Love lines (36 page)

Chapter 26.
Dinner-party (
Eileen)

I was waiting for Evan at the appointed place. I
wondered why he had decided to have classes in the educational building. Could
this be another test for me? We didn’t have practical training in a long time.
Recently we have focused our attention on the history of Dever and old legends;
studied the origin of power and energy along with ways of how to manage and
keep them. Evan tried to put so much new information in my head  that sometimes
I felt like my brain was slowly melting from its overload. Day after day I came
back to my room with a headache.

“Ready for a new lecture?” Evan asked, approaching me.

“Another lecture? Again?” I asked disappointed. “And
here I hoped for something more interesting.”

“Ask and you shall receive. Okay, let’s give you a small
break today. How about practicing a little magic?” Evan smiled mysteriously.

“Really? Are you going to teach me magic?” I asked
happily.

“Not really. But the magic will be involved.”

“This sounds better than learning anymore history.”

Evan laughed.

“Are you already tired of my lectures?”

“A little bit,” honestly I replied. “By the way, with
the  absence of Alexis has anyone mentioned when I will be attending my
classes?” I wondered.

“Not yet,” Evan shook his head. “But Patrick, being her
temporary deputy, said that our lessons should continue. At least until the
time they decide otherwise.”

“How long time does it usually take for candidates to
pass tests in order for them to assume the presidency of Dever?”

“It’s always different. But this time it will take two
days. As unforeseen events happened at the beginning of the academic year,
Dever can’t be without a leader for too long. There will be only two tests. But
no one knows what tests they will prepare. The League of Keepers always devises
them and announces them on the first day.”

“Do you know who will participate besides Patrick?”

“Lavender Wilson, she is one of my teachers of magic
spells and Caroline O'Brien, who is the head of the Faculty of Ventura.”

“Wouldn’t she know in advance what tests are being
prepared and who will win?”

“It's not that simple. The tests are prepared a half an
hour before they actually start, so that no one is able to prepare for them
ahead of time. Furthermore, the decision of the winner is taken by the vote.
This happens  in the presence of all the candidates after the first test. That
is a future that has not been decided, so it’s impossible to predict anything.”

“Right,” I nodded thoughtfully.

 While I was listening to Evan, I didn’t notice we had
come to the entrance of a completely dark room.

 “Where are we?”

“This is a special auditorium for those who practice
magic. It's dark in here, because there are no windows. The absence of windows
is due to the need to hide what is going on in here from foreign eyes,” Evan
replied, turning on the light in the room. Although it was quite difficult to
call it
“light”
when in fact, there was only one small lamp, which
barely illuminated the entrance to the auditorium itself.

“Well,” said Evan, closing the door behind us. “Now I’ll
create two things with the help of magic spells. Then, after you have had a
chance to study them and get a feeling for each, you can tell me in a few words
what you feel and think about both.”

“Okay.”

Evan turned his back to me, made a few almost
imperceptible movements and then he turned to face me. There were two shining
identical-looking balls one in each hand.

“Come closer,” he said. “Concentrate and try to tell me
as much as possible about these two things.”

As he requested, I came closer rising my hands to both
sources of light.

“This one,” I said, pointing to an object in his right
hand, “seems quite pleasant. To describe my feelings, then this light brings
joy, and even the desire to smile. And this one... is on the contrary. This one
makes me feel emptiness, darkness and cold.”

“Good. And now look at this.”

Evan again made some movements with his hands and balls
of light disappeared. In their places were two apples now. One - a very
beautiful and deep red. The other one – it was small, withered and almost
entirely covered with black spots.

 “By appearances, this one is what I would like to eat,”
I said pointing to the big apple. “But then again the one that is not
attractive seems somehow like it would be the most delicious. And yet... from
this eye appealing apple comes the same cold, as from the ball, which you
showed me before.”

Evan nodded. Without saying a word, he threw up both
apples and they scattered into many pieces. Then, falling on the floor they
formed two handfuls, one gold and glowing, and one dark and dull.

“Which one would you choose?” Evan asked.

It seemed strange, but I couldn’t give him a definite
answer to his question.

“I want to take a little of each. May I?”

Evan nodded again. I leaned over to one that was dark
and took several pieces. I didn’t want to take all of them. Then I turned to
another one and did the same.

“Here,” I said, holding out all those pieces to Evan. “I
like these.”

“Well done, Eileen,” he said, looking at my choices.
“You did everything right.”

“Okay, so what's the point, Evan?”

“The idea is that you were able to determine where dark
magic is, and where the white one is. I deliberately didn’t give you clear
clues and deliberately shuffled the pieces intermixing them. But you didn’t
just choose the ones that were bright and beautiful; you were absolutely right
and realized that those were not good.”

“All is not gold that glitters,” I said.

“Right,” Evan agreed. “I have a reason and a purpose
that I chose to start these experiments. It is very important that you know the
difference between black and white magic.”

And then he told me about the note that Christian got. I
really didn’t quite understand the part where he told me that a supposedly
random passer-by, whom they met in the town, gave Christian that note. Either
way, that part, actually, worried me the least.

“So, if Eric still manages to get to me, it won’t be fun
for me at all,” I pointed.

“We won’t let that happen,” replied Evan. We were
finally back outside, and the sun was shining beautifully everything around us.
It seemed like we had spent forever in the darkness, and though the absence of
light didn’t affect my ability to see, to be outside felt so much better.

“Don’t you think bringing Eric to Dever is rather risky?
What if he tries to use one of the Embry students to restore his powers?”

“We will all be watching for him, Eileen. You may not
know this, but there is a special place in Dever for those, who can’t control
their abilities. He will be kept there until we find out where he has hidden
the Cup and take him to the Council. The one thing you must not forget - is
that you need to be constantly close to one of us.”

“Ah, Evan, please! You don’t need to keep reminding me
of that.  I’m already under someone's protection every single moment of every
day! Do you have any idea how irritating it is? Thank God, you don’t follow me
to the bathroom!”

 He hardly gulped another chuckle.

“You look stunning when you are pissed, by the way.”

“Wait a minute, it's not as accidental as it seems,
right?” I guessed.

“Eileen, you don’t seem to understand how we are all
worried about you.”

“Damn it, Evan! I feel like a five-year baby!”

“Don’t get angry. It won’t help,” he said, grinning.

“Well, thanks a lot!”

I knew that they were taking all the security measures
for my safety. But that understanding didn’t diminish my anger. Of course, I
liked to be with all of them, but not when everyone acted as my bodyguard. I
used to think that Christian’s constant supervision was too much, and now I had
to agree to 24/7 security. Geez, I felt like a criminal! Unfortunately there
was nothing I could do about it, so, I guess, I had to arm myself with
patience.

“Do you know where Christian is?” I asked Evan.

“Are you going to take your anger out on him?”

“No way! I just wanted to talk to him.”

“The last time I saw him he was at Patrick’s apartment.
Maybe he's still there. As far as I know, he didn’t have much practice today.”

“Okay, take me to my room then, Amanda will come up
there to take your place. If you meet him, tell him to come to see me.”

As I expected, my friend had already returned from
classes. To my surprise, Lucas wasn’t there with her. Amanda stood in front of
the bed, where, as it seemed, was laying her entire wardrobe.

“I can’t decide what to wear for today’s dinner,” she
complained.

“Your parents will recognize you in everything,” I
pointed, sitting on the empty edge of her bed.

“I know, but there will be other guests too. What about
these pants and this shirt?”

“Put on some nice dress instead. Less formally, but not
less elegant.”

“You're right. Maybe this one?” asked my friend, showing
me a maroon chiffon dress. It was strapless and freely flowed down to the
knees.

“Just what you need,” I smiled approvingly. “Would you
help me to pick something out too? Though, it’s not necessary to turn out my
closet. Don’t want to put it all back later.”

“You know I always do that. It’s better to see all the
options,” Amanda said, coming to my wardrobe.

I couldn’t help remembering how when we were going every
time to the party, while living in Norfield, she dragged most of her clothes to
my place. We were deciding for a long time what to put on, then dumped the
whole lot of this back in her bags and left it for tomorrow. And sometimes -
for the day after tomorrow. When Amanda remembered about the clothes she left
out, it all depended on her mood after the party. If that was successful, she
could stop by to see me the next morning to discuss the events, clothes and
gossips of the last night. If, however, she remained dissatisfied with the
party, the next day I had to listen to her complaints. Sometimes, late in the
afternoon, Amanda decided that it was time to cheer up, and we went to have
dinner at our favorite cafe called Apard. A good dinner and desert rescued any
bad situation.

It’s a pity that those days now seem like a distant
past...

     “Hello!” called Amanda.  “Are you still here?”

“Oh, sorry, I just run back over something.”

“So I thought,” she said, taking a soft pink dress.

“It's your gift, remember?”

“Of course, I do. Particularly the fact that I had to
literally fight for it with some blonde, who was clearly wrong about the size.”

I smiled. Amanda’s fanatic passion for shopping didn’t
surprise me anymore. She just couldn’t pass by anything she liked very much,
even if to buy it, she had to wait in a line for hours.

“Those shoes that I bought before Christmas would go
perfectly with it,” I said, approving her choice.

There was still a lot of time before dinner, so we went
to the dining room to have some snacks, then we walked around campus a little,
reminiscing about all sorts of funny stories from our past life.

“Seems as it was so long ago,” as if reading my mind,
Amanda said.

“Yes. Very, very long ago,” I nodded.

“Do you miss home?” she asked.

“Every day,” honestly I said. “Even though it always
seemed too big and too empty, I felt good there. But most of all I miss the
beauty of the local sky. Here, of course, it’s also nice, but I can’t relax and
enjoy its view.”

“Neither do I,” Amanda agreed. “Even when I spend the
evening together with Lucas, the anxiety never leaves me.”

“I would give anything to go in time for a few minutes
in Norfield. Stephanie is at home now, probably making something delicious for
dinner.”

“I'd also be happy to go home. You know they say, that
the brightest stars are shining in the place of your childhood... Maybe we just
haven’t grown up enough to forget about it?”