Luminescence (Luminescence Trilogy) (22 page)

By morning I laid in the same position, in the same trance-like emotionless state. Before my aunt left to open the shop she knocked on my door. “Brianna?” she called cracking the door and peering inside. All the lights were off and the blinds closed, darkness consuming me I was still tucked in bed. My eyes were opened, looking nowhere in particular. She came and sat on the edge of my bed beside me. Pushing the hair back from my face, she eyed me warily. Her floral perfume hit the room and soaked into my soul, breaking it a little. I was afraid she was about to open the floodgates I’d been numbly holding back.

“Hey honey, still not feeling good?” she asked.

“No not really,” I managed for her sake. I wasn’t in the mood for conversation as my throat started closing up with overwhelming emotion.

“Okay, I’ll call the school and check on you later. If you need anything call me at the shop.” She picked up the uneaten soup bowl as she left and paused at the door. “You should really try and eat something,” she advised concern touching her voice.

The tears poured as the garaged door shut. Huge, sob-racking tears tore from deep inside me. The kind that made gave me hiccups in an effort to breathe and cry at once. I curled the blanket around me and hugged myself in a ball. The windowpanes in my room pounded with giant raindrops which made me cry all the more. A justification of my uncontrollable magic I didn’t want. My blanket was soaked with my sobbing and my chest heaved irrepressibly. The crying jag was long overdue. Locking away my feelings was never good for me or apparently the weather either. Now with the knowledge that I could somehow cause storms, I didn’t know what to do.

I knew the moment school started, the vibrating of my phone filled the room. Turning over I drowned out the noise. And so my day went. My body felt achy and weak when I finally tore myself from bed. It never occurred to me before how lost and alone a person could feel. I’d never be so unsure of anything in my life. There were two options here. I either accepted that I was, a witch like Gavin claimed or I went on and resumed my life being blissfully ignorant. Neither sounded like a viable solution.

Downstairs I nibbled on some crackers, trying to settle my empty stomach. I thought about the results of ignoring the possibility I was a witch. I could potential harm others by not being able to control my magic. I could disappoint those who cared for me. Most of all I could lose Gavin. It all boiled down to being scared. Scared to be a witch, scared at failing, scared to lose the guy I was probably in love with, scared to lose my friends and potential my aunt. I wasn’t sure I could risk all that.

I spent the remaining of the day going over and over the same questions with no answers. When night fell I was in bed again before my aunt got home. Much like the previous night she came in to check on me. This time I forced myself to eat a little of the soup she brought and wished that I could open up to her about what was eating me inside.

Laying the necklace on the nightstand after my aunt left, I knew of only one person whom I could talk. Whose opinion wouldn’t matter – he was a figment of my imagination. And true to the properties of the necklace I wore lately, I hadn’t had a single dream of him.

Lukas
. I thought his name as I drifted off to sleep. My eyes fluttered as I slowly went under. His name whispered from my lips.

As I opened my eyes and the first thing I saw was the lilac frost of my bedroom walls.
Hell
, I thought it didn’t work. Frustrated I tossed the covers aside and turned on my bedside lamp. Tousling my unwashed hair, I made mental note to shower tomorrow. Just because my life was falling apart didn’t mean my hair had to suffer.

I sat up in the bed and yelped at the figure sitting at my desk chair. His grin was one I knew well.

Lukas.

“Holy crap you scared me to death,” I cried.

“You look like hell,” he replied grinning from ear-to-ear. He ducked the pillow I tossed at his head and laughed.

Rolling my eyes I asked, “What are you doing here?” Here as in my bedroom.

“What do you mean, you brought me here like always,” he answered looking at me like I lost my mind. Maybe I had.

“I’m dreaming?” This was a first. I’ve never dreamed of my own life, nothing this personal and certainly not my bedroom. And again why does my subconscious continue to make me look like I just rolled out of bed. If I was a witch, at least I should be able to spell myself hot.

“Pretty sure,” he commented. “Nice room.” His smile was infectious. “I always wondered what it would look like.”

He got up from his seat, the college t-shirt he wore spanned his chest and strolled around the room, looking at the most intimate part of my life. There was a slight sting in my chest at having another guy in my room, even if it was in a dream. He came across the necklace on the table beside me.

“So this is why I haven’t seen you lately,” he said, trailing a finger over the moonstone and amethyst gems.

“How do you know that?” I wondered aloud.

He shrugged and sat down on the bed next to me. The mattress shifted under his weight and his blue jeans rubbed against my bare leg. “My mom taught me,” he replied.

We never really talked about his parents before and it made me wonder about them. I always figured that my dreams didn’t have a world outside me. I guess I could dream up parents.

“Remember the new guy, the witch I told you about…” I started getting right to why I had really wanted to see him. His emerald eyes held mine waiting for me to go on. “He told me that I’m a witch. Can you believe that?” I asked expecting him to express the same outrage I’d felt.

“And you don’t believe him?”

“Should I?” I retorted baffled.

He thoughtfully regarded me and said, “I can’t tell you want to believe, but I have always thought there was something unique about you.”

“And if I don’t want it?” I argued.

“Do you really have a choice if it is who you are? Do you really want to deny such a powerful gift?”

“I don’t know,” I sighed more discouraged than before.

“I think you owe it to yourself to find out if that is who you are,” he advised.

Maybe he had a point. What would it hurt to try? Maybe I owed it to myself and to Gavin. “You might be right,” I conceded.

He put his arm around me in comfort and I rested my head on his arm. “It doesn’t have to change you as a person, if that is what you are worried about.”

“How can it not?”

He brushed a piece of hair from my face. “Don’t let it defined you. You need to take control of the power if it is yours. It doesn’t control you,” his honey voice had softened.

Easier said than done, but I knew he was right. “Okay,” I agreed. “It’s worth a shot.”

His dark green eyes smiled at me, highlighted by the blond of his hair. “Brianna the witch – has a nice ring to it.”

Reaching behind me I smacked him in the back of the head with my pillow, not missing this time. His laughed resounded off my bedroom walls.

“You’ll regret that Lukas Devine. Just wait…” I playfully threatened him.

“I’m looking forward to it,” he replied.

Laying my head back on his shoulder I closed my eyes and was cloaked by his radiance. He brushed a light kiss on my forehead. When I opened them again, I was alone.

Chapter 24

BY THE THIRD DAY, I knew that I had to get up and face the truth. I couldn’t hibernate in my room forever. My aunt was already worried sick about my state and I didn’t want to upset her further. Picking up my phone off the nightstand, I dismissed the gazillion text messages and missed calls. Tori, Austin, Sophie and Gavin had appeared to alternately contact me in some form. I figured it was only a matter of time before one of them thrust their presence upon me. And just because I may decide to resume my life in the real world, didn’t mean I was exactly ready to talk with Gavin. I knew I couldn’t avoid him indefinitely but tomorrow at school would be soon enough – if I was that lucky.

I think I had finally come to terms with my decision – not that I really had a choice. If I did indeed have magic, it wasn’t just going to get up and walk away because I decided I didn’t want it. From what I have already experienced it didn’t work that way. It had already found ways to weave into my life without my knowledge. Accepting it and learning to control it seemed like the better solution.

What I planned on telling my aunt was another story. Right now when I wasn’t even comfortable with the idea, probably wasn’t the best time. For me it was better if I didn’t tell her what I was or what I could possible do. When the time came, if the time came, I would tackle it then.

My thoughts were interrupted by the ringing of my phone and I was tempted to throw it across the room or flush it down the toilet. School must have gotten out and for three days I had been absent from class and from my friends.

Walking down the hall, I headed for the stairs to grab something substantial to eat. My appetite returned in a vengeance. Rounding the corner to the kitchen a voice startled me from behind. Pitching a scream worthy of breaking glass, a hand wrapped around my mouth stifling the shout of terror. His scent hit me all at once – wild woods. I stopped struggling and relaxed in his arms. I seriously have had enough of people sneaking around in my house for one day.

“What are you doing here?” I screeched. My mind told me I should be mad at him for scaring the life out of me, but it had been too long since I had seen him. Turning to face him, my eyes ate him up. He was wearing all black and looked like he stepped out of an edgier Hollister ad. Hmmm and smelled just as good. My heart jumped out of my chest for entirely different reasons than being frightened to death. I could be as angry or upset as I wanted to be, but it never changed the way my body reacted to him.

“I was worried about you. You haven’t been to school in three days. You don’t answer your phone. You don’t text back. What am I suppose think?”

I don’t know maybe that I wasn’t ready to talk to anyone. “I needed some time.” I opened the fridge and grabbed us something to drink, trying to be still my over zealous heart. “How did you get in here?”

He raised his eyebrow. “You really think a locked door is going to keep me out? I was afraid you wouldn’t see me,” he answered taking a seat across from at the table.

“You were probably right,” I said popping the top on my coke.

“Bri I truly never meant to hurt you,” his eyes were filled with regret and pain and the sight tore at my heart. I had indirectly hurt him. “I only wanted to help. I know this is scary for you. When I saw you struggling with your control I knew I had to do something. If you let me and Sophie we will help you any way that we can. I promise.”

I propped my head on my hand. “I know. I was going to talk to you after school tomorrow. This whole witch thing is still… unreal to me,” I confessed, letting the exasperation show.

“Let us show you what to do. We can figure it out together. I know Sophie would love to find out what you can do. She has been very difficult in your absence – not the easiest witch to deal with,” he confessed.

I could only imagine. She was stubborn when she wanted to be.

“She’s quite mad at me also, if that makes you feel any better,” he added, leaning back against his chair, looking out of sorts.

“I’m not mad at you anymore. The shock has more or less worn off,” I admitted. “To be honest I am still not hundred percent convinced I’m a witch, but I am willing to try. I need to know for sure one way or the other.”

“Good, now I can tell Sophie to stop trying to hex me.”

I gave him a half smile. “Not on my account.”

He eyed me across the table with just a hint of a smirk. “She was so mad at me for what I done, she refused to talk to me the rest of the day and then when she was speaking to me, she was yelling at me about what an idiot I was.”

“She such a good friend,” I said taking a sip of my coke.

He snorted. “Lately I’d say your taste in friends is questionable. Look what you got yourself into.” He smiled dangerously at me over the table.

“You’re telling me,” I agreed with him.

“Come over tomorrow after school?” he asked.

“I can’t. I have work,” I said, remembering that I needed to resume my responsibilities which included my shift at the shop.

“Fine, the day after that,” he suggested, slightly annoyed that I had to work.

“Alright,” I agreed.

“I’ll pick you up after school.”

I nodded my head. Witchcraft 101 here I come.

Chapter 25

WHEN GAVIN AND I ARRIVED at his house the following day Sophie and Jared were waiting for us outside around back.

“This is going to fun,” Jared said all geared up. His dimples winked on either side of his cheeks mischievously. “Don’t worry I’ll go easy on you.”

I rolled my eyes.

“You didn’t think we were going to miss out your first day of boot camp, did you?” Sophie asked smiling innocently.

Seeing Jared suddenly reminded me that I still didn’t know what magic he could do. “Jared,” I called bringing his attention to me instead of what ever joke he planned to prank. “Gavin promised me you would tell me what you can do,” I informed him.