Authors: Melanie Matthews
And he was. He was standing with her in the road, blocking the car and the drunk driver from her sight. As he held her, cars kept whizzing past them unaware, and she forgot about the man about to die, and her tears didn’t fall. She was safe. She was all right. Lucas had saved her.
She opened her eyes and lifted up her head. Lucas was staring down at her, concerned. “I’m all right,” she said, smiling. “You did it. I saw you there with me, and I didn’t see him die.” She nuzzled her face against his sweaty neck. “Thank you.”
“What was
that
all about?” Bree asked, shocked.
Eva looked up to see the students, with Coach Brennan, crowded around her and Lucas, as they sat on the white sandy ground.
“It’s nothing,” Lucas said in a tone that suggested they shut up about it.
She remembered the first time he had entered her mind. He blocked her from seeing a man about to commit suicide with a speeding train. He told her to keep it a secret. Leprechauns weren’t supposed to be able to enter a Banshee’s mind. It had never been done before, and Lucas didn’t know the ramifications.
Now the secret was out.
“Eva said she didn’t see someone die,” Meg said, with Finn standing right beside her.
“How can that be?” Corrine asked, holding Liam’s hand.
“It’s nothing,” Lucas said angrily, and then helped Eva to her feet. He looked at everyone. “Now go on! There’s nothing to see here.”
Eva found Devin in the crowd, far away. The look on his face was of total shock and profound sadness.
“It’s not
nothing
,” Coach Brennan said, stepping in front of the crowd, towering above Lucas. “Did you somehow…prevent her from seeing death? Were you able to…enter her mind?”
Lucas swallowed, nervous. “Yes, coach,” he said softly.
Everyone gasped. Corrine, Meg, and Bree slapped their hands to their mouths. Finn and Liam’s jaws dropped, but Devin held his jaw tight, his emerald eyes glowing with worry.
“I think the headmaster should be informed about this,” Coach Brennan said.
But it wasn’t a casual suggestion, as in take it or leave it. It was a command, uttered softly.
Lucas nodded, defeated. Eva nodded too, terrified. Lucas held her hand tightly as they walked solemnly behind Coach Brennan. On they went, past the double shamrock doors, across the Commons Area, up the stairs to the second floor, to the open archway on the left, along the darkened hall, where they finally came to a halt just before the library. They stood in front of an arched wooden door with a sign that read
HEADMASTER SEAMUS QUINN
.
Eva couldn’t stop trembling. Lucas gently squeezed her hand, giving her a sweet smile, as Coach Brennan knocked on the door.
13
The Meaning of Connecting
The headmaster’s office looked like a cozy bedroom with wood paneling and a green shamrock border traveling around the top of the walls. Green curtains covered two large windows, a chandelier dangled from the ceiling, and there were multiple paintings of castles on green fields. The Irish flag, with the tricolors of green, white, and orange, was secured in a flag holder, next to the red, white, and blue stars and stripes of the United States.
Behind the headmaster’s large black desk was a long table, filled with green leather-bound books on shelves, a tray of ingoing and outgoing mail, several green and black three-ring binders, and stacks of papers. No personal items, no photos. The headmaster’s life was Green Clover Academy.
Lucas held on to Eva’s hand, as they stood on the green carpet, in front of the headmaster’s desk.
Mr. Quinn looked up from his laptop. “When I said ‘enter,’ I didn’t expect to see you three.” He smiled at the coach. “Caught these two kissing instead of doing jumping jacks?” He laughed. “Or kissing while doing jumping jacks?”
Eva wanted to laugh, but was so nervous, she kept her head down, staring at her dirty sneakers.
“No-no, headmaster,” Coach Brennan stammered.
Eva looked up at the muscular man with his military-style buzz cut. Her heart was racing, wondering what he would say. She didn’t know how the headmaster would react to Lucas’ ability to enter her mind, but she hoped that he wouldn’t get expelled. She needed him.
“Something…happened…outside,” the coach continued.
Mr. Quinn rolled his eyes. “Yes?”
“I think it’s better if they explain,” he said, looking at Eva and Lucas.
“Thanks, Geoffrey.” The headmaster nodded to Coach Brennan, who left and shut the door. “Please, have a seat.” He gestured to the two black leather chairs in front of his desk.
They slowly sat down, still holding hands.
He laughed, looking at their clenched hands. “Oh, how many times I’ve seen that as this school. Young love.” He narrowed his eyes at Lucas, wagging his finger at him. “What’d you do now?”
Eva held her head down again, afraid to look at the headmaster, afraid to look at Lucas.
“I-I didn’t do anything. At least, I didn’t mean to do anything. Eva…” He trailed off.
She lifted her head and turned to Lucas. He was staring at her, looking worried. She was surprised that he didn’t vanish right there from all the anxiety, but she assumed that he was trying to manage his abilities, for the benefit of her, knowing she needed him by her side.
Lucas turned back to the headmaster. “It all started when we picked up Eva from the airport,” he began again. “When you were getting us something to drink at the gas station, Eva had a vision.”
The headmaster turned to Eva. “Really? When I came back, you seemed fine.”
But Eva couldn’t speak, trembling. Lucas saved her.
“Well, when she had her vision, I went to comfort her, and I don’t know how,”—he shrugged—“but I entered her mind.”
Eva stared at the headmaster, waiting for his reaction.
“Continue,” he said with a nod of his head, as the light from the chandelier bounced off his bald spot.
He seemed relaxed with his hands steady on the desk surface, but she could see the look in his dark brown eyes through those black circle-framed glasses. He was nervous.
“Well, I don’t know how I do it, but I enter her mind. I see her,”—he looked at Eva, giving her a sympathetic smile—“and I see what she sees. I see someone about to die too.” He turned back to the headmaster. “And I see her in pain. I hold her, and I tell her that everything is going to be okay, and—”
“And I am,” she said to Lucas, clenching his hand. “I don’t cry, and I forget about the vision. Whoever is about to die, they don’t matter anymore.” She turned back to the headmaster. “Lucas prevents me from seeing death. He eases my sorrow. I’m better, because of him.”
“And how often has this happened?” he asked Lucas. His voice was even, curious, betraying nothing of how he really felt.
“Three times,” he answered softly.
The headmaster nodded and turned his head to the wall. He stared off into space, processing…something.
“It’s not Lucas’ fault!” Eva burst out, letting go of Lucas’ hand, leaning forward in her seat. “Please, don’t do anything to him. He didn’t mean to do it, and I…I need him. He helps me. I don’t want to see death. I don’t want to cry anymore. I want him by my side. I need him!”
Lucas grabbed her hand again. “Eva,” he said softly.
She turned to him and saw absolute joy on his face. He had relished every single word of her declaration for him.
“Lucas,” she whispered.
She smiled, for his happiness made her happy. She really did love him in that moment, wondering if he felt the same about her.
“This is…dangerous,” the headmaster said in almost a whisper.
“What’s dangerous?” she asked, turning to him.
Mr. Quinn shook his head, and then he stood up, with his hands on his hips, staring anywhere but at Eva and Lucas.
“It’s not dangerous!” Lucas declared. He shot off his chair and Eva rose with him, holding his hand. “How can it be? Leprechauns can enter other minds. What’s the difference?”
The headmaster finally turned to them, throwing his hands apart. “A Leprechaun can’t enter a Banshee’s mind! It’s never happened before!”
“And how many times has that been said?!” Lucas shouted.
Eva could see the rage on his face, as he painfully clenched her hand.
“It’s never been recorded!” The headmaster shot back.
“And how many times has history never been recorded?! I’ve learned something from Professor Scully’s lectures to know that what we believe may not be true, and that history was written by the winners!”
“This isn’t war!” the headmaster barked.
Lucas, angry, tore his hand from Eva’s. He stood in front of the desk, staring at the headmaster, who was leaning over, his own face screwed up in anger. They were eye to eye.
“You think you know everything, but you know nothing!” Lucas pointed a threatening finger at the headmaster. “Maybe I’m special,”—he threw his finger back at Eva—“maybe she’s special.” He threw his hands up in the air. “Who knows? But what I do know is that I can help her! I don’t penetrate her mind for my own pleasure! I’ve only ever entered her mind when she was in sorrow and no other time!”
He turned to Eva. “I’d never do that,” he said softly. “Never to you.”
“I know you love her,” the headmaster said in a soft voice.
Lucas shook his head. “I…” He trailed off.
That wasn’t the reaction Eva had expected, now that she had truly fallen in love with him. Her heart was in pain as if Lucas had just stabbed her.
“You care about Eva. I get that.” The headmaster turned to her. “Can you stop Lucas from entering your mind?”
“I…I don’t know. I don’t want him to. He’s…helping me.”
Now she didn’t know if she wanted his help, if he didn’t love her.
“What’s so bad about what I can do?” Lucas asked. “She’s the only Banshee that I’ve been able to enter.”
Eva felt her cheeks blush at Lucas’ statement, although innocent, sounded like a double entendre, because she knew for a fact that she hadn’t been the first Banshee he had entered. It just didn’t involve the girl’s mind.
The headmaster sighed. “You don’t understand. We”—he waved at himself and Lucas—“can enter other minds. We can’t enter a Leprechaun’s—he would resist the link—and we can’t enter a Banshee’s mind. It has been that way for centuries. It’s who we are, and it’s the curse.”
The headmaster turned to Eva, giving her a sympathetic look.
“A Banshee’s mind is filled with turmoil. Filled with death. Filled with sorrow. Even if you’re not actively having a vision, your mind is a place that Leprechauns wouldn’t want to enter, even if they tried, because we”—he motioned again at him and Lucas—“find it an undesirable place. We don’t want to enter and there’s a barrier—black like a veil—that shrouds a Banshee’s mind from us.”
Eva remembered all this from their conversation on the plane, but now it was all staring to come together. There was a black veil in her head, and Lucas had somehow passed through it.
“Why do I have this…veil?” she asked.
“It’s the curse,” the headmaster explained. “Saoirse, the witch, knew there were others in the world, powerful like she was. She didn’t want anyone to give you any help, any easing of sorrow. She closed off your mind and contained your omens, your waking nightmares in a black shroud, symbolic of the veil she forever wore on her head, always in mourning for the loss of her daughter.”
“Well, I broke the curse, didn’t I?” Lucas said with a touch of pride.
He held out his hand for Eva to hold. She hesitated, hurt by his less-than-exuberant reaction to the headmaster’s suggestion that he loved with her, but he looked at her with such care that she gladly took his hand.
The headmaster furrowed his brow. “Maybe…maybe she doesn’t have a veil.” He stared at her, making her feel uneasy. After a few seconds, he shrugged. “No, I can’t enter. She’s definitely been veiled.”
Lucas smiled. “You see? We’re meant to be together. I broke through. Maybe I can cure her after all. Maybe I can make her visions go away.”
Eva heard that word again: cure. It had been spoken so many times by the psychiatric hospital’s lead physician Dr. Quincy Lang, by her parents, by her former best friend Soledad. She had hated the word, but now embraced it.
Can Lucas really cure her? Was he her…savior?
“There is no cure,” the headmaster stated. “She is doomed like all the other girls here to a life of sorrow.” He turned to Eva. “I’m sorry my dear. You are fated in misery.”
Eva wanted to cry, but instead she got angry. “Thanks for the pep talk!”
Lucas laughed.
“I didn’t mean to make you angry,” the headmaster apologized. “It’s the truth.”
“Well, we’ve just learned another truth, haven’t we?” Lucas said, still proud. “The truth is”—he turned to Eva and smiled—“even though she’s cursed, still shrouded in a black veil, I can enter her mind and soothe her torment.” He turned back to the headmaster. “Write that in your journal. Let everyone know, from this day forward that a Leprechaun entered a Banshee’s mind.”