FOR A WHILE, EVERYTHING RETURNS to normal. We train every day with Tom. Emma and I become closer. She’s the best friend I’ve never had. My relationship with Colton also returns to how it was before. Colton and Liam seem to be becoming pretty close. David and Emma are still stuck in the flirty friendship stage with neither one wanting to be the first to initiate anything more. Conner and Madison come over occasionally, but Natasha and Natalie haven’t been back since that incident.
Days pass without anything exciting happening. We just prepare. Claire says that we have to stay at this house. That this is what is best for us. She does know best; she has the intuition after all. It’s a Wednesday when I finally crack. Boredom can cause someone to do that apparently.
I am sitting in a chair in the entertainment room with my notebook in my lap. This is the first time that I have no idea what to draw—no inspiration is coming to me. I’m having a doodle block. So, the only logical thing would be sit upside down in the chair, and wait for inspiration to strike, right? I think so. I put my feet up where my head should be and lean back, my head facing the ground. I can see the ceiling and the other chair directly across from where I am sitting… and I wait. Inspiration has to strike sometime.
I can hear people shuffling down the hallway. I know that pretty soon everyone will come into this room and find me sitting here, but I don’t move.
“Hey…Ryanne…what…are you doing?” David asks slowly, as if I can’t understand simple English.
Turning my head toward them, I reply, “I’m bored, and can’t think of what to draw.”
“And is that working?” asks Emma.
“Nope.”
“Would you rather watch a movie?” I can hear the laughter in Colton’s voice as he asks the question.
“Nope. I’d rather see how long it takes for all the blood to rush to my head and I pass out.” They all laugh. “I’m being serious.”
“Oh, we know,” Colton says as he sits down on the couch.
Liam comes over to the chair I am sitting in, and starts nudging my shoulder with his foot, wanting to sit down in the chair with me. “Come on, Ryanne. Get up.”
“You can’t make me.” His eyebrows rise. Giving me a look that says challenge accepted, he smiles down at me, and raises his hands, fingers pointed outward in the universal tickle signal, and starts moving toward my exposed stomach. I kick my feet back, and do a backwards flip, until I am sitting on the ground facing the chair I was just sitting in.
“Never mind, I think I’d rather watch a movie.” Liam leans down, picks me up, and sets me in his lap since there are no available seats anywhere else. “You know, that was pretty rude,” I whisper to him.
“You just have to threaten to tickle Ryanne, and she’ll do anything,” says David.
“Don’t get any ideas, Buster.”
He just smiles at me. “Already have some.” Emma looks at me like she knows what I am going to do, and gets out the chair to sit on the edge of the couch. I gather up a small strand of energy, and visualize knocking the chair that David is sitting in backwards. I thrust the energy strand with the visual imprint toward him, and wait for the scene to play out.
When he realizes what I am doing, his smile falters. His chair tilts backwards, and while he tries to move forward to counteract the movement, he still falls. He lays on his back for a couple of seconds, surprised, before he starts laughing. Once everyone hears his laughter, they join in. Getting up, he returns the chair to its proper position, sits down, and stares at me. “Well played, little one. Well played.”
Liam shakes my shoulder. “You’re devious.”
I turn my smile on him and say, “I know.”
An hour later, a movie is put in, and everyone’s attention is on the screen. “It’s so sad that they kill his wife at the end of this movie. He doesn’t remember her. The poor hot mutant,” says Emma. She has a crush on Hugh Jackman.
I feel something brush against my stomach, and look down to see Liam holding the flame necklace that he gave me. I still haven’t taken it off. “My mother made this for me.”
“Really?” I whisper back, intrigued. I turn so that I’m facing him. I can feel a story coming on. Liam doesn’t often share personal information about himself. He isn’t an emotional guy. The only thing I really know about him is that he has an older brother named Bragden.
“Yeah, she used to make a ton of jewelry for everyone. It was one of her many hobbies. She made this leather bracelet that I’m wearing too.” He holds up his wrist so I can see. The tanned leather is braided into a complex pattern, intertwining in a zigzag formation. “She gave me this necklace when I was ten years old. She passed away a month later.”
He isn’t looking at me, but at the necklace, seemingly lost in his memories. I reach up and start to bring the chain up around my neck, to give it back to him. His mother made it for him and him only. She made the necklace with her love, intending for him to always keep it on it him as a token of that, and as a reminder of where he came from.
“You take it back. I can’t keep something like that. Your mother gave it to you specifically.” Grabbing my arm, he halts my progress.
“Ryanne, I didn’t tell you that to get the necklace back. I want you to keep it. She would have wanted me to give it to you.”
“Why?”
“Growing up, my mother used to tell me to cherish life. Think of a candle flame. It burns bright, but slowly dies out. When it’s burning bright, it represents living life to its fullest. Each flicker is an obstacle that is overcome. In the end, the flame slowly wanes. You have to make the most of what you have when the flame is brightest. You never know when the flame is going to be blown out. Life is short, but it can also be beautiful. It’s a symbol of hope. Candle flames take away a small portion of darkness, giving the slightest bit of illumination in the darkest of times.”
I watch his face as he speaks. Despite the roughness in his appearance, there is softness underneath. Under all the black hair, is a guy who had to grow up too quickly. Looking up at him, I can see small pieces of sadness in his gray eyes. He is very handsome, his crooked nose and scar only adding to his appearance. Something about the way he speaks tugs at my heartstrings. I can tell that Liam loves and misses his mother, so I can relate to him in that way.
“I’m sorry about your mother, Liam. She sounds like a very smart woman.”
“She was.” My eyes travel down his face, and land on his rather large arm. I can see the outline of his flamed tattoo peeking from underneath the sleeve of his t-shirt. Slowly, I roll the sleeve up to get a better look at it. I can feel him watching me, but I don’t look up. When the full tattoo is visible, I slowly trace along the edges with my finger, barely touching his skin.
“Is that why you got this tattoo?”
“Yeah. I got it when I was seventeen after a bad period in my life. It’s a reminder for me to not dwell too much on the bad things. Flickers in the flames don’t remain for long. The flame will return to its bright luminance once again. Everything happens for a reason, and we can’t live too long in the past. Otherwise, the future will fly past us.” He brings his hand under my chin, and tilts my head back, making me look at him. “Please don’t forget that, Ryanne. It’s always better to light a candle than dwell in the darkness.”
I stare into his gray eyes for a couple of seconds before nodding. He’s right, but making myself follow that idea is going to be difficult. I lean back against his shoulder, and curl into his side.
My mom wouldn’t want me to be sad that she is gone. She would want me to cherish the fact that I got a second chance. She swerved so that I would be able to live. I can’t change the past, and she wouldn’t want me to. Everything does happen for a reason. I know that my mom can see me; that she’s always rooting for me to succeed. I feel a single tear run down my cheek. I am stronger now than I was, and am slowly getting stronger every day. It’s going to take some time, but I know that I’ll grow to appreciate what she did for me down
the long road ahead.
“Did we disturb the movie?” I ask, when I realize that the room is silent and everyone is watching me yet again.
“No. The movie’s been over for a couple minutes now,” Emma replies.
“Didn’t anyone ever tell you that eavesdropping was rude?” Liam says in a light voice, laughter hidden beneath the words.
Shrugging, she replies, “Someone may have…once…I don’t really remember.” David laughs and picks Emma up, throwing her over his shoulder. She screams at the suddenness of his actions. With her giggling, he runs into the hallway. Everyone’s eyes follow them, confused.
He runs back into the room, sans Emma. “Are you guys coming? It’s training time,” he says. Running over to me, he grabs my arms, and pulls me off of the chair, dragging me toward the door. When he touches me, I get the sensation that is starting to become familiar to me. “David…” is all I can get out before I fall forward into a vision.
The backyard is decorated for a special occasion. Small lights, shaped like lilies, line the stone pathway. Tall, thin columns are erected around the perimeter of the yard, enclosing a small area large enough for this reception. Sheer fabric connects the columns on either side of the lawn, letting sporadic strips of sunlight shine through. White flowers with pink accents line the base of columns. The grass is sparkly, as if someone had thrown glitter all over it, and numerous lawn chairs are lined in rows on both sides, with people sitting in them.
David is standing at the end of the aisle, fidgeting nervously. Wedding music starts playing and everyone stands up and turns around, awaiting the bride. At the end of the aisle is a beautiful bride staring at David. Wearing a short white silk dress that flows around her knees, Emma beams at her future husband as she starts walking down the aisle.
I come back to the present and find myself leaning against David. “Did you have another vision? What happened?” He looks concerned. I look behind me and see Logan, Liam, and Colton with similar expressions. I look back at David and start beaming. Concern turns to confusion. I just laugh and hug him, before turning around and skipping out of the room. I know everyone is confused, but I don’t think I should share that vision. That is one vision that I don’t want to risk changing. I walk back to my room, and find Emma changing into her training clothes. My smile widens when I see her.
“Are you okay?” she asks. “You’re scaring me.” I shake my head, my smile never wavering, and grab an outfit to change into. Once outside, we find that all of the guys have beaten us and are already stretching. Joining their circle, Emma and I begin to stretch with them.
David is still looking at me, wondering what is wrong when he sees my barely-contained smile. I know that I look like a crazy person, but I can’t help it. I’m happy for them. “So, are you going to tell us what you saw?”
I bend down to touch my toes, stretching out the muscles in my legs. My hair falls forward, creating a curtain around my face. Crap, I forgot a hair tie again.
“Wait, you had a vision? Is that why you’re smiling like that?” Emma inquires. “You had a vision that wasn’t bad?” I nod, still not saying anything. “But you won’t tell anyone…?”
“Nope.”
“Why?”
“Because it could change the future.” Turning toward Emma, I ask, “Do you have an extra hair tie I could borrow?”
“Yes, but you have to tell me your vision,” she challenges.
“That’s okay. You guys can just pull all my hair out. I’ve had worse.”
“Oh, that’s low. Fine. Here.” She throws the hair tie at me. I smile sweetly and thank her. Rolling her eyes, she gets into the stance that we always get into when training. It doesn’t take us long to realize that we are both getting much better at fighting. We are able to disarm the guys much quicker when we don’t have our weapons drawn though. We know the basic maneuvers to use when holding a sword, but it is much easier to fight without one. I am able to use magic to knock out any opponent much quicker and easier than I could before. When practicing with Emma, I don’t use it, because it wouldn’t be fair. She’s taller and stronger than me, but I am faster, so I can maneuver out of her attacks better than she can mine.
I hear the sounds of metal clanking against metal around us. The boys are all training with swords. Tom joins us after a while, and helps train us with weaponry. Neither one of us can seem to get the hang of it. It doesn’t come as naturally to us as it does for the guys. My arms are starting to cramp up. That’s one of the reasons why I hate training with the swords. My strength is improving, but I’m still not used to holding a large metal weapon in my hands.
When my arm starts to feel like jello, Claire walks outside. “Maybe it’s time for a break. You guys have been out here for a while. I cut up some watermelon.” She winks at me, before turning around and going back into the house.
I hand my sword to Tom, and follow Claire.
There is a giant bowl of watermelon in the middle of the island. Grabbing a few pieces, I move out the way, knowing that the guys will probably devour it before anyone else gets any. Emma and I stand off to the side, slowly eating our pieces. When I finish, I wash my hands, and walk back to the island to chat with everyone else. Emma soon joins me, bumping shoulders with David.
I’m starting to get a headache from wearing my hair so tight in the ponytail. Pulling my hair out of it, I shake my head, and run my fingers through my almost waist-length hair, trying to tame it. Handing the ponytail to Emma, I realize that I’m being watched.
“What?”
“It’s like a freaking shampoo commercial. How the heck do you do it?” Emma asks.
“Do what?”
“I’m a completely straight girl, and I’m attracted to you right now. I don’t want to know what these guys are thinking.”
“Well, I could tell you what they’re thinking.” I myself want to know. I don’t understand what she is getting at.
“Please don’t,” says Colton, shaking his head.
“I second that,” agrees Liam. Logan just nods.
“Okay…I don’t really know what just happened here, but I’m going to go change.”
In the room, I lock the door, change out of the athletic clothing, and am standing in a pair of jean shorts and a bra, looking for a shirt.
“Hmm.” Someone clears their throat behind me. Jumping around, I find Larkin staring at me.
“Can’t you knock or something?” I demand. It is rude to just show up like that without giving any notice.
“I could, but that’s no fun.” His smile widens, and I watch as his eyes slowly travel down my body. “Would you like to finish getting dressed?”
“What?” I look down and gasp. I’m still not wearing a shirt. I’m standing in front of Larkin in nothing but a black lacy bra. Quickly, I try to cover my chest. I notice that Larkin’s eyes linger on the long scar under my ribs. “Oh my gosh.” I turn around and grab the first t-shirt I find, which is just a plain black form-fitting shirt. Throwing it on, I turn around, and grab Larkin’s arm, pulling him downstairs.
“Where are you taking me?”
“Assuming you probably wouldn’t just show up unless you had something important to say, I’m taking you downstairs, so you can just tell everyone at once.”
Entering the kitchen, I announce, “Look who just popped into my room while I was changing.”
“What?” Colton stands up, and glares at Larkin.
“Oh, sit down pretty boy. She was almost fully dressed.” He smirks at me. With my arms crossed, I motion for him to continue. “I have important news.” When he has our attention, he continues, “Ryanne, Dravin’s coming for you again. He doesn’t know where you are exactly, but he’ll find out soon enough. I’ve tried to…”
“What? It’s too early. The leaves haven’t started changing yet,” I interrupt what he is saying. I’ve had this vision before, but it was different. What changed?
“What are you talking about?” Larkin asks me.
; “I had a vision that you were telling me that exact thing. Is he also going to try to rig the house to blow up?”
“Well…yeah. He’s going to try.”
“When?”
“I’d give it about a week, maybe a little more. Soon though.”
Colton and Liam curse, Logan and David both just shake their heads, and Emma reaches out and grabs my arm. Dravin is coming for me. I always knew he was, but I thought I could just live happily until the day actually came. I thought I would know when he was searching for me—when he was close. I feel more prepared this time, but it still scares me that he is trying so hard to get me. I can hear the wind outside start to pick up, but I can’t control it. When I think about Dravin, my thoughts drift toward Adam. Adam is working for him, and they both want to harm me.
Tom and Claire run into the room. “What’s wrong? The weather’s changing,” says Claire.
Taking a deep breath, I try to control my emotions. I walk over to Larkin. “It’s fine. We’ve been training. We knew that this would happen. It’s just a little sooner than I originally thought. Thanks for telling us. Please don’t get caught. I don’t want you to get hurt because you are helping us.”
“Don’t worry about me. Just try to keep safe.” With that, he blinks out of the room. I return to the spot I was standing in before. Closing my eyes, I concentrate on calming down. I feel someone start rubbing my back.
“Don’t worry. We’ll do everything to make sure Dravin doesn’t get you. We’ll keep you safe,” says Colton.
“Colton, it’s not herself that she’s worried about,” Liam says. “She’s worried about all of us.”
I lift my head, and look at him. “Can you read minds too?”
“No, I just know you.”
“Okay, so what are we going to do?” Logan demands.
All eyes look at Claire. “We stay here. There’s not a whole lot we can do at this moment. You guys can continue training. My intuition is telling me that we need to remain here.”
“That’s all we’re going to do? Stay here and let Dravin come to us?” Colton yells at Claire. I’d never seen him talk back to his aunt before.
I reach out and grab his arm, bringing his attention to me, and away from Claire. “It’s the best thing to do right now. You knew that he was coming.”
“Yes, but I thought that we would come up with a plan to get away safely. Not just stay here, waiting. Do you want to get captured again?” I can feel the anger radiating off of him. He’s not yelling anymore, but his tone is still harsh.
“No, but we can’t keep running. He’s going to catch up to us sooner or later.”
He hits the table behind me, scaring me. I lean back as he takes a step closer to me. I can see the anger in his gorgeous green eyes melt away to something else. No one has ever looked at me like that. Looking down at me, his voice lowers and is laced with concern. “I can’t watch him take you again, Ry. I just can’t.” His voice is barely louder than a whisper. I know he is pleading with me, begging me to understand, but I’ve accepted that the war is going to come after me. No matter how fast I run away, it will always find me.
He is standing so close to me that I can smell his cologne. He has me caged between his body and the table behind me, and his breath is hitting my face. I draw my gaze from his eyes down to his mouth. I know that this really isn’t the time for that, but I can’t help it. I realize now how important this guy is to me. Why did I refuse him twice before? He truly cares about me; otherwise, he wouldn’t be so angry. I lift my eyes back up to his, and see him watching me. It feels like time stops. I don’t think about anything else but how close he is standing to me. His body heat is radiating off of him and hitting me. I try to control my breathing, while the butterflies in my stomach flutter out of control. I want him to lean down and kiss me.
Someone behind me sneezes, bringing my attention back to my surroundings, but I don’t remove my eyes from Colton. He looks over my head at the room around us, and slowly exhales. He leans closer to me as he uses his arms to push away from the table. Stepping away, he runs his hand through his hair. Without looking back at me, he shakes his head and walks out of the room. I follow him with my eyes until he is out of sight.
“He’ll come around.” Claire comes over to me and gives me a hug.
Emma runs over, pulls me away from Claire, and out of the room. “Oh. My. Gosh. I know that look on your face!” I start blushing and try looking everywhere but at her.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I mumble, hoping that she will drop the conversation, and start walking away.
Running after me, she says, “You’re totally in love with Colton!” In the quiet hallway, she might as well have screamed that.
“Shhh! You don’t have to tell the whole world.”
She squeaks and starts jumping. “This is so exciting!”
“No, it’s not. You can’t say anything. I’ve kept your secret about David. You have to keep mine. Please, Emma. Don’t say anything. Let me figure out what is going on first.”
As she stares at me, I can see the gears turning in her head. She really wants to meddle, but respects my wishes. I have done what she has asked me, so now she has to do what I ask of her.
Linking our arms together, she starts pulling me toward the entertainment room. “Come on, let’s go watch a romantic comedy, and dwell on the fact that our lives are nothing like that.”