IceShine

XIV

A few days later, and we seem to have found our routine. School in the morning, training in the afternoon. Bina started coming to our school three days now. Because of her appearance, she is attracting a lot of attention, which doesn’t make her pleased.

That girl is so shy, that on the first day she came, she almost passed out, when people started circling her, asking her questions. But it not only happened on her first day. The same is happening right now.

We were on our way home, when people started following her and circling her. Miranda, John and I are waiting for them to cool off, but it doesn’t seem to be happening any time soon. And by the time it happens, Bina will be passed out. I turn to Miranda.

“Miranda, go help her.”

“Why don’t you go?”

“Because, you know no one is going to listen to the freak.”

“Yeah, but you should grow a backbone and tell them to go f**k themselves.”

“I’m already telling them that.”

“Yeah, when they ask you!”

“Girls, stop arguing. Will one of you go, or will I go?”

“No, Lila will go, even if she likes it or not! And she better hurry, or else Bina is really going to be smashed!”

I turn back to Bina, and sure enough, many more people have come. Ugh… I turn to Miranda and she is in her phone, completely ignoring me. John, on the other hand, looks at me and sighs for his sister. He comes closer to me and whispers.

“Want me to go?”

I turn my head again towards Bina and the lot of students.

“I’ll go… I just hope no one says anything to Bina after that.”

I start going to the circle and get inside. I push through the crowd, without anyone noticing me, and after about 5 minutes I finally get to the center. There Bina is red and seems to have trouble breathing. Great, that’s what we needed… A panic attack! I go to her side, and take her hand on my elbow. Immediately, Bina turns to look at me and look of relief passes on her face. Gasps are heard everywhere in the circle and everyone stops talking.

Now you can hear only whispers.

“What is she doing?”

“The freak!”

“Oh no, she will do something to the poor girl!”

I ignore them, and start walking with Bina towards the others. The path in front of us gets cleared, and as we move closer to Miranda and John, I feel Bina relaxing more and more.

“Hey! What are you doing with Bina?”

Oh, they weren’t in for a casual walk out, right?

I turn my whole body towards the voice.

“What does it seem like I’m doing?”

“Taking Bina, by force, from her friends.”

I feel the ghost of a sarcastic smile on my lips, and turn to Bina. My question is a silent and calm one.

“Am I taking you from your friends?”

Bina widens her eyes, takes hold of my elbow with both hands, gets a little behind me, and says:

“No…”

Gasps are again heard everywhere in the lot. I turn my attention back to the girl.

“There you have it.”

And we continue our walk towards Miranda and John. By that time, Greghory had also come and was standing with them, with a furious look on his face. When we got to them, Bina relaxed completely, but didn’t let go of my hand. She is still so pale. I turn to Greghory:

“Is the car near?”

“Yeah, but the smaller the walk the better for her, so I’m going to bring it to the gate.”

He says, and immediately dashes off.

“Thank you, Lila…”

“You’re welcome.”

She slowly lets go of my elbow and hugs me. That catches me off guard and I widen my eyes. I see Miranda giving me hand signals telling me to hug her back and how to do it. John gives her a hard pat on the head to stop her, making me smile. I hug Bina back for a little while, before Greghory comes with the car. We put her on the shotgun seat, and the three of us sit at the back with John in the middle.

I turn to look outside the window. This is so relaxing. I can’t believe that my life, a constant nightmare, has become so peaceful… Sometimes I believe I’m in a dream… a beautiful dream that either will become a nightmare or I’ll wake up in seconds.

Everything is going well. Even the training is going very well. Bina hasn’t made the same mistake as the first time. She always controls her emotions and that shows in her attacks. They are controlled and always to the point.

Miranda is becoming exceptionally good with flames. The other night, we were sitting beside the fireplace, and she started out of the blue to play with the fire, much to the disdain of Fiona. Every day she tries new things and I believe she is the most ready to face the Shadow Monsters.

As for John… The first few days were difficult. He still can’t control the roots that come out of his hands to perfection. He loses concentration and loses control over them. But I can understand his difficulty. Every one of us has a power that goes beyond our bodies. But John… his power is his body itself. And it’s difficult to control something new on the body you had since you were born.

And that’s when a light bulb came flashing in my head.

“Greghory, can you drop me off to my old house?”

He pushes the brakes suddenly, making all of us fall to the front. He turns frantically to me.

“What did you say?”

I glare at him and say it again.

“Drop me off at my old house, alone. I have to search for something.”

“Are you insane? Do you really think I’m going to let you go there alone?”

“Yes, because I need to go there and search my father’s bookshelf.”

He sighs heavily and pinches the bridge of his nose. After two minutes, he turns to me.

“How long will it take?”

“I don’t know. An hour maybe?”

“Okay…”

He starts the car again.

“But only on my conditions.”

“Shoot me.”

“We wait for you outside… You go inside alone, as you want, but we are waiting for you.”

“But Bina-”

“I’m alright now. With some fresh air, I feel way better.”

She turns to me and I see that her complexion is back to normal. I sigh.

“Okay…”

…

Going inside my old house again after a month is a weird feeling. But before I have the time to feel nostalgic and sad, I hear his voice.

“Why did you want to come here?”

Yeah, Greghory changed his mind about me going in alone. He made John come with me. I turn to look at him and sigh.

“To find a book.”

“Yeah, what book?

“A book from my father's bookshelf in his office.”

“A book from your father’s bookshelf in his office about what?”

I laugh. I don’t know if I enjoy it or if it gets on my nerves when he does that.

“You’ll see…”

He sighs and follows me to my father’s office. We get inside and everything is left like when he was alive. I feel a rush of nostalgia coming and my eyes get wet. John notices and takes my hand in his. Soon remembering the reason we came here, I take my hand from John and stop my tears.

“Okay, you can sit on the couch while I’m searching.”

“Okay, madam…”

He says this doing a curtsy and sits down on the couch in front of the office. I go behind the office and start searching for a book that might help us.

Some minutes, and some titles, later, I feel someone watching me. I turn around, and sure enough, John is looking straight into me. When my eyes meet his, he doesn’t take them away. Like he wanted me to catch him staring at me.

We stay like this for a moment, before I snap out of it and ask him straight out.

“Is something the matter?”

“No.”

“Then, why are you looking at me like that?”

A brow lifts up, but his expression remains the same.

“Like what?”

I frown. This conversation is ridiculous, but for some reason I’m tempted to answer him. And that’s what I do, because my mouth moved before my brain could control it.

“Like you want something from me…”

That’s when both of his eyebrows go up. He doesn’t say anything after that, but continues staring at me. I watch him stare at me for a while, before giving out a sigh and continuing my search, all the while feeling his eyes on my back.

I ignore him, and after some more wrong titles, I finally find the section I was looking for.

“Bingo…”

I start taking out book after book and pile them up in the office. John stands up and comes near me.

“What are you doing?”

Without turning to look at him, I continue pilling books up and say to him.

“Go to the kitchen and find some trash bags, quickly.”

“Can you at least explain to me what is happening?”

I stop and turn to see him looking at me frantically.

“We’re taking these books back to the house.”

Understanding finally falls on him and rushes out to find the bags I told him, while I continue emptying the bookshelf. He leaves, and after a good five minutes he is back, and starts putting the books in the bags. When I finish, I help him pack the books, and by the end we have made 3 bags.

“Okay, now let’s take them to the car.”

I go to leave, but John catches my hand and I turn to see him.

“What are these books?”

“Can we please talk about that later?”

“No, we have to talk about this, now… And I’m not letting go before you tell me.”

He tells me softly, but with some kind of don’t-mess-with-me air.

“John, we should really…”

“Really what? Go out because they’re waiting for us? We’ve been gone for more than an hour now, some minutes more won’t burn them.”

Oh, God. I can’t believe we’re that late! I take out my phone to see the time and I understand that he’s right…

“I didn’t think it would take so long to find and pack those books.”

“Now we’re back to my question… What are these books?”

He continues with the same air as before, and I feel my heart flutter at the soft tone of his voice. Ugh, stupid! Focus!

“Lila…”

“Okay. So I remembered some books my father used to study… All of them are from the other side… Like the main principles for the Elements, and ways to control them. I thought it would be a great help for your training.”

He stays there watching me like a hawk and thinks about what I said. After a while of silence he asks me.

“And why didn’t you say anything?”

“I wanted to go back home first, so that Jason would see them first. From what I know, my Father showed some of them to him too.”

He continues staring at me. Ugh, it’s getting weird, all this staring thing today.

“John?”

“What?”

“What is wrong with you today?”

He looks at me with a void expression. He sighs and lets go of my arm gently, before he touches me softly on my wrist with his fingertips.

“I’m sorry. It’s just that I have a very bad feeling today, from the moment I woke up.”

I giggle in spite of myself. He looks at me with a sarcastic look.

“What is there to laugh about?”

“I mean… I didn’t think you believed in feelings…”

He laughs.

“Maybe it’s just my imagination playing tricks on me… But…”

He turns to look towards the window.

“From the moment I woke up… It’s like I know… That something will happen. And I’m afraid that it’s going to be related to you.”

“To me?”

I ask bewildered. He turns again to look at me, with a loop-sided grin.

“Yeah… But, again, it might be just my mind playing tricks on me.”

That’s when I realize that our hands are not just slightly touching… But his fingers are intertwined with mine, in a lazy knot. I bend my head to see our hands.

I can say I’m surprised by how well they fit together. Ugh, Lila! Come to your senses! Have you lost your mind? And what was that about his feeling? Most of the time, I don’t believe in things like that… but considering our situation with the strange guy from my dream, I think I must be worried.

We Elemental Warlocks have more sharp senses than average, and we should listen to our feelings.

My eyes still on our hands, I catch sight of John tilting his head, the same grin on his lips.

“What is wrong?”

He asks that so softly that I barely hear him. I sigh and turn my gaze to him, to find his face closer to mine, but I prefer to not comment on this.

“Nothing. I am just thinking about what you said.”

“About my feeling?”

“About your feeling… You must not take it lightly. We have sharper senses… So I think we should move faster, to get home.”

I feel him more than I see him draw closer to my face. I’m ready to distance myself, but I stay rooted in my place, my body just doesn’t want to get out of the situation.

“Most of the time, my feelings are nothing more but that… feelings, things that can happen or not happen, only in my mind… But you know the funny thing about feelings?”

He moves his face even closer than before. Now we are close enough that only ten centimeters separate us. Yet again, my body doesn’t move. John must have thought that we were not close enough, as he puts his other hand on my waist and draws me closer to him. I continue watching him, my mouth dry and not moving, to tell him to stop messing around.

“You know?”

He insists. I gulp and try to say the word…

“No.”

I don’t even think that he heard me, because I did not even hear myself. This close proximity is making me nuts and useless.

Despite my doubts, he heard me, as his smile grew bigger and he put more strength in his arm that was around my waist.

“They come and go. One moment you may have a feeling that something bad will happen… but the next you see one person… only one… the one that can make you smile in your saddest days… and bloop… it goes away.”

John has a person like that in mind? I’m surprised, I was not expecting that… but stupid me, of course he would have. At that thought, my hand grips his shirt.

He starts drawing nearer, and I feel myself closing in too, really affected by our proximity. But before anything happens, I feel it… That same feeling when I’m in my Nightmares. I open my eyes wide, take my hand that is not in John’s, and make an air barrier around us, at the same time something crashes into the big window of my father’s office.