The Council, A Witch's Memory (13 page)

I felt like a fool.

“You lied to me!” I rounded on him, wincing from moving my head too fast. “You’ve been lying for years! How dare you. You didn’t have the decency to…to…say something…anything!” I cried, my eyes hot with tears. I lunged out of the bed and ran for the door.

But I never made it. There was a flash of the emerald light I’d seen before in the woods, and Henry appeared in front of me. “What the hell are you?”

“I won’t hurt you, Venna. You’re safe with me.”

“Why did you lie to me?” I looked into his eyes again. They seemed to flicker, glow greener as the seconds ticked by. “Why should I trust anything you say? Why should I trust you?”

No matter how his lies hurt me, no matter how hard I worked I couldn’t find it in me to fear him. I was pissed, and I didn’t know if I could ever forgive him. But I would never fear him.

And his eyes were glowing! He’d appeared in front of me in a flash of green light, a light that felt more familiar to me than I could comprehend.

“I’m sorry Venna. I had no choice.” He whispered fiercely, gaze following the tears on my cheeks. “My parent’s felt you would be safer not knowing, I disagreed.”

“You could have said something,” I snapped. “Eight years.”

No, it was longer than that. I’d remembered something else about my past. About my best friend. We’d known each other before.

He shook his head, “I wanted to tell you everything, but they insisted, saying you’d be safer not knowing. I tried to hint at it, hoping you’d figure it out on your own. Remember when I jumped off the roof?”

“That’s how you didn’t get hurt? You can fly? What else have you been hiding from me?” my head was getting a tad light. I unlocked my knees and breathed slowly, not too deeply. I was not going to pass out in the middle of this conversation.

“Not exactly, I can make objects fly. I was standing on the flying skateboard.”

“Then how did you change the TV channels?”

“With my mind.”

Genius.

“I’m sorry, so very sorry, Venna. You have every right to be angry.” He started toward me, but I shook my head. “What can I do to prove you can trust me?”

“Let me go home.” I said. “Then, maybe, after I’ve cooled off, we can talk.”

“I’m sorry, I can’t.”

I glowered at him, thinking his being a prince wasn’t too far fetched. He could be domineering, arrogant, and stubborn. “You can’t? Or you won’t?”

“Both,” he crossed his arms.

“Wow,” I blinked back tears. “I thought you were a good person. I thought we were friends.” I tried not to cry, but my bottom lip began to tremble and I knew I getting really close to losing it. “I-I thought I was in love with you.”

“Venna,” he held out his arms. I pushed him away.

“You hurt me, Henry.” I cried, not caring what he thought of me, or my wretched tears. “Now, please, let me go.”

He stepped aside, “Fine.”

I reached for the doorknob, but he opened the door for me. “And Venna?”

“What now?” I bowed my head, defeated. If I looked back at him, I’d break down completely.

“You will not leave this house.”

I gasped, shocked at his commanding tone. “Or what, Your Highness? You can’t make me stay here.”

“Actually, I can. Just know that it is for your own safety.”

Without a word, I bolted out the door and slammed it behind me.

I never wanted to see him again.

“Zane!” I called for my brother, running down the hall, away from Henry’s room.

“Hey, what happened?” he appeared in front of me. Literally appeared. I almost ran into him.

I blinked, shocked. “How…how did you?”

“I’m a warlock. Cool, huh?”

Shaking my head, I stepped around him. “We need to get out of here.”

“Why?” he fell in step beside me as I headed for the stairs.

“Because Henry lied to me.” I reached the top step and Zane darted in front of me. He moved far too quickly for a normal person. I had to grasp the banister to keep my legs from giving out.

“Did you give him a chance to explain?”

“Of course I did. What he told me wasn’t a good enough reason to keep me here.” Maybe if I worked hard enough, I could force myself to fear him. It would be easier to hate him, to push away any feelings of love or friendship.

Zane narrowed his eyes. “Being targeted by extremists isn’t a good enough reason?”

I took a step back. “What?”

“You need to listen to him. I know you’re angry and hurt, but he was doing it to keep you, and me, safe.” He took my hands and pulled me into a hug. “He can tell you about our mom. Henry knows what happened to our parents.”

“You make it sound like an unpleasant story.” Damn, I couldn’t hate Henry, and the fear thing wasn’t going to work either.

He grimaced as he pulled back to look at me, “It is.”

I didn’t want to hear any more. I needed space. To breath. Something to anchor me back to the earth. It felt as if my world was spinning out of control. So I ran for the library. It was a small room filled with old books and a movie projector that Henry and I used to watch old films on when we were little.

I sat in one of the overstuffed red chairs after turning off all the lights and putting on a reel of old cartoons. They were comforting to watch. I felt safe in the dark, curled in the big chair. Flora came in a while later and sat with me. Neither of us said a word for the first hour or so. We watched an old black and white movie.

She talked me into coming out of the room and having lunch with her and Zane. I accidently bumped into Henry on the stairs. He simply nodded and kept going up.

I’d reached the bottom step when he cleared his throat, “I’m leaving.”

“Why?” I froze, but I didn’t look at him.

“So that I don’t upset you any further, Quinn will take my place.”

He was leaving me? After all this talk about how much he cared and wanted to protect me, he was just going to leave? I squared my shoulders and nodded, “Okay.”

“Aren’t you the least bit curious?” his footsteps sounded softly on the stairs and I felt him behind me. “Don’t you want to know why I’m keeping you here? Why you’re in danger? Do you even want to know what you are?”

I wasn’t sure I believed any of this. It was so far fetched though, that I had to. What other choice did I have? A man attacked me. He shot lightning from his fingers and burned my skin with the simple press of his lips.

Hiding my confusion and need for further information, I shrugged and faced him. “Fine. Henry what kind of monster am I?”

His gaze was soft, but tortured, as if this was killing him. “Venna, you are not, and never will be, a monster.”

I frowned. “What am I?”

“A witch.”

I swallowed hard. “Of course, how silly of me. I should have known all along.”

“Venna, there are things you should know, things that I don’t want you hearing from anyone else.”

“You know what the worst part is,” I said, not hungry anymore, I skirted around him and headed back upstairs. “I can’t make myself hate you. I can’t make myself not care for you as a friend, as more than a friend.”

“Please…”

“Please, what?” I whipped back around, grasping the shiny banister for support. “Forgive you? Fall into your arms and accept everything that happened because you tell me you’re sorry?” I asked. “I understand you didn’t want to lie to me. I can see it plain enough in your eyes. I am just so hurt because I thought I knew you.”

“You do know me, the real me,” he came toward me slowly. “You know what I am apart from my family legacy and the titles. Being a prince does not define me. It is my job.”

I smiled, mimicking his polished accent. “Your words are magical, just like you, Prince Henry. But such a job will define your life.”

He reared back, “I’m not weaving them to gain anything from you, Venna. This is me. I am what I have always been to you and with you. Everything out of my mouth has always been the truth when it came to the way I feel about you.”

“Did you kill him?” I asked, suddenly wanting to know just how much he could do. “The man who attacked me?

“I would have been within my rights completely.”

I bit my lips, “But did you, really?”

He reached out to touch my hand. “No, I’d never kill a defenseless man, no matter what he’s done. He was taken into custody and will be tried and convicted fairly.”

Something in me soared from hearing his words. “Thank you.”

“I’ll leave you now and I will only come back if you ask me to,” he climbed the stairs, to stand next to me.

“And if I don’t?” I asked, a fresh flood of tears clouded my vision.

“Then you will never see me again,” he leaned in and pressed his lips to my forehead. “All you have to do is say my name, and I’ll come back, Venna.”

There was a flash of green light, and though his figure faded from my view, his voice lingered in my ear. “I will always come back.”

Chapter 17

I watched Zane jump excitedly as the waves crashed onto the shore. He loved the water. I wasn’t a big fan. The salty spray burned and I wasn’t a strong swimmer. I tore my eyes from my little brother and glanced up at the house to see my mom hanging laundry on the line. She was sad a lot, mostly because our dad left last year. I’d been nine. He’d gone right after Zane’s fifth birthday.

I’d noticed he was different than he used to be. Meaner. Sometimes he yelled at my mom for spying on him or trying to change his plans.

I never thought he was bad until the morning I saw him leave.

His eyes had turned black.

I’d noticed that they were a little darker, but I never thought he was changing.

But he did change, and he left with the man that had scared me on the beach the year before. The one with the black hair named Cal.

I looked back at the waves just as Zane squealed and leapt for the shore. He’d cut his foot on a rock again.

Shaking my head, I went over to him and pressed the tips of my fingers to the wound. In seconds it was healed, and he went running back out into the waves.

“
Can I borrow your powers?”

I looked further down the beach. Once again Henry had been playing on the large rocks, so I ran over and healed his scraped knee.

“
Thanks,” he smiled.

I nodded, “Sure, anytime.”

There was a flash of green light, and a man appeared. First I looked at his eyes. They were green and bright. His smile was warm and welcoming.

“
Father!” Henry shouted, running toward him. “Why are you here?”

“
Believe it or not, it’s past your bedtime where we live.” He laughed, ruffling Henry’s hair. “But I guess leaving you in a different time zone for two days takes it’s toll.”

“
Does he have to go?” I asked, looping my arm through Henry’s. “We were going to watch a movie and pop popcorn.”

Henry’s father raised his blond eyebrows, “I love movies. Do you know what a projector is?”

I shook my head. “Is it like a TV?”

“
No,” Henry said. “It’s cooler than a TV. The movie covers a big chunk of the wall in our house.”

“
In Capeside?” I asked.

“
Yeah,” he bounced up and down. “Can Venna come? Please father? She can even stay over like last time. Remember? We slept on the big rug with the pillows under the tent you made.”

His father smiled, and he said he’d be right back. He phased to where my mom was hanging the clothes on the line. Henry and I watched them talk for a couple minutes. Then he phased back.

“
Can she?” Henry asked.

“
Yes,” his father said. “Zane’s going to come too.”

Henry wrinkled his nose, “What the heck is he doing?”

I glanced back at my brother and groaned.

Zane was bent over at the waist, spitting up globs of sand.

Henry’s father helped Zane get the rest of the sand out of his mouth…and I have no idea why my little brother put it in there in the first place, and he phased us to their house in Capeside. We watched movies on the projector until Henry’s mom made us go to bed. But I snuck out of the room I was sharing with Zane to meet Henry in the library to watch more movies. We fell asleep in one of the big chairs just before the sun came up.

Henry was the best friend I’d ever had, and I told him that before his father took Zane and me home the next day.

We would be friends forever.

My eyes flew open and I glanced around the library. The projector beside me was clicking and whirring. The reel of film on it ran out a long time ago. I glanced at the clock on the wall.