Embrace (21 page)

“Thanks.” I nodded and walked past them. When I got back to the bake sale booth, Kaylee was still gone, so I headed toward the school to find her. I checked the first floor bathroom, which was packed with several girls, none of them Kaylee.

I headed toward my locker next—thinking Kaylee might have stopped there to grab something from her purse—and ran into Kevin and Paige. They looked at me. I’m not sure what emotion they saw on my face, but Paige’s mouth twitched upward into a smile. Kevin’s gaze didn’t meet mine.

Out of all the girls in Minnesota and Gloucester combined, would Kevin really go out with Paige? He had to know she would date him simply because he was once mine. He had to know how much it would upset me. Maybe that was the point.

I quickly composed myself and tried to act natural. “Have you seen Kaylee?”

Kevin shook his head.

Paige pointed further down the hall. “She was looking for paper towels.”

I wanted to grab Kevin by the arm and ask him what he was doing, but I didn’t want Paige to see she was getting to me.

“Thanks,” I said and walked by them as if I couldn’t care less that I’d found them huddled together in a deserted hallway.

My pulse pounded in my ears as I forced myself not to run. I slipped into the first classroom I saw, which ended up being Mrs. Parris’s. It was empty. I leaned against the wall, my breaths coming in short bursts. I had to pull myself together. If Isaac saw me so upset over Kevin talking to Paige, I’d lose him forever.

I slid down the wall until I was crouching and, with my hands over my head, tried to steady my breathing. Kevin was allowed to date whomever he wanted, I reminded myself, even if it was Paige. It wasn’t that Kevin was talking to another girl that upset me, though; it was that he was talking to my archenemy. I was so preoccupied reasoning with myself that I didn’t hear the classroom door open.

Chapter 18

Sometimes There’s No Saving Yourself

“W
ELL
, W
ELL
, W
ELL
. W
HAT
do we have here?” Emma stared down at me through the parts in her blond hair, one hand on her hip. She had the brass black widow that Mark used to carry with his keys dangling from her belt loop.

They must be back together
. If she weren’t such a bitch, I would have warned her not to trust him.

I looked up long enough to tell her to go away. I was too busy wallowing in my own self-pity to deal with her. I could handle Kevin dating anyone except Paige. He had to know that.

“What’s wrong?” she taunted. “Afraid Mark won’t take you to that movie?”

“What?” How the heck did she know Mark had asked me to the movies? I stood back up, my back still against the wall. “There’s nothing going on between him and me.”

“Really?” Her hand flew to her hip. “Then why did he give you my necklace?”

Not the frickin’ necklace again
. “I was holding it for him. That’s all.”

“I bet you were.” Emma clucked her tongue against the roof of her mouth.

“In case you haven’t noticed, I’m seeing someone,” I spat. “So, unless you have another reason for being here, why don’t you find someone else to annoy?”

“I have a reason to be here.” Emma walked over to the teacher’s desk, running her hand along the top as she moved toward the drawers. She opened each in turn, searching without touching.

“Look, you have nothing to worry about. Mark and I are just friends.” I grimaced again. We weren’t even that. “He’s all yours.”

“Problem is, he won’t go back out with me, and I think it’s because of you.”

I became very aware of the fact we were the only two people in the room, probably the only two people in this part of the school. There was a glint of evil carefully hidden in the look she threw my way. A faint stench, one I couldn’t quite place, slithered through the classroom. It was like a neon sign screaming,
DERANGED WITCH IN ROOM.
And then it hit me that Mark might be part of a coven, and if he were, Emma and Paige would be logical members. I knew one thing: I didn’t want to be alone in a room with any of them.

“Well,” I said as I pushed myself away from the wall, “you have nothing to worry about. You and Mark make a cute couple.”

I reached for the door handle at the same time the lock clicked in place.

“And you’re nothing but a nuisance to my friend, Paige,” Emma said, picking up the tin pencil holder on Mrs. Parris’s desk. She examined a letter opener and then put everything back down. “Did you know she had the biggest crush on Kevin, but he asked you out and not her?”

At the time, I hadn’t known that. Kevin had asked me out during our freshman year, and it hadn’t been until I’d seen how distant Paige had become since then that I’d guessed she liked him. It wasn’t like I’d stolen him from her.

“Then we saw Isaac at the party. I’d just finished convincing Paige to go over and talk to him, and you showed up.”

I shook my head in disbelief. “You’re talking as if I purposely set out to ruin Paige’s dating life. You do realize she and I were friends before she started hanging out with you?”

“That was before she realized just how much you were holding her back, before I gave her the power to do something about it.”

“You what?”

Suddenly, Paige’s and Emma’s behavior made sense. When Kaylee and I had been friends with Paige, she’d been shy and sort of awkward in her own skin. I hadn’t seen her much over this past summer, but she’d come back to school confident, dressing totally differently and best friends with Emma. Damn, I should have connected Emma to Mark and Paige sooner. The only thing I wasn’t sure about now was if Mark or Emma had put the curse on the necklace.

I stared across the classroom into her dark eyes and saw nothing but hate. I breathed in and choked on a scent so vile it made me cringe. It took me a moment to place what it reminded me of, and when I figured it out I nearly stumbled sideways. Sulfur. The same odor the guys had smelled after the beach party. It burned the fine hairs in my nostrils. My heart pounded in my chest, and I had to tell myself not to panic. I had to get out of the classroom. I had to find Josh and Isaac.

“Open the door, Emma,” I ordered.

“No.” Emma studied her nails with calculated boredom. “The way I see it, if you were gone, then both Paige and I could be happy.”

I pulled at the door. It didn’t budge. “You’re crazy!”

That realization didn’t help me remain calm. It didn’t give me the feeling that Emma just wanted to talk and mark her territory, that being Mark himself.

Emma waved her hand in a jerky motion from left to right, sending one of the students’ desks skidding across the floor toward me. I threw my arm up in a blocking stance, as if she were throwing a punch, and pushed power away from me. Its force collided with the desk with a bang and ricocheted it away.

“I see you finally embraced your powers,” Emma said. “This could be fun.” I didn’t like the gleam in her eyes, and
fun
was the last word I’d use to describe what we were having. “Let’s see just how much you’ve learned.”

Emma thrust her hands forward as if pushing something out of the way. I was slammed against the wall and lifted to the ceiling by the force of her power. I clutched at my stomach where her spell held me pinned. Emma took the scissors out of Mrs. Parris’s desk and twirled them around in her hand. I fought harder to get free. I needed help.

“Isaac, Josh,” I half whispered, half sobbed—hoping our summoning spell would work.

In my head, I heard Kaylee’s panicked voice calling Josh’s and my name in reply.

Emma threw the scissors like a dart. They soared toward me, and I screamed as the point of the scissors sank into the wall next to my ear.

“We can do this the easy way or the hard way.” Emma sat in Mrs. Parris’s chair and passed the stapler from one hand to the other as she spoke. “I was planning on killing you, but that would be a waste of your magic. I mean, really, if you were to drop dead right now, what would happen to all your powers?”

I figured they would die with me but was too stunned by Emma’s behavior and the turn of events to ask. I tried wiggling to free myself.

“You’re lucky I’ve seen how effective a curse can be, and there are a couple spells I’d love to try out. They won’t hurt much. There’s full-blown crazy where you’ll think you can fly just like Dumbo, or I’ve been reading up on one that puts different voices in your head. You know, imaginary friends only you can hear.” Her eyes widened. “Maybe you’ll think you’re the next messiah or something like that.” She laughed. “Or would you prefer to be just far enough gone that people call you ‘special’ and send you to a special school? I can make that one look like an accident, like you hit your head and knocked something up there loose. You pick.”

She acted as if she’d just asked me something as simple as which movie I would like to go see later that night.

I could taste my own fear, like rotten strawberries. With my left hand still gripping my stomach, I held my right hand in front of me and focused on my power, forcing it to travel down my arm and into my hand. I pushed it out to my fingertips and into a ball of energy that streaked toward Emma. She ducked, releasing me at the same time. I fell to the floor and scrambled to my feet. Emma was nowhere to be seen.

Her mocking laughter came from behind the teacher’s desk. “Not bad. Did you know that negative emotions make your spell stronger? That embracing the darkness within you can open up doors to your powers that you never knew existed?”

“And corrupt your soul in the process.” I tried the door again. Still locked.

“You have to taste the power it gives you to understand. It’s amazing. So incredible, you want more and more of it.” Emma stood back up. “Did you know there’s more to be had, if you’re not afraid to take it? I wasn’t afraid. I can share my powers and not even miss the little I give away. Paige was eager to become someone else. Someone who could walk through the halls of school with her head held high. Someone who wasn’t afraid to approach guys. I gave her power and showed her how to use it to turn herself into the person she wanted to be.”

“There was nothing wrong with the old Paige.” I looked around me for anything I could use against Emma, a book to throw at her or a chair to slam down over her head. Problem was, not much in the classroom was going to help me fight against a vamped-up psycho with her kind of power.

“The old Paige wouldn’t have had the guts to walk up to a guy and ask him out,” Emma went on. “You know, Isaac would have fallen in love with her if he hadn’t had the ability to block her charm.” Emma smirked. “He gave himself away that night at the shore.”

“Maybe Isaac wasn’t interested in having his mind played with.” I gave some serious consideration to throwing fire at her, but with the door locked and the type of luck I seemed to be having lately, I was afraid I’d end up burning myself alive in the process. “People should be able to choose who they want to spend time with.”

Emma shrugged. “Says you. Paige is happier now. She’s more fun to be with too. Slashing the tires on Josh’s Mustang was her idea. We were supposed to have dinner that night at The Grill, but when Paige saw you with Isaac, she didn’t want to stay.”

I hadn’t even known they’d been there. I’d have to start paying better attention to my surroundings. That is, if I made it out of this classroom alive and with my sanity.

“So you slashed Josh’s tires? What sense does that make?” I asked, hoping to keep her talking until I figured out what to do.

Emma walked around to the front of the desk. “We didn’t know what Isaac drove, and we figured since you were there with Josh and Kaylee, we’d still be interrupting your date. Hexing the necklace Mark gave you was Paige’s idea. She got it from the spell I have on my little friend.” Emma patted the black widow lovingly. “My spider knows when it’s in the hands of another girl. She causes paranoia and a string of bad luck. Anyway, Paige thought it would be funny if the next girl Mark gave the necklace to threw up all over him. I decided the curse should be more potent. The longer the necklace was worn, the stronger the curse became. That should have been you in the hospital fighting demons. You know that, don’t you?” Emma smirked. “Does she still see them?”

“You bitch.” I charged her, making it a few feet before she socked me with a blast of power that pushed me right back to the wall, a few inches from the door. This time she locked my arms to my side.

“The hex bag on Isaac’s Jeep was all me,” she said calmly. “I do wish I could have seen what happened when his tire blew.”

The memory of sliding through the motor of the semi-truck gave me an involuntary shudder. “You almost killed us.”

I struggled to free my arms. Someone shook the door, trying to open it.

“Madison! Are you in there?” It was the loveliest voice I’d ever heard.

“Isaac!” I pushed what power I could from me and freed my arms, or maybe Isaac’s presence had distracted Emma and she lost focus on her spell. She raised her hand, sending a spell at the door that caused it to momentarily glow an eerie orange around the edges, sealing it.

“Move away from the door!” he yelled.

I struggled harder, but it was no use. Emma’s spell held me pinned to the wall. “I can’t!”

Isaac swore, then rammed into the door. It didn’t give. He did it a couple more times before the doorframe groaned under the impact. When the door flew open, it swung toward me. I held my hand up just in time to save my face. Isaac’s powers reached out and wrapped around me. As I became completely enveloped in them, Emma’s spell broke, and I slumped to the floor. Isaac shot a narrow-eyed glace at Emma, his powers sending her tumbling over the teacher’s desk. Kevin and Paige stood in the doorway.

Paige looked less smug than she had in the hall. Her eyes traveled from me to the scissors stuck in the wall. Kevin stood rigid as he watched Isaac help me to my feet. I threw my arms around Isaac’s neck and hid my face in his shoulder.

The bitterness I’d tasted at school when Isaac and Kevin had first seen each other and again at the graveyard when I’d talked to Sarah and Kaylee caught in my throat, and I gagged. I glanced at Kevin. Something dark stirred in his eyes as he watched Isaac holding me.

“Kevin?” I wasn’t even sure the word made it out of my mouth. I grabbed at my throat.

The deep blue eyes that bore down on me weren’t the blue eyes of my Kevin. They belonged to someone who had little control of his emotions and his powers.

Isaac looked from me to Kevin. Emma laughed and leaned against the desk to watch.

“Can’t—breathe.” Even as I fell into Isaac, I couldn’t take my eyes off Kevin. Isaac guided me to the floor.

The room filled with anger and hatred and jealousy and fear. My fear, and not for myself but for what Kevin and Isaac would do to each other. I knew in my heart Kevin wouldn’t intentionally hurt me. He just couldn’t. And Isaac, he had made it very clear that he would embrace the dark to protect me. I had no doubt he’d meant it. The stale air in the room turned icy.