Love lines (22 page)

Evan's words caught me off balance. It was something I
hadn’t thought about.

“I realized that even before I found out whose daughter
she was,” he continued. “I saw her reaction to my power. I used magic in front
of her, and she reacted the same way as she did to the manifestation of the
forces of all the other elements. She wanted to try to use magic herself, but
didn’t know how. It was only because she hasn’t turned eighteen yet. And that
is, as we both know, not so far away.”

“She can’t find out about that,” I said dryly.

An even bigger fear encompassed me with the thought of
Eileen using magic. In contrast to all five elements, the use of magic was the
most dangerous way to spend our energy. That is why only the best graduates of
other faculties and hereditary Wizardy themselves were able to continue
training on the same faculty - all of them were strong, and knew perfectly well
how to control their abilities without coming to complete exhaustion. Eileen,
however, didn’t know anything about that control.

“I hope everyone will follow my instructions about the
distribution of our responsibilities, and won’t interfere in on someone else's,
otherwise either Amanda or Darcy will figure out who Gabriel was,” noted Evan.
“We need to talk to them. And the sooner we do it, the better,” he added,
taking his cell phone and dialing someone's number.

Chapter 20.
Vulnerary plants (
Eileen)

“Hi Evan! Yes, of course, I can. What's the matter?”

What a genius Evan was to call Amanda at that very
moment! For a tenth time already she’s been trying to tell me that last night
no one wanted to offend me, that everything my friends are doing is only for my
own benefit.

“Eileen, do you mind if I leave you for a few moments.
Evan needs something.”

“Of course. Give my ears a small break.”

Amanda shook her head smiling.

“We're not done yet,” she said, going out into the hall.

I didn’t need her lectures to continue any more. I
already knew that I behaved like a naughty child. Besides, I needed to talk to
Christian, so without my pesky friend, I decided to visit her brother.

He opened the door before I raised my hand to knock
on it.

“Eileen, what's wrong?” he asked worried, apparently
feeling my nervousness, but not realizing that
he
himself was the cause
of it.

“Nothing. At least, nothing worth being guarded about it
all the time,” trying to laugh it all off, I said.

“Come on in,” he said.

“Christian, I wanted to talk about yesterday and the day
before yesterday, and about... well, everything,” visibly nervous I began,
twitching the edge of my sleeve.

His answer was just a nod of the head. He was standing a
few feet away from me, his arms folded across his chest and he nervous too.

“Evan explained everything about Vanessa. But I still
don’t understand why you didn’t just tell me about her yourself to begin with.”

“Eileen, I really thought that there was nothing to talk
about. I couldn’t imagine that she would react like she did when I said that
nothing was between us. And I certainly never imagined that she would do
something so stupid in front of all of us.”

“Christian, that night complicated everything even more
and I...”

He suddenly came closer, ran his hand through my hair,
bent his head and kissed me. I can’t say that it was really a surprise to me.
No, I had waited for this kiss from that failed Friday night. I knew that I
must step back and say all the things I came here for, but I couldn’t. I
couldn’t move, afraid that he would let me go, and I would fall, losing my
balance and all the safe security I felt in his arms. I moved closer, pressing
my palms to his chest and felt my heart beating wildly. His muscles tensed and
I realized that my response to his kiss was too passionate and unexpected. He
could barely control his own passion and his feelings, flowing into me,
confirmed my thoughts. The butterflies in my belly were killing cruelly the
remnants of my common sense, making me feel myself helpless. 

“Christian, please, don’t do this,” I whispered, finding
the strength to stop him. I tried to take a step back, but he wouldn’t let me.

“I missed you,” he said, embracing me even tighter, his
lips still inches from mine. “This is entirely my fault, I should have told you
about Vanessa. Will you forgive me, Eileen? These two days were a real torture
for me.”

He reluctantly let me go and stepped back, without
taking his intense gaze off me. I was dying to find myself in his embrace again
and barely managed not to lose my balance. For the last few moments, I couldn’t
move, and only now was I really able to catch my breath.

“If you don’t want to see me, I will understand,” he
added.

I closed my eyes trying to gather my mixed-up thoughts
and find my voice.

“Christian, do you really think I could stop craving
you?” I said, stepping aside. “I came to say that I am comfortable with the
fact that you will keep an eye on me. I should have said that yesterday. And I
know how important it is for us to be together. I can feel it. And damn this
stupid bond, but this ability to feel your emotions really drives me crazy!”

Christian tried to display something like a smile.

“Well, you are not alone in your craziness,” he said,
sitting on the bed. “I feel like I am in some strange world, Eileen. In
your
world, in fact. You absorb all of me - my feelings, my emotions and thoughts.
I’m always with you, no matter where you are, or what you do,” he said wearily.

I sat down beside him and stroked his hair.

“Seems like both of us are hostages to each other,” I
said quietly breathing in his amazingly intoxicating scent. It wasn’t a
perfume, it was something unique, something that belonged just to him. Even
when he wasn’t around I could feel it in the air. I could recognize it
everywhere.    

“Actually, I don’t mind being your hostage,” he said
turning to me, “but sometimes I think that it would be better if I didn’t know
your feelings. Because in most cases, it just makes me feel even more helpless,
and even more vulnerable.”

“Nobody blames you for what is happening, Christian.
It's our fate, remember?”

“We are able to create our own destiny, Eileen. But I
want you to know one more thing…,” he said touching my chin with his fingers as
if trying to memorize the lines of my face forever. “If I ever stop feeling
you, I still will always think about you. I will still be looking for the way
to find you.”

“I know that,” I said looking into his eyes and enjoying
his proximity. 

For a while we were both silent. I couldn’t help
thinking that in the past few days, our relationship had brought us nothing
good, besides pain and frustration. What if we were not bound? Would we still
feel the attraction to each other? Maybe we just both have become hostages of
someone’s plan, someone’s life or revenge? What if we really never were meant
to be together?.. I couldn’t imagine my world without him. He was the center of
it and losing him was the worst punishment ever.  

Determined to keep those thoughts to myself, I asked
about something else.

“You know, I saw your father today. Why he already came
back?”

A strange feeling of anxiety came to me from Christian.

“Honestly, I don’t know,” he said. “I haven’t seen him
yet.”

“Are you worried because of the upcoming conversation?”

“Exactly -
worried
,” quickly replied Christian.

“Maybe we both should talk to him?” I suggested.

“No! That’s... I have to do it alone,” he said.

“Okay. But you will tell me if you learn something new,
right?”

“Of course,” Christian smiled encouragingly.

“I should go now,” I said, rising. “Amanda, Anna and I
have agreed to spend the day together. So… see you tonight, then?”

“Yeah. Maybe by that time I’ll find out something new
about all of this,” he said, pointing in the direction of laying papers.

“Okay,” I said quickly walking to the door.

“Eileen,” Christian called me.

I paused, my hand already on the doorknob.

“Yes?”

Without saying a word, Christian came up to me and
touched my forehead with his lips.

“Be careful,” he whispered in my ear.

I nodded silently and left still feeling his breath on
my cheek. Despite everything, Christian still continued to worry about me.
Despite everything, I still wanted to be with him…

“Eileen! There you are!” Amanda exclaimed. “We have been
looking for you everywhere! You know what Anna came up with? We still haven’t
seen Embry’s ability to heal. So she proposed that we become her patients for a
little while. What do you think?”

“What if I’m not ill?” I asked hesitantly.

“It’s impossible,” Anna said. “You may not feel physical
pain, but your soul can suffer or you may be in a bad mood, or have
nightmares.”

“Is there a flower that can improve your mood or get rid
of bad thoughts?” I asked.

“Of course! The forces of nature are very diverse, they
give and take.”

“How do you know what to heal a person from?”

“All the energy in our hands helps us. We usually scan
your hands and body and say whether you need some treatment or not.”

“Okay, so, what do you see? What’s wrong with me now?”

Anna stopped in front of me, closed her eyes and began
to
scan
. Was it just me, or did the aromas of the plants around us
actually become stronger now? The smell of something sweet and bitter burned my
nostrils. Maybe this is how nature helps to identify diseases?

“Just as I’ve expected, in your case, Eileen, a physical
state is not in need of healing, that can’t be said about your soul,” Anna
said. “That’s weird…” she added confused. “Have you recently had an injury?”

“No, not that I can remember. Just a few scratches
maybe. Is that it?”

“No, I mean something that is bothering you. I just
can’t figure out what it is.”

She took my hands in hers and began to watch them
closely.

“I think there is something wrong with your hands,” she
said.

Recently, lots of things have happened to my hands, but
there were no injuries.

“Hi, guys! What are you doing here?” Darcy asked,
running up to us. “Hey, Anna, since when have you been reading palms?”

“She is not reading my palms. Anna has just seen that
there might be something wrong with my hands, but I’m more than sure that
haven’t hurt them lately,” I replied.

“Let me see,” asked Darcy. “I’ve read your palms, maybe
I’ve missed something. No, everything it's like the first time,” she said, “the
same light stripes.”

“What stripes?” Anna wondered.

“Some of the lines on Eileen’s palm are lighter than
usual,” explained Darcy.

“How did that happen?”

“I don’t know. Honestly, I’ve never paid attention to
it,” I shrugged indifferently.

“Maybe that was the reason for my suspicions,” said
Anna.

“Only one person besides you has read Eileen’s palm,”
Amanda said suddenly. “Nora. Do you remember that, Eileen? She even used some
liquid.”

“Wait, what are you talking about? Someone else has read
Eileen’s fate?” asked Darcy.

“Yes. Before we found out about Dever, Amanda and I
visited one of the Feta. Her name was Nora and she lived in Norfield.”

“She said she was Feta?” Darcy asked in surprise.

“Yes. We thought she was a fortune-teller, but she
corrected us.”

“She had no right to tell you this!” Anna flared.

“Perhaps she told us about herself knowing that we also
have some relevance to Dever,” I suggested.

“What did you mean when you said
she used some kind
of liquid
?” Darcy recalled.

“She used some blue liquid in order to read my destiny.”

“Feta doesn’t use anything like that,” wondering, Darcy
noted. “We, of course, possess the power of water, but we don’t need any help using
our gifts. If only...”

She didn’t finish, but I already knew what she hadn’t said
out loud. Feta used water only as a basis for different spells. Nora might have
made it so that the lines of my destiny changed their color. And that could
mean only one thing…