Reckless Magic (23 page)

“
Huh….” was all I could say.
I knew Avalon had just enlightened me on an overwhelming amount of
new information; but the hardest part I found myself unwilling to
accept was that by law it was illegal for me to marry Kiran. Not
that I would even think that far ahead, or have those kind of
feelings for him; but the fact that it was against the law, that I
was not even an option, was making me a little
resentful.

I thought about Lilly then and
realized what she was up against. A wave of fear flooded my entire
body and I realized that I had to do something to help her. I
shuddered at the thought of the court inevitably finding her
guilty. My mind began to reel with the crushing feeling of
hopelessness that settled on me. I had to talk to Kiran about it,
he had to do something.

“
So anyways,” Avalon changed
the subject, still sounding riled up from his tangent. “Move that
tree.”

“
Excuse me?” his command
brought me out of my inner freak out.

“
Move that tree,” he said it
slower, but firmer.

“
You’re not very nice you
know,” I gave him a playful pout.

“
I’m sorry, you’re right. I
just don’t like those damn Kendricks,” he smiled playfully back.
“Please, move that tree.”

I focused my energy on a medium sized
tree that sat about twenty feet away from us. I let the electricity
surge through my blood and build, using my mind to direct the tree.
I lifted it out of the ground slowly; the roots and branches hung
limply down on the ground below where it was now suspended in
midair, completely unearthed.

“
What now?” I faked a yawn,
as if holding the tree in midair was the easiest thing in the
world.

“
Now put it back,” he smiled
smugly as the tree wavered a little bit while my mind grasped the
task.

Blowing things up and ripping things
apart was easy. I had never had to put something back together
before. I focused my energy back into the ground. I lowered the
tree slowly with my mind until it was positioned just above the
earth. I let my mind snake through the roots of the tree, my energy
focused completely. I let them dig back into the soil, searching
for their homes once again. Slowly and methodically I returned each
root and branch to its original position and let the tree rest
peacefully, balanced once again deep within the earth.

“
Good,” Avalon admired
quietly. “You’re better than I though you’d be.”

“
Well, thank you,” I gave a
sarcastic bow, but was actually very thankful for the words of
encouragement.

We spent the rest of the afternoon
like that. Avalon giving me task after task, each one getting more
difficult. I completed all that he assigned me and continued to
impress him. I would think that after hours of using my magic I
would have felt fatigued or depleted; but instead I felt more
empowered. The more I used the magic, the more magic I had to use.
I was filled with a never ending supply of omnipotence.

22.

“
Pssst…..” Avalon tried to
get my attention during French, but I did my best to ignore him.
“Hey, Eden.” He whispered harshly.

“
What?” I whispered as
softly as possible, realizing I could never be quiet enough to
escape Ms. Devereux’s stern glare.

“
What are you doing
tonight?” Although Avalon sat directly behind me during the hour of
horror known as French, Ms. Devereux had positioned me at the front
of the class; always under the watchful eye of the firm French
teacher. I had done my best to catch up, but the woman could not
understand a world in which French was not spoken fluently in every
home. Since I didn’t grow up with parents who spoke multiple
languages and summered in the South of France, I thought I had
ample excuse to be a bit behind; she saw it differently.

“
Nothing. Leave me alone,” I
whispered even quieter back.

“
Good,” Avalon replied a
little louder than I felt comfortable with.

I turned my attention back to my book
work and concentrated as hard as I could on my conjugations. I was
sure Avalon had some great plan for the evening. Over the past week
and a half I had learned to just go along with the adventure; which
usually meant an isolated area, usually forestry, working on my
magic. Avalon was always very concerned that I was practicing what
powers I had.

I never complained and always had fun.
I enjoyed learning all of the super-human feats I was capable of.
But even more I enjoyed spending time with Avalon. He was always
amusing and always adventurous. He was like the exact opposite to
how careful and easily-scared I was. We complemented each other
well.

“
Do you own anything sexy?”
Avalon whispered hoarsely to me, striking up another in-class
conversation.

“
What?” I blurted out, too
loudly. My cheeks flamed red and I dropped my pencil on the
ground.

“
Mr. St. Andrews, Ms.
Matthews please continue this inappropriate conversation after
class. Merci beaucoup,” Ms. Devereux seethed through her strong
French accent. I blushed even redder and averted my eyes back to my
homework.

As I stared down at the foreign
language I could barely understand a small ball of paper landed
right in front of me. I expected it to be an apology from Avalon,
although I could hear him snickering behind me. I unrolled the
wrinkled piece of paper, curious more than anything.

Maybe you should save the dirty talk
for private....

I glanced over at Kiran to confirm the
sender. He was staring at me with a smaller version of his
signature smirk, but something was different about his eyes. I
rolled my own eyes at him and gave him my own playful version of a
smirk, but he just looked back down at his homework. Instead of
feeling irritated like I would have expected, I felt a little bit
sad, missing the days when he would have made more sport out of
embarrassing me. I realized this sounded twisted, but I was
suddenly nervous I had lost his attention.

----

“
I’m sorry, Avalon, did you
want to ask me something?” I asked Avalon sarcastically, as he sat
down at our regular table. “Because I would appreciate it if you
asked me your inappropriate questions here, alone; not in the
middle of French class where the teacher already hates me and the
entire class is listening in,” I pretended to be really upset, but
Avalon realized a while ago I was incapable of getting angry with
him. He did enjoy trying to make me mad though.

“
Oh, calm down,” he shook
his head and gave me a wide smile, accentuating his dimpled cheeks.
His mischievous baby face contradicted strongly with the rest of
his toned physique. “If you would use your magic and let me
communicate telepathically with you, I wouldn’t have to say things
loud enough for the entire world to hear.”
“Oh, I see. It’s my fault. You know that I’m not supposed to um,
let my guard down,” I said softly, still not sure why Principal
Saint had been so insistent upon my mental defenses.

“
I know that, I’m just
giving you a hard time. Chill out. But what I really need to know
is if you have something nice to wear tonight…. something um, more
grown up?” Now that he was forced to ask me his bizarre question
face to face, I realized that he was a little shy. I inwardly felt
satisfied to witness Avalon’s small embarrassment; although it
could never equal my seemingly constant humiliation.

“
That depends on what you
have planned,” I doubted any good could come from whatever scheme
he was devising.

“
I, of course, can’t tell
you,” he replied dramatically. “It’s a surprise,” he looked around
us as if to make sure no one was paying attention. “And really,
it’s no big deal.”

“
Oh but you expect me to get
all dressed up?” I asked hoping to get more details.

“
Well, it’s just that…..” he
hesitated, and looked around again. “Do you have something sexy or
not?” he was barely able to say the word now that we were face to
face.

“
You are awesome at asking a
girl out,” I was a little irritated with his funny
behavior.

“
This is not a date!” Avalon
blurted out a little too loudly. My face flooded with heat
immediately and I couldn’t look him in the eyes.

“
I was just joking.” I
mumbled pathetically. I knew that it wasn’t a date from the
beginning. It wasn’t like that with Avalon…. but he didn’t have to
react so strongly.

“
I’m sorry,” Avalon calmed
down and said softer, “Eden, I’m really sorry. I didn’t mean to
hurt your feelings. It’s just that, you know, we’re only friends
right? I mean good friends… best friends…. but just friends,” I
nodded my reply, instantly forgiving him, but I fully planned on
milking this just a little longer. “Besides, this is a
mission.”

“
A mission?” curiosity made
me completely forget feeling sorry for myself. “For
what?”

“
You’ll just have to wait
and see,” Avalon responded mysteriously, flashing his big dimples
at me again. “Remember, look like a grown up. I’ll pick you up at
eight,” he stood up and headed for the door. I was once again left
to wonder at the strange behavior of high school boys.

----

I checked myself in the full length
mirror once again, not fully buying what I saw. Aunt Syl was
working tonight and so I had full access to her “grown-up” wardrobe
per request from Avalon. I obeyed his request to find something
more mature, but left him waiting impatiently in his truck while I
found the courage to leave the house.

The dress I chose to wear could have
had many descriptions; some might have called it “sexy”… I called
it “midnight hooker.” Somehow I thought Avalon would approve. The
all black dress was simple, maybe too simple, but definitely
mature. The short skirt covered just enough, leaving my legs bare,
but looking extra-long. The dress covered nothing behind me above
my low hip-line and I prayed it would remain tactful although
completely backless; I was thankful that the neckline of the dress
was just below my throat. My arms were sleeveless and the only
thing keeping the dress on my shoulders was a thin ribbon that tied
at the base of my hairline.

I resisted the urge to let my hair
hang down covering the open back, and instead pulled it over one
shoulder in a loose and low pony tail. I stepped close to the
mirror and applied some bubble gum pink lip gloss. Looking over
myself for a final time I realized I had forgotten
shoes.

I ran back into Aunt Syl’s closet. My
eyes quickly assessed the racks of designer heels and fell on a
pair of six inch hot pink stilettos. I pulled them on immediately;
fully aware I would regret the decision later. I grabbed a silver
clutch on my way out of the massive room and went as quickly, but
as carefully as possible down the stairs and out the
door.

Using magic to lock the house, I made
it to Avalon’s truck before I realized there was no way in hell I
could make it up into his cab with class. I opened the door of the
truck and eyed the step. I looked back down at the long heel on my
beautiful shoes and then at my short tight skirt and laughed out
loud.

“
You have got to be kidding
me.” I turned my eyes to Avalon and shook my head. “This is
impossible.”

“
You’re right,” Avalon
turned off the engine and jumped down. “I said look grown up, not
like a prostitute,” he hurried across the street to a silver Lexus
parked on the curb. “Whose car is this?”

“
I think my neighbors. You
don’t have to be rude. I can go change,” I called after him; my
insecurities confirmed.

“
Nah. You’re fine; I was
just kidding,” he opened the door of the car easily; I had expected
it to be locked. Avalon took another look around and sat down in
the driver’s side seat. “Come on.”

I walked over to the car with my mouth
open. There was absolutely no way I was stealing this car. I half
expected Avalon to rip the wires out of the steering column and do
some fancy trick to hotwire it. Of course he just used his magic
and turned the car on with out any sign of vandalism.

“
There is no way I am going
to be an accessory to grand theft auto!” I shook my head and
crossed my arms stubbornly.

“
Come on, we’re going to be
late,” Avalon ignored my objections.

“
I’m serious, Avalon,” I
tried again, but he threw the passengers side door open and revved
the engine.

“
Seriously Eden, we will
bring it back completely unharmed. If you like, I’ll even fill up
the gas tank. Now get in,” he said it firmly and I realized that he
was going with or with out me so I decided to get it in. Hopefully
my magic would be enough to repair any major damage Avalon was able
to incur.

Avalon played with the dial of the
radio, until he found something he deemed suitable. The loud music
reverberated the point that this was definitely not a date and I
realized once again that was totally fine with that. My interest
was raised however, and I couldn’t even imagine where he was taking
me.

Avalon drove out of my neighborhood
and towards downtown. I lived nearly exactly midtown, in an area
called Dundee, so it only took fifteen minutes or so before we were
driving on the old brick streets through the Old Market. Shops and
restaurants surrounded us on both sides of the old fashioned part
of town.