there, I doubt
you had much to be frightened of,” she commented
,
smiling at me mischievously.

“You have no idea,” I muttered under my breath.
Her insinuation hit s
o close to home.

“You know I haven’t seen Tori or
Austin
in here for a while. How are they?” she asked.

Tori and
Austin
would occasionally stop into the store when I worked on Saturday’s to keep me company and bug the hell ou
t
of
me all at once. The guilt that we were drifting somehow made me sick and for my aunt to notice, made it worse.

“Ummm, they’re good. You are never going to guess what the two of them dressed up as last night.” My aunt was very fond of them both and found them humorously entertaining.

“I can only imagine,” she
said
as she started to stack some items on the display.

My aunt wasn’t the biggest fan of musicals but I was
,
so she suffered through
them more times than I could count
. “Brad and Janet,” I told her
and aimlessly played with the straw in my sweet tea
.

She was shaking her head smirking. “I should have known it was going to be from
Rocky Horror Picture Show
.
The three of you watched it every Halloween.
”

True we had, except this one, again with the guilt.

I picked back u
p my inventory list and started reconciling
the items, trying to not think abou
t what a horrible friend I was.

***

T
he bell never rang above the door, but it didn’t matter. Where he was concerned, I had an internal alarm. I knew he was there the moment he opened the door. His reckless scent fanned my senses and made my slightly dizzy.
He wore jeans and w
hite tee that hugged his chest.

“Did you use magic?” I whispered when he reached me.

He smirked.
All the answer I needed.

“
Are
you trying to sneak up on me?
” I asked. “Y
ou
aren’t
afraid someone will see you?”

“Most people are too preoccupied to notice something so small,”
he replied, excitement was brewing in his face. He was up to something.

I guess that
meant
I d
idn
’t count as
most people
.
“Oh, I forgot. I have your hoodie. If I’d known you were coming I would have brought it in.”

“Keep it,”
he replied grinning.
“I brought you something,”
he said watching me.

I narrowed my gaze.

“Hold out your hand,” he prompted.

I laid my hand palm open on the glass counter an
d looked into his smiling eyes.

“Now close your eyes.
”

I glared at him.

“Close them,” he laughed.

Closing my eyes, I waited for whatever surprise he had in store. A cool
metal
touched my palm, followed by the weight of something more.
I didn’t need to open my eyes to see what it was. Just like I knew he had stepped into the shop I knew he had found my necklace.
Closing my palm around the ston
es, the smoothness was
reassuring
.

“You found it,” I said grinning and opened my eyes to be swallowed b
y pools of shimmering sapphire.

“I told you I would,”
he reminded me.

“And I told you not to…” I scolded. “T
hank
you. I’m really glad you did.”

He took the necklace from my grasp
.
“Turn around.”

Doing as I
was
told, I lift
ed
the hair o
f
f
the back of
my neck. He unclasped the necklace and settled
it
aroun
d my throat
. His fingers grazed the sides
, spearing
alertness
in every tingling nerve.
I shu
dd
ered involuntarily
and silently mourned the loss of contact
.
Turning back around, I touched the stones at my throat.

“They’ll help you sleep,” he said, reminding me of the
peculiar
lady from the shop. It just occurred to me that she could have very well been a witch. I made a mental note to ask Sophie next time I saw her.

“Do they really have properties like that?” I asked curiously. “The place I bought this said the same thing,” I admitted.

He came around the coun
ter, moved the other stool closer to me and sat down. The fireflies started buzzing.
“They do.
Crystal
and stones each have their own function. Some work stronger than others, depending on how well they are received. These two together, the moonstone and amethyst
,” he paused and fingered the stones at my neck, causing an all new set of thrills to swirl in my belly.
“Wo
rk harmoniously together – especially for you. If I had to pick, these are the ones I would have
choose
for you,”
he informed
, letting the stones fall back on my throat
.
Our knees bumped casually.

“Do you have a
ny
stone
s
or crystal
s
?”
I was utterly caught in the
tone of his voice and
his
words
. He might as well have spellbound me; I was so enamored by him.

He pulled two crystals from his pocket.
“Mine are black onyx and obsidian. Protection against black magic,”
he stated seriously, losing a little of the glint in his eyes.

“Is there a lot of that – black magic?” My thoughts turned to my dream last night
– the warning
.

“More than I want to admit. I don’t want to scare you Bri,”
he said. “Magic can be wonderful and exuberating, but with everything there is a price. It isn’t meant to be misused. And there are plenty people out there willing to do just that. Just as there is light in this world, there is dark
.”

This conversation was beginning
to
eerily mirror my dream
.

“Have you ever done dark magic,” I hesitantly asked, afraid just what the answer might be. Lukas had to be wrong. Gavin wouldn’t hurt me.

His eyes roamed to the tile floor in the shop and for just a second I held my breath with the possibility I might be wrong. “No, I’ve never given myself over to d
arkness…but I kne
w some who did
.
” His express was filled with pain and hurt as he spoke. “And lost them because of it,” he finally said with and edgy torment.

“I’m so sorry
Gavin,” I replied, enclosing his hand with mine, offering him comfort. He s
tared down at our joined hands.

Toying
with a ring I wore on my right
finger
,
he twirled
the knotted silver band. “I like hearing you say my name,” he softly spoke.

Gravitating towards him, I wanted to close the distance between us. It didn’t matter that I was working or that anyone could come strolling through the door. The only thing that matter was him. I was absurdly disappointed when he pulled back and it showed all over my face. I had to suppress the groan that formed at my lips.
What I should have been was thankful that
some
one was thinking clearly, instead I pouted.
Why couldn’t he loose all his control, his focus like me? Why was I the only one suffering?