That I could understand. I hated being cold. I plopped down on one of the overstuffed cushy chairs Gran had in front of the fireplace. “Not used to the cold?”
“No, it never gets this cold in North Carolina.” He went back to his book, and I stared into the fire. It was warmer in here than normal, I realized. Maybe his Element was Fire? Not that I was gonna ask him, mind you. I didn’t want to start small talk I had no interest in finishing.
I bet his Element was Fire though. There were five Elements in witchcraft: Earth, Air, Fire, Water, and Spirit. Spirit bound the first four together. Myself, I played a little with them all. Dad told me once it was very unusual to be able to communicate with all of them, but that just meant I got more mojo out of my spelling. My Element was Earth. I was grounded just like the Earth. I change, but essentially stay the same. With me, you got what you saw. I didn’t try to play games or make pretenses out of who I was.
Well, normally at least. I refused to count my current Stepfordville role.
“What are you working on?”
I blinked and looked at Jeff. He was still reading. I’d hoped he wasn’t one of those people who needed to talk when in a room with another person. There went that hope.
“Stuff,” I told him and hoped he’d take the hint to shut up.
He shrugged. “Sometimes it helps to figure ‘stuff’ out if you talk about it. I might actually be able to help with whatever spell you’re working on.”
“How do you know I’m working on a spell?”
He shut his book and turned to look at me. “That
is
your Book of Shadows you’re trying to shred with your fingers, isn’t it?”
I looked down at my poor book and sure enough, my fingers were twisting the soft leather raggedly. I ran soothing fingers over the wrinkled cover. Poor thing had seen a lot of twisting the last six months. The old girl always held up, though.
“It’s a potion,” I finally told him. “I’m working on something I can take to make people tell me the truth. I can’t use a truth spell because they’d figure it out. That kind of magic leaves traces, but if I use a potion on myself, there’s very little to trace back.”
“I’m pretty good with that kind of stuff. If you don’t mind showing me, I can try to help.”
“Why would you want to?” I asked him bluntly. He didn’t know me, so why offer to help?
He sighed, and I could hear all the frustration I was feeling in that sigh. “Look, I need something to take my mind off of everything that’s going on right now. I shouldn’t have come here, but I let CJ talk me into it, and now I just need to find some way to survive the next few days.”
“She said you’d been shot?” I remembered her saying it was her fault too.
“Yeah, that’s why she wouldn’t let me stay home by myself. I’m still recovering. I just got out of the clinic last week, and then my parents had to go out of town on business, and well, I ended up here.”
“How’d you get shot?”
He blew a brown lock of hair out of his eyes. “It’s a long story.”
“I’m not going anywhere.” Wow. This had to be by far the longest conversation I’d had in months with anyone. There was something about Jeff that just made a person want to talk to him. I didn’t like it.
“It all starts with the girl upstairs,” he said.
“It’s always starts with a girl,” I laughed.
He smiled, really smiled, and I could see why cute didn’t do him justice. His smile radiated warmth out of his face, and it made a person want to smile all day.
“In this case, it started with two girls, really. CJ and Kay. They were best friends, well are still best friends, I guess. I’m not sure CJ can forgive her for trying to kill her, though.”
“What?” I squawked. Her best friend tried to kill her? I’d be peeved too.
“Let me start at the beginning. Our Coven’s ancestors originally came from Salem, Massachusetts. We had a Coven there in the day, but members of it turned against each other and then sacrificed other members to save themselves. Our ancestors pretty much put a curse on them, the curse of the thirteenth daughter. When she was born, she’d be the vessel for their revenge. So they packed up what they had left and moved to North Carolina where they founded New Salem.”
“Oh, I’ve heard of that place,” I murmured. “It’s a town full of nothing but witches. The whole town makes up the Coven, right?”
Jeff nodded and continued. “Right. The whole purpose of the town was to get revenge on the people who betrayed them in Salem. They planned and they waited and they schemed. There was a slight problem, though. CJ and Kay were born on the same day. Same minute of the same hour really, so they couldn’t say which one of them was the thirteenth daughter. They had to wait until the day of the ritual to be certain.
“I knew what was going on. You see, in order for the curse to work, CJ had to die. I couldn’t tell her. I’d made a binding oath, and it wouldn’t let me.”
I heard the agony in his voice. This guy really had it bad for the girl upstairs, but she seemed to be into the mountain of yumminess instead. I felt bad for him.
“So I pretended to go along with them, and made plans on an escape route. The night of CJ’s birthday, the night of the ritual, I tried to help her. I got shot trying to protect her from them.”
“You took a bullet for her?” Dude really had it bad.
“Yeah, not that it matters,” he said bitterly. “All she sees is Ethan.” He spat the name out like it tasted of liver or something just as gross.
“If you like her that much, then why aren’t you fighting for her?” I asked him.
“Oh, I am,” he said. “I wouldn’t be here otherwise. I haven’t given up hope yet.”
I took pity on the guy. “Well, if all she can see is Ethan, let’s give her a reason to look at something else.”
“What do you mean?” he asked, confused.
I smiled wickedly. “What makes a girl notice a guy more than anything else in the world?”
He shrugged, but he looked curious.
“Interest in another girl.”
“But I’m not interested in another girl.”
Oye, but he was dense. “Yes, you are. You are going to be interested in me.”
His eyes widened, and then we began to scheme.
Chapter Six
~ Day Two ~
The roads were icy after another late night storm. I had to creep all the way to school. After having slid three times before pulling out of the driveway, I decided it’d be better to be late for class than to die from hazardous weather conditions. I mean really, who sends kids out on roads like these? They should have cancelled classes or something until the roads thawed out. It went on my list of reasons to never move to the Northeast.
People were actually milling around outside when I pulled into the school parking lot with exactly ten minutes to spare. Were these people crazy? It was snowing, and the cold made me want to curl up into a fuzzy throw and never come out. They were acting like being out in the snow was fun, throwing snowballs at each other and everything! They grew up here, I reminded myself. This is normal for them…but still, it made no sense to me.
My feet hit a particularly icy patch of concrete, and I slipped. Strong hands caught me before my butt hit the ground. I looked up into obsidian eyes and almost groaned out loud. It had to be him that caught me, didn’t it? He grinned down at me.
“Got to be careful there, Melinda,” Xavier said. “Ice is not made for heels.”
“Heels are made for anything,” I retorted once I got my feet back under me. I took another step and had to catch hold of him again to keep from falling. “Well, maybe except for ice,” I lamented.
He laughed, and I didn’t stop him when he led me into the school. His arm kept me from ending up on the ground more times than I could count in the short walk from my car to the entrance of the school. All the girls looking our way gave me death stares, which I cheerfully returned.
“So, you doing anything tonight?” he asked while I opened my locker and got out my books.
“Sure am,” I replied. “I have a date.” Well, I sort of did. Jeff and I were going to go somewhere to make Cassie jealous. I was betting the girl was going to see red. She had feelings for him. I was pretty sure of that after breakfast this morning when I told Gran I was going to show Jeff around later. Cassie had stopped eating, fork halfway to her mouth, and just stared at me in horror. You can’t fake a reaction like that.
Xavier laughed. “What about tomorrow night?”
“Don’t know yet.” I slammed my locker shut. I started down the hall to my first period English Literature class. I needed to go over my science notes, and this was my class to do it in. I’d already read everything on the reading list.
“You’re very good at running, Melinda Rose James, but you can’t run from me forever.”
I stopped dead and turned around slowly. How did he know my full name? I hadn’t told it to anyone here. I would never, ever tell a stranger my name. It was taboo for witches. Your name holds power, and if someone knew your full name, they could potentially wield a lot of power against you. It was forbidden to give out our names to strangers. Who was this guy?
He smirked. “Thought that might get your attention. Curious, are you?”
“No,” I said softly. “Pissed is a more accurate description of what I’m feeling at the moment. Who are you?”
His smirk turned into a full-fledged smile. “Go out with me and find out.”
The warning bell rang. Neither of us moved.
“Hey, Witch Girl!”
I turned to see the guy from yesterday, Mr. Nosy as I’d dubbed him, rolling up to us. He stopped when he saw Xavier, but didn’t back away. “You’re gonna be busted if you don’t get to class right now. Mrs. Eames does not tolerate tardiness. She’ll put you in detention.”
“Thanks.” I nodded to him, and then without another word to Xavier, went into class. Mr. Nosy and I barely made our seats before the bell rang.
“I’m Brandon,” Mr. Nosy introduced himself as Mrs. Eames started roll call.
“Melinda,” I answered. How did Xavier know my name? My first thought was that he was from the Council. Maybe they’d found out my plan and had sent a Hunter here to stop me? They wouldn’t tell my dad. He’d protect me from them if he could. If they knew about my plan, maybe they sent Xavier here to try and talk sense into me. If he couldn’t, I knew he’d have orders to put me down at all costs.
“So, are you really a witch?” Brandon whispered.
“Huh?” I asked, not really paying attention, all my thoughts focused on the possible ramifications of the Council finding out about my plans.
“You know, I usually don’t have to work this hard to get a girl’s attention,” Brandon said with a laugh. “I asked if you’re really a witch.”
“Sorry,” I muttered. I had to focus. If Xavier was a Hunter, then I’d deal. He wasn’t going to stop me. No one was. “Yeah, I really am a witch. Does that bother you?”
“No,” he laughed. “I think you might be slightly insane, but it doesn’t bother me.”
I smiled. I couldn’t help it. Mr. Nosy was just as crazy if my being insane didn’t bother him.
“Mr. Blankenship, Ms. James, do you have something to share?” Mrs. Eames interrupted us.
“No, Mrs. Eames,” Brandon answered her. “I was just getting Ms. James caught up on where we were in deconstructing the Canterbury Tales. She only arrived yesterday.”
“Very thoughtful of you, Mr. Blankenship, but you can do that after class.”
“Yes, ma’am.” He nodded and winked at me.
I didn’t wink back, not wanting to encourage him. I hadn’t missed his maybe girlfriend glaring holes in us from her seat two rows over. Brandon seemed like a nice guy and all, but the only attention I wanted was from Sebastian Caine, and I hadn’t even seen him yet. Not that he and I would have any classes in common since he was a senior and all, but…wait. Wasn’t Brandon a senior? Why was he in a junior level class?
“Are you a junior?” I whispered once Mrs. Eames had resumed her lecture.
“Nope.”
“Did you flunk this class or something?”
He shook his head. “I skipped it junior year and took advanced Physics instead, but I have to have it to graduate, so here I am.”
“Super nerd, huh?”
He laughed out loud, which earned us another glare from the teacher.
“Super nerds are hot these days, don’t ya know?” he said to me, grinning.
“Mr. Blankenship!”
“Sorry, Mrs. E. I’ll be good, I swear.”
He rolled his eyes and then put a finger to his lips to say shush. I shook my head and focused on the lecture. The woman was serious about her Chaucer. She went into details that were actually thought-provoking. I could see why this was one of the top ten schools in the country. When I actually started paying attention, I started to lose the boredom of yesterday. I even forgot to pull out my chemistry notes to look over. It had been two years since a teacher had kept me interested in English Literature. If not for what I was here to do, I might actually like this school for the academics if nothing else.
My second period Calculus class was more of the same. Mr. Garner made it fun, and I found myself working complex equations without any trouble. By the time I landed in third period, I still hadn’t looked at my Chem notes. This school was fast growing on me. I could see why my sister loved it. Jenny had been one of the smartest people I knew. Math was her thing. She planned on being a math teacher of all things when she graduated. If she’d had Mr. Garner, I could understand why she might have wanted to. The unfairness of it all just made me more determined than ever to make them pay for her death.
“Still thinking evil thoughts?”
My head snapped up when Xavier slid into the seat beside me.
“Are you going to tell me who you are?” I hissed.
“If you agree to go out with me, maybe.”
“No.”
“Then you’ll just have to figure it out, won’t you, my little witchy witch?”