Spiral (Spiral Series) (34 page)

“Look,” said Gretchen, her eyes filled with worry, “I know we’ve had our differences.”

I snorted. That was putting it mildly. She made a face at me but continued. “You don’t want to go downstairs.”

I frowned. “Why not?” My legs were still a little wobbly from battling the Visioners, but I was determined to see my aunt.

“You’re going to get in trouble,” she said, in a dramatic whisper.

I tried not to show my disbelief. “So, why aren’t you pushing me down the stairs with both hands?”

“Look,” she hissed. “Like I said, we’ve had our differences, but I don’t know if you’ve noticed, I want the Silves to continue for years to come, and some of the things that have been happening. . . .” Her voice had gotten increasingly lower, forcing me to step towards her.

“I’m going downstairs,” I told her in no uncertain terms. I wasn’t sure what sort of trouble she was trying to cause, but I wasn’t going to let her mess with me, at least not while I didn’t know how Natalie was doing.

Gretchen took a step back, looking hurt. “Fine,” she said, “but don’t say I didn’t warn you.” With that she swept past me, heading away from me down the hall.

Shaking my head at my own foolishness for letting her waste even that much of my time, I bounded down the stairs. It was late enough for dinner to be over, so the Elders should be in the library.

I was about to push my way through the door when I paused. Even if Gretchen and I couldn’t stand each other, she was right. I was playing a dangerous game, and my two partners - Jar and Natalie - weren’t there. Until I knew they were safe, being careful couldn’t hurt.

It was a good thing I had decided to be cautious, because nothing could have prepared me for what I was about to see.

When I pushed the library door open I saw the Elders, with their deep white hair set against light-colored clothing, scattered around in the chairs and sofas in the library. It was what I saw standing in the middle of the room that terrified me and sent a shock through my body.

A Visioner.

Dressed all in black, the Visioner turned around at the sound of my entrance.

I knew who it was before she removed her hood.

Haley.

My anger choked me as I glared at the girl who had tried to kill Natalie.

My aunt saw me enter and moved to stand up. Haley gave me a deathly smile.

“Well, well, well, the Silves’ resident bad boy awakes,” she said. “Must have gotten a nasty knock on the head. How does it feel not to be able to trust your own people?”

“That’s enough,” Prospect growled from his seat by the fire.

Haley barely spared him a glance. Her eyes were trained on me.

“What’s going on here?” I demanded, my eyes burning into Eleanor.

“Just a minute,” sputtered Timon, the newest Elder. “You do not get to waltz in here like you own the place and demand answers. You have no right to answers. The only way you get answers is if we bother to give them.”

None of the Elders would back me up if I broke ranks, and I knew that that’s what I was doing here now. I had told Natalie who she was, and I had thought all they were going to do was give me a slap on the wrist. Now I wasn’t so sure.

I re-focused my attention on Haley.

“She has come to negotiate,” said Eleanor quietly.

I made a strangled noise deep in my throat. “Negotiate what, exactly?”

“Negotiate for your girlfriend’s life,” Haley sneered. “She can’t be let loose causing trouble, especially not now that she knows what she can do.”

I wanted to yell back that Natalie still had no idea what she was capable of, but any information was dangerous information in the hands of a Visioner. It was best to just keep quiet.

“Not so big and tough now, are you, with all the Elders around,” Haley taunted. “There isn’t going to be anything you can do to save her.”

I shot forward, reaching for her throat, healing the air around me to avoid being electrocuted. I was about to slam into her when Prospect appeared in front of me. He moved surprisingly quickly for an Elder and stood stock still blocking my path.

I had to skid to a halt, almost running into him before I could get myself stopped. Breathing hard, I glared around the Elder at Haley. She was smiling again.

“Everyone has a weak spot,” she murmured. “It is one of my great pleasures in life to discover them and then squeeze.”

I tried to shove through Prospect, but he wouldn’t budge.

“Calm down,” he said gruffly. “You aren’t doing your lady any good.” I looked at him in surprise but pushed away, never taking my eyes off Haley.

“You’ve stated your business,” said Prospect to Haley. “Now leave.”

“With pleasure. Thank you so much for your . . . help,” she said, sweeping past him. Turning to me before she disappeared, she said, “I’m sure we will see each other again soon.”

“Look forward to it,” I said, my jaw tight.

When she was gone I looked at Eleanor. She was the only other sane member of my family, and I expected some answers from her.

“We cannot tell you what she was offering,” my aunt sighed as she dropped into a chair. “All I can say is that you are returning to Blueberry. For now. With Eric. It will not last long. We have decided that the hit to the face was punishment enough for your indiscretion. Natalie was going to find out soon enough anyway, and although we would have preferred that it be handled in a more systematic manner, there is nothing we can do to remedy the situation now. Also, we understand that Natalie is using her hele, and this is unacceptable. If she does this again we will be forced to act. It’s impossible to tell who is becoming aware of her foolishness through her blatant disregard for our rules.”

“She wouldn’t be disregarding our rules if she had been told who she was in the first place.”

That earned me a cuff on the ear from Prospect. “A little respect, boy,” he muttered. “Really, the world is going to the dogs.”

“You knew better than to tell her,” my aunt accused. I knew she was upset, but more because she appeared to be unable to control her nephew than because I had told someone the secret of the unicorns.

“I didn’t have a choice. The Visioners attacked Andrew. Those same Visioners that you were just entertaining in our home as if they weren’t scum.”

Prospect glowered at me and Timon furrowed his brow. The Elders were not accustomed to being talked to like this.

“We had to hear her out. The Visioners are more powerful by the day. If we had refused to discuss the offered compromise, we would have been putting the Silves in danger.”

“Maybe it’s time we accepted that these are dangerous times,” I told them. “The Visioners are murderers and liars. What do they want with Natalie?”

“That is none of your concern,” said Timon. The fire roaring in the fireplace did strange things to his features, making them dark and shifting.

“It is my concern,” I said, running my hands through my dark hair, trying to get him to understand. “I’m her family now.”

“You are not her family,” said my aunt. “She doesn’t have family. You would do well to accept that. Now,” she said, “you are to leave here. And if you tell her anything else so help me you will be stripped of all Silve ranking.”

I nodded curtly. It was the highest threat my aunt could make, short of death. I walked out without so much as a goodbye. Whatever Haley had proposed, it made me sick that my Elders had entertained her at Locke. It meant that they took her seriously. It meant that they might make a deal with the Visioners, and worst of all it meant that the few people I had always counted on I couldn’t count on any more.

Getting to sleep that night was awful, and by awful I mean it never happened. I tossed and turned, afraid to fall asleep because of the Snake Man. I was sure now that he was a Visioner, but where he was and why he haunted my nights was still a mystery.

Jackson had texted me about twenty times, but I didn’t respond to any of them. They were all questions asking if I was okay, and apologies.

The next morning I was supposed to go shopping with Jill and Maxie. I had already canceled on them once to see Pierce, so no matter how tired I was I had to go.

The thought of Pierce gave me a twinge. Jackson had said he was fine, but I wasn’t sure. I felt like I had deserted him. I had left him alone while he risked his life to defend me. I felt sick to my stomach at the thought something might have happened to him. The worry that he might not contact me, that he might be mad at me for leaving, was periodically sending me into a panic.

“Hey, you ready?” Jill called from the bottom of the stairs. My dad must have let her in. I stuck my head out my bedroom door and nodded. Grabbing my purse, I raced down the stairs.

“I hear Andrew is better,” she said, peering at me as I followed her out to Maxie’s waiting car.

“Yeah,” I said. “Some miracle happened Friday night. It’s wonderful.”

“Right,” said Jill. “I’m glad he’s going to be okay.”

“Andrew really is going to be fine?” Maxie asked as I jumped into the back seat of her car.

“He’s already doing better,” I said. “Olivia said he should be out in a day or two and fine by graduation.”

“That’s great,” said Maxie. “This town can’t really afford to lose any of its cute man real estate.”

“You would describe Andrew as a piece of grass and fertilizer?” asked.

“Well, the fertilizer part anyway,” said Maxie, beaming.

“Nat, why’d you ditch us yesterday?” Jill asked. “We were wondering where you were.”

“I had a couple of things to do,” I managed to say.

“Wow, were you with a boy?” Maxie asked, incredulous. “Who wasn’t Jackson?” She winked at me.

“No, I saw Jackson,” I muttered. My friends raised their eyebrows when they saw I wasn’t happy about it.

“Oh my GOD, you were with Pierce!!!” Maxie shouted when she got a look at my red face. “So hot. Normally I would say hos over bros, but for someone as hot as Pierce we can make an exception. It’s been nice being friends with you.”

“Thanks, Maxie,” I said. “I knew I could count on you for an almost sane interpretation of the situation.”

“Any time,” said Maxie, grinning.

“Sooo,” said Jill, “What did you two talk about?”

“Oh, you know, just stuff,” I said, feeling my face grow hot again. How could I tell my friends that I was a unicorn and that there were powerful beings trying to kill me? If not for the overwhelming evidence, I wasn’t sure that I would have believed it myself.

“Did he make a move?”

My mind was so caught up in the memory of Visioners attacking us that I didn’t realize what she meant. “What kind of move?”

Maxie smacked her hand against her face. “No wonder you’ve never had a boyfriend.”

The mall wasn’t crowded this early on a Sunday, so we had the place to ourselves. The first thing Jill wanted to do was eat.

“Jackson says you’re mad at him,” Jill said, looking curiously at me.

“Yeah,” I said. “I am. I don’t think we can be friends any more.” It was just like Jackson to go to my friends and try to get them on his side. “He didn’t tell me some stuff he should have.”