Brightest Kind of Darkness (18 page)

I didn’t want to explain my theory about last night to Ethan in the morning, so I avoided running into him until study hall. When I arrived in study hall and Ethan wasn’t there yet, I immediately tensed with worry.

Once Ethan finally walked in five minutes after the bell rang, I exhaled a sigh of relief. As soon as he sat down, I started talking at a rapid pace. “I don’t think last night was about me. I think it was about you—” but I stopped when I saw his bruised jaw.

“Ohmigod, what happened?” His lip was slightly swollen with a split near the corner. I started to touch his face, but he winced and pulled back.

“It’s nothing to worry about.”

“Nothing to worry—” Fisting my hand on the table, I hissed in a low tone, “How did that happen?”

Ethan’s dark gaze drilled into mine. “I want to talk about
you
, about my dream last night, Nara. Forget about this.” He waved, dismissing his bruised face. “You need to listen, okay?”

I couldn’t stop staring at the split on his lip. It was crusted over, as if he’d gotten the wound hours ago, probably even last night. Did that happen after he dropped me off?

“You with me?” Ethan’s voice was gruff.

Swallowing my apprehension, I nodded.

He touched my jaw lightly. “When the last bell rings, wait for me at the main door. Don’t walk out to your car by yourself.”

“What happens?”

The worry brackets were back, digging creases around his mouth. “There’s an accident in the parking lot.”

Loud buzzing sounded in my ears. “What?” I squeaked.

Determination darkened his eyes. “I won’t let anything happen to you.”

“I thought you didn’t believe in changing the natural course,” I said, tears burning.

“This feels wrong.”

Banked fury reflected in his eyes. “How bad is it?”

Ethan shook his head. “I was so freaked out, I woke up.” Curling his lips inward, he continued with a determined snarl, “Nothing will happen to you!”

My lips trembled at the tension vibrating in Ethan. My theory that the bookshelf falling had been meant for Ethan and not me had just been blown out of the water. Or, maybe not. Maybe it was
just
like last night. “Do you—” I started to ask if he got hurt too, then remembered he never stars in my dreams. “You could get hurt, too, Ethan. Last night and now this.” I rubbed my temples, feeling another headache coming on. “It’s too much!” If Fate was after me or Ethan, either way, I’d failed. “This is all my fault.”

Ethan’s expression shifted to firm resolve. “It’ll be fine. You’ll stay by my side and away from the area where it happens.”

“You don’t understand. I think I caused this.”

He tensed. “What do you mean, you caused this?”

“Last night you asked what changed in my day that could’ve changed my future. I didn’t want to believe I was the cause of the bookshelf falling, but after your dream last night, I think maybe I was.”

His brows drew together. “How?”

“Yesterday, when I saw that Lainey’s locker happened to be right next to your old one, I realized she was on Fate’s hit list as well. I couldn’t let Fate hurt either one of you. I couldn’t.”

“You challenged it?” Ethan closed his eyes and slowly released a breath. When he focused on me once more, his eyes were so dark they looked black. “I want you to do exactly what I say, no deviations.”

“Is this accident something we can call the police about? Stop it before it happens?”

“No changes, Nara. It’s better if I know the order of things, but if we start changing other aspects, then I won’t know
that
future. Last night freaked me out. I won’t take that kind of risk with your safety.”

“Do other people get hurt?” I was almost afraid to hear the answer.

Ethan didn’t respond.

“Ethan!” Guilt and fear battled inside me. All I could think about was Sadie and now all those people in the locker hall.
All. My. Fault
. I couldn’t let the idea that, by saving myself today, others would pay the price. “If I’m not where I’m supposed to be, will someone else get hurt? I have to know.”

“No one else gets hurt.” Clasping my shoulders, his fingers dug deep. “Do you trust me?”

Trusting Ethan was the only instinct I was absolutely certain about. “Yes,” I said, gulping back the burning sensation that had started to creep up my throat.

* * *

While students poured out of the school, I leaned against the wall, waiting for Ethan. Pulling out my cell phone, I knew I’d be too emotional to say anything, so I sent two text messages. The first one was to my mom.

I love you. I’m glad you’re coming to my game
. The last sentence was my way of believing in Ethan, even though my chest ached with worry.

I thought of calling my Gran, but the last thing I wanted to do was worry her. I sent the second text to my aunt.

Just wanted to tell you that I love you
.

After I hit send, I stared at the last text message my dad had sent me. I hadn’t opened it, nor had I deleted it. My mind warred with my heart. The look on his face when he’d rushed toward me, full of panic and fear as the bookcase had started to tumble over, flashed in my mind once more. I tried to open the text and the same garbled letters and numbers appeared. Closing the text, I opened it once more.

Please text me, Nari.

“Why did you leave us?” I whispered.

“Hey, Nara.”

Lainey stood in front of me. “Hey.” Turning my cell off, I dropped it in my backpack.

“How’s the skit going?”

If I didn’t make it today, I hoped Lainey stayed safe. She’d made me laugh yesterday. I missed spending “girl time” with her. “Um, it’s a work in progress.”

Ethan stood behind Lainey and I glanced at him, then at Lainey, saying, “Ethan, this is Lainey. Lainey, Ethan.”

Lainey openly stared at his face. “What happened to you?”

He shrugged. “Just helping a friend out.”

The swelling had faded, but Ethan’s comment made me wonder what kind of
friend
got him popped in the jaw and lip. Then again, he’d taken the brunt of two metal bookcases for me last night.

Shaking her head, a bemused smile curved Lainey’s lips. “You coming to the game tonight, Ethan?”

Ethan moved to lean on the wall beside me. Bending his knee, he flattened his boot against the wall. “Wouldn’t miss it.”

“I’ve seen you two in study hall.” Lainey glanced back and forth between us. “You’re totally into Nara, aren’t you?”

“Lainey!” My face raged with heat.

“You could say that.”

The conviction in Ethan’s voice made my heart melt. Too emotional to keep staring at him, I looked away as Jared walked up and hooked his arm around Lainey’s neck. “Come on, Lane. I’ve got practice in a few.”

Lainey laughed and backed away, waving. “See you at the game, Nara.”

While a few people still lingered in the atrium talking among themselves, Ethan reached down to clasp my hand. “You ready?”

I felt giddy when his fingers folded tight around mine, my fear temporarily eclipsed. It was the first time Ethan had purposefully taken my hand in view of everyone since that day in the assembly. Sure he’d touched my face, brushed his fingers against my hair and stuff, but it never lasted very long and I always missed his warmth when he moved away.

I exhaled a steadying breath. “Yeah, let’s go.”

My chest felt like it was caving inward when we walked outside into the cool afternoon air. “What doesn’t make sense is why Fate would try to attack me. It knows I can see my future and avoid getting hurt.” I lifted our locked hands. “Well, at least I can through you.”

Ethan hold tightened. “It has tried to scare you before. Now it’s making it personal and deadly.”

A raven sat on one of the school’s tall light posts, cawing away. I shivered. It was like the bird was calling for my death. “What happened in the dream?”

Ethan veered to the left side of the parking lot and stepped up on the sidewalk. Most people ignored the sidewalks, preferring to walk the line of parked cars in the lot to get to their vehicles. Nodding to the right side of the lot, he said, “You were walking along that side of the lot on the sidewalk.

The one day I followed the school rules and used the sidewalk, I bought it. Fate truly hated me.
Two guys, hopping the bright orange plastic netting that blocked off the construction area near the sidewalk, drew my attention. One of them climbed into the huge construction vehicle. “Don’t tell me those two cause the accident?”

His fingers tightened around mine. “Okay, I won’t tell you.”

“Ethan!”

“The jerkoffs turn on the tractor and—” Ethan paused, staring at the pyramid of metal piping stacked near the equipment.

The construction vehicle had started up. The guys pumped their fists, whooping and hollering at their success. Idiots. I glanced at the bird, surprised it was still on its perch with all the racket going on down below. I couldn’t hear his gronking over the construction vehicle’s engine, but its black beak was wide open.

Ethan nodded toward to the vehicle’s claw. “They pull a lever that makes that claw swing around and knock into the stack of pipes. The pipes tumble outside the netting and roll toward the parking lot. You tried to get out of the way, but one of the pipes slammed into you.”

I gripped his arm. “No one else is hit? The pipes don’t go into the parking lot?”

He shook his head and just like he described, the claw swung swiftly around, ramming into the stack. Four large dark pipes rapidly tumbled over the netting, rolling one after the other. I winced at the reverberating throooong of heavy pipes bouncing off each other. Someone screamed, “Lookout!” and a couple of people dove out of the way. Everyone else gawked as the pipes came to a stacked-up slamming halt against the low cement girder supporting the heavy light post.

Swooping ink-black wings drew my attention and I looked up, then screamed, “The light!”

Ethan yanked my arm and dove, rolling us both. He landed on the cement first, taking the hardest hit before the momentum turned us over a couple times until we came to a painful, jerking halt. A second later, the six-inch wide light post fell across the parking lot, landing with a heavy thud just a few feet away—exactly where I’d been standing.

Ethan’s hand cradled the back of my head and we both panted as we stared at each other in shock. “Are you okay?” he asked.

My right arm ached, but I didn’t think it was broken. “I think so.” No one else appeared to have been hurt, but people were screaming and yelling. They sounded like they were talking through a tunnel from far away.

Moving quickly, Ethan stood and pulled me to my feet. He grabbed my backpack and his books. When someone said, “Wait! Shouldn’t the school nurse check you out?” Ethan didn’t stop. Instead, he tugged me straight to his car and unlocked the passenger door.

I was so shaken, I slid into the seat without a word and automatically snapped the seatbelt around me. Closing my eyes, I welcomed the comforting smell of pine and Ethan.

I don’t remember the ride, just the feel of Ethan opening the door, lifting me out of the car and carrying me inside his house. Soft leather surrounded us as he sat down on the sofa with me still in his arms and gathered me close. I shivered, clinging to his tense frame like he was my lifeline. In many ways, he was.

Ethan’s hand trembled as he stoked my hair. Pressing his lips to my temple, his heart pounded against my arm. “You’re safe,” he said in a shaky whisper.

After a while, my shivers finally passed and I started to slide off his lap, but he clasped me close, his voice a husky rasp, “I’d lose it if something happened to you, Nara.”

The wrecked emotion in his voice surprised and worried me. “Ethan—

Sliding his hand along my jean-covered thigh, he flashed an embarrassed half-smile. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to hang that on you.”

His gaze looked vulnerable, making my heart twist. I told myself that adrenaline drove his words, but I loved hearing the emotion behind them. Smiling, I shook my head. “Don’t you dare take it back!”

His hand tightened on my leg. “Not a chance. God, that was too close...”

The angst in his voice reminded me of that day in study hall when he wasn’t ready to let go of my hand. I was glad he seemed to need me as much as I did him. “You saved me. Again,” I said, laying my head on his shoulder and snuggling closer.

“I had help. How did you know about the light post?”

“That part wasn’t in your dream?”

His chin touched my forehead and then moved away as he shook his head.

“I didn’t.” My laugh sounded flat. “The raven flying away from the top of the post caused me to look up.”

Ethan rested his chin on my head. “A raven, huh?”

“When we first walked out of school, he was sitting on that light post cawing. I remember thinking the bird was making all that noise, like he announcing my impending death. How morbid is that?”

His arms tightened around me and his voice turned hard. “You’re not going to die.”

I glanced at him with a half smile. “Maybe he was cussing you out for making him wait for his afternoon kibble.”

Ethan’s chuckle turned into a pained hiss. “You’re hurt.” I immediately sat up and tried to see where he was wounded.

He shrugged, then gritted out, “I’m fine.”

“No, you’re not.” Before he could stop me, I slid off his lap and grasped his shoulder. Pushing it forward, I saw blood starting to ooze through his fleece along his left shoulder blade. “You’re bleeding!” I jumped up. “Where’s your first aid kit?”

“I’ll be okay.” Ethan tried to grasp my hand.

“Where, Ethan?”

He pointed toward the hall. “In the bathroom closet on the top shelf.”

Two seconds later I was back. Opening the small plastic box on the coffee table, I said, “Take off your shirt.”

When he winced as he pulled his shirt and fleece off, I gulped at the nasty, oozing scrape and grabbed a disinfectant wipe. “This is going to hurt.”

“No more than landing on it did,” he grunted.

“I’m sorry,” I mumbled as I tore the foil package then dabbed antiseptic on the angry wound the size of a racquetball.