Fearless (The Blue Fire Saga) (45 page)

What if she took the ring off for a minute or two, and then put it back on, and then kept taking it off and putting it on, over and over? Would Dominic understand her message—that she wasn’t in trouble but wanted him to contact her? Even if he didn’t understand, he might be confused enough by what she was doing to call and find out what was going on.
And that
would be just fine—as long as he called, it didn’t matter why. She knew there was still a chance he might come rushing back, but she couldn’t think of any other way to get in touch with him. She decided to risk it.

Taking the ring off
would make it visible to anyone. She didn’t want to have to explain about the beautiful ring to any of her friends,
so she got up and locked the door. As soon as she turned the lock, she
pulled the ring from her finger.

For
th
e next
half
hour, Leesa kept taking
he
r
ring off for a few minutes and then putting it back on for a few more. If that wasn’t enough to conf
use Dominic sufficiently to get
him
to
call her, then she didn’t know what else to do.

She used the time between taking the ring off and putting it on to catch up on some of her schoolwork, reading from her history and sociology texts.
Her concentration wasn’t the best, but at least she was trying.
Finally, she decided she’d done the ring thing long enough. She put it on her finger and left it there.

A
ll she could do
now
was to wait. Even if Dominic understood her message clearly,
she knew
it might be some time before he could make it to a telephone. He could be on a bus or a train in the middle of nowhere. The
good thing was that
most train stations and bus depots had plenty of public phones. Once he finally stopped
somewhere
, Dominic should
have no trouble finding one
.

She glanced at her clock and saw that it was nearly ten o’clock. She wasn’t the least bit tired, which was good, because she planned to stay up at least until midnight waiting for a call that might never come. That gave her two hours to practice her magic, which was about all she could handle at one time, anyhow.

She closed her sociology book and turned her head toward her CD player.
Colbie
Caillat
was singing “Falling for You” for the second or third time tonight. Leesa liked the song, but wanted the room quiet for her practice.
Focusing on the
machine’s
tiny on/off
button,
she pictured the button being pushed in
by an invisible finger. A moment later, the disc stopped spinning and the player went silent. She smiled at the small success.

Mentally pushing a small button was unlikely to be of much use against the black waziri or the Necromancer, though, so she turned her attention to shooting an energy beam from her hand. Although her results continued to be feeble, she thought her beam was just a bit longer and hotter tonight than it had been the night before. It wasn’t as powerful as the ones she created when she practiced with Jenna, but she thought it was the best
she had managed
on her own since her magic had diminished.

She was concentrating hard on one
more energy beam when her cell
rang, startling her. She scrambled to her desk and picked up the phone. When she saw “Unknown Caller” on the screen, her heart began to beat faster. Pay phones always registered as unknown callers. She put the cell to her ear.

“Hello?” she said.

“Leesa, are you all right?”

It was Dominic. His concern
was evident in his tone.

“Yeah, I’m fine.
For the most part, anyhow.
I’m glad you understood my message.”

“Well, I can’t say I really understood it,” Dominic admitted, “but when I sensed your ring
continually going on and off your finger, I figured I’d better call and see what
was going on
.”

“I needed to talk to you,” Leesa explained. “It was the only way I could think of to get your attention without having you rush back here.”

“You
did well
, then
. That was
a clever way to get my attention. Tell me what’s on your mind. Try to be quick—my bus leaves in ten minutes.”

Trying to be a
s
succinct as she could, Leesa told Dominic about the zombie attack in Roman
ia, and then about the sudden
weakening of all magic in a wide section around the
Moodus
Noises area. She included her meeting with Jenna, as another example of diminished magic.

For the most part Dominic let Leesa speak without interruption, breaking in only a couple of times to try to get additional detail.

“I’m glad you figured out a way to contact me,” he said when Leesa finished. “There is much in what you told me that I needed to know, especially about the problems with magic back there. I
have
to think more about that, but rest assured I will not return until I know my magic will not be weakened. As for the Necromancer, that is disturbing news indeed. I suspected he might be up to something when I sensed that Viktor had left my trail a few days ago. I imagine he returned to Romania to aid his master. I will see if I can steal a few moments at a library computer in the next day or two to see if I can learn anything more.

“I must go
now. I’
ll call again as soon as I deem it safe, to check up on you if nothing more. Perhaps I
wi
ll also have some information to share.”

“Please call soon
,” Leesa said. “And if I need you, I’ll take my ring off a few times again. I’m glad we have a signal that works.”

“Me,
too.
Goodbye for now, Leesa. Stay safe.”

“I’ll try
,” Leesa sai
d. Before she could tell him to be safe as well,
the call disconnected.

She sucked in a deep breath. She was pleased her plan had worked. She yawned.
Now
she could go to bed.

36
.
TRAINS

Lee
s
a’s eyes were glued to the window as she rode the train
south
west from New Haven toward New York City. This was her first time ever aboard a train, and while it wasn’t as amazing as her first plane ride—had that really only been seven months ago?—it was still pretty fun. The
y
rumbled
through the heart of several cities and skirted the edges of suburban towns. Occasionally, the train passed though open or wooden areas. A couple of times, she even
got a glimpse of boats
docked in crowded marinas or
of
the blue-
grey waters of Long Island Sound.

It was nearly ten
o’clock Monday
morning, and the train was barely half full, allowing Leesa easy access to a window seat. The earlier trains were much more crowded, she knew from her research, filled with commuters heading into New York for work. Since she didn’t need to be in Grand Central Station until noon, she had been able to take a slightly later train. This one would get her there at eleven-thirty, allowing her plenty of time to meet Dominic at twelve.

His phone call on Satur
day
had surprised her, since s
he had just spoken
to him late
Wednesday night
. She
had not expected to hear from him
again
so soon
.
When he told her he needed to see her she was totally shocked. Meeting him while the black waziri could still track him was dangerous—she knew he wouldn’t risk her safety unless it was extremely important.
He
said
he had formulated a plan
about the black wizards
and
needed to discuss it
with her
in person. Ever since his call, she
ha
d been on pins and needles wondering what kind of plan he had come up with. It seemed like she had barely slept at all last night, and when Bradley arrived at her dorm at seven-thirty to drive her to New Haven, she had already been up for two hours. Still, she wasn’t the least bit tired—just eager
to see Dominic again and hear what he had to say
.

The view
outside the window became even mo
re spectacular when the train
drew near
New York City.
She switched to a seat o
n the opposite side
so she could watch the city’s bridges and towering skyscrapers go by.
She had seen the city s
kyline once before when she
brought her mom back from California and had been picked up at the airport by Uncle Roger, but from her present vantage p
oint
everything looked much bigger and more amazing.
She was almost sad when the
y
entered an undergrou
nd tunnel for the last leg of their
journey to Grand Central Station.

Finally, the train chugged to a halt and Leesa followed her fellow passengers out the d
oor and into a large
underground
staging area. Most of the riders seemed to know exactly where they were going a
nd moved off at a rapid pace
. Leesa looked around until she
spotted a sign directing her
to the Main Concourse. She followed the arrow into a wide passageway that sloped gradually upward.

When she stepped out of the passage into the concourse, the immensity of the cavernous space
took her breath away. From her G
oogle research, she knew the dimensions
of the place—275 feet long, 120 feet wide and an astounding 125 feet high—and had seen pictures of it, but none of that had prepared her for the vastness of the space. Streams of sunlight floated in through huge arched window
s
a hundred feet above her head. She craned her neck upward and stared at the giant curved ceiling, painted with a map of the night sky, with the constellations outlined. She liked the winged horse Pegasus the best. A giant American flag hung down from the center of the ceiling.