Faithless

Chapter Twelve

Three days after the girls had cast their spell and Jasmina was still walking on cloud nine. She no longer felt shy and reserved. She walked with her head held high, wherever she went. Candice had commented more than once how Jasmina was acting differently, but Jasmina insisted it was a good thing. She felt strong, powerful even. A complete change from the shy, nervous girl she had been just three days ago.

Normally she sat at the back of her classrooms and rarely spoke in class. She was quiet to the point that her teachers almost thought there was something wrong. But over the past couple of days she had had her hand up to answer every question, while sitting front and centre in every room. Her teachers were taken aback by her change in character, but none of them said a word against it. She was on top of the world and it was just the teachers that had noticed, but the other students as well.

Logan in particular, wasn't happy with the change in personality. He didn't like the extra attention Jasmina was bringing them, especially in their history class. He liked to sit in the back corner and avoid everyone, but now that Jasmina had found the confidence to talk to pretty much anyone and everyone, she had become a class socialite. He didn't say anything to her, but Jasmina was getting more and more confident with her powers and she had read everything he was thinking about her, as clearly as she could read a book. She did her best to shrug it off and distance herself. Normally hearing such things would have been a huge blow to her self esteem but not anymore.

By the time lunch came, Logan had decided to stay out of the way from Jasmina and he wasn't the only one getting sick of her change in personality. Even Candice was starting to get suspicious and her thoughts of what to do about it were starting to get on Jasmina's nerves. In fact, a lot of things had been getting on her nerves since she had cast the spell with Ruby and Maxine. Still, Candice was her best friend and she was sure they would work it out, whatever was going on between the two of them.

"Jasmina are you okay?" Candice finally asked, halfway into their lunch break. Jasmina rolled her eyes and sighed loudly before looking Candice in the eye.

"Why wouldn't I be?" She frowned, crossing her arms over her chest.

"You've been acting weird since we changed rooms. I get that it probably spooked you but you're a different person right now." Candice said, tilting her head to the side. Ruby and Maxine had both joined them for lunch and they were watching Candice and Jasmina intently. Jasmina caught Ruby looking at her necklace more than once and it started to make her feel uncomfortable.

"Jas I was actually going to ask you, can you help me with my project for my next class? It'll only take five minutes I swear." Ruby smiled, but Jasmina could hear her thoughts and knew she was planning an intervention. Jasmina rolled her eyes again, but eventually she agreed.

Ruby led the way to their dorm room, locking the door behind them once they were inside. Slowly Ruby turned around with a frown on her face. Jasmina could tell she was waiting for something, but she didn't care enough to figure out what it was. Instead she threw herself down on her bed and waited for Ruby to say her piece then let her get on with her day. She closed her eyes while she waited for the inevitable to come, but instead there was a bright light, making her see red through her eyelids. When she opened her eyes Cam was standing there with a girl Jasmina didn't recognise. As quickly as they had appeared, the girl disappeared leaving just Ruby, Jasmina and Cam.

"I got it." Was all he said to Ruby, who just nodded and unlocked the door to let herself out.

"What's going on?" Jasmina sighed, staying exactly where she was. Cam sat down on the bed next to her, placing his elbows on his knees as he leant forward. He was deep in thought for a moment, then he pulled two necklaces out of his pocket, letting them hang from his finger. "Why do you have those?"

"Well, Ruby gave me hers when she made it all the way to her seat in a packed out classroom before anyone saw her. Then Maxine called and handed hers over when she broke the sink in the girls bathroom." Cam smirked. "It's a clever spell Ruby taught you both and it's normally harmless, especially when cast by witches not in a coven, but you're a lot stronger than they are, so the spell got amplified. That's why the effects of these necklaces have been so strong, including yours."

"I see. So you've come here to ask me to hand mine over? You've wasted your journey." Jasmina frowned, propping herself up on her elbows. Cam just sighed deeply.

"I'm not asking." He shrugged. Jasmina just scoffed.

"You really think you can make me do anything?" She raised an eyebrow. "I can probably make you think I handed it over you know." Jasmina smirked. "I convinced my headteacher I didn't have anything to do with that window incident. I bet I could easily convince you I handed it over willingly, then send you on your way through the front gate."

"Is that really how you want to play this?" Cam frowned, while Jasmina just shrugged. She liked her new necklace and it was making her feel not just courageous, but powerful too. She felt like she could do anything and she didn't need anyone. "Fine. I'm going to go for now and let you think about it, but please just believe me when I say you need to take that thing off. The longer you wear it the worse the drawbacks will be." He warned, standing back up. He said something in his mind, but it wasn't aimed at Jasmina and she couldn't hear what he said. In a few seconds the strange girl was back, and then they both disappeared, leaving Jasmina on her own.

Jasmina almost made it through the whole day without any further interference. She finished off her classes, showing off her knowledge as she went, told Logan he needed to grow up when he refused to sit with her yet again, and enjoyed her dinner sitting with a new bunch of people she hardly even knew. She tried to join in the conversation, but there was a constant nagging feeling in the back of her head. At first she thought maybe she had a vision coming on, but she soon realised that wasn't it.

In the end she had to cut dinner short and find the source of her sudden annoyance. Once she was outside she realised the nagging feeling was someone yelling her name over and over. Once they finally had her attention, all she could hear was 'front gate, front gate, front gate'. She sighed miserably to herself and worked her way to the front gate. She had studied all the cameras a long time ago and knew exactly how to get out of the school grounds undetected. Once she was outside, she started to walk down the road, still looking for the source of her annoyance. She turned the corner and half expected to see Cam in front of her, but instead she was greeted by Aiden, who had a big goofy grin on his face.

"Not you too." She groaned, turning back around. She didn't bother running because she knew he would catch her if he wanted to anyway. Sure enough, she heard Aiden laugh as he jogged after her, catching her arm to stop her in her tracks.

"Hey, give me a break. Our dad has heard about your necklace, he's the one who wants it, not me." Aiden shrugged.

"You're still here to get it and I'm telling you what I told Cam, no."

"I'm not here for that. I just wanted to see this overly cocky Jasmina I've been hearing so much about." Aiden smirked. "Come on, take a walk with me. I can't go home too soon anyway or they'll know I didn't even try." He shrugged. Jasmina thought about it for a while, then groaned yet again.

"Fine."

They were about twenty minutes into their walk when Aiden spotted a local nature reserve. It was closed to the public at the moment, but that didn't stop Aiden and as Jasmina was no longer conscious of getting in trouble, she didn't even hesitate as she followed him, climbing over the gate and heading down the rocky path. The sun was setting, casting a bright orange glow over the area. They headed down through the trees and came out at a small clearing. In front of them was what would have been a river once before, but it had long since dried up and was now overgrown with weeds. They could either walk left or right, along the old river and Aiden chose to go right.

Jasmina kept following him quietly, observing their surroundings. There were no other people down here so for the first time in a long time, her mind was finally quiet and she enjoyed the relief that gave her. Eventually, they came up to a lake on the right and they decided to stand and watch the wildlife for a while.

"So how brave are you feeling now exactly?" Aiden asked, raising an eyebrow.

"What do you mean?" She frowned.

"I'm just curious how far you would go." He shrugged, with his trademark smirk plastered on his face. "Like if ten hunters came round the corner right now, what would you do?"

"Block them with a shield." Jasmina shrugged.

"You haven't been able to make a shield that strong." Aiden pointed out.

"That was before." Jasmina just frowned. Aiden nodded and carried on thinking. Jasmina didn't care for his thoughts so she started walking ahead, not bothering to wait for him to catch up. It annoyed her how everyone was acting. For the first time in her life she practically felt carefree, and everyone was acting as if it was the worst thing in the world. Here she was, thinking all these people were on her side and now she wasn't so sure anymore.

Aiden slowly started to follow her, while he thought about what he wanted to do. He knew he was meant to be focused on getting the necklace back, but he was a curious soul and the change in Jasmina was peaking his interest.

"What about if Cam was here? How far would you go then?" Aiden asked, raising an eyebrow. Jasmina turned around and carried on walking backwards.

"Cam is the last thing on my mind right now. He's obviously scared of this necklace and I don't care enough to listen to him tell me why." Jasmina shrugged. Aiden sped up, catching Jasmina by the waist and pinning her to a tree behind her.

"What about with me?" He whispered in her ear. Her breath caught in her throat as she recovered from the surprise of his move. Jasmina expected to feel nervous but she didn't. She didn't know if Aiden was what she wanted right now either. He put a hand to her cheek, keeping her eyes locked into his. Jasmina bit her lip as she considered her options.

Before she could react, Aiden's hand slipped down to her necklace, ripping it from her neck. She winced as the chain broke from her neck, then doubled over from the loss. It was like she had been punched in the gut and winded. Her heart rate went through the roof and she couldn't breathe. Aiden shoved the necklace in his pocket, then helped Jasmina sit on the floor while she got her breathing back under control.

"What the hell?" She squeaked, rubbing her neck.

"Sorry, but you weren't going to listen to reason, so I used something else." Aiden shrugged. "How do you feel?"

"Normal." Jasmina groaned, crossing her arms over her chest. She waited until she had gathered herself, then stood up without a word to Aiden. She headed back the way they came, climbing back over the fence as quickly as possible before they got themselves caught. She had to sneak back into school and she was dreading it.

"Jasmina wait, are you definitely okay?" Aiden sighed, chasing after her.

"Of course not." She croaked, fighting back tears. "None of you had any right to make this decision for me and you definitely had no right to pull that stunt back there."

"I'm sorry, but I didn't see another way to get the necklace off you and the longer you wore it the more of yourself you were going to lose."

"I don't care! It's not all that great being me anyway. I could do with losing a few parts here and there." Jasmina snapped back as a tear finally escaped, rolling down her cheek. She headed back to the school and Aiden stopped following once she was inside the gates. She managed to get to her room without any trouble and got ready for bed straight away, without talking to anyone.

Ruby and Maxine both looked at her neck as she entered the room, making sure the necklace was gone, but they could tell she was in no mood to talk so they left her alone. Jasmina got into her bed and pulled the covers up and over her as much as possible and silently prayed she could stay there forever.