Spellbound (Spellbringers Book 1) (28 page)

Chapter
Twenty-One

Alisa

I spent the first days of summer
vacation in front of my computer, alternately waiting for emails
from Bryce and sending replies. Obsessive perhaps, but it was my
summer vacation and I was determined to spend at least the first
couple of weeks doing whatever I wanted. I wanted to spend all my
time with Bryce, and if we couldn’t be together in person, we could
at least be together in cyberspace.

Lately, we’d been emailing more than
usual. Bryce sent me an email every chance he got, often sending
out a few sentences in between training sessions. He faced a
grueling two weeks of final exams. These tests were unlike anything
I’d ever experienced—less pencil and paper, more exertion and pain.
High school seemed pretty tame in comparison.

My emails, for the most part, were
humorous and fun. I tried to keep things light, tried to keep him
feeling upbeat and positive. The emails Bryce sent to me tended to
be more serious. Some of his emails were so full of love and
affection, I blushed just reading them. He was very poetic at
times. His elegant words of romance were certainly no match for a
lowly high school student and I feared if we ever broke up, all men
thereafter would never match up.

Dear Alisa,

I’m so homesick, I can
hardly stand it. It’s funny, because when my family first moved to
Oaktree, I hated the idea of living in the Deep South. I swore
Oaktree would never feel like home and would just be a place to
store my stuff while I was away at Central. My family has never
stayed in one place for very long, but Oaktree feels more like home
than any other place we’ve ever lived. Probably because you’re
there.

I still haven’t decided
what to do about next year. I won’t be coming back to WTB, but I’m
considering Watcher training. Career-wise, it would be a good move,
but I don’t know if I could handle leaving you. Maybe I’ll take a
year off and you can come to Europe with me after you
graduate.

There’s one thing I know
for sure—if I come back to Central next year, I’m going to buy you
a new phone so you can get my emails even when you’re in school.
Maybe we can donate your current phone to a history museum or
something. They could display it next to primitive caveman tools or
in a case next to a giant dinosaur bone.

I’ve got to get to class,
so I’ll email you later. I love you.

~Bryce

Wait… what did he say? He wanted me to
come to Europe with him after I graduated? He couldn’t be serious.
Not really. What should I say in response? If I acted like I took
his offer seriously, he might think I was expecting too much out of
our relationship. Most of what he said in the email was a joke, so
he was probably just messing around when he mentioned me coming to
Europe. Maybe it was best to just ignore that particular statement
and focus on the grievous insult he hurled at my phone.

Dear Bryce,

Ha. Ha. My phone might be
old and terribly outdated, but it’s mine. As much as I’d love to be
at your beck and call twenty-four hours a day, my school has rules
against using cell phones in the classroom. Wouldn’t it be a shame
if the brand new phone you bought me was confiscated the first day
of school? I’d better stick with my craptastic phone. By the way,
you owe my phone a massive apology the next time I see
you.

I’ll support you in
whatever you decide. WTB, Watcher Training, college,
clown-school…whatever you choose, I’m with you all the way. I know
your parents will back you up. They just want you to be happy. So
do I.

I’ve been marking off the
days until your return. It seems so far away. Probably seems even
longer for you since you’re the one who’s staring down the barrel
of final exams. I know you’re going to do great. I have absolute
faith in you

Love,

Alisa

I bummed around the house, waiting for
Bryce’s response. That’s all I did—hide in the house and wait for
Bryce’s emails. Jace tried to lure me out of the house, using
promises of tennis or ice cream as an incentive, but so far, I’d
managed to resist him.

After a couple of hours, I
sat in front of my computer, my face splitting into a wide grin
when I discovered an email waiting in my inbox. The timestamp
indicated he’d emailed me forty minutes ago.
Forty
. Maybe I
would
take Bryce up on his offer to
buy me a new phone—assuming he was serious. If I owned a fancy
I-phone, I would have received an instant notification that Bryce
had emailed me. Instead, I wasted the last forty-minutes cleaning
the stupid house.

Dear Alisa,

Sorry, but your phone
still sucks. I refuse to apologize to your ancient piece of
technology. If I want to buy you a new phone, you can’t stop me,
but if you want to battle this out, we could always settle our
dispute in the training room. I wonder who would win?

There isn’t a day that
goes by that I don’t replay what happened that day in the training
room. I wanted to kiss you then, but everyone was standing around,
staring at us. If I close my eyes, I can still feel your body
underneath mine. I can still feel your heart beating against my
chest. If we ever find ourselves in that position again, I’ll make
sure we’re alone. I’m ready for another kiss. Are you?

I can’t wait to hold you
in my arms, Alisa. I don’t think I’ll be able to let you go. Only a
few more days. And then we’ll be together.

Love,

Bryce

My hands trembled so much, I couldn’t
type. I pressed my palms against my cheeks, feeling the warmth as a
dark blush spread across my face. What would have happened if Bryce
and I had been alone during that sparring session? What would
happen if we found ourselves alone in the training room sometime in
the near future?

Bryce said he thought about that
moment in the training room. Well, so did I. Besides our first
kiss, it was the most memorable experience of my life. That
training session had been the start of something between us. It was
the first time I’d stood up for myself, the first time Bryce
acknowledged me as an equal even though I didn’t have magic. It was
a major turning point in my life.

Sometimes I wondered what Bryce saw in
me. Surely there were girls at the Watcher Academy who were older,
more sophisticated, and magically gifted. Why hadn’t one of them
caught his eye? Maybe WTB was segregated from the Watcher Academy
and I was the only girl Bryce had contact with. If that were the
case, maybe his relationship with me was one of convenience. If he
went to the Watcher Academy next year, would he hook up with
someone else? Would he still want me?

I pushed those thoughts from my mind.
Certainly, I was getting ahead of myself. Our relationship might
not last through the summer. It might not last once he stepped foot
in Oaktree. Maybe we didn’t have a relationship and everything we’d
discussed in our emails was just a game.

It wouldn’t help to worry. All I could
do was hold onto the love I had for Bryce and hope he felt the same
way about me. I had to trust the things he’d said in his emails to
me and trust my own intuition. I had to have faith in
love.

Chapter
Twenty-Two

Rachel

With all my worries about finals
behind me, I could finally relax. For the first week of summer
vacation, my mother gave me relative freedom. Sure, I had my
regular chores, but I didn’t have to help her at church until the
second week of June. Now it was Alisa’s turn to stress. With
Bryce’s homecoming approaching, she was a nervous wreck.

I suggested a shopping trip, just the
two of us. Well, three counting Jace. He insisted on driving me for
my protection, but I think he was just trying to soak up the last
bits of freedom he had with Bryce’s truck. He poked around a video
game store while Alisa and I tested lotions and potions in one of
the shops.

“So, ladies. How’s it going?” Becky’s
voice came from behind us. I spun around to face her.

“Just fine,” I replied,
warily.

“You two sure seem to be as thick as
thieves these days,” Becky continued, twirling a lock of hair
around one manicured claw. “It kind of reminds me of the good old
days when we used to be friends. I miss our friendship.”

“You mean, you miss bossing me around
and having me at your beck and call,” I replied.

“Is that how you viewed our
friendship? That makes me sad. I thought we were more than that to
each other. It really surprises me how you were besties with me one
day, and then all of a sudden, you and Alisa were
inseparable.”

“Oh, yeah?” I asked. “What’s
surprising about that? That I’d choose to be friends with someone
who actually cares about other people? Or that I finally figured
out what a cold-hearted, conniving person you really
are.”

“No. Actually, I’m surprised Alisa was
so uber-cool with you stealing her almost-boyfriend.”

Before I could come up with a scathing
response, Alisa cut in. “Jace was never my boyfriend. We were
friends. We still are.”

“But that’s not what you want, is it?”
Becky asked, her voice smooth. “I saw the way you looked at Jace.
It’s got to kill you that he picked Rachel over you. Or did he?
Maybe Jace is playing you both. You know, I’ve heard
rumors…”

I cut her off. “Rumors you probably
made up. Give me a break, Becky. You start so much drama, it’s a
wonder you haven’t changed your name to Shakespeare.”

“But there’s that little bit of doubt,
isn’t there, Rachel? You’ll never know what goes on behind your
back.”

I laughed out loud. What Becky did not
know was that I could very easily find out anything that was going
on behind my back. Thanks to my mind-reading curse, I could find
out anything I wanted. Fortunately, with Alisa, I didn’t need to
rely on my mind-reading skills. I trusted her. Yes, she’d had
feelings for Jace, but she was in love with Bryce now. Everything
worked out the way it was supposed to—just like my friendship with
Alisa. We were meant to be best friends and I was grateful every
single day that things had turned out the way they had.

“You know what, Becky?”
Alisa asked. “Maybe you should be the one to worry. With the way
you’ve treated people, it wouldn’t surprise me if everyone was
playing you behind
your
back. Do you have any real friends? Or just
people who are afraid of you, so they do anything they can to stay
on your good side because it’s easier.”

“What’s the difference?” Becky asked
casually, flouncing out of the store and joining her awaiting
entourage.

“That’s sad,” Alisa said.

“It really is,” I replied. “Not only
for those who kiss her butt just to keep from being tormented, but
for her because she’ll never know what it’s like to have a real
friend. Thank God I’m free of her.”

“You’re better than her,
Rachel.”

“So are you. Remember that. You were
never the problem. She was. I’m sorry I didn’t stick up for you
sooner.” I glanced away, embarrassed to be having this conversation
with the person whose life I’d helped make a living hell for
years.

“Apology accepted,” Alisa said
graciously. “I always knew you were a good person, Rachel. Deep
down, you were never like her. I’m glad we’re friends
now.”

“So am I, Alisa. I really am.” And I
meant that.

***

Bryce would be home in a week, much to
Alisa’s delight and Jace’s displeasure. Jace had used and enjoyed
his brother’s truck, and now he hated to give it up. I couldn’t
blame him, really. It would be hard to give up my source of
transportation after getting used to having it for so long. As the
deadline for giving up the truck approached, Jace began harassing
his parents with a vengeance. Even after Jerica carefully explained
that his older brothers had to wait until graduation to have their
own vehicles, Jace continued to beg, plead, and
complain.

Given my strict upbringing, I had a
hard time understanding how a child could argue with a parent. It
would never have crossed my mind to say no to my mother, or even
bring up a topic she had previously closed for
discussion.

After listening to yet another bout of
manipulative pleas over dinner, I decided to talk to him about it.
Thanks to Jace, the meal was ruined, and I felt sorry for Jerica
for having to feed such an ungrateful son. After I helped clear the
table, I suggested to Jace that we should hang out in the basement
and talk.

As soon as we’d descended
the staircase, he immediately pulled me into an embrace and started
kissing me. This was my fault. I’d forgotten that
talk in the basement
was
code for
make out in the
basement
. After regaining my senses, I
gave him my sternest look and told him to sit down across from me
so we could talk.

“What’s up?” he asked. His crooked,
sexy smile almost made me lose my resolve. What was I supposed to
talk about again?

“Um, don’t you think you were a little
rude to your parents tonight?” I asked.