Timespell (6 page)

“You’re an only child?”

“Yeah,” she said, biting her lip to keep from oversharing. For whatever reason, she tended to blurt out things that were no one else’s business. The fact that her mom had gotten pregnant at sixteen and hadn’t had a date in all of Julia’s memory seemed way too heavy to discuss between classes. “Just me and my mom.”

“No dad?” he asked, his gaze suddenly intense.

Was it life stories time? The first bell rang before she could think of what to say.

“I guess we can talk about our lack of dads later,” he said softly.

They reached the hallway junction where she had to go on without him. He had Physics next while she would leave the main building for the gym, and spend the next hour in the hands of an exercise sadist. Before she headed to PE, she had to track down Angie. She rubbed her eyes, hoping that telling Angie about Kaitlyn might take up the entire class period.

“Come here, sleepyhead,” Brian murmured, lifting her chin.

She let her eyes slide closed as he took her in his arms. Brian never kissed her deeply at school, but even his light kisses gave her butterflies.

He brushed his lips against hers before pulling away. She lifted her lashes and he locked eyes with her.
Uh-oh.
Boyfriend. Meeting his family. Life stories. It was still
way
too soon to say ‘I love you.’ Wasn’t it? She cleared her throat. Some girls had their boyfriend’s name across their binders with ‘forever’ written underneath after a week. That wasn’t her style, but sometimes she got the feeling Brian was heading in that direction.

Butterflies were one thing, but love?

“I better go,” she said, moving out of his arms. “Coach Hamden will give me detention if I’m late again.”

“Right,” he said, his mouth turning down. “Guess I’ll see you after school.”

“Um, maybe,” she said, thinking about Angie and Kaitlyn and
whether they would need to go to Indira’s again. “I think Angie and I were going to hang out today.”

His expression became guarded. Almost hurt.

It made her heart ache to see him unhappy, but the Daughter of Fate stuff had to come first today. There was no way around it.

J
ulia maneuvered through the slow-moving mass of students. The older part of school was always dark and crowded, with its narrow hallways and high, yellowed windows. Freaking Honors students with their free period. They could do anything they wanted with it, and Angie spent it at the library. Every. day. Julia sighed. At least it would make Angie easy to find.

As she reached the stairs, she became lodged behind two kids trying for slowest people on the planet. What was the point of all that running around if she was still going to miss the bell?

She saw an opening and raced through, taking the stairs as fast as she could against the flow of students. Holy crap, so much running today. She shoved her hair back and forced herself to hurry up to the scuffed tile. The library was around here somewhere. She had seen it on freshman orientation day. If the emptiness at the end of the hall was any clue, it looked like she had found it.

The bell rang just as she shoved through the double doors. The only sound was the creaking of rusty hinges as the doors shut behind her.

A shrill voice broke the silence. “Do you have a study pass?”

Julia scanned the musty room before glancing at the librarian. The lady sat hunched in her chair, clicking away on her mouse. Her eyes remained glued to her computer monitor.

“Uh, no. I was just looking for someone.”

“No one has checked in,” the librarian said, still clicking. Behind her a calendar had the last day of school circled in red.

No one’s checked in?
Angie was never late, and she
always
went to the library.

“You’ll have to get a study pass or I can’t let you in.”

“Are you sure no one’s—”

“Yes.”

“Okay ....” She backed out of the library. Maybe Angie wasn’t as predictable as she had thought. She racked her brain for other places she might have gone. The computer lab. Or the art room. Sometimes she and her cheerleader friends painted banners.

She was running out of time. Tardy sweep happened fifteen minutes into class, and this would be her third strike. She was
not
doing a month of Saturday detention over this. Dang it to crap, without Angie she couldn’t even freeze time. She would
have
to go to PE.

The girls’ locker room was at the far end of campus, past the quad and outdoor lunch tables. Coach Hamden’s merciless whistle screeched in the distance, reminding her of the forty-five minutes of hell that awaited her.
So. Freaking. Tired.

“I can’t do this,” she whispered, slowing to a stop before she got to the locker building. Running and jumping jacks and ...
running
, after tearing across the entire school? After staying up all night? She would never make it.

Her gaze honed in on the chain link fence beyond the gym wall.

Did it even count as ditching if it was just PE?

After PE came lunch. Seniors could come and go for lunch. She was only a sophomore, but no one would question her coming back into school, right? She could take a nap and totally make it back in time to talk to Angie, and then move on with her life for fifth and sixth periods.

At the driveway gate she cast a quick glance around. No security in sight. They always started with the main hallways.
Suckers.

She reached for the gate, but her hand stilled.

Locked.

“Perfect,” she muttered. All that for nothing, except a month in Saturday detention.

“You can squeeze through the gate,” a deep voice said.

Her hands stiffened.

A figure moved out from the row of trees on the opposite side of the fence.

“Oh,” she breathed. It was the guy from Indira’s tent. He wore cargo shorts and a light, untucked shirt, his hair as long and tousled as before. She wanted to run her fingers through those glossy black waves, and felt herself blush fiercely at the idea. She had Brian. What was she thinking?

Pirate-guy moved to the gate, separating the two sides as far as the chain let him. “You can squeeze through,” he repeated, his silver gaze resting on her a moment.

“No offense,” Julia said, sliding easily through the gates, “but this is weird.”

“Is it?” He fell into step with her as she headed down the block.

“Yeah. Aside from the fact that you can disappear, which is also weird, how did you know where I go to school?” She studied his face, but he remained quiet as they got to the park. Indira’s words crept into her memory.
His time in your life is nearly here.

She skidded to a stop. “Indira sent you.”

“Indira? No.”

“Then who?”

“The only person who can send me anywhere is you.”

What is he talking about?
She shook her head, pushing her hair away from her face. “I’m sorry, did I miss something?”

“The Fates gave me to you, Julia. I’m your Wanderer.”

She stared at him.
“Gave
you to me? What does that even mean?”

“What else could it mean?” His eyes flashed as he raised his voice, bitterness embedded in every word. “I’m yours, Daughter of Fate, whether I want to be or not. Your guardian. Your protector. Like some kind of slave you summon up whenever you need me. Now do you get it?”

“Chill out.” She dropped her backpack under a cluster of
trees. This was as good a place as any for a nap, and she was ready to lose the pirate with the attitude problem. “I didn’t ask for a Wanderer and I’m pretty tired. If it’s all the same to you, I’ll ditch school without your help, thank you very much.”

He came so close she took a step back, bumping into a tree. “Ouch,” she said, rubbing her head where it hit. Did this guy not know about personal space?

“Look at me,” he said, his voice low and deep.

She had been looking everywhere except at him. Looking at him gave her a few too many butterflies for a girl with a boyfriend. She let out a shaky breath. What was so wrong with looking at him? Maybe a few things. First, he was being a jerk. Second, he was close enough that the wrong move might lead to bodily contact. Third, he was gorgeous. His black hair fell into his eyes in a way that made her itch to pull it back. And those eyes ... wow. The contrast of curling black lashes made his irises gleam as bright as metal. She couldn’t look away. She should look away, because she was breathless now, and because he was reaching up to touch her face.

She shut her eyes.

I have a boyfriend. I have a boyfriend. I have a boyfriend.

“Julia,” he murmured, his fingers brushing her jaw.

She felt his warmth at her lips.

Holy cow, he was going for the kiss. Was that such a bad thing?
What am I thinking?
“No-no-no,” she said ducking out of his arms.

Pain and confusion played across his features. She frowned up at him. Had she been leading him on? She rubbed her eyes, her head completely fuzzy. Brian was awesome and he didn’t deserve this. Kissing a random stranger at the park? Okay, not completely random since they had a magical connection, but still—ew.

“Listen,” she said, her voice shaky. “I don’t know what magic words made you appear, but you need to go. Now.”

“You may be able to summon me, but you don’t get to send me away.”

“Geez, man, all I wanted was a nap before fifth period,” she muttered, turning away. “If this is some kind of lesson about how ditching doesn’t pay, it is
seriously
working.”

He sat on the grassy ground with his back against a tree. “Take your nap,” he said, his voice harsh. “Don’t worry, I won’t bother you anymore.”

Julia stomped to the opposite side of the tree, not such a fan of wavy black hair anymore. “You can tone down the attitude. It’s not my fault the Fates forced you to be my Wanderer.”

He made a noise that almost sounded like a laugh. “Trust me. It’s
completely
your fault.”

Had she almost let him kiss her a minute ago? That would definitely not be happening again.

It took a few minutes before she calmed down enough to notice how tired she felt. She lay on the grass with her backpack as a pillow. The cool ground smelled fresh and earthy. The warm air wrapped around her like a blanket. It seemed the entire world’s rhythm slowed, as though something reached through her agitated mind, calming her, lulling her.

“You don’t know my name,” the guy said softly from his side of the tree.

Julia’s eyes slid closed. “Ethan,” she murmured. Indira had told her his name. For some reason, that wasn’t why it seemed familiar.

“I miss you, Jules,” she heard him say.

For a few moments she struggled to understand what he meant, and why it seemed to make sense. She saw him in her mind, but he was different. Smiling. It felt like one of those half-dreams. The kind she could semi-control right before she drifted off to sleep.

“How can you miss me?” she finally whispered. “I’m right here.”

The
lunch bell rang. Angie let her gaze drift around the nearly empty locker room, hoping she had missed Julia somehow. After her antics during French class, Angie had thought something was wrong. She had even raced to the locker room as soon as the bell rang, knowing Julia had PE.

But Julia never showed up.

Whatever she needed to talk about must not have been that urgent after all.

Angie pushed thoughts of Julia from her mind.

She exhaled a breath of mildew and disinfectant-laced air, pulling her hair free of its ponytail. The long, straight strands fell over her shoulders. David always liked her hair this way. She realized she was leaving her hair down to impress him and almost put it back up again. She wasn’t fooling anyone, though. She wanted him to like the way she looked. Even the thought made her happy.

She double-checked her locker, stalling. Her deodorant, mini brush, two ponytail holders, and a clean sports bra rested neatly
on the top shelf. Her practice clothes lay folded on the bottom shelf, a pair of red shorts and a white T-shirt that said
Vikings Cheer.

There was nothing left to do except go to lunch.

Thoughts of David crowded her mind. His voice, rich with the remnants of laughter. The warm, soft touch of his hand on her cheek. The way his lids lowered when he wanted to kiss her.

She triple-checked that her locker was the way it should be and slammed it shut.

Meeting him was a bad idea.

Going to prom with him was a bad idea.

She left the locker room. The rhythm of her new dance routine repeated itself in her head, with each step forming part of an eight-count. The repetition rocked her mind like the hum of a wordless lullaby. A girl from French Club waved at her. The girl was really nice, and Angie forced a smile. She didn’t doubt for a moment that her eyes sparkled and her dimples showed, because hiding her magic from the world had taught her a few things. She had her mask of normalness down to a science.

She swallowed thickly. This month had been misery without David. She couldn’t stop herself from going to the glen for lunch. Not now that they had broken the silence.

David glanced up from his spot beneath their tree, a sandwich halfway to his mouth.

It was impossible to keep her heart from leaping.

She had missed him.

She slowed, but continued toward him. He put his sandwich in its wrapper, his eyes never leaving hers. He stood and his smile— half disbelief, half pleasure—grew by the second.

His hand reached out as if to take hers, then moved up to rub the back his head. His smile became hesitant. “I’m so glad you’re here.”

It felt good to be near him. Why should she let Kaitlyn be a factor in her happiness? She could put it behind her. She
would
put it behind her. She smiled, unable to contain herself. She was so tired of feeling sad.

“I missed you, David.”

There. She had admitted it. Her feelings were out in the open.