Spiral (Spiral Series) (19 page)

I frowned. “That’s a weird question,” I said. “I’m fine.”

“Yeah, of course you are,” he said. And I could hear that the smile was back in his voice.

“Oh and Jackson,” said Maxie. “We invited Pierce. We call him Dimples now.”

“And by ‘we’ she means herself,” said Jill dryly.

There was a sharp intake of breath on the other end of the line. “Are you kidding me?” asked Jackson his voice turning fierce and intense.

Maxie raised her eyebrows. “Of course not.”

“NO way,” Jackson nearly exploded over the phone.

“Calm down, Jeeves,” said Maxie. “Just a hot guy. We find them all the time. And by ‘we’ I mean myself.” She winked at Jill.

“Nat,” said Jackson dangerously. “What do you think you’re doing?” The harshness in his voice stunned me.

“What are you talking about?” I demanded. The good mood I had been in from having my friends over was quickly evaporating.

“You can’t. . . . Are you kidding me?” he demanded. He was almost yelling now.

“Alright,” said Jill, raising her hands for calm even if Jackson couldn’t see. “That’s enough, Jackson. What is your problem?”

There was a long silence at the other end of the line. “You know what? Nothing. I have to go. You will definitely see me tonight.” Before anyone could say anything else, he hung up.

The three of us stared at each other in wonder.

“Who shoved a stick up his butt?” asked Jill, her brow furrowed.

“I wish you weren’t so vulgar,” Maxie groaned. “How are you ever going to get a boyfriend?”

Jill grinned. “With any luck I won’t. I’m glad you think I’m on the right track.”

“What was his problem?” I asked, my lips trembling.

“Don’t worry about it,” said Maxie, moving to put a comforting arm around me. “Guys are dumb. Like, they’re hot, but so dumb.”

“But what was his problem?” I couldn’t let it go: the first time I got to talk to him in days and he had yelled at me for no reason.

“He’s been like that about Pierce at school, too,” said Jill. “But he hasn’t been that mean about it before.”

“What can he be made at Pierce about, anyhow? He isn’t even from around here,” Maxie murmured as she continued to pat me on the back.

“How do you know he isn’t from around here?” I asked, tossing my phone far away from me. Jackson really had a way of ruining my day lately, and I wondered why I had been so happy that he was calling.

“Because I would have heard about someone that hot if he was from around here,” said Maxie confidently. “No question.”

“You would have heard about him, stalked him, and tried to marry him,” said Jill. “Don’t leave all that out.”

“Maybe, but I think he’s hung up on someone else.” She grinned at me.

“Okay,” I said. “You have to stop it. There’s no way I’m the Natalie in the story. I have a life I remember. He was probably just making it all up as his way of getting girls or something. If I was the Natalie in the story, wouldn’t he TELL me?”

“No way,” said Maxie. “I believed every word. Still do. He has an honest face. And of course not. It would scare you off. Besides, it’s been years, so he probably doesn’t know how he feels about it himself.”

“Well, that’s not true,” said Jill, rolling her eyes. “But the funny thing is, I believe it, too.”

“Good for both of you,” I muttered. There was something different about Pierce, but I knew pretty soon I would have to admit to myself that I really liked it. And him.

I paced back and forth. Soon I would be leaving for Natalie’s.

My phone buzzed and I glanced down at it. Jar. Grinning, I picked it up.

“Hey,” I said, glad to talk to my best friend.

But it wasn’t Jar’s voice I heard on the other end of the line.

“So, you made your escape and now you’re causing trouble with the only Spiral left?” The nasty voice was Gretchen’s.

I stifled a groan. I should have known she would have no problem taking her brother’s phone and calling me, since I never answered when I saw her number on an incoming call. “Gretch, what are you doing with Jar’s phone? Why don’t you use your own?”

“I knew you wouldn’t answer if you saw my number. Jar said you had me in your phone as the Wicked Witch, and besides, he’s in the shower. I saw an opportunity and I took it,” said Gretchen. I could feel her shrug. “He only calls you anyway. What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him.”

“What makes you think he won’t know?” I asked coldly.

“Because after I tell you what I’m about to tell you, maybe you’ll consider keeping your mouth shut and not causing any more problems. Maybe you will realize that not talking to me is a mistake.”

My heart rate quickened. Gretchen never talked to me unless it was to tell me what a horrible Silve I was, what a horrible guy, how I had hurt her friend, blah blah. What could she possibly have to say to me now that was so important she would risk Jar’s anger? He didn’t like that his sister and his best friend hated each other, so we did our best not to remind him.

“If it’s a mistake, it’s one I want to keep making,” I said dryly. “I’m sure I haven’t caused any problems at all.”

I knew that would draw a bitter laugh from my friend’s sister, and it did. Life would have been so much simpler if she had just been a decent human being.

“Look,” said Gretchen, her voice turning soft and serious. “There’s stuff happening here that you couldn’t begin to understand. It’s been happening for a while, but you’ve been blissfully unaware, because all you care about is Natalie Monroe. I would be very careful if I were you. Don’t trust anyone.”

“Is this your trustworthy voice, Gretchen?” I asked bitterly. Fury beat at the insides of my temples. Of course Gretchen would try to do this. She was always causing trouble, turning people against each other. I already didn’t trust anyone but Jar.

“I’m just trying to help,” she said with frustration. If I hadn’t known better I would have thought she sounded genuine.

I couldn’t get over what she seemed to be saying, though. “Are you saying not to trust Jar?” I asked icily.

There was a long pause at the other end of the line.

“Of course I’m not saying that. Jar’s Jar,” she said, as if that explained everything.

Before I could order her to stop being dramatic, the line went dead. I stared at my phone for a few seconds, then shook my head. Gretchen was crazy. I had been telling Jar that for years, but she had never gone this far, calling me up and saying that Jar was the only person I could trust. She was the one who supported the Silves unconditionally, while I supported Jar and Natalie. That was it.

A voice behind me startled me.

“So, are you prepared for tonight?”

Eric was standing in the doorway, looking far more innocent than he earlier in the day when he had tried to kill me. A bruise was spreading across his cheek where I had hit him, and he had a bit of a limp. I tried not to examine his injuries with satisfaction.

I nodded. “As prepared as I’ll ever be. It’s a big deal. She turned eighteen today. Who knows what’s been happening to her?”

“Her Watchful reports nothing much has happened yet,” said Eric, shifting to take weight off his injured leg, “but sometimes it takes a day or two.”

I nodded distractedly, still halfway back in the conversation with Gretchen. I knew what Eric said was true. Other unicorns developed more hele on their birthdays, and depending on what was happening they couldn’t always judge exactly when it was going to happen.

“Who were you talking to?” asked Eric.

I told him.

Eric snorted. “She spewing more of her bile?”

I looked at him curiously. I had been under the impression that Eric liked Gretchen. I had seen them talking several times and Jar had gotten angry when he thought Eric was flirting with his sister, who was younger than Eric by almost a couple of decades.

“Basically,” I said, standing up. “I need to get ready.”

He didn’t take the hint; he just kept standing in the doorway. I ignored him, because my thoughts had wandered back in time again.

Since it was Natalie’s eighteenth birthday and I had just been thinking about Jar, my mind went back to when he had gotten his powers. Jar got his hele on his sixteenth birthday, which was a more normal time than eighteen, but Natalie had been through a lot. Jar had been sure it wasn’t going to happen for a day or two after his actual birthday, because that was what had happened with both of his parents, so he had convinced me to go bungee jumping with him.

Jar hadn’t bothered to tell his parents before the two of us set off. If he had, his father screamed later, he would have been informed that intense activity or emotion tended to bring on the new hele more quickly.

Jar didn’t know this, and neither did I.

There was a good chance that at sixteen we wouldn’t have cared, either, and in any case, off the two of us went.

It couldn’t have gone more wrong.

Jar’s parachute didn’t deploy, and he was left to free fall, slamming into the ground with a force that would have killed a normal person several times over.

Luckily for Jar, at least until his parents got hold of him, his hele came into play at that moment and healed him as he was breaking into a million pieces. I had already landed and was racing towards my friend. I did not find a pretty sight.

He was lying mangled on the ground, a heap of blood and bones protruding at odd angles. Sickness washed over me just as it had on the day when I had come home to find my house on fire. Only this time I didn’t have Natalie standing by my side to lean on.

But this wasn’t going to be like the day my house burned. Jar had started to heal almost instantly, and to my intense relief he was fine within minutes.

Jar’s father had told him later that he was delighted that Jar’s hele had kicked in, because it gave his father the opportunity to kill him. Gretchen had just sat in a corner and laughed hysterically. It was the first and only time I had wanted to hit a girl for real.

I could only hope that nothing like that would happen to Natalie.

“Something is going to happen soon. Something big,” I warned Eric. It was only right that we be clear about that between us. I had known for a long time that there was more going on here than just protecting Natalie. The Visioners were after her and something had changed to make them break the old agreement about giving her at least til her graduation. I had no idea what that was, but it was clear that they were now a serious danger.

“Probably,” he said, shrugging as if he couldn’t have cared less. “But you never know. Maybe her hele has already reached its peak and she isn’t as strong as we thought. If that’s true, then the Visioners will figure it out soon enough and leave her alone. Then we can all go home and be happy. If it hasn’t and she’s going to get stronger yet, then everyone is going to want to tap into that kind of power.”

I stared at him incredulously. Sometimes Eric said things just to get a rise out of me, and it hardly ever worked. I had figured out years ago that you pissed more people off by not talking than by responding to their idiot jabs. But everyone who knew me knew that I had one soft spot, one weakness. I didn’t mind, she was worth it, but when someone went after Natalie I got worked up.