Love lines (42 page)

“Nobody possesses all the elements together, so they
don’t need to learn how not to go mad using so much power,” Evan said again.

In general, after hearing all these comments, I decided
that my training would never be easy and carefree. Therefore, a special program
was just what I needed.

Today it was Saturday evening and to my surprise, at
just half-past nine, I was getting ready for bed. Amanda was still angry about
Lucas, so she was in too. The last few days seemed to ruin their relationship
even more. She had become more capricious, not even realizing why. Well, and
Lucas was annoyed greatly because of her behavior, so no one managed to make
peace between the two of them.

Tomorrow it was my birthday, so I really hoped that at
least that day won’t be like most of my regular days. Because usually each of
them brought more and more problems, and sometimes I felt as I could no longer
see the sunlight under the pile of endless difficulties. I invited all my
friends to celebrate my birthday, including Anna, who had already recovered and
was happy to be, finally, in her room again. I also invited Frederick, but he,
unfortunately, had left and therefore wouldn’t be able to attend our small
party.

I carefully brushed my hair, and went to bed, hoping
that this night I would have a good night's sleep.

I wasn’t mistaken. I actually had a dream, a memory from
my childhood. This was my eighth, judging by the number of candles on the cake,
birthday. I was wearing a wonderful lacy dress. All around there were my
guests, and everyone was shouting that I should probably make a wish and blow
the candles. I closed my eyes, trying to focus on my wish.

“I want to have a real dad,” I thought to myself and
blew out the candles on the pink cake. The guests cheered and began to give
their presents. The last one was from a stranger. I looked up and realized that
in fact he was familiar to me. I knew that man, I often looked into those
emerald eyes. It was Frederick…

The next morning I was awakened by a quiet voice of
Amanda, who was singing
“Happy Birthday, Eileen”
, squatting near my bed.

“How beautiful!” I said when I saw my friend giving me a
huge red box tied with a big white bow with red spot print.

 “I hope you will like what is inside too,” she smiled,
sitting down on my bed.

I untied the bow and opened the box, finding there
another one, then one more... So in general my present was packed into six
identical boxes, each of which contained a small postcard with funny wishes.
The last box was the heaviest one. I opened it and stood still with delight. On
a soft white cloth there were very beautiful shoes from my favorite designer
that I wanted to buy for so long - pale pink, high heeled and in patent
leather. I had no words to say to Amanda, how glad I was to get them.

“You don’t have to say anything, I know - they are
amazing,” she said, laughing.

“It is not the word!” I cried. “You wouldn’t believe,
but yesterday I remembered about them and thought how great they would look
with my dress for the party.”

“That's what I thought about too. Can’t you guess why I
have advised you to wear that very dress?”

“You're the best friend in the world!” truly I said,
hugging Amanda.

“All the other gifts you will get in the evening. But as
mine is to be an essential part of this evening, I’ve warned everyone to be the
first giving you my present. Christian was upset, but he will forgive me. So
next year, I will let him be the first. Here, by the way, is another present.
It was brought early in the morning. I don’t know whom it’s from; there was no
note.”

Amanda gave me a small blue box, tied with a silver
ribbon. There was another smaller one inside. And a card:

“To my beloved daughter, Eileen Lillian Clark on her
eighteenth birthday,”
I read aloud.

“What?!” Amanda asked in surprise grabbing my card.

My hands were shaking, the words stuck like a lump in my
throat. I didn’t want to look at the gift in my hands, afraid to see the
contents of the box. My heart was beating so fast that it seemed the sound was
audible even to Amanda, who was rereading the card for the tenth time already.

“It’s impossible,” she whispered.

“I don’t understand anything,” I said quietly finding at
last the courage to open the present. There was a medallion inside. But not
just
a medallion - a golden oval with a blue heart, on which it was written in gold
only three letters
“N”
,
“P”
,
“M”.

“Nature, power, magic,” Amanda said remembering where we
first saw a similar picture.”

“What does this mean?” I asked stunned. “How my father,
whoever he is, knows that I am here, and moreover, how he knows about Dever?”

Amanda shrugged silently continuing to examine the
locket.

“It’s beautiful,” finally she said.

“Yes, it is,” I agreed stroking the smooth surface of the
jewelry. Despite the fact that I still was in complete shock by this gift, I
couldn’t escape the feeling that I was happy to touch it. I even wanted to try
it. I went to the mirror and put the medallion to my neck. Its touch felt
surprisingly warm. I didn’t know why, but I compared it to the locket, which
Christian once gave me. The sensations were similar. As soon as I fastened the
medallion, a sense of serenity and joy appeared.

“It's not just jewelry,” I said, looking at Amanda.
“It’s filled with magic. I know it for sure. I could recognize this effect
anywhere, especially after Evan taught me how to separate the dark magic from
the white one.”

The energy of this medallion was definitely positive,
clear as rock crystal. I didn’t know why I had found just such a comparison,
but I didn’t want to take it off. And leaving it on my neck, I sat on the bed
again and re-read the words written in the note. My friend was surprisingly
calm, she didn’t say a word when I said about the presence of magic in a
medallion, or about the fact that this present was from my father, if it really
was his handiwork.

“What are you thinking about?” I asked her.

“Would you like to meet your real father?” she asked in
response.

I didn’t even have to think about the answer, it was too
obvious.

“Yes,” I said without hesitation. “As long as I remember
myself, this has been my greatest wish.”

Amanda smiled encouragingly.

“Maybe it will finally come true. By the way, what was
your dream last night about? You were smiling so happily. I was signing cards
and noticed that.”

I tried to remember my dream. Strange, I thought it was
something very pleasant, but I couldn’t remember what exactly was there.

“Honestly, I don’t remember,” I said.

“Well, okay. And now it's time to take a shower.
Breakfast will also be great,” Amanda said, jumping up from my bed and circling
the room with boxes of her gift in hands.”

“You don’t want to say that this morning I’m going to be
congratulated by the entire campus, do you?”I groaned climbing into my bed and
covering my head. I couldn’t stand so much attention! All I needed now was a
quiet dinner with my friends, but it seemed I shouldn’t have hoped that.

“You will find out all soon. Wake up!” Amanda commanded,
pulling my blanket away.

“Can I put your shoes on and not to do anything else
with myself? They will eclipse all the attention.”

“I’m sure Christian would like that,” Amanda said
laughing.

I looked at myself. I was wearing a short silk ivory
trimmed undershirt with laces and the same shorts. Add high heels to these
already seductive clothes, and Christian would definitely love it. I laughed
and went, finally, to the bathroom.

Taking a shower I decided that on this occasion a little
make up won’t hurt. I rarely did it, preferring to give those extra ten minutes
to the sweet sleep. Having dealt with the makeup, I put on jeans with my
favorite blue tunic and went to have my
great
breakfast.

As soon as I entered the dining room I heard
congratulations from everywhere, even from people whose names I didn’t know.
Has Amanda personally reminded everyone that it was necessary to congratulate
me today? My friends were waiting for me at one of our favorite tables. There
was a happy smile on everyone’s face.

“Because you are not officially born yet, don’t wait for
any congratulations,” Evan said kissing my cheek.

“How do you know what time I was born?” I wondered.

“Did you forget about me?” asked Amanda resentfully. Oh,
right! My best friend knew all about me.

“The announcement of today’s event is your job, right? I
asked her, smiling.

“No. It wasn’t me. Just so happened,” she said,
exchanging glances with everyone present.

“I’ve already seen those gazes before,” I said
thoughtfully. “What are you up to?”

“There’s a time for everything,” said Christian with a
mysterious grin on his lips.

Only then I really had a chance to see what was there on
our table. In the middle there was a beautiful bouquet of crocus - a symbol of
joy and fun. All cups were tied with pink and white ribbons whose curling ends
were hanging down to the floor. Small crystal balls decorated the table-cloth,
shimmering in the sunlight with a million different shades. The impression was
that the table was simply moved from a fairy tale. Amanda's handiwork, no
doubt.

“It’s perfect,” I told her.

“You're always welcome,” she said pleased with my
compliment.

“It's a pity that there is no way to give you our presents
now,” Anna complained. “I can’t wait to give you mine.”

“Neither can I,” Evan agreed. “But I won’t suggest
anyone to argue with Amanda today, otherwise there won’t be a chance to give
Eileen our presents at all,” he said winking at my friend.

“That's right, Evan, keep your jokes for yourself today,
or I won’t let you attend the party!” Amanda warned.

Lucas, who was sitting next to Christian, frowned
watching this
nice talk
. Of course, he knew that Evan behaved the same
way with everyone, but his flirtation with Amanda obviously didn’t please the
eye. Well, he didn’t know that only a few weeks ago my friend was ready to sell
her soul to the devil for this attitude on the part of Evan. Looking now at
those two, I knew that Amanda was absolutely right - they had too similar
characters to be more than just friends. Being freed at last from her obsession
about Evan, Amanda started to take all his jokes differently, responding in the
same way. Personally, I was hoping that tonight will help her and Lucas to
reestablish their relationship. They were a great couple, and watching my
friend’s suffering was simply killing.

“A penny for your thought” said
Christian putting his arm around my shoulders.

“I think it’s time for those two to come to
understanding finally,” I replied, looking at Amanda and still gloomy Lucas.

“I can’t but agree,” Christian nodded.

“Well,” said Darcy rising, “unfortunately Amanda wasn’t
able to cancel our current studies. So see you all in the evening.”

“Even you, Eileen, can’t escape training today,” said
smiling Evan. “I have prepared something special, and Christian kindly agreed
to assist me.”

“Really? I hope this won’t spoil our mood till the end
of the day. There are no new surprises, aren’t there?”

“Well, we will see,” Evan chuckled.

Christian could barely keep a neutral expression on his
face. I felt his excitement and I didn’t doubt that it would be a something
good.

“Shall we go then?” I said.

Today, to my surprise, we were back in the very room
where the magic was practiced. This time Evan didn’t turn the light on, he
asked us to walk to the center of the room. I stopped in surprise when noticed
that every our step was accompanied by a small spot of light, as if we were
stepping on the invisible light bulbs. 

“Are you doing this?” I asked Evan.

He didn’t answer, but said with a nod to go further. So
we did, reaching the middle and stopped.

“And now, Christian, do what I asked you,” said Evan.

Christian took a few steps away and lit a small fireball
in his hands. Then he threw it on the floor and many smaller balls scattered
around it. Evan raised his hand palm up and all the balls turned into high
strips of real fire.

“It's your turn, Eileen,” he said looking at me. “Try to
do something yourself.”

“But I don’t know how!” I was all in a tangle.

“You know everything, just listen to yourself, feel it,”
encouraged Evan.

I tried to relax and focus on my feelings. The flow of
new, unfamiliar energy trembled in my hands and just like Evan, I turned them
up imagining the band of fire turning into a flame. Opening my eyes, I saw the
three of us standing in the center of the flame, but there was no heat, or even
smell of smoke.

“How did that happen?” I asked moon-eyed.