The Evensong (36 page)

She was silent for a long stretch of time. When I finally looked at her, she was frowning and staring at the floor. “Why would he think that?”

“He said he’d seen someone that was sick like you and it was because of a fire elemental. That’s why he knew how to help you.”

Her teeth clenched together tightly and she parted her lips for air. “A fire elemental? But wouldn’t someone—wouldn’t Rene have noticed?” She was near tears now.

“We’re not totally sure yet, Aly,” I assured her. “I have no idea how any of this could have just slipped by. But Linden left a while ago to find out. He was going to find Aidan.”

She pressed her lips together as tears leaked from the corners of her eyes. “But what does that mean? What if he
is
an Elemental?”

I gripped her hand tightly and tried to get her to look at me. “Aly, no one knows—”

“
What did he do to me?
” Her voice broke as she yelled.

She broke down and covered her face with her hands. I quickly lay beside her, holding her tightly as her shoulders shook. Rene rushed into the room, asking what had happened, and I just told her to leave. I could just imagine her reaction when she heard about the theory of Aidan.

“Does she need anything?” Rene asked, backing out.

“No. Just let Linden in when he comes back,” I said. She nodded, looking at me strangely, and left.

I held Alysana until she calmed, continually stroking her hair. I desperately wanted to say something to comfort her, but I couldn’t think of anything. When she was still and quiet, I let her go but stayed next to her on the bed. She didn’t say anything, just kept her eyes on the TV. The only time she moved was when she heard footsteps on the stairs. She was even more anxious for Linden to return than me.

He didn’t come back until it was much closer to evening. Once again, Alysana sat up at the sound of someone on the stairs, and she looked both relieved and afraid when Linden walked in. I quickly got off the bed, wanting to hear everything.

“How’s everything?” he asked, sounding tired.

“Better,” I answered when Alysana didn’t say anything at first.

“Did you find him?” she asked, her eyes locked on his.

He let out a breath and leaned against her desk. “Yeah, he was actually really easy to find. He wasn’t trying to hide.”

I caught the sound of concern in his voice, though it was barely there.

Alysana swallowed hard. “So is he?”

He seemed a little surprised she knew, and when he looked at me I nodded. He hesitated and pulled out the chair at her desk, sitting down. “Yeah. And like I thought, he’s been masking it all this time.

“How’d you find out?” I asked.

“He just told me,” he shrugged. “I didn’t have to pry it out of him. He’s one of the bragging type.” His voice was thick with annoyance.

Alysana lay down slowly and looked at the burns on her arm. “So he’s a vul—vulcani. What does that mean for me?”

“What do you mean?” Linden asked.

“He did this then. Why?” She looked at him hard. “Did he mean to?”

Linden nodded solemnly. “He knew what he was doing—”

“Well what
did
he do?” she demanded.

He shut his mouth and seemed to debate with telling her the facts. “When he was with you he just let his guard down. All the power was exposed to you—and it’s a lot—and your body couldn’t handle it.”

She absorbed this bit of information. “Like Riley’s headaches.”

I wasn’t prepared to be pulled into this conversation. “What?”

“That’s what Rene said once. She thought you had the headaches because Linden was exposing some of his power when it rains.”

I looked to Linden for a confirmation, and he shrugged. “Yeah, that’s about the same. Except I never use all of it, and Aidan did.”

All of us went quiet, and I tried to make sense of all of this. Alysana asked if the release of power was the reason she couldn’t remember much, and Linden pointed out Aidan had probably counted on that to make her forget what she saw. There was something else he had to add to that, but he wasn’t voicing it. I made it a point in my mind to corner him later.

When he stood and asked if Alysana wanted to know anything else, she just asked what had to be done next. I could tell she was afraid. Linden assured her that she was safe; Aidan had said he was moving on anyway. He then mumbled something about needing rest, and he left the room, heading towards mine. Asking Aly if she was okay, I said I’d be back and followed him out.

I found him lying on my bed when I walked into the room. He was on his stomach and his eyes were closed but his expression wasn’t one of calm. I sat next to him and lay with my chest across his back.

“What else happened?” I asked quietly.

I rose up a little as he took a deep breath. “He knew what he was doing. He
wanted
to hurt her. Bad.” I didn’t say anything and waited for him to continue. “This isn’t the first time he’s done this.”

“No?”

“The same thing happened a few years ago in Arizona, but that woman died from the effects.”

My heart must have stopped. “He—he killed her?”

Linden nodded. “He’s one of the rogue ones. He doesn’t really belong with the others of his kind; not all vulcani are like him. But he mentioned something that I still don’t get.”

“What?”

“He said besides the ‘fun of it’ he was doing a friend a favor.”

I frowned and sat up, looking down at him. “You mean like another vulcani?”

“I don’t think so. The way he said it was just strange. Like he emphasized ‘friend’ and laughed about it. That makes me think something else is up.”

I couldn’t even fathom what else could be going on. So there was a rogue vulcani on the loose, and he had targeted my friend for the fun of hurting her as well as a favor to someone else. I couldn’t think of anyone who would want to hurt Alysana—she didn’t really know anyone outside of the house, and she didn’t have enemies. Was there another Elemental on the run out to purposefully try to kill someone?

I told Linden my theory, but he could only be as curious as I was. I could see he was deeply troubled, and I asked if Alysana was in any danger.

“I don’t think so,” he said. “I made it very clear that if he came near the house again, there would be consequences. He agreed with that. He said he didn’t need to see her anymore.”

I was almost too shocked to be angry. Still, there was room for me to think about writing a spell against him, but my rational side convinced me that it could have a bad effect in the end.

“I told Rhys about him already, and he’s doing all he can to talk to some of the older vulcani. I don’t know how much help they’ll be, but it was worth a shot,” Linden said as he watched my anger boil.

“I hope they can do something. Don’t you all have some sort of prison system?” I asked.

He laughed without humor. “Not really. A lot of us still believe in total freedom with few restrictions. In his case, they should definitely reconsider.”

“If he’s already killed someone and tried again, then yes, they should do something,” I replied.

He was quiet for a minute, staring at the wall that separated my room from Alysana’s. “I didn’t want her to hear all of that. She’s scared enough as it is.”

“And thank you for doing that,” I said with sincerity. “She knows enough for now.”

He nodded and looked at his own hand. “She’ll be scarred though. And I don’t just mean emotionally. Those burns won’t fade completely.”

I didn’t want to accept that. He explained it was just something that couldn’t go away; any mark from an Elemental’s full power was bound to stay for life. After hearing that, I didn’t have the heart to tell Alysana; not now, not ever.

“I’m sorry,” Linden said softly.

“It’s all right,” I said tightly. “It’s just the truth.”

He apologized again, and I told him it wasn’t his fault. I should be thanking him more for helping Alysana. He said it was the least he could do, and he wished there was more he could do to help.

“As far as I’m concerned, you saved her,” I said, lying down again to pull him close.

“I think that’s a stretch, but I’ll take the compliment,” he replied, kissing my nose. “Just tell me you’re not about to go out for revenge and I’ll be happy.”

“I can’t say I won’t try to attack him if I ever see him, but—”

“That’s exactly what I mean. If you ever do happen to see him, don’t try anything.”

He was completely serious, and looking into the gold of his eyes, I nodded. “Okay—okay, I won’t.”

That night, I agreed to stay in the house to be near Alysana. Linden made a show of leaving out the front door, though he had promised to come back later when everyone was asleep. For that reason, I kept my window unlocked and open a few inches. I ate dinner with everyone else at the table, though it felt very strange, and went back upstairs to actually watch something with Aly and some of the others. Though I could tell she was still processing the information she’d learned, she tried to be cheerful around everyone else.

Before she went to bed, I checked the house to make sure no one had forgotten to keep out all flames. When I was sure the house was safe, I assured Alysana it was okay to sleep, and then returned back to my bedroom.

The whole room was a little chilly from the breeze, and I gazed around in the dark for any sign of Linden. But the room was empty, and I quickly changed before I climbed into bed, facing the window.

Lying there alone, I suddenly felt the weight of how much things had changed in such a short amount of time. I didn’t even feel comfortable in my own home anymore, and Rene and I hardly spoke. Some would contribute this back to Linden, but my focus was on Omar. He had ruined things for me. I could easily imagine him coming back someday to ask for my forgiveness, but I would never grant him that. Plus, by the time he came back, I wouldn’t be here. At least, I hoped not. I had it stuck in my head that I would live in Rhode Island, or somewhere like it, and with Linden. Of course he didn’t know anything about my wild idea, but I liked to keep it to myself to think about.

I dozed thinking about the beach and the ocean. I lightly dreamed of the way the sand felt when I walked on it and the slick feel of my skin in the water. Shells dotted the sand, and I picked them up as I went along. One in particular caught my eye; it was huge, the spiraled end tapering off at a sharp point. As I walked towards it, I realized it looked like it was composed of two people, legs entwined together to make the tapering end. Kneeling next to it, I saw I was right. Frozen in their movement, a man and a woman holding each other with the pearly pink interior between their stomachs. It was so beautiful, and I hesitantly reached out to touch it.

A slight thump was all it took to rouse me out of the faint dream. I looked towards the window immediately, seeing Linden pulling his other leg inside. He tried to be quiet as he pulled the window shut again, brushing the hood off his head as he looked towards me.

“Sorry,” he said, pulling off his hoodie. “I was trying to be quiet.”

“It’s okay. I didn’t mean to fall asleep,” I replied, scooting over to make room for him. I tried to hold on to the fragments of the dream I’d had as he undressed, slipping under the sheets in his boxers.

“This is strange,” he said, putting his hands behind his head.

“What is?” I asked, giving up on trying to remember.

“Sleeping here. I keep feeling like someone’s going to burst in.”

“I locked the door,” I said, knowing that wasn’t any kind of reassurance for me, and Linden didn’t seem to think so either. He just laughed.

“Let’s hope it’s late enough that no one notices me.”

“I wouldn’t let them kick you out if they tried.”

He smiled and took a deep breath, the air fluttering his hair. “Well. It’s been a weird day.”

I nodded in agreement. “Yeah. I’m starting to wonder how things will get back to normal.”

“Good question. For starters, I’ll have to go back to see Rhys one more time. We just left too fast, so I feel like I need to see him before he goes.”

“You should,” I said. “At least so you can also tell Nerio I hate him.”

He laughed quietly. “Okay, I’ll tell him.”

“You know before we left the other night he was standing outside the door? He wanted to talk to me.”

Confused, Linden sat up and asked if I was joking.

“No, he was there and he was saying all this stupid stuff about me being fair,” I replied, finding it somewhat funny now.

Linden didn’t think so. “Explain.”

I gave him a brief explanation of the run-in, and I really did find it amusing. I tried to be quiet through my laughter, but Linden wasn’t laughing at all. When I finished, he lay back and muttered, “Jackass. He doesn’t know what he’s talking about, ignore it.”

“I am. I just think it’s funny,” I said, trying to keep the smile off my face. “And you know, when I heard Aly was sick, I thought he had done it to her.”