Rebirth: The Awakening Of A Witch (14 page)

Adrien stopped and turned back to
look at
me as soon as I stopped
dead in my tracks
.

I turned to
him
,
returning his gaze.
H
e just looked at me with a grim expression on his face. He
looked like he already knew
what I was going to ask him.

“Cole, Elise,”
Adrien breathed. “I’ll meet you guys back at the house. I’ll take Skylar home.”

The twins both nodded, leaving me
completely
bothered. Why would he leave them here? They could
just
c
o
me
with us.

“Adrien, I don’
t see the point of leaving them
.” I turned to him while I was already seated in the passenger seat.

“Our house is nearby,” Cole
answered instantly
.

“Don’t worry about us.” Elise said as craned her neck over her
twin
’s shoulder as he was
leaning over
the passenger window
, smiling at me
.

“
Okay then
,”
I
grinn
ed back at them as we slowly drove away, Adrien closing the passenger window
before speeding up the car
.

We drove a few moments in silence
as I tried to sort out the million questions that ran through my head.

“Why were you there tonight, Adrien?” I asked quietly. Was he following me? And that
…
t
hat presence since my birthday. My
eyes widened as I recalled that I only ever felt that presence whenever he shows up
—at th
e
restaurant, his first day at school, at the cafeteria, inside the classroom, yesterday before the car almost killed me, by the lo
ckers this morning, and earlier before those men closed in on me.
I turned to look at him
.
M
y mind was lit with many questions that I know only he could answer.

He held a hardened expression. His knuckles were white as he gripped the steering wheel. He still didn’t answer.

“Adrien
,
” I knew I had to ask him. “
When I saw you at that restaurant on my birthday
,
”
I paused, trying to come up with the right words. “I think I actually
felt
you before you even stepped foot inside.”
I couldn
’
t believe what I was actually saying
myself.
I know I sounded crazy, but I just had to know before the questions consumed me.

He still didn’t answer. He looked like he was suffering from
his own interrogations
inside, too.
I reached out to touch his arm,
ignoring the currents that flowed through me
.
He
slow
ed
down the speeding car
and
eventually parked on the side of the road.
I saw him take
in deep breaths when the car reached a full stop.

“Adrien, why did you come to Rattford Cliffs?” I asked him in a whisper. It seemed like I had to take small steps with these questions. I
ha
ve to start from the beginning, during the first time I saw him.

He looked at me then as he
placed
his head on the car’s headrest.
His eyes clearly conveyed
the
debat
e he had
on whether or not to answer my questions.

“Sky,” he said as he gazed at me with the saddest expression I’ve ever seen
on
him.
“You don’t want to know the answers. Not yet, anyway,” he answered as I was about to pull my hand back, but he steadied it as he placed his hand on top of mine. “I don’t want you in the middle of any of this. You deserve a
…” he paused, obviously trying to come up with a word. “
normal
life,
”
he finally said as I pulled my hand out from under his.

“Normal life?” I asked, incredulous at what I was hearing. What is he talking about now? He just added more questions to the already too many questions
my head could
n’t
handle.
“Adrien, I was almost hit by a car yesterday, and I almost got myself hurt earlier. Those incidents are
completely
normal. I know what that says about my luck, but it can happen to anyone,”
I narrated.

What did he mean by that anyway?

Suddenly, his phone rang, completely interrupting the conversation we were having. When he
saw
who was calling
, he
answered it immediately. “Yes?” he said with a serious tone.

I just watched him as his expression suddenly transformed from serious to furious. He shook his head
and released a ragged breath. “Okay.” He replied to what the person on the other line
said.
He ended the call. And before I
could get a word out
, he already started the car engine
,
and we were
back
on
the road.

I know I couldn’t get any decent answers from him. Not tonight, anyway.
But that didn’t stop me from letting
all
the questions roam around my head all the way home.

“I
will
get my answers,” I said as I opened the car’s passenger door. “Oh,” I stopped when I remembered something. I turned around to look at him. “Thank you for saving me again,” I smiled at him. I was really grateful even if he didn’t answer any of my questions. I’ll get them out of him in time.

He just nodded and didn’t even look at me. He still had that hard expression on him. I sighed and let myself out of the car. When I was safely inside the house, I heard him start the car and sped
away
at a very fast pace.

“Nana, I’m home,” I called out. She came out
of the room and looked at me from
the top of the stairs, already in her light blue pajamas.
I wondered what time it was. I glanced at my watch and saw that it was only
half past
eight. I relaxed. I lost count of time with all the things that happened.

“I’ll heat up the stew for you
,
” s
he
announced
as she started
walking
down the stairs
. When she was at the foot of the stairs, I instantly
pull
ed
her in for a hug
.
She was a bit stunned when I did that, but it didn’t take her long to hug me back. I sighed when I thought that I could have died tonight and leave my Nana by herself. I couldn’t bear the thought of it.

She smiled when I let her go and led me to the kitchen.
I told her how my day went, except the last part when I was on my way home.
She frowned when I told her how Adrien acted the first time I saw him this morning
.
It surprised me that I almost forgot about that. I’ll add that to
my
million-question
list.
I was so deeply absorbed in my own thoughts that I failed to see Nana give me a knowing smile.

When I looked back at her, she had that satisfied look on her face that bothered me. I wonder what’s running through her head right now.

I stayed awake late that night again. I was busy replaying how the entire day went by and how my da
ys have recently been since my 18
th birthday. My mind was totally filled with dozens of que
rie
s, and just when I managed to somehow brush them off and leave them for next time, a million set of other questions started rushing in to replace every single one of them.

I tried so hard to sleep. I even tried looking at my magical tree, but it failed me this time.
I gave up when I saw that it was already
two
in the morning
. I sat up in bed and grabbed my phone from the bedside table.

Still haunted by the questions, I typed in every single one of them in my phone, hoping that this would stop them from bothering me.
I started with ‘Why did he come here?’, ‘Why now?’, ‘Why do I get to feel his presence before he actually shows himself?’

I stopped at that last question. I was
willing to
put it to the test tomorrow, even though I was already so sure of it.
Then I continued on with more of the other questions. ‘
Why is he mad at me?
’
, ‘What did he mean by normal?’, ‘
Why does he always show up whenever I’m in trouble?
’

Those were just about it. Well, those were the main questions. They were attached to dozens of others, but this will have to do for now.
I pl
aced my phone back on the
table and
once again
tried to sleep.
I looked at my magical tree
yet
again. This time, it finally worked its magic.

Just as I was about to close my eyes, that strong and familiar aura arrived.

“Adrien?” I sighed his name as I finally gave in to sleep.

Everything in school was ordinary the next day. Adrien showed up for classes this time, but he didn’t sit beside me on any of our classes. In fact, he always sat at the back of the room. It almost seemed like he was avoiding me,
which I find very odd, because despite his ‘avoidance’
,
I could always feel his eyes on me, watching my every movement. If I didn’t know him, I would’ve accused him of being a stalker.
I let it slide when I
arrived at
the conclusion
that he probably didn’t want to
be interrogated
.

I shook my head and tried focusing on Mr. York’s lecture on breathing exercises.
We were now seated on navy blue mats scattered all over the gym floor. Earlier, he told everyone that we were having a break from sports since
we all did so well on the previous classes. I think I was one of the happiest
, if not the happiest,
humans
in that class today.
After
he announced that, he asked everyone to partner up before he
started
discuss
ing
different yoga poses.
Nick immediately came to my side after that.

As soon as the lecture started, I could almost feel Adrien’s eyes bor
ing
into my
back, and I was immediately annoyed with it.
I already got used to his stalker-ish stares so that was not the issue. I was annoyed that I felt that familiar aura, which I was now particularly sure
was his
,
carry
an angry and annoyed emotion to it.

My annoyance quickly emerged to anger when the stretching actually started. Mr. York had us all perform the Double Sandwich and Double Boat yoga poses. From the figures
he posted on
the
board, it was actually the only two easy poses to perform.

“Alright, Sky,” Nick said as he clapped his hands together. “Let’s do this.” He waggled his eyebrows at me
,
and I just had to laugh. Nick has always loved to try new things. And yoga was definitely something new for both of us.

“Double
S
andwich first, guys,” Mr. York cried out.
Nick and I both sat down facing each other, with both our legs stretched in front of us. I moved closer to Nick until
both
the
soles of our feet were resting against each other. Nick and I both bent our waist
s
down
until our noses were touching our knees.