The Soul Healer (14 page)

“What?” Had Nina come and rescued him?
And just left Phil? Who would do something like that?
Before I could ask Evan, Philip let out a low groan and his eyes fluttered open. “Phil!”

“Gabi?” His brown eyes were
bleary as he stared up at me. “What happened?”

“Your stupid asshole of a father hit you with a spell,” I said. “Are you okay?”

He shot up suddenly and groaned, clutching his head. “Gabi!”

“Yeah?” I wond
ered if he was about to be sick and checked the room for a wastepaper basket for him to throw up in.
Hell, he should puke all over Charles’s chair, it would serve him right!

“Are you okay?” Philip demanded, still holding his head.

“Um, I asked you first,” I pointed out.

“But my dad—”

“Threatened me a bunch, but…” I put a hand on his shoulder. “I’m fine, promise.”

“I’m going to kill that son of a bitch after my head stops hurting,” Philip said, hauling himself into a sitting position and leaning heavily against me. “Shit, I hate magic!”

“Hey!” Evan protested as he peered under the desk.

Philip looked confused. “What is he doing?”

“Apparently Mr. Snuggly is missing,” I said. “Evan, he was hurt really badly; I doubt he’s crawling around under the desk.”

“You don’t know that, Gabi,” Evan said,
picking up a paperweight and peering underneath it, like he expected the guinea pig to somehow be under there. “He could be behind you, about to crawl up your shirt and bite you!”

Suddenly, my skin started itching. I jumped to my feet, glaring at Evan. “Shut up!”

He laughed, and I looked for something to throw at him.

Philip struggled to his feet, resting one hand against the desk. “So what happened while I was out?”

As I quickly filled him in, his face darkened with anger. By the time I had finished, he was full out cursing, only stopping to take a pile of papers off his father’s desk and hurl them everywhere. The papers softly floating to the ground obviously didn’t have the effect he wanted, so he picked up some ugly statue and threw it against the wall. It shattered into pieces, and Philip grinned.

“Are we done redecorating the room now?” Evan asked. He hitched a thumb
toward the doorway. “Places to go, Gabi. Books to read.”

“What’s going on?” Philip asked me. “We’re trusting him now?”

“We made a deal,” Evan said before I could answer. “She helps me, I help her. And right now, I’m helping her find out how to use her powers. In the library. Want to come?”

Philip groaned again. “As if my head wasn’t hurting enough as it is, now you want me to spend the afternoon reading?”

I shrugged. “It’s better than being threatened or hit with magic, right?”

“Ugh.” But Philip still followed us, even though he didn’t have to.

***

Into the elevator once more. I was beginning to grow sick of the tiny box with the mirrored walls that showed our distorted reflections. Evan looked fine, but Philip’s face was green, and my skin was pale, save for the spot where Mrs. Chen had smacked me. Philip had taken one look
at the red mark and frowned, but he didn’t say anything. I had wisely left that part of the story out, afraid he’d go charging to the eighth floor and start throwing more things around for my sake.

On the fourth floor, we got out and followed Evan down the hallway to a room marked “Ballroom” on a plaque outside the doorway. “Um,” I said, pointing to it.

“Ignore that,” Evan said. “It was a ballroom back in the 20s, I think, but once Silver Moon bought the hotel, they converted it into a library.” He threw open the door and held out his hands. “Ta-dah!”

I gasped. The room was huge, easily bigger than the first floor of my house, and it was filled with bookshelf after bookshelf. And each bookshelf was crammed with books, stretching from the floor to the ceiling. I stood there, feeling greatly overwhelmed. We were supposed to check through
all
of these books?

“God, I hate this room,” Philip complained, heading straight for one of the tables in the center
. He pulled out a seat and sat down heavily, resting his head on the wooden surface.

“Why?” I asked, running my hand along the spines of the books. “What did the books ever do to you?”

“It’s not the books so much as the time I spent in here, being tutored by my father,” Philip said. “I’m sure you can imagine how much fun that was.”

Evan and I winced in sympathy. Turning to him, I asked, “Where should we start?”

His eyes scanned the room. “Probably with the books on spells. I know you’re not casting a spell, but healing is magic. Maybe you have a magical ability that was only just awakened?”

I shrugged. He was the magic expert, not me.

“Papa Harkins is an ordinary human, but what about your mom?” he continued, oblivious to the way my heart suddenly clenched painfully. “Did she—”

“What about this one?” I interrupted, grabbing a book.

Evan took it from me and flipped it open. “Anatomy of a demon?” He showed me an incredibly graphic, disgusting illustration of a dissected demon, green blood and all, and I shoved it away.
Great, there goes my appetite for the next year.
Evan smirked at my reaction. “Yeah, I didn’t think so.” He shelved the book and moved on. “The magic books are back here.”

We turned a corner and Evan froze. Peering around his shoulder, I saw we weren’t as alone as I had naively
assumed. A young man stood in front of the bookshelves, an open book resting in one of his palms as he reached to turn the page with his other hand. He was tall (not Rafe-tall, but taller than Evan), with straight black hair, perfectly styled so that not one strand was out of place. He was very handsome, in a classical, Greek god sort of way. All straight lines and prominent cheekbones, with just the right amount of stubble to give him a rugged look. I knew my sister would have melted into a pile of goo if she ever saw him. When he looked up at us, I saw that he had unusual blue-green eyes—definitely his most striking feature.

“What are you doing here?” Evan demanded, his voice angry. I looked over at him, shocked at the sudden change in his demeanor. Was this someone I should be wary of, or was Evan overreacting (as usual)?

The handsome guy lifted the book he was holding and flashed a sardonic smile. “Reading. It’s what one does in the library, is it not?” There was something off about the way he talked, like he was taking his time to pronounce each syllable carefully. He didn’t have an accent, but it was almost like…

Almost like he did have one and was going to great pains to disguise it. But why?

“Well, go away. We need these books.” And to my utter surprise, Evan plucked the book handsome boy was holding and shoved it into my hands.

“Evan—”

“I was reading that,” the other guy said. He was still smiling, but his voice had lowered noticeably. Not quite a growl, but he was getting there.

“Don’t care,” Evan said, grabbing more books and handing them to me. I stood there like a fool, watching as the tension built between the two of them, practically causing the air to crackle like static electricity.

“Um,” I began.

“That was very rude of you,” the stranger said, still pleasant.

“Ask me if I care,” Evan replied.

“I would like my book back, please.”

“Here you go,” I said, digging it out from the bottom of the pile and handing it to him.

“No,” he said, still not looking at me. “I would like
Underwood to return it to me.”

“Not happening.”

“Uh, you guys,” I said as the tension spiked even further. Standing between the two of them probably wasn’t a good idea, either, so I took a couple of steps backwards, dropping books as I went. Neither of them paid me any attention as they stared one another down.

And then Evan summoned a blue fireball.

I turned on my heel and raced to get Philip.

Chapter Twenty-two

“Phil! Phil, wake up!” I said, racing around a corner and skidding to a stop in front of him, my sneakers squeaking noisily against the polished floor.

Philip lifted his head and winced. “What, Gabi? Why are you making that horrible racket when my head is already killing me—”

“Evan and this other guy are trying to kill each other in front of the magic section!” I blurted out in a rush.

“What?” Philip frowned. “What other guy?”

“I don’t know, he had these strange blue-green eyes and—”

He stood suddenly, startling me. “Was he good-looking? Like, obnoxiously so?”

Haha, that was such a perfect description. Why hadn’t I come up with something like?
You’re losing your edge, Gabi.
“Yep, that’s him.”

“Kain,” Philip groaned. Without another word, he took off
toward the magic section with me chasing after him, thoroughly confused.

The two boys were in each other’s faces, Evan cursing up a storm, his face red and angry, while Kain was the perfect picture of calm. His eyes, however, had darkened, more blue than green now, but he smiled when he saw us. “Ah, Philip. Good day.”

Oh my god, this guy was nuts. Evan looked like he was about to blow a hole in his face, and he was greeting Philip like nothing was amiss.

“Kain,” Philip said again, warily eyei
ng the two. “What’s going on?”

“I’m trying to get the books I need,” Evan said, “and Harry goddamn Potter over here won’t move out of my way.”

Harry Potter? I was so confused.

“I was minding my own business, reading, when
Underwood very rudely snatched my book out of my hands,” Kain explained to Philip. “I’m simply waiting for my apology.”

Philip let out a long, suffering sigh. “You know that’s not going to happen.”

Kain frowned. “Why not?”

“Because I’d rather die than apologize to you, you shithead,” Evan said. He waved the hand still holding the fireball, and Philip t
ensed. I didn’t blame him. He’d already had one horrible run-in with magic today. “So get lost, okay?”

“What are you researching?” Kain asked, still pleasant, even with the fireball only inches from his face. Yeah, he was certifiably nuts.

“None of your business,” Evan replied.

“But I could help.” Kain gave Evan a condescending smile
. “Everyone knows I’m
infinitely
better at magic than you are.”

There was dead silence for about two seconds, and then Evan was hurling the blue fireball at
Kain’s face. “OH YEAH? THINK YOU’RE SO GREAT? HOW ABOUT YOU—”

“No!” Philip cried, shoving himself between the two of them. The fireball hit his left shoulder and he went flying backwards with a yelp of pain. Kain only just managed to catch
Philip before he collided into a bookshelf.

“Philip, are you all right?” Kain asked as he helped him to the floor.

“Shit! God! No, I’m not all right!” Philip moaned, his face pale and sweaty.

I whirled on Ev
an. “What’s the matter with you!”

He at least had the sense to look ashamed as he watched Philip writhe with pain. “He called me weak!”

I was about two seconds away from grabbing random books and hurling them at Evan’s head.
Boys are so dumb sometimes!
“Look, just…. Go. Get out of here.”

“What?” Evan’s mouth dropped open. “No! Gabi, we’re supposed to—”

“What we were supposed to do was study magic,” I interrupted, curling my hands into fists. “Not throw fireballs at Phil to protect your honor or whatever stupid thing you were doing, you stupid boy with your stupid stupidness. So now I need you to leave before I start throwing things at
you
.”

“Gabi—”

“
Go,
Evan.”

Looking incredibly pissed off (not that I cared), he left, but it wasn’t until
t it wasn' pissed off (not that I cared), he slunked g, you stupid boy and your stupid, stupidness catch him, preventing
I heard the library door close behind him that I was able to let out a sigh of relief. Then I turned my attention to Philip, who was clutching his shoulder in pain, and my mouth soured.

I crouched down next to him. “Let me see it.”

“I’m fine. It’s nothing.”

“It’s
bloody
not
nothing,” Kain said.
In a British accent
.

Oh. Now I knew why Evan had ref
erred to him as “Harry Potter.”

“It’s fine, I said—”

“No, no, we need to see it,” Kain said cheerfully, as he started tugging at Philip’s shirt.

Philip starte
d blushing. “No, stop! Stop it!”

I watched, mouth open, as Kain proceeded to undress Philip. Philip fought him, his arms flailing in all directions, but he ended up losing in the end. His entire face was bright red, and he was staring at the ground, looking like he wished the floor would swallow him whole.