Crest (Book #2,Swift Series) (12 page)

I swallowed hard and panic filled me. This wasn’t good. Collin looked curious—but even worse and more dangerous—he looked suspicious. Even though he wasn’t saying anything, I felt like he knew there was something different about me. There was no way for me to know how the magical community worked these days, and of course I was only familiar with the “olden days,” my entire magical team was from 1905!

“What’s got you all nervous?” Collin asked as we approached the warehouse, trying to hide the smirk on his face, but failing miserably at it.

I turned and smiled at him, not wanting to give him the satisfaction of letting him know I was panicking over our impending flying lesson. “Nothing; nothing at all.”

He took a few steps forward, stopped and then looked up towards the top of the building. “You can fly up or take the wobbly fire escape on the side of the building. Either way, I’ll meet you up there.”

There was a flash and before I knew it, Collin was standing on top of the warehouse, staring down at me. “Sometime today would be nice, love.”

I gritted my teeth, knowing that he was just saying that to piss me off. He wanted me to fly up there, or he at least wanted me to try, and as much as I wanted to, the fear deep within me caused me some doubt. It had been weeks since I had my last flying lesson with Abby and there was no telling how rusty my skills would be. Pushing all the negative thoughts from my mind, I closed my eyes and began to look back on my previous lessons with her... trying to remember what she’d said. Slowly, I felt my body leave the ground. That feeling excited but also frightened me. I concentrated and began to feel myself float higher and higher. When I opened my eyes I saw that I was hovering over the top of the building.

“Look at you,” Collin said, peering over at me. “You’re a little slow, but we can work on that. Now I know you can fly up, but let’s see how you do going down.” He threw his thumb over his shoulder, pointing over the ledge and towards the ground. “You first.”

My annoyance with him was at an all-time peak. I had only known this guy for a couple days, yet he got under my skin more than anyone I’d ever met before. Why did he have to act like such a cocky jackass? It was difficult to not show my frustration with him as I walked to the edge of the building. We stood shoulder to shoulder as I stared over the edge. I couldn’t concentrate on anything except the four-story drop to the ground below us. When Abby and I had practiced, she would set up stations with different heights, allowing me to get comfortable with each one before moving on to the next. This just felt like I was being thrown to the sharks. What would happen if I couldn’t do it? Well, I knew what would happen—I would fall down to the ground below and die. Did Collin really think this was the best way? I tilted my head towards him, seeing him picking at a string that was hanging off his shirt. He wasn’t even paying attention to me. Would he even notice if I jumped off and tried to fly, but couldn’t? He would probably realize it the second I hit the ground with a thud. Ugh, he was so aggravating.

“Come on, love. Don’t think about it too much, you’re going to psyche yourself out.” His voice was patronizing.

I glared over at him. “This isn’t my first time, thank you very much. I’m just evaluating the situation. It’s just... it’s been a long time, is all.”

“Oh, come on. It’s not that bad.” He looked amused, like he was actually happy that he had found something I struggled with. I didn’t know what bothered me more: the smug look on his face or the fact that he was right.

I took a couple small steps closer to the ledge and peered over. Then BOOM out of nowhere, I was falling. I let out a half gasp, half scream. My eyes focused on the ground that was getting closer and closer, very quickly. Think! Feather floating; allow the energy to escape you. My body stopped a few inches from the ground beneath me. Whew! That was close. Too close! After regaining my footing on the ground, I was able to analyze what had happened. Collin had pushed me. The jerk pushed me! The nerve of that guy! As I looked up towards the top of the building, I heard laughing. Uncontrollable, belly shaking, laughter. I stormed off and heard him yelling after me.

“Oh, come on, sweetheart! No guts, no glory!” He barely got the last few words out through his laughter.

Blood boiled in my veins. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been this mad. Who did he think he was?

When I got back to Jackie’s house, I slammed the door behind me, causing a picture that was hanging on the wall to fall to the floor. My anger had never gotten this out of control before, but I guess with all that had been going on over the last week, I had hit my breaking point.

“Meredith, what’s going on?” Jackie’s face was covered with concern as I stormed passed the dining room towards the kitchen. I glanced over in her direction and noticed that she sat with a man at the dining room table.

“Collin is what happened. He’s such a jerk!” I huffed, unable to control my outburst. Where was this coming from? I’m usually able to control my emotions better. I had only known Jackie for a couple days. I felt awful that I was acting like this in front of her and in front of the man sitting beside her. He was staring right at me and looked as if he was trying to hide a smile. Even sitting down he towered over Jackie’s small frame sitting next to him. His inky black hair was combed over to the side and he reminded me of someone, but I couldn’t place who it was since my anger seemed to be taking over my ability to think straight.

She chuckled. “Well, I have no doubt that he did something horrible. He’s the best teacher around, but he can be a major pain sometimes.”

“Sometimes!” I scoffed. “Ugh, he’s insufferable. I would like to... to... punch him in the face.” I gritted through my teeth.

Jackie laughed again and glanced towards the man sitting beside her. “Meredith, I’d like you to meet Daniel, Collin’s father.”

My eyes widened and I suddenly felt ill. I had just called his son a jerk and said that I wanted to punch him in the face.
Nice
.

My face felt like it was a thousand degrees and getting warmer. Luckily, Daniel laughed, then stood up and held out his hand to mine. “It’s nice to meet you, Meredith. Believe me; I know the pranks my son can pull. So don’t go feeling bad about what you just said. There are times where I feel like giving him a good punch in the face, too.”

Just then, the front door swung open and Collin strolled through, looking all proud and totally irritating. “There you are, love. I wondered where you had run off to.”

“What have you done, Collin?” Jackie demanded when he approached the table.

“Oh, I was just playing with her. Similar to how she played around with me yesterday. It seems that she can dish it out, but can’t take it.” He looked towards me, giving me a wide smile.

Yesterday, I had pulled a joke on him, but it wasn’t going to kill him. Today, I could’ve gotten killed! What he did totally crossed the line.

Collin spent the rest of day and night apologizing for pushing me, but would quickly follow it up with a joke about falling or being light on my feet. Much to my dismay, Jackie insisted that Collin and his father stay for dinner. I wanted to protest like a five-year-old, but I couldn’t; it was her house, after all. I tried to be nice and polite, hopefully showing Daniel and Jackie that I was a respectable young woman and that my behavior from earlier wasn’t my normal conduct.

Overall, the dinner was pleasant. Daniel mentioned that he was a protector in the magical community and that, since he didn’t have an assignment at the time, he would watch over me while I was in London. I told him that there shouldn’t be any need for one, but he insisted. If I was being totally honest, it made me feel a little safer. I mean, in general, I felt safe, but I also knew that potential enemies could come from anywhere, time, or place. Someone could be after me right now and I wouldn’t even know it. A large part of me felt like accepting Daniel’s offer was kind of replacing Blake, but I shook those thoughts out of my head, knowing that I had to keep focused and stay positive. My only reason for being here in London was ultimately to try and find a way back to him, and repeatedly feeling like I was tarnishing my loyalty to the Harpers wasn’t going to help me do it.

The next morning, Collin arrived with a much more pleasant attitude. We hardly spoke as we made our way to the warehouse. My mind was distracted, mainly with thoughts of Blake and Abby. I hated admitting it to myself, but the reality of never seeing them again was beginning to haunt me. Once Jackie’s friend returned, I would find out if I was going to get the help I needed, but what if I didn’t get any help? What if he told me there was no way to contact the council? Or what if I got in touch with the council, but they wouldn’t help me? What was my plan then? My heart squeezed knowing I had no idea what I would do or where I would go after this.

“Okay, so I’m going to be completely honest now,” Collin said as we approached the warehouse. “Today we start the real training. I haven’t had a student with your power or willingness to learn in a long time. Usually, the person I’m teaching just wants to sleep, play on their stupid phones, or just go home so they can catch up on their latest T.V. show. When my students started to lose interest in learning, I guess I started to lose interest in teaching, but I can see that you have a passion for it, so I don’t want to be the one to hold you back.”

I glanced over, analyzing his features, trying to see if he was just messing with me. My conscience told me not to trust him—that this was just another joke—but he actually looked sincere.

“I’m serious,” he said firmly. “From now on, I’m dedicated to being the best teacher I can be.”

As much as I wanted to roll my eyes, I decided to believe the promise he made. “Fine, I believe you.”

We started where we’d left off yesterday—flying lessons. Before I knew it, and as much as I hated it, I found myself standing at the top of the warehouse, staring down towards the ground.

I glanced over my shoulder and saw Collin standing just a few feet behind me.

“Don’t worry. I’m not going to push you.” The left side of his mouth lifted, threatening a smile. “But I still think your biggest obstacle is yourself. You think about it way too much.” He took a couple steps forward. “Now, I’m not trying to insult your last teacher, but...”

His voice trailed off as my eyes narrowed on him. He put his hands up defensively. “Hey, I said I wasn’t trying to insult her. All I’m saying is that maybe she was a little easy on you when it came to pushing your limits. In my opinion, you need to be pushed... no pun intended.” He grinned guiltily.

“Abby just wanted me to learn at my own speed without forcing too much on me at once,” I said in her defense.

He swayed back and forth on his feet. “Okay, okay, but you are struggling with flying, right?”

As much as it pained me to do so, I nodded.

“So how about we change it up a bit. Let’s just try my way for a couple days and see if you improve. Deal?”

Reluctantly, I nodded in agreement. I guess it couldn’t hurt.

Collin pulled something out of his back pocket, walked over and handed it to me. “Put this on and we’ll start.”

“What? No way!” I said as I looked down at the blindfold he had just handed me. A blindfold and a flying lesson should never go together. Was he crazy or did he think I was crazy?

“Come on. You said that you would try it my way.”

“Yeah, that was before I knew you were nuts.” I laughed nervously.

“All of my students learn this way,” he stated matter-of-factly.

“Really? And how many of them are still alive to talk about it?”

He couldn’t help but chuckle. “Plenty. Almost all of them.” He winked and then motioned for me to put the blindfold around my eyes. “You said that you would try.”

No part of me was okay with this. Actually, every part of me was screaming for me to throw the blindfold at him and run, but where would I have gone? For now, Collin was my teacher—and as much as I didn’t want to, I needed to start trusting him if this was going to work. He really seemed to be trying to take his role more seriously and I had promised him that I would be a diligent student.