Spellbound Page 5

  What was I in for? I wondered.

  ****

  Elizabeth rearranged the features on her face and gave Serena and me a cool gaze.

  “Don’t let me scare you off, Logan. Not that I think for one minute I could do that.” She laughed, a little too forced, and stopped as if she played it back and knew how strange she sounded. “I only wanted you to know what Serena and I know.

  Just watch your back and look for anything happening out of the ordinary.” As if she realized how suddenly ironic that sounded, given the setting and how it had come to be that I had come there, she changed her last statement, with a wry smile. “Well anything more out of the ordinary.”

  Well that did it. Next to me, Serena stifled a small giggle. I playfully elbowed her and just that one gesture broke the tension that had built up in me and despite everything, I too, found myself barely able to stop laughing. Just like that afternoon in my car, we found ourselves bubbling over with nervous laughter until we could hold it no more and finally it gurgled to the surface and exploded. We both were laughing so hard we had to hold our sides.

  Elizabeth gave us a wary glare until she thought a minute. I could tell in her eyes the moment she got the joke too and she warmed up and finally joined in the laughter as well. She got up and headed out of the living room.

  “Serena, I’ll let you say your goodnights to Logan. It’s been a long evening and I think it’s time we called it a night. Logan?” She rotated to address me specifically. “It has been a pleasure to meet you. I believe my sister has chosen well. Good night.” And with that, she spun around and left the room. As she went, the music changed from the soft-‐‑rock ballads of earlier to something loud and clangy, and the candles all extinguished in one ‘swoosh’ as the overhead lights, before dimmed or off, lit up the room like a football stadium.

  “Very subtle, Elizabeth!” Serena yelled after her sister. She waved her hand and in an instant, the candles were relit and the music changed back to the soft-‐‑rock Dave would call “make-‐‑out’

  music. With her sister out of the room, Serena seemed to be more free and playful. She scooted closer to me on the couch, tucking her legs underneath her and slinging her free arm around the back of the sofa.

  “Have we frightened you away, Logan.”

  “No way.” I made my voice sound strong and sure, even if I didn’t feel it. I swallowed hard and moved closer to her. “What your sister said made sense. It’ll take a lot more than this to scare me off. You being a witch is just a bonus in a girlfriend.” I tried the word out for size and liked the way it felt. Even better I liked the way she liked it. As soon as I said it she snuggled closer.

  “So I’m your girlfriend then?”

  “Yeah. I guess you are. Although, I’ve never had a witch for a girlfriend before.”

  “Twitch.” She corrected. “Remember, I’m not a full-‐‑fledged witch yet.”

  “Well, you could have fooled me with the hocus-‐‑pocus in the hallway at school and that noise with my mom’s ring. Can you do that all the time? You know, what you did with the ring? And what was that anyway? Mind-‐‑reading? Past-‐‑reading? What?”

  “I’m not sure what to call it. I just knew it as soon as I felt your arm. You know, when you almost knocked me down?” She glanced away at the memory. “And the idea of it just took me over that afternoon in the rain. Sometimes a memory is so strong I don’t know what to do with it. That’s why I don’t always like to touch people. Their memories aren’t always pleasant. Or clear. Like your friend Natalie for instance? When I shook her hand the day you introduced us, I just got, like, blackness. She is not a nice person, Logan.”

  “You didn’t need to tell me that. And she’s no friend of mine. No one likes her that much except Nicole. Nicole became her friend super fast. But that girl is more like her slave or something.

  She just follows her around and doesn’t even say much anymore.

  Natalie has switched that girl into a mute. It’s pretty sad.”

  “Be careful, Logan. Elizabeth thinks Natalie is dangerous.”

  “Yeah. So, they say. I’m not sure how she could be, but your sister seemed, like, sure about it, huh?”

  “Yes. And I have never seen Elizabeth be so serious about anything before. She didn’t scare you?”

  “Naw. Told you, you can’t get rid of me that easy.”

  “Logan, I might turn out to be way more trouble than I’m worth.”

  “I doubt that.”

  Serena smiled.

  “I didn’t think stubbornness could be a virtue, but maybe I’m wrong.”

  I showed her some teeth too. But for all my false bravery, I did want to know more.

  “Tell me more about the Council.”

  “I don’t know much about it. Elizabeth says they approve all twitches for witchhood and that since our parents died, they have been monitoring us pretty close. They even considered Elizabeth for membership at one time.

  “Then why doesn’t she want you to be a member?”

  “I don’t know. She won’t tell me yet. She might not even know. It may have something to do with our parents.”

  “What happened to them?”

  Serena cast her eyes down.

  “I’m not sure. Elizabeth and I were young, Tabitha even younger. I just know they died.” She didn’t elaborate and I didn’t press.

  “I’m sorry. My dad died too. I know how hard it is. So, Elizabeth raised you?”

  She brightened.

  “Yes. She’s been our mother and our father. I don’t know what I’d do without her. She’s everything to me.”

  “I can see that. She’s protective of you. I guess I lucked out that she likes me. It’d be pretty hard on us if she didn’t, right?”

  Serena laughed and it sounded like bells.

  “Right!”

  I scooted closer to her on the sofa.

  “I agree with her about one thing, though.”

  “Oh, you do, huh? What’s that?”

  “You are pretty special.” And I reached over and kissed her once, gently on the top of her hand. I wanted to kiss her soft lips, but just then the lights in the room flickered once, then twice. I began to question Serena, but she had a knowing smile on her face.

  “It’s Elizabeth,” she said. “She thinks it’s time for you to go.”

  In one fluid motion, she unfolded her legs and rose to a standing position beside me. I got up too. I stood to leave the room and Serena slipped her small hand in mine. She squeezed it tight and beamed up at me. I realized I had a foot in height on her. We walked down her hallway toward the front door. All the way there I mentally rehearsed the goodbye. Should I try to kiss her? Should I just shake hands? No, that would be lame. Maybe I should just squeeze her hand. I wasn’t even through all the scenarios and we were already at the door. Serena opened it and the night air rushed in, stunning me into reality. Before I had a chance to plan or react, my decisive twitch took both my hands in hers and used them to reach up on tiptoe to kiss me on the lips. It was a soft, gentle kiss, full of magic and promise, perfect and precious and right.

  Somewhere, in the middle of that kiss, I thought, I will protect you from anything.

  Serena stepped back and quietly said, “Goodnight Logan.”

  She didn’t say anything else and she didn’t need to. I leaned in again and kissed her soft cheek.

  “Goodnight Serena.” I said, softly. “Sweet dreams.” I knew mine would be. They would be all about her.

  Chapter Seven

  SERENA

  Monday morning the first thought I had was of Logan. Of course, I thought of Logan all the time now. Since our date and the wonderful way it ended, he permeated my thoughts. Tabitha said she thought it all so romantic and Elizabeth pretended to be annoyed and even rolled her eyes a lot, but secretly I think she did like him.

  Logan waited for us in the morning again, so we got to ride to school together. Jade and Tabitha got in the back seat and started ri
ght up jabbering so neither one noticed when Logan gave me a quick kiss on the cheek and opened my door for me. When we got in the car, he took my hand and drove to school the whole way holding it.

  His pack of friends was lounging in the usual spot in the parking lot. Tabby and Jade scattered as soon as we parked and we were left alone. Jessica spotted us together first. She whispered to Dave, then to Patty. Dave came right over to where we were.

  “Hey Buddy!” Dave’s booming voice crossed the parking lot with him. “You and Serena making it official?” You literally could hear him clear across the whole school. Heads swiveled everywhere and soon, our first public appearance became, well, so public. We would definitely be a topic of conversation now. Wildly, I thought for one minute that Logan would drop my hand. To my great relief, he just gripped it tighter.

  “I’m just lucky she’ll have me.” Logan squeezed my hand again. I started to blush and willed myself to stop. Just then the first bell rang. Thank heavens! I couldn’t have done this much longer.

  Elizabeth told me not to call attention to myself and here I’d made myself the center of attention. This certainly couldn’t be what she meant.

  Logan untwined our fingers and gave me a crushing hug. I inhaled the sweet scent of his aftershave (which I noticed he’d started wearing only recently) and reached my hand up to ruffle the scrub of hair on his head. How long had I wanted to do that?

  He flashed a smile and gave me a quick peck on the cheek.

  “Check you at lunch Serena.” He ambled away. He knew I had a free period today and would spend the morning in the library working on a research paper. At least that’s what he thought. I had a different kind of research to do. Now came the time to prepare.

  ****

  I made my way down the ramp to the library with my research plans already on my mind. I surfed the microfiche, cruised the periodicals, and gathered my materials. I needed some more reference materials, though. Specifically, any background on Lancaster, New Hampshire and any information I could find on witches. There must have been some reason why the Council would have chosen this town for us to settle in. I still didn’t know what happened to my parents, but I had my suspicions it had something to do with Lancaster, N.H. I took my stack of books and spread them out on a long table at the back of the room. The stacks had me hidden from sight in between a giant pile of reference books. An hour or so later I was still pouring over the material. I got so involved in my reading I didn’t notice the atmosphere change. Even though the sky outside still showed the middle of the morning, the day had grown dark and gray. The air inside the library seemed to change. I sat there trying to figure out what had happened when the library stacks rumble with the low whisper of a voice I recognized. It was cold and unpleasant and even though I had only heard it once before, I knew who the voice belonged to.

  “Well, who do we have here, all by herself? No big, handsome boyfriend to protect her.” Natalie came into view from the other end of the reference stacks, advancing on the table where I sat, all at once menacing and a little bit frightening. She smiled, but it wasn’t welcoming. It was more like a sneer.

  “What do you want, Natalie?” I wasn’t usually unfriendly, but something told me that I needed to tread with care here. I had the distinct impression Natalie did not have my best interests at heart.

  “I thought it might be time we had a little talk, Serena.”

  “What in the world could we have to talk about?”

  “Hmm. Dear Serena, there are a number of topics I wish to discuss.” Natalie advanced toward me. I stood, immediately on guard. Natalie’s manner, her language, even her choice of words was different now that she was out of earshot of anyone apart from me.

  “We could talk about your ‘abilities’ for one.”

  I stared straight at her, willing myself to give nothing away.

  Could she know I was a witch? Had she seen me do anything in the hallways? I didn’t think so but my first and best defense would always be to deny everything.

  “I have no idea what you are talking about.”

  Natalie laughed. The laugh held no humor at all. It held… knowledge. In that brief instant, I knew that she knew. I faced her, determined not to show fear or even surprise that she knew my secret. She appraised me coolly.

  “So young twitch, you are brave as well as studied. Let’s test how close you paid attention to your lessons.” Her head swiveled in the direction of a large pile of books stacked at the end of the table waiting to be returned to the shelves. Her eyes flashed and in an instant the top three books lifted and launched towards me. Just as quick, I waved my hand at them and they dropped to the floor, a split second before they would have crashed into me.

  “Well done, little twitch.” Natalie clapped her hands together. The table where I stood lifted from the floor on my side and the remaining stack of books began to slide toward me. I nodded at them once and just as fast they began to fly all throughout the room, replacing themselves on the correct shelves. I circled and glowered at Natalie.

  “Can we dispense with the games now? I can assure you, we are well matched. I asked you earlier...what do you want, Natalie?”

  Natalie stared at me for a few minutes before answering.

  Then, with deliberate intent, she glared down and one of the chairs tucked into the table pulled out on its own and she sat down in it.

  “Sit down, Serena. No more show. We’ll talk.” The chair I was closest to suddenly scooted out near me. I looked at Natalie, who shrugged her shoulders. I sat down in the chair.

  “Serena, clearly we have more in common than you realized.

  And there is more even than our, shall we call it, unique abilities.

  The Council has called upon me to remind you of your responsibilities. And this relationship,” she said the word as if it were distasteful to her, “with the boy has them worried.” She paused, likely for my reaction. I kept my face impassive and my thoughts as clear as possible in case she went fishing around in my head. “Convey that the message was delivered. And now here is one of my own. Any relationship I may or may not have is my business, not theirs. And now you and the Council can leave me alone.” With that, I got up and strode out of the library, hoping I appeared powerful and confident.

  ****

  Natalie didn’t follow me and I didn’t detect her monitoring my thoughts. I walked to the parking lot. I had every intention of finding my sister and going home as soon as possible. I expected I had just done some major damage and I anticipated she might have sensed I needed her and intercepted me. That did not happen. As I crossed the quad I caught sight of the baseball diamond in back of the school and realized I didn’t want to go home. I wanted to find Logan. I had no idea where he might be, but suddenly being out at the baseball field seemed like a good idea. Even if he wasn’t there now, I knew he would be there sometime soon. So I would wait.

  I went around the long way to the back of the school and found the bleachers empty. I climbed the steps to the top and sat down. From there I could view the boy’s locker room. I sighed because I’d found a perfect place to sit. I would catch him as soon as he came out. I concentrated on that scene so hard that when Logan came up alongside me, I almost fell off the seat.

  “Hey!” I said, “Now, who is sneaking up on whom?” I could hardly keep the relief out of my voice.

  “What’re you doing here? What happened to the library?”

  Logan took a seat next to me. Just the mention of the library brought it all back to me and I slumped heavily next to him and made a whimpering sound.

  “What’s that about?” The tenderness in his voice, so sweet and genuine, was so sincere, and I had to fight back tears.

  “Oh, Logan. Something awful.”

  “What happened? Did someone hurt you? Are you okay?”

  Next to him, pressed close to his body, I could feel him tense, readying to protect me. As if he could, against this unseen opponent.

  “No, no. I’m fine. It’s
just that I ran into Natalie.”

  “Natalie? What do you mean you ‘ran into her’?” He narrowed his eyes. “Did she hurt you?”

  “Logan, I’m going to tell you something you may not believe, but you have to trust me.” I moved closer, took his hands in mine and searched his eyes. I jumped into his head for just an instant. I accepted as truth that he believed me and wanted to protect me. And that for some reason he felt responsible for introducing me to Natalie. I jumped back out and continued talking. “Natalie is like me. She proved it in the library just now. But she is not a friend of mine, Logan. She has an agenda. And oh yes, she also delivered a message from the Council.”

  “You mean the one your sister told us about last weekend?

  That Council? She’s with the Council?” He darted around with wild eyes.

  “Yes. I need to talk to Elizabeth. I may have just made matters worse.”

  ”Why? What happened?”

  I started to tell Logan. As I relayed the encounter I watched his face change from concern to anger. He could barely contain his rage. “You said she had a message?”

  I suddenly had a fear of telling Logan everything. As much as he wanted to protect me, I wanted to keep him as far away from the craziness of my world as I could. Such goodness and kindness dwelled deep within him; part of me kept thinking it wasn’t fair to expose him to the insanity. Now he had shown himself to be brave as well, ready to take on an opponent he could not even name. But, could it be too late already? Had my feelings for him involved him so much that there was no turning back? Would I even be ready to give those feelings a name? At what point would I surrender to the love that grew daily inside me for this beautiful and innocent, brave boy? Logan gently nudged me from my musings.

  “Serena? What message?” He looked at me, insistent.