The Darkness Within (15 page)

I
RAN
back into the house and to my bedroom. My cell was on the nightstand. I snatched it up and dialed Ethan, but the call was kicked right to voicemail. Damn it! I hung up and dialed Dylan’s number. He picked up on the fourth ring.

“He’s here.”

Air rushed from my lungs. Ethan was with Dylan. He was okay. Wait,
was
he okay? “What happened? Is he all right? Is he hurt? Was it the magic?”

“Whoa, calm down, Sam. Here, you can talk to him yourself.”

I heard a lot of fumbling on the other end of the line. “Hey.” Ethan’s voice brought wetness to my eyes.

“What happened? Why did you leave? I was so scared when I woke up and you weren’t here.”

“I’m sorry. I left you a note.”

I looked all around. “Where?”

“On the bed.”

The bed—it was a mess from my restless sleep. I tore the covers off and a piece of paper—a receipt from the gas station—fell to the floor. I picked up and read it.
Feeling strange. Called Dylan and he invited me to his place. Don’t worry. I’ll be fine. Call me in the morning
. “I found it.”

“Sorry. I thought you’d see it first thing. I didn’t mean to make you worry. I just didn’t want to risk staying there when I wasn’t feeling right. Dylan helped me through it. I’m fine now.”

“Good.” I didn’t know what else to say. Ethan had felt something was off with his magic, and instead of coming to me he’d gone to Dylan. I knew he’d only been trying to protect me, but it still hurt.

“Get ready for school. Dylan and I will be by to pick you up in twenty minutes.”

“Dylan’s riding with us? Is something wrong with his car?” Was that why he’d walked last night?

“His car’s fine. I asked him to come along with us.” Wow, Ethan didn’t trust himself at all.

“Did he tell you about his schedule change?” Maybe Ethan wouldn’t be against the idea after all.

“Yeah. He wants to meet at the school a few minutes early to do the spell, so go get ready. Love you.” He hung up before I could ask any more questions.

I should’ve been relieved. Ethan was fine. Dylan was helping him. But Ethan’s lack of resistance only made me worry more. How bad did he have to be to let Dylan babysit him all the time?

I was ready before Ethan pulled into the driveway. He got out to open my door for me. At least he was still acting like himself. That was a plus. The ride to school was more than awkward. Dylan sat in the back seat like a chaperone. It was worse than being on a date with my dad supervising. Shannon was already at the school when we arrived. She tapped her watch. She never had been one for patience.

“Where are we going to do this?” I asked.

“Guidance office.” Dylan said it like it was the most logical place.

“Are you crazy? I’m sure the staff is in the building already. How are we going to pull this off?”

“Already taken care of. We can walk right in.” Shannon held the front door open for us.

I looked around, waiting for the school cop to stop us. He wasn’t around. The lobby was full of teachers, though. “Just walk by them?” I kept my voice to a whisper.

“Yup. Like this.” Shannon grabbed my hand and pulled me through the crowd. No one stopped us. No one even looked in our direction.

“How are you doing this?”

“I put a spell on the entire school to make myself popular. Compared to that, this was a breeze. We’re invisible to them.”

“Do you mean really invisible?” I looked at my arms. They seemed normal, not see-through at all.

“No. You haven’t changed. I made it so no one inside the building can see or hear us.”

I had to admit, the spell rocked. It was ten times better than the bubble spell. I smiled, and Shannon’s grin lit up her face. We headed straight for the guidance office and walked in like we owned the place. “This, I could get used to.”

“Pretty amazing, right?” Shannon smiled and led us all over to the computer on the secretary’s desk. “Okay, I’m going to change the schedule in the computer system first. Once it’s in place, we’ll start the spell.” Her fingers hovered over the keys, not moving.

I looked over her shoulder. The screen was locked. Of course. “I don’t suppose you know the password.”

“Give her a second,” Dylan said.

Shannon mumbled under her breath while she stared at the screen. Seconds later, her fingers were pressing keys.

“Cool spell,” I said.

“Yeah, but it’s limited. I have no idea what I typed.”

That was strange. Some of these spells really
did
take over your mind. I glanced at Ethan and managed a weak smile. He’d been so quiet, and he was still keeping his distance.

Shannon fiddled with Dylan’s schedule, giving him fake grades and everything. “Congratulations, Dylan. You’re now on the honor roll.”

“Are you crazy? I don’t want to have to use spells all year to fake my grades. Put my grades back to normal.” Dylan scoffed and walked away. He’d never liked the way Shannon was so quick to use magic. Not that Dylan was a saint. He’d just been through a lot with dark magic taking him over, so he was more cautious. He wasn’t watching where he was going, and Mrs. Melrose, the secretary, almost walked right into him.

“Whoa!” I grabbed his arm and jerked him out of the way. Mrs. Melrose was headed for her desk, which was currently occupied by Shannon. “Shannon, get out of there!”

She hit a few buttons on the keyboard, most likely closing the screen she had open, and literally toppled out of the chair and under the desk, crawling out the other side. “Go!”

“What about the spell?” We couldn’t leave without finishing what we’d come here for.

“We have to find somewhere else to go. I’m getting a weird vibe from this lady. It’s like she senses us or something.” Shannon pushed us toward the door, careful not to bump into anything or anyone. We scrambled down the hall and to the janitor’s closet. “Inside!”

We couldn’t find a light switch and it was really cramped, but we huddled together. Shannon whispered something and a flame jumped from her pointer finger. She brought her other fingertips together with it, and they lit up in flames as well. It was freaky, but at least we could see.

“Let’s get this over with before the morning bell rings and we have to explain why we’re all coming out of the closet together.” Shannon snickered. I glared at her. “You know what I mean.”

“Relax, the invisibility spell is still protecting us.” Dylan’s breath tickled my neck, and I was suddenly aware of how close to me he was. Ethan was wedged between Dylan and Shannon. I met his eyes, feeling like he was miles away.

“How do we do this spell?” I wanted to get it over with. I’d feel better knowing Ethan was safe all day long, that Dylan would be keeping him safe. And somehow I thought doing this for Ethan was good for Dylan, too. He was making up for his past.

“I’ll start chanting the words and you follow along.” Shannon flicked her fingers, and the flames formed a ball of light in the middle of us. She reached for my hand and Ethan’s. “Complete the circle. We need to be connected so the magic can circle through us.”

My heart pounded. Why was I so nervous? Maybe it was because of the terrified look on Ethan’s face. “Are you up to this?”

He nodded. “I’m fine.”
Fine
. It was a code word for “not good at all.”

My eyes flew to Dylan. Would he recognize signs that Ethan was in trouble? He took Ethan’s hand, which was still so weird to see. “Strength in numbers.” Ethan nodded again, but this time to Dylan. They had some secret understanding that I wasn’t a part of. That
realization tugged at my heart. I wasn’t Ethan’s everything anymore. I shook my head, trying to force the thought from my mind. I couldn’t be selfish right now. If I wanted Ethan to get better, I had to accept that he’d need help from more than just me.

“Strength in numbers,” I repeated. Ethan gave me a half-smile.

“All right, let’s do this.” Shannon exhaled loudly. “From the past, now do remember, identical schedules from September.”

I almost couldn’t keep from laughing. That was probably the worst-sounding spell I’d ever heard. She shot me a look and repeated the line. The rest of us joined in. We said it five times, and each time I felt the magic in me grow stronger. The gold energy swirled between us. As we finished the final word, the magic disappeared under the closet door.

Shannon let go of my hand. “It should settle over the school in a matter of minutes.”

I exhaled, trying to calm my nerves. “So, by the time we make it to first period, everyone will think Dylan and Ethan have always had identical schedules?”

“You got it.” Shannon blew out her finger lights, leaving the closet in complete darkness.

Fingers tickled my left palm. Dylan was still holding my hand. I gently tugged free from his grasp. Maybe he was trying to reassure me that the spell would work, that everything would be okay, but tingles ran down my spine because there was still the other “what if.” The “what if he really does have feelings for me?” He was so difficult to read. One minute I was convinced he liked me, and the next I wasn’t so sure.

“Come on, people. Move!” Shannon gently shoved me toward the door.

“Maybe you should’ve kept the fire burning until we got the door open,” Dylan said. He fumbled, but finally managed to turn the knob.

The bright lights from the hallway hurt my eyes. I squinted. “I’m guessing sunglasses are against school policy.”

“What isn’t?” Shannon scoffed. “This school is like a prison.”

“I have to go to my locker,” Dylan said, looking back and forth between Ethan and me. “Will you be okay for a few minutes?”

Ethan adjusted his bag on his shoulder. “I have everything I need. I’ll go with you.”

What? He always came to my locker with me in the morning. “Ethan, come with me. Please.”

Dylan nodded. “You’ll be fine. I’ll meet you in five.” I wanted to thank him, but he turned and headed up the stairs before I could say a word—or more likely before Ethan could argue.

I slipped my hand into Ethan’s. His fingers didn’t curl around mine. They didn’t respond to my touch at all. “You don’t have to be afraid to touch me. I’m wearing the necklace, remember?”

“I want to take every precaution, Sam.”

Shannon mouthed “good luck” and walked away.

“I wish you hadn’t left last night.” I started walking toward the stairs, and thankfully Ethan followed, although his hand was still stiff in mine.

“I had to. I need you to understand that.”

“I do. I just missed you.”

Finally, his fingers curled around mine. “Do you remember how you told me you ran away from the cottage when you were having an attack?”

Of course I remembered. That had been the worst time of my life. Worse than when the cancer had taken over my body. “That was different. I was dying, and I would’ve killed anyone near me. I couldn’t be around you.”

“That’s how I feel.” He stopped at the top of the stairwell. “I feel like I’m not me when the magic takes over. I sort of black out. I don’t know what’s happening around me, so I can’t control my actions.” He reached up and brushed my hair off my face.

“I had no idea.” I tried to keep my voice steady. The last thing I wanted was for him to think I was in any way afraid of him. “Just remember I have the necklace to protect me. That, and I have a lot of magic inside me. Enough to protect myself.”

He let go of me and ran his fingers through his hair. “I hate that you have to protect yourself from me. You don’t know how much that kills me.”

Yes, I did. It was killing me, too.

16

I
BARELY
paid attention as Mr. Ryan droned on about
Frankenstein
. It was just about the last thing I wanted to talk about, and not because, yet again, I hadn’t done the required reading. I didn’t want to hear about monsters anymore. Did this school ever assign normal books about normal people? Not that I’d be able to relate to them. But see, that was the problem with
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
and now
Frankenstein
—I could relate a little
too
well.

Shannon kicked my ankle. Hard. “Ouch!” I yelled. Laughter rang out in the classroom, bringing me back to reality. All eyes were on me.

“Subtle, Shannon,” Tristan said. “Next time, don’t kick her so hard.”

“Ms. Smith, is my class boring you?” Mr. Ryan stood in front of me, his eyes burning into me.

“No.” I sat up straight, using my left leg to rub my sore ankle. “I’m a little out of it today. Sorry.”

“Cut her some slack, Mr. Ryan,” Tristan said. “She wasn’t feeling well yesterday. She and Ethan had food poisoning or something like that.”

Beth strikes again!

“Oh.” Mr. Ryan’s face softened. “Well, if you are feeling sick, let me know. Otherwise, I’ll pick on someone else with this question.”
He smiled at me, and his look seemed to say “please, don’t throw up on my shoes.”

“Thanks.”

He turned to Shannon. “Ms. Tilby, what do you think? Do you support the theory that Dr. Frankenstein’s monster is really just an alter ego? Is this a case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde all over again?”