Chapter Twenty Eight
Ronnie woke Friday morning feeling oddly refreshed. She expected to feel tired after being up in the middle of the night with Gavin and wondered if he did some kind of sleeping spell. Then she wondered if he even knew how to do spells. And then she wondered what he did know how to do. Totally confused, she slid out of bed and headed down the hall to take a shower.
An hour later, she was still thinking about Gavin when she said goodbye to her mom and headed out the door—only to be stopped short when she found Rick waiting for her on the sidewalk. A smile crossed his lips as Ronnie squared her shoulders and continued to meet him.
“I thought I would drive you to school today,” he said. She shrugged one shoulder. She didn’t care what he did as long as he didn’t touch her or try to kidnap her. She followed him to a black compact car and climbed into the passenger seat, buckling in while he walked around to get in behind the wheel. Moments later, Rick headed towards Wind Lake High.
“Whatever,” she said in a bored voice. His smile faltered.
“You don’t like me much, do you?”
She raised an eyebrow at him. “What gave you that idea? And why should I like you anyway? You’ve hardly done anything other than terrorize me and now you’ve taken away the one person who’s made it bearable to have you around.”
“The same guy who annoyed you to no end a week ago.”
“You put that together, did you?” She scowled and looked out the window. “What do you want?”
“I’ve come to ask for your decision about becoming a Spiral Defender. Queen Alina has asked that all chosen recruits give their answers this weekend.”
“Well, my answer is a resounding yes.”
“Yes for the boy who once annoyed you so much you might have hated him?”
“Yes for the people who need defending from wraiths and other monsters.” She glared at him, wondering if he knew she considered him one of the monsters. He met her glare steadily and nodded.
“Very well. I’ll let you know when we depart.”
“How soon do you think that will be?”
“I imagine very soon. You’ll want to pack a bag when you get home from school today. I’ll tell the queen you’re coming home.”
She shook her head at his wording, thinking she was already home. “What will I tell my mom and my friends?”
“I’ll handle it when I come to pick you up. As for your friends, tell them whatever you like. That is, if you haven’t already.”
She flushed, knowing he knew she had already told her friends the truth. Not that it did a whole lot of good. Shawn just thought she was making things up and still hated her, but at least Andi believed her. That would make leaving a little bit easier.
“Enjoy your day, Princess,” he said before she could escape. Ronnie stared at him, her mouth hanging open as anger sizzled in her veins at his obvious derision. Only one person was allowed to call her Princess and that certainly wasn’t him! His chuckle drifted back to her as she climbed out of the car and she wished she had something to throw at him. She thought about the sword she had hidden in her messenger bag, but knew that was a bad idea. She never knew when something was going to attack her these days. With a sigh, she ground her teeth and started towards the front doors of the school.
“What was Rick doing here?” Andi asked as she fell into step next to Ronnie.
“He wanted to know my decision about becoming a Spiral Defender,” she admitted quietly.
“What did you tell him?” Andi stopped walking and Ronnie stopped with her.
“I told him yes,” she whispered and Andi hugged her. Tears sprang to Ronnie’s eyes as she realized how much she was going to miss this. The only people she would know in Kalearnia would be Gavin, Osirah and Dusana and she doubted any of them would want her around 24/7. She hugged Andi tight and then stepped back, not surprised to see tears shining in Andi’s eyes, too.
“We can’t say goodbye yet, not until it’s time for me to leave,” Ronnie declared. “Gavin said I probably have two weeks or so until that time, at least I did when he was bringing me back. So we’ll just have to make the most of it.”
“Crying over your lost boyfriend,” Shawn sneered as he passed them. Ronnie wiped her eyes as she glared at him.
“The only boyfriend I lost is you, Shawn, and I’m starting to think it was for the best,” she called after him. She watched him head for the front doors, glanced at Andi, and then ran after Shawn. She had to try one more time.
She followed him through the doors and grabbed his arm as soon as they were both inside. Her heart leapt into her throat when he spun around, his blue eyes full of hurt and anger. Ronnie squared her shoulders and refused to back down, tightening her grip on his arm when he tried to pull away.
“No, Shawn, you need to listen to me,” she declared. His cold expression bordered on hatred.
“Why? So I can hear more about how great, how out of this world your new boyfriend is? Save it, Ronnie; I told you yesterday that I’m done. I can’t do this.” He turned to go, but she stepped in front of him, putting her free hand on his chest. His heart beat wildly beneath her palm.
“He’s not even here anymore.” The words came out harsher than she intended, but had the desired effect. Some of the hatred left his blue eyes. Tentatively, hopeful, Ronnie stepped back and released him. She looked into his eyes. Their gazes held for a long moment. Her heart pounded hard against her ribs while she waited for him to say something. He raked a hand through his blond waves and shook his head.
“I’m sorry, Ronnie, I can’t do this.” He turned and hurried away.
She watched him disappear down the hall and then turned back to Andi. “I was so stupid yesterday. I thought I could force him to talk to me, to listen to my explanation about Gavin, but all it did was make him angrier at me. Even now…” She looked down the hall, grief filling her heart. Tears pricked her eyes and she blinked them away, taking a deep breath to steady herself. She wouldn’t get through today by crying.
“You told him the truth?”
Ronnie nodded. “I tried. He wouldn’t hear it and he twisted around everything I said, making it sound like I was professing undying love for Gavin.” She rolled her eyes and a small smile lifted the corners of her lips as she remembered seeing Gavin last night.
“I know what that smile is about,” Andi teased. “You saw him.”
“I did. He showed up around two. Actually, I saw him twice. Yesterday after school, I was coming to your house and got stopped by a shadow hound. Gavin gave me a sword to kill it.”
“And you did?”
“Yep, and last night Gavin told me he was proud of me. And I found out something really cool. I can’t show you because the teachers would freak out, but I can regenerate.”
“You can what?” Andi wrinkled her nose at the foreign idea, her eyes full of confusion.
“When I get hurt, my body heals itself. I got slashed yesterday and the skin knit itself back together. It’s so awesome. It’s like I’m invincible now.”
“Don’t get ahead of yourself; I’m sure someone could cut off your head and it would kill you.”
“Yeah and then they’d get all my super powers.”
The girls giggled as they headed inside the school. Ronnie felt really good despite seeing both Rick and Shawn this morning and hoped the rest of the day passed as happily.
Unfortunately, the day didn’t get any better. In fact, it got worse for Ronnie. Shawn took every opportunity he could to ask where Gavin was and to ask about the guy she walked to school with. By the end of the day, she knew it was possible to hate him. If she hadn’t made plans with Andi to go to the first football game of the year that night, she would have stayed home. She definitely wasn’t going to support him.
The last bell rang and Ronnie raced to her locker. She wanted to get a little shopping in if she was going to carry her sword around with her. Thinking about the sword reminded her that she wanted to ask Gavin abo
ut its name, Lamina Lucis. Just thinking the name gave her a warm feeling and she wondered what it meant. She was about to leave her locker when Andi appeared.
“What are you doing before the game?” Andi asked as they headed for the nearest door.
“Shopping.” Ronnie grinned and grasped Andi’s hand. “Say you’ll come with me.”
Andi laughed. “What kind of friend would I be if I said no?”
They linked arms and talked and laughed as Andi drove the six blocks to The Shop Stop. They entered the store and were immediately greeted by Brenda, who was behind the counter ringing out a customer. Ronnie wandered over to a wall of long sleeved tops and waited to ask about what she was looking for.
“We got some cute dresses in, girls,” Brenda told them as she walked over after finishing up with her customer. “I thought I’d keep them aside so you can see if there’s one you want for Homecoming.”
Ronnie’s heart sank down to her toes. She had forgotten about Homecoming, which was now only a month away. Somehow she knew she wasn’t going to be here for it. She exchanged a look with Andi, who sadly smiled, and then forced a smile as she told Brenda they would love to see the dresses.
“Buy one anyway. Maybe there will be a royal feast you’ll need to wear something fancy to,” Andi told Ronnie quietly as they followed Brenda to the back stockroom. Ronnie nodded; it never hurt to have an extra dress on hand.
It took two minutes for Ronnie to find the dress she would have worn to Homecoming. Her eyes fell on it almost instantly and she pulled it off the rack in her size. It was a strapless gown with a crossover bodice accented with beads and a long flowing skirt. The twilight blue color complemented her olive skin tone and black hair. Already, she was imaging ways to wear her hair, how dramatic she would make her makeup, and whether she would wear a wrap with it. She slipped it on and then twirled around in front of the 3-way mirror outside the dressing room, sighing as the silk and chiffon swirled around her legs. It was perfect. Her hopes were dashed when she realized she had no idea if it would even be appropriate to wear in Kalearnia. She frowned as she returned to her room to remove the gown. Her phone chimed with a new text message.
“Who’s that?” Andi asked from the room next to hers as Ronnie pulled out her phone. She knew who it was without having to look at the screen and grinned when she saw the message from Gavin. Buy it. She giggled as she forwarded the message to Andi and heard her friend’s phone chime a moment later.
“Seems like you made an impression. Now come take a look at this one on me,” Andi stated. Still grinning, Ronnie opened her door. Andi wore a short red gown with a pleated skirt that fell to her knees. The halter neckline was flattering and worked well with Andi’s short hair, but Ronnie wasn’t crazy about the color on her. The red was almost too bright for her skin tone. She shook her head.
“You need something a little richer,” she told Andi and headed back into the shop to find a different dress. Brenda saw her as she poked through the dresses and said the gown looked gorgeous on her. She grinned and blushed as she nodded and pulled out a couple different dresses for Andi to try on. She found an emerald green gown with a smoother skirt and sweetheart neckline and told Andi to try it on first. Ronnie grinned when Andi stepped out with the dress on.
“Perfect,” she declared and the girls hugged.
“I just wish you were going to be here to go with me,” Andi told Ronnie before they stepped apart. Ronnie nodded, tears prickling her eyes again. She had to stop all this crying; she didn’t even know when she was leaving yet.
“Maybe I can come back for a couple hours,” Ronnie said hopefully. Andi smiled and nodded. They both hoped, but Ronnie didn’t think it would be possible. She doubted Rick would let her come back to Earth for something as trivial as a high school dance.
They found accessories for their dresses, including matching silver heels with rhinestones across the toes, and left the shop an hour later as Brenda started putting the remaining dresses out on the floor. As they left the store and headed towards Ronnie’s house, she realized she hadn’t bought the cargo pants she originally went there for. Laughing at herself, she climbed into Andi’s car and grinned the whole way home.