My Tethered Soul: Volume 2 (Reaper's Rite) (7 page)

I narrowed my eyes at him. “Ha ha.”

“We discussed watching her.” Running a hand through his hair, Gavin paced. “But what should we do if she… you know?”

I cringed, wondering what it was I might do. Something horrible, maybe. Something unthinkable. A shiver crawled up my spine and stabbed fear into my skull.

Lilura placed her hands flat on the table. “Then I think Mara’s powers came back just in time.”

Mara squeezed my hand again. A few months ago, she was haunted and I trained to save her life. Now we’d switched places. Great.

“Okay.” Mara straightened in her chair. “I can do it. Let’s start.”

Naomi and Gavin said quick goodbyes to us. Gavin kissed my cheek and whispered in my ear that he’d call me later. Naomi practically sang that she’d rush home to grab an overnight bag and would see me at my house. Momentarily abandoning his alchemy kit, Chase took three candles off a side table and placed them in front of Mara.

I had to laugh. I remembered trying to extinguish the candles and being extremely frustrated when I couldn’t do it right the first time. I was much quicker now. Could Mara master control of the fire element faster than I could?

Chase leaned over the table with his lighter, attempting to light the first candle. But no flame came. He shook his lighter and grumbled.

“It’s wet from the water balloons.”

I smirked. Served him right.

Lilura gestured with her chin. “There are some matches in the drawer over there.”

Tossing his lighter into a wastepaper bin in the corner—and making the shot—Chase turned to open the drawer. He pulled, but the drawer wouldn’t budge.

“It’s stuck. How old is this bureau, anyway?”

“It’s just a bit warped with age. Like me.”

Chase huffed a laugh. “I’ll just go up and get another lighter. There’s one in my room.”

Just as he’d taken two steps toward the stairs, the drawer slid open by itself.

“Oh. Thanks, Grandma.”

“I didn’t do it.”

They all looked at me.

“Neither did I.” I turned to Mara. “You?”

Mara’s eyes were wide. She bit her lip, casting her gaze at the bureau. “Well, I really wanted to get to the candle thing. I guess I kind of willed the drawer to get unstuck?”

Lilura arched a brow. “Not only did you get it unstuck, you pulled it open with your mind.”

Mara visibly swallowed. “Oh. Is that good?”

Lilura didn’t answer. She wasn’t about to give Mara praise. It just wasn’t her style.

“Let’s just get on with training.”

***

An hour and a half later, Mara and I stood to call it a night. We’d taken turns extinguishing the candles, and although Mara was a lot slower than I was, she was able get all three out by the end of the training session. The old Zadie would have been jealous of Mara’s ability to master the skill so quickly. But now I was extremely grateful. My life would be in Mara’s hands. I needed her to be the best Vila she could be.

“Remember,” Lilura said at the door, “don’t go performing any magic for personal gain. If something happens, call m—”

A fit of coughing and hacking buried her last word. I didn’t know if it was rude to leave her like that, but Lilura waved us off and shut the door in our faces.

“She sounds bad,” Mara said as we started our walk home.

“Chase says it’s just a cold.” I adjusted my backpack and shrugged. “I’m not so sure. But what can we do? You know how stubborn she is.”

The loud growl of a motorcycle blasted through the air. With great speed, the offending vehicle charged around the corner and toward us. Mara and I stopped in our tracks. The motorcycle halted beside us, and the driver whipped off his helmet.

“Hunter.” Mara rolled her eyes. “Try to get a little closer next time. You missed my toes.”

“I move with precision, love.” He winked at her as he dismounted the bike. “But if you don’t believe me, I’m up to the challenge of proving it to you.”

He stepped closer to her, unzipping his leather jacket. His pecs stretched out his T-shirt as he reached out and brushed a strand of Mara’s hair off her shoulder.

“No, thank you,” she said.

He smirked. “Going home so soon?”

Mara squared her shoulders, glanced at me for a second, then adopted a confident expression. “Yeah, I have to figure out what I’m wearing to prom.”

I gasped. “You’re going? With who?”

Mara elbowed me and pressed her lips together. Whoops. Probably should have kept my mouth shut.

“Yeah. Who are you going with, Mara?” Hunter asked, the corner of his mouth turned up.

“Not that it’s any of your business, but I’m going with a friend of mine.”

Hunter crossed his arms, still smirking. “A friend, huh?”

Mara shrugged. “Maybe more than a friend by the time prom’s over. Who knows?”

“Sounds like you’ve got yourself quite the little adventure there, princess.”

With narrowed eyes, Mara turned away from him. “Oh, shut up. We’re going home. Come on, Zadie.” She hooked her arm with mine and stomped down the sidewalk.

“I hate to see you go,” called Hunter, “but I love to watch you leave.”

Mara scoffed. “What an ass.”

I leaned closer to her as we walked. “That’s probably what he’s thinking.”

“Zadie!”

“Sorry, couldn’t be helped.”

“Ugh, let’s just talk about something else, please.” Though we’d already turned the corner, she checked over her shoulder. Did she expect to see Hunter there?

My mind scrambled for something to talk about. Besides prom, that is, since I figured Mara was bluffing about having a date. Plus, I was still feeling a bit sensitive about the subject because Gavin hadn’t officially asked me yet. “So, you’re doing really well with training.”

She did a double take, as if her mind was elsewhere and she was trying to figure out what I’d just said. “Oh. Yeah. Lilura makes me kind of nervous, so I don’t do as well as I could. I mean, back before I knew about all the Vila stuff, I used to be able to make things happen without even thinking twice about it. No training, just plain, old, unleashed magic. Of course, I didn’t know about the dangers back then, either. But now, with this
formal
training… I don’t know. How was it for you in the beginning?”

I wrinkled my nose. “Not good. I was a lot slower than you were, and it took a long time to master each element. But when we found out Gavin was my Cation, that helped a lot.”

Her lips formed a perfect pout. “When do I get a Cation?”

“Lilura talked to me about Cations once. She said they work for every Vila, but some have a better connection than others do. She said Gavin affects my powers more than he affects hers. Probably more than he’d affect any other Vila. So Gavin would boost your powers too, but we don’t know how much. We’d have to test it out.”

She looked at me sideways. “You don’t mind me using your boyfriend?”

Laughing, I gave her a shove. “Limit it to Vila purposes, and you’re fine.”

For the rest of the walk home, Mara went on about what a jerk Hunter was. He’d obviously gotten under her skin. He was probably extremely pleased with himself about that.

When we got home, I found Naomi in the living room chatting up Dad. Her overnight bag sat waiting at the bottom of the stairs. Luckily, Dad liked Naomi, so I didn’t have to worry about him letting her sleep over. Dad could be cool like that.

“Hey, girls.” Dad waved from his recliner.

“Hi, Dad,” Mara and I said in unison.

Dad gestured toward Naomi with his head. “Sleepover on a school night, Zadie?”

I put on my most charming smile. “Think of it more like a study night. We’ve got a final exam in biology coming up. We’ll just be studying.”

Dad stood and nodded as he came over to me. “Well, okay. Don’t stay up too late.”

“We won’t, Dad.” Stretching to my tiptoes, I placed a quick kiss on his cheek.

“Oh, and…” He put a hand on my arm and lowered his voice. “Don’t forget we’re supposed to visit your mother this weekend.”

A small ripple of anxiety fluttered through me. “Right. Okay.”

I forced a smile and faced Naomi, who took my cue and came over to join me.

“We’re making dinner, Mr. Stonebrook. You sit back down. We’ll be right back.” Naomi grabbed her bag and followed me up the stairs.

“We’re making dinner?” I whispered.

“Hey, my mom’s an expert at winning people over with food. I picked up a few tips from her.”

After a surprisingly successful dinner, Naomi and I slipped back upstairs. Naomi hummed as she changed into sweat pants and a halter-top. Naomi wasn’t usually a hummer. Was she nervous about keeping an eye on me tonight? If she was, I couldn’t blame her.

A knock on the door caused us to look up. Mara stepped into the room and shut the door behind her. She kept her voice low as she came face-to-face with Naomi. “Remember, this isn’t some pajama jammy jam. We’re looking out for Zadie. If she gets up in the middle of the night, come get me.”

Naomi saluted her. “Yes, ma’am.”

Mara pushed her palm against Naomi’s forehead and eased her back. “As you were, soldier.”

“Good night, Mara,” I said. She winked at me as she left my room.

Naomi pressed her back against the door and stared at me. “So…”

“You nervous or something?” I asked.

“What’s there to be nervous about? Just a supernatural monster that might be making you do scary things you don’t even know you’re doing. Come on. I have Mrs. Canterbury for gym, so I’ve got some experience dealing with the type.”

I jumped up from my bed and rushed over to her, grabbing her hands. The quick motion must have shocked her, because she flinched.

“I’m glad you’re here. But if at any point you’re too frightened to stay, just let me know. I could sleep on Mara’s floor, if need be.”

She let out a small laugh. “No, Zadie. I’m staying. That’s what best friends do. Now let’s talk about something else because—and don’t take this the wrong way—if you don’t move on to less serious subject matter, this sleepover will turn out to be a major drag.”

Her phone chirped just then, so she pulled it out of her jeans pocket.

“Hmm.” She rolled her eyes. “Danny says he saw Kelly and Nicole at the Ice Cream Palace. Kelly totally bitched out the person taking her order for no reason.”

“She’s gotten really obnoxious lately.”

“You know what she said to me today? She asked which second-hand shop I get my hair from.”

I shook my head. “The other day she told Gavin I had something going with Chase. And I was standing right there.”

Naomi blinked. “Hmm.”

“What?”

With a shrug, she grabbed a brush off my dresser and ran it through her hair. “Oh, nothing. It’s just, I could see where she’d get that idea.”

“There’s nothing going on between me and Chase.”

“No, I know. But that doesn’t mean that’s not how he wants it.”

“Chase?”

“Duh, yeah.”

For a moment, I couldn’t say anything. Deep down, I had a feeling Chase might think of me as more than a friend. Thoughts like that made my stomach feel funny. Made my skin prickle a little. But my heart belonged to Gavin, and there was no doubt in my mind that I should be with him.

“Too bad he’s so stuck on you.” Naomi set the brush down and pulled me to sit with her on the bed. “It would be nice if he gave someone else a chance. You know what I mean?”

I gaped at her. “Are you trying to tell me you like him?”

A blush attacked her cheeks. “I guess you could say I find him… totally hot!”

We burst into laughter and couldn’t stop for a good five minutes.

Squeezing my hands, Naomi tilted her head. “Don’t mention it to him—or anyone, for that matter. I know I don’t have a chance, so it’s not worth the embarrassment.”

I shook my head. “You so would have a chance if he ever gets his head out of his ass.”

“Ugh, I’ve resigned myself to the fact that I have no luck with boys. Remember how I was totally digging on Danny before I found out he’s gay?”

Naomi’s phone chirped again.

“Speaking of whom,” she said, glancing at her phone. “Oh my God! Someone—Danny thinks she’s a freshman from school—bumped into Kelly and made her drop her ice cream. She completely flipped out, took Nicole’s ice cream, and rammed it into the girl’s chest.”

“No way.”

“I’m telling you: she’s out of control. I wish there were a way to teach her a lesson.”

“Right?”

“Like…” She cleared her throat. “Like if someone could magically make her hair fall out or something.”

I laughed. “Naomi, you know I can’t use my powers for something like that.”

She frowned and kicked at my bed ruffle. “Yeah, I know.” Then her eyes lit up. “But maybe we could—I don’t know—buy a pregnancy test, somehow get into her house, and leave it in the bathroom for her mother to find.”

My jaw dropped. “Peed on?”

A bubble of laughter escaped her lips. “Yeah, why not? Doesn’t matter that it’ll be negative, her mother will totally flip out on her.”

I couldn’t help but laugh along with her. “Even you wouldn’t do something that cruel.”

“Don’t tempt me.”

Getting up, I grabbed my bed sheet and gestured for her to get off it. “Okay, before you get any more crazy ideas, let’s get some sleep. It is a school night.”

We slipped into my bed and attempted to sleep, the occasional giggle delaying the process. My hand slipped under my pillow and fingered the switchblade Chase gave me. After a while, my body relaxed. Naomi was there and would get Mara if something happened. My mind eventually drifted to a peaceful place where tranquil thoughts pushed out the apprehension.

But then something shook me from my peaceful place, my name repeated on the wind. I blinked, realizing my eyes were already open. Cold sidewalk cradled my feet, and a warm summer night’s breeze made my hair take flight.

“Zadie, look at me.”

Naomi’s face came into focus. Then Mara’s. Why were we standing outside?

“What…oh, no.” I’d wandered in my sleep again.

Shivers grabbed me and wouldn’t let go. I wrapped my arms around myself and took in my surroundings. I was just down the street from my house, the opposite direction of how I would walk to get to Lilura’s.