Grounded (4 page)

“Fine. Just... there’s always a possibility that I’m in danger, here and now. Leela having this amulet...it can’t be good news,” Avery bit out. There was one more possibility on how Leela had acquired that amulet-- a darker and more horrifying one that Avery had yet to consider and one she didn’t want to face.

“You don’t trust me?” He asked the painfully rhetorical question.

Avery jumped when a sudden knock came at the door. She whirled to face the wood. They didn’t have peep holes so she couldn’t peer into the hall. Either way, any human meant Patrick had to go. She danced around him, slipped to the window, and lifted the heavy glass open. A cripplingly chilly gust met her face and froze her fingers. She backed up, dusted the powdered snow off of the sill, and looked toward him.

“Please go. I have to answer that.”

He frowned but didn’t argue. The loud knock came again, except this time more persistent.

“Fine.” He said shortly. “I’ll see you around.”

She maneuvered out of the way and watched him crawl through the gap. The harpie even had some height on Mason so the fit wasn’t an easy one. Once he cleared it, she happily slammed the window shut. The door came next and Avery composed herself before opening it.

She blinked when the bright hallway lights reached her. At first her guest resembled a blurry shadow before her eyes finally adjusted. She recognized Nate.

“How was the movie?” Avery asked automatically.

Nate rocked back on his snake skin boots and earned her attention again with a grunt.

“I didn’t watch it. Leela bailed early.” He made a face and changed the subject. “Look, we don’t need to do the chit-chat thing. Leela still has my jacket and I need it back.”

“She’s not here.” Avery opened the door wider to reveal the rest of the room. Leela’s bed, up against the wall closest to the door, remained made and empty. Nate took a half hearted glance.

“She said she was coming to see you half an hour ago.” He made a gesture to his silver wrist watch. “The campus isn’t that big.”

Avery agreed but that’s not what had her at a loss for words. She’d already been panicking about Leela. This wasn’t a good update.

“Did she call you?” He asked prompting her to snap out of the trance.

Patrick had taken her phone but Avery doubted that there would have been a call anyways--especially if Nate and Leela left the theater over half an hour ago.

“No. I haven’t heard from her since we split in the theater.” Avery wrapped her fingers around the door frame and squeezed. Nate bit his lip. Face red and green eyes cast down to the garish carpet, he folded his arms and asked the inevitable question.

“Is she out with another guy?”

Avery sputtered out a quick answer.

“No, Nate, chill--” He interrupted her before she could finish.

“Don’t tell me to chill! She told me she’d be here with you. How many times has she told you she was hanging out with me but lied? She’s telling us both that! Get it dumb girl? That’s why neither of us see her at all.”

Avery shut her mouth. Digging her nails into the wood, she held herself up. Feeling light headed, she thought it over. Leela had a real racket going. Avery would never talk to Nate to confirm her location. Nate wouldn’t expect Avery to tell him anything either. The idea had been thought out and thought out well but it wasn’t fool proof. Avery had gone quiet during her thoughts only letting the sound of her pounding heart fill up the room.

“Say something.” He growled to finally stir a reaction from her.

“I’m not sure what’s going on with her. But let me talk to her first, okay? I don’t think she’s cheating at you.” Correction, Avery didn’t think it was as easy as that.

She mumbled a few more reassurances to Nate and then sent him off. Closing the door and sealing the room in darkness, she let out a long breath. One thing was sure. Leela was lying. And it couldn’t have been over anything good.

Four

Avery shut the door and leaned against the smooth wood. The night dragged on and fatigue weighed heavily in her muscles despite her active mind. Her eyes skirted the room. Leela’s desk attracted her attention. She maneuvered over to it and popped open the cabinet, heart racing as she was unsure of what to expect. Multicolored high lighters, notebooks, and thick texts lined one corner. The other had a few tightly wrapped bags of candy and crackers. Avery scoured the corners, pulling everything else onto the floor. Nothing out of the ordinary. She began to shove them in, ready to go onto the bed next, but stopped when she heard something.

The door knob jingled. A key slid into the lock and the bolt twisted. Avery dove for her bed. Grabbing the fluffy blanket, she pulled it over her shoulders and then buried her head into the pillow facing away from the door. Black hair falling over her face, she closed her eyes and forcefully slowed her breathing. The door slid open and a wash of yellow light spilled inside from the hallway lights.

Leela walked in and paused. She stayed quiet but Avery could hear her steady breathing, a few footsteps and the door click shut. Without the hallway lights, the room returned to complete darkness.

“Avery, are you awake?” The girl asked softly.

Avery refused to even budge. The lack of light worked in her favor and Leela didn’t stare.

Avery listened to the girl walk across the room. Her desk drawer slid open and with a barely audible clatter, Leela plucked something out. Then the girl quietly crept back for the door. Hallway lights visible again and room temporarily illuminating, she slipped outside and clicked the door shut in her wake. Avery wouldn’t move until the door locked loudly and she couldn’t hear anymore footsteps in the hall.

Finally budging, Avery freed herself from the tangle of sheets. She’d dove underneath them with jeans, boots and all, leaving a trail of slush and dirt across the bottom half of her bed. Avery didn’t grumble. Hyper focused on the situation at hand, she looked around. Leela had left nothing and taken nothing. The perfectly made sheets still sat starch and smooth. Avery went for the desk next and slid open the drawer slowly.

A few folders and papers sat neatly. Avery rustled through them. The harpie amulet was gone. Heart skipping a beat, she shut the drawer and backed off.

A sudden tap at the window nearly made her heart stop. Glancing over quickly, she spotted Patrick. Hunched over and clinging to the sill, his massive white wings encircled half his body. She rushed to open the window, slamming the glass too hard with the quick movement. The result was a nearly deafening crack that only added to her anxiety.

“What do you want?” She hissed. Her eyes jumped around him, peering into the night. Her window faced away from the school, towards the woods and one of the emergency fire exits. The rustling trees and the snow covered ground stared back at her.

“You’re worried about your friend?” He asked.

“She’s up to something. She’s calling a harpie. I’m sure of it!” Avery cursed. That wasn’t the worst part. Leela had taken pains to hide it from her as well.

“I saw her walk outside, into the forest. On the left hand side of the dormitory.” He pointed with a thin finger and indicated the area just hidden by the building’s curve.

“Should I follow her?” Avery stared out toward the visible part of the woods. Inside the trees, the visibility would drop to zero and the temperature would fall with it. Twigs and branches covered the ground making any sneaking impossible.

“You said you wanted to find out, right?”He quirked an eyebrow-- a light hearted expression that Avery didn’t think justified the situation.

She cast him a crooked look.

“Don’t you get it? There’s a chance she could be talking to them-- the Band.” Avery paused momentarily to swallow the thick lump in her throat. “They kidnapped her a few months ago. They compelled her. They made her do all this horrible stuff! They made her try and kill herself.

“Mikhail has this way of getting into people’s heads. What if he brainwashed her? What if everything she’s done since she’s been back has been an act? Mikhail brainwashed her and sent her here to watch me or something!” Breathless, she recoiled into the room and lowered her voice.

Patrick inched in, now just outside the sill, and he gave her a long look.

“Why just watch you?” He asked skeptically.

She didn’t want to admit the Willow magic idea to another harpie she didn’t entirely trust, so she avoided the subject.

“I don’t know, okay? But if the Band is involved it is bad news for me.”

“So assuming that’s the case, why don’t you follow her out and find out for sure?”

Avery’s shoulders shrunk when she let out a deep breath. Tense muscles beginning to ache, she breathed until some calm returned to her and with it came a more rational mind set.

“I could but if it is the Band then they might kill me. Leela knows Mason is gone, she might be calling them here! And then I’ll really be screwed. I can’t go out in the open.”

The plan came together in her mind. Mason knew the area and knew the Band. He would have known if they moved a feather into the area. But Patrick was younger and more reckless. They wouldn’t fear him. Leela would update them and then Mikhail would come for his revenge. Avery had no protection either. The magic that lingered in her body was at an infancy stage and would need to grow before being usable. Her eyes connected with Patrick’s.

“Do you think you could help me if I needed it?”

He gave her a thin smirk.

“I think I could do a lot of things,” was his final answer.

Gathering up her nerve, she nodded.

“You said there?” She pointed to the area and made a mental map in her mind. There were two ways to get to those woods, one more dangerous than the other. The more inviting path was a short walk from the pavement and entrance of the dormitories. The more treacherous path involved weaving through the massive trees uphill at least twenty feet.

Reluctantly, Avery held with the latter option. Just the fact that it was a perilous path made the idea of someone sneaking through it all the more unanticipated.

“Okay, help me outside and then take off. Your wings are too big and they’ll attract attention.”

Patrick nodded. She flicked her wrists to send him back an inch. After balancing himself, he opened his arms. Avery reluctantly embraced him, looping her arms around his neck and pressing her body into his warm, hard chest. His arms circled her as well and tightened.

“Go already.” She said when his wings failed to immediately open.

“Okay okay. Just had to tell you that I’m proud of you, girlie. Doing this is brave.”

Only Patrick would find the situation as another way to hit on her. His fingers flickered over the small of her back and threatened to push up her shirt. Before she gave him another verbal shove, his wings snapped open. He dove backward, the extreme movement sending them upside down. His wings corrected and while Avery’s world kept spinning, Patrick landed them with all feet on the ground. Releasing her before the vertigo had dissipated, his wings snapped open and he took off. She didn’t see where he flew, only that it was opposite of her desired direction. Patrick wasn’t planning to be anywhere nearby apparently.

Avery regained her senses and moved quickly. Snaking up the side of the brick building, she reached the line of trees and shuffled in. Snow free, it made the movements easier but she had to carefully step over high roots and animal potholes. The noise wasn’t as severe as she’d initially thought as the sound of her movements got lost under the loud wind and creaking branches. She forced herself forward, occasionally nailing her boot toe on a stump or getting a few steps off path.

She slowed when she saw a flicker of artificial blue light. The main school lights didn’t share the blue hue. Taking a few more cautious steps, she slid behind a tree and pressed against it. Just visible, Leela stood in a tiny clearing. Her body had been eclipsed in a dense blue mist. Avery knew the mist belonged to the communication amulet. Unlike phones, being in the mist allowed you to both speak and hear someone who had a matching amulet. Avery didn’t know how it worked but she knew what it did. Someone was on the other line with Leela.

The light came from Leela’s phone which she absently held to keep the area illuminated. Watching it, Avery’s fingers twitched with a subconscious need to be holding her own phone-- her only life line to Mason. After this, she’d have to fight Patrick to get it back. If her fears were confirmed, he should at least listen to reason then.

“That’s what I said.” Leela said to seemingly no one. Avery strained to listen. She wouldn’t be able to hear the other side of the conversation without being in the fog, but she could hear Leela.

“I asked her if the mark had been like that forever. She said no but she wasn’t really saying much about it. She freaked out.”

Avery’s brow pinched and she paused, confused.

“It’s just a darker grey now. I never saw what it was like the first time but I definitely wouldn’t define this as black or even dark.” Leela said, this time taking Avery’s breath away.

They were talking about the magical mark on Avery’s arm. The coloring, obviously important, probably proved the magic had mostly left her body. Mind spinning, she didn’t know how to react. It’d be good news if the Band didn’t think she had the magic anymore, seeing as they’d once tried to carve her open to get it back. On the other hand, the Band’s leader, Mikhail, was absolutely sharp and little escaped him. He might know that some of it lingered. Feeling nauseous, Avery pressed a firm hand over her mouth.

“I know that wasn’t the point but I figured I’d tell you. She’s not really onto me so it’s easy to check on those things. More importantly, Mason skipped town. I’m almost sure of it.”

Avery went cold. Unable to hear much more, she pressed her eyes shut and tried to keep her composure. Leela continued.