Storm Secrets, page 8
part #4 of Scarlet Jones Series
God, how I hated them…
“Hey, Dirt,” said Wilder, and when I turned, I found him walking to me. The others were already in their boxes. “Nobody’s going to mess with you, okay?”
It took me a second to understand what he meant. When I did, I couldn’t even make myself laugh. “You think I’m afraid?”
He tapped the tip of his nose. “This never lies.”
Again, the more time I spent talking to him, the later I’d be for the monastery. “You should know there’s a first time for everything,” I said under my breath and turned around to leave.
“I’m serious. As long as you honor the agreement, nobody is going to get in your way. I made sure of that.” Oh, wow. Such a freaking gentleman.
“If they try to get in my way, I can handle it. Trust me, they’re not going to like it,” I called back, just to make myself feel a little better.
“We,” he called, making me stop again.
“Excuse me?”
“We.”
“I meant the ECU,” I said, confused.
“I’m the ECU, Dirt.” He smiled sadly. “You’re the ECU now.”
The words swirled in my head until the first tear slipped from my eye.
Eight
Nobody stopped me. I just walked out of the gates. Just like that.
The feeling of being watched never left me though. It took me forty minutes to get to East Harlem by foot, all the while keeping my focus on blocking the scent or energy of my powers, whatever the demons felt. I didn’t want to take the bus because I wanted to make sure I wasn’t being followed. But it was useless. I was being followed, no matter that I couldn’t see them. Adams would never leave me out of his sight again.
When I arrived at my apartment building, nostalgia hit me hard. I remembered every step, every smell and every feeling I’d had in that place. It seemed like I’d torn the fabric of time, and as I walked down the stairs to the basement, I was right back to last year, running home to watch a movie and eat junk food while I pretended I wasn’t lonely.
The door was closed but unlocked. It didn’t smell of spells down there. I still held my breath as I turned the knob, and when it opened, I actually jumped back.
But there was nobody there.
The last time I’d been in that apartment was with Elisa when we’d come back for the money hidden in the wall of my bathroom. Everything looked the same now when I turned the lights on. My furniture broken, dust and cobwebs in every corner, and it smelled like something had died in there.
On the plus side, there were four boxes right next to the door. In one of them was my computer. In the others were my personal belongings—clothes, jewelry, some money I’d probably forgotten in my pockets, and the spell stones I’d used to protect this apartment once upon a time. The first thing I did was set up my computer on the floor. They’d broken down my U-shaped desk and had had the decency to leave a single key on a small piece of wood atop one of the four legs, the only one unbroken. I locked myself inside, knowing that the ECU probably had a duplicate of that key. I was nowhere really safe from them, but the good thing was I didn’t need to be afraid. I wasn’t hiding.
Well, I wasn’t mostly hiding.
The Internet connection worked. The ECU had wiped my computer clean. They’d uninstalled all my illegal programs, including Finn’s from the Agency for Unusual Orders, but I was no longer interested in that. I opened my inbox and found one new email from Jimmy: Posted. The link below took me to the picture of the scanned statement I’d sent them that morning, with only one line written on top of it:
As of today, Storm witches have been recognized by our government, and we will live free, as is our right.
All the hair in my body stood to attention as I searched Google. Jimmy had outdone himself. We were on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Linkedin—everywhere! The posts had gotten thousands of likes and shares from everyone who understood what that statement meant. I didn’t bother to read comments. It didn’t matter what people had to say—not anymore.
We were officially free in the eyes of the whole world.
***
Night had fallen by the time I hopped on a bus back to Inwood. The cab would cost much less to the monastery from there, and all I had was a little less than two hundred dollars that the ECU had found in my pockets and had returned to me. My apartment was nowhere near clean, but I’d taken a shower and I’d changed into my old clothes. I’d fixed the bed by putting duct tape on the torn mattress, and dusted off the sheets so that I could sleep as soon as I came back. The rest could wait for later.
Excitement spiked the blood in my veins, and I didn’t allow myself to think of anything else on the way there but how happy everyone must have been. I couldn’t wait to look into their eyes and tell them everything I’d seen inside the ECU today. Everything I’d learned.
When I got there, I threw the money on the human driver’s lap and jumped out before he knew what the hell was going on. It was dark in the woods, but he had headlights. He’d just have to go back the way he came.
Five ECU soldiers were standing right in front of the gates. The others, I guessed, were to the sides of the monastery, and at the back. The leaders had kept their word. The monastery was being guarded.
Two of them stepped in front of me when they saw me, and analyzed my face without my needing to say anything. Then, they stepped back and I walked through the gates. Ten Storms were outside in the yard, and they welcomed me with open arms and showed me to the dining hall where everybody was having dinner. I wanted to check the perimeter first, to check on the rest of the soldiers, but I was so impatient to see everyone and tell them everything that I ran straight for the building in the middle.
Ax’s face was the first I saw. Something like a numb ache took over my chest. He didn’t smile when he saw me, but I saw it in his eyes. I saw the relief as clear as the rest of him. Even Ezra was down there, eating.
I sat among them and I told them everything, starting from the second they’d taken me in their car. Most were angry, as I expected, but by now, they all understood that this was our best chance. The break we’d been looking for. Now that they’d read the statement and had published it online, it was done.
“Has anybody left?” I asked, looking around at the many faces. I couldn’t count all of them, but there were a lot.
“No,” said Fallon. “We’ve decided to spend one last night together in this old place.”
Luca was by her side, looking better than that morning, his cheeks flushed same as mine as he held onto her hand.
“I can’t believe this is happening. I’m going to see my dad tomorrow,” someone from the crowd said.
“I can get a decent job without pretending! Never thought I’d see the day,” said someone else.
“Yep. You can do whatever you want, starting tomorrow. Nobody’s going to mess with you now.” For a second, Wilder came to my mind. He’d said the same thing to me, and I hadn’t liked it. “What about you, Ezra? Are you excited?” I asked the kid. He sat across from me, between Luca and Grover, just listening and smiling at us all. He looked good, too. Healthy. Not at all scared like I feared.
“I am,” he said with a nod. “But when are you coming back?”
Silence in the dining hall. A question everybody wanted to know the answer to, myself included.
“I’ll be here every night, and I’ll figure out a way to get you some place safe very soon.” Possibly tomorrow night. I just needed to convince Wilder to give me my week’s pay in advance so I could buy a car. And to escape the ECU soldiers keeping tabs on me.
“You’re taking him away?” Cade asked, surprised.
“I am. He needs to be safe, far away from everyone.” I didn’t need to tell him why.
“But the spells…”
“I’ll keep making spells,” said Ezra proudly.
“Of course you will.” My heart warmed, and I reached out a hand for him. I just needed to touch him, to know he was really okay and that he wasn’t going anywhere until we got all this mess sorted out.
“Did they say anything about when the negotiations will begin?” Sienna asked me.
Ax still refused to speak. Maybe he didn’t know how much I missed his voice. Our argument from the night before was still fresh in my mind, and that morning, he hadn’t even come to see me leave.
“Next week,” I said with a nod. “On Monday, they will set up a date and time.”
“Where?” asked Fallon.
“I assume somewhere in the City, but we can invite them here if you feel more comfortable.”
“Yes, we would,” said Luca.
“Right now, I’m playing by the rules so they can play by theirs. They need me just as much as we need them. I think we can make demands without too much trouble.”
“But when will you be back here permanently? Are you going to work with them forever?” Franky asked.
I flinched. “No, not forever. Just…just until we reach an agreement with them and they put it in the constitution. Then, nobody will be able to take anything away from us anymore.”
“That might take a while,” Sienna said in a whisper.
“It might not.” Nobody knew for certain. “But, hey, this is our first night as free witches. Let’s have some fun, shall we?”
I smiled, but it didn’t reach my eyes. Sienna was right; the ECU could drag the process just to keep me in its clutches. I’d have to figure out a way to speed things up.
But for that night, Jimmy opened his laptop and turned up the music. Calvin, who’d been silent until then, asked to have a word with me in private to ask who was going to be present in the meeting with the ECU. After I assured him that he’d be there, he left me alone.
Then, Ezra invited me to dance with him. We didn’t have alcohol, but we settled on soda, and we had a perfect time for a couple of hours, dancing on the tables and chairs, screaming and shouting, singing to the songs Jimmy played for us. It was a night I’d never forget till the day I died.
But it was over too soon. At one after midnight, everybody decided to call it a night. As much as I wanted them to stay there with me until dawn, I didn’t say anything. They needed the rest. Tomorrow, a new life began for all of them.
Out of the ninety-six people who’d survived the attack of the demons, thirty-seven of us were moving out of the monastery permanently, another twenty would stay but work in the City, and the rest would remain, including Sienna, Ax Grover, Luca and Fallon. We’d already decided to make the monastery our coven headquarters, just as soon as we signed the papers with the ECU. Until then, it was on me to find a way to legally transfer the property to our name while I worked with the ECU.
“Anything on Elisa?” Grover asked while the six of them saw me to the door. Ezra was barely standing, but he insisted on staying awake until I was gone.
“No. I didn’t have the chance to check, but I’ll do so first thing in the morning.” With the ECU’s resources, I was confident I’d find her before the week’s end.
“Well, I’m still getting used to the fact that this is actually happening,” said Fallon, smiling at herself.
“It was about time. No more killing,” I whispered. “What about the demons? Have they come close to the property again?” I asked halfheartedly.
“Not that we can tell,” said Luca. “Our protection is stronger now, and before, if it wasn’t for Elisa’s sister, they wouldn’t have been able to just walk in here without trouble. Also, we have the soldiers. They might be assholes, but they make me feel safer.”
He was right. Jane Dunham had opened the doors wide for the demons, but it still made me restless to know that I’d be sleeping away from Ezra. Tomorrow. I had to find a way to get him to Jeanne Dubois tomorrow.
When we were close to the gate, I got down on my knees in front of him and hugged him. “Just one more night,” I whispered and he nodded.
“Scarlet?” he said, his voice weak and full of fear. When I looked into his eyes, I found them the same. “Be careful.”
“I will, little guy. I will.”
The way he said it made me nervous, but I was already paranoid so I scratched it off to that. Sienna went to the dormitories with him and the rest, but I stopped Ax for just a minute longer.
He stayed by my side. In silence, we watched the others walk back into the building, until we could no longer see them anymore.
“Thanks for seeing me to the gates with everybody else this morning,” I said, but I wasn’t serious. He could hear it in my voice, yet he refused to say anything. “I know you’re still mad at me, Ax.” Still nothing. “So you’ve decided to just stop speaking to me now?”
He chuckled then, which was a surprise. “I can’t really say the things I want to say to you in front of everyone.”
Oh…
I turned to him. “What things?”
“Things like, I know you missed me. I know you thought about me all day long. I know you think that what you’re doing is stupid.”
I smiled. “You mean you missed me, and thought about me all day long, and think what I’m doing is stupid.”
He shrugged. “Could be.” Slowly he put his arm around my shoulders, filling me with warmth.
I rested my head against his chest and sighed. “I thought you were still mad at me.”
“I am,” he said and planted a kiss on my hair. “It must suck there without me.”
My heartbeat tripled. “It must suck here without me.”
He put his hand under my chin and raised my head until I met his eyes. “It does.” It was the purest truth he’d ever told me, or so his eyes said. Slowly, he brought his lips close to mine.
“I missed you,” I breathed against his, a second before he kissed me.
Wrapping my arms around his neck, I wanted nothing more that to ask him to take me to the dormitories, to his room, and never let me go. It felt safe there next to him, enveloped by his warmth. Like nothing could hurt me. Like reality didn’t exist and we could create our whole lives again in a dream, lives with a happy beginning, middle and ending.
We did so for as long as that kiss lasted. It fueled me, filled my bones with energy, revived my magic and my resolve, but eventually, we had to let go.
“I’ll be back,” I said. “Every night.”
But his smile didn’t reach his eyes. “Be careful, Scarlet. Things change way too quickly in our lives.”
Locking my magic tightly in my chest, I blew him a kiss from the other side of the gate, and took off running through the woods.
Nine
I made it home a little after two and barely got two hours of sleep. The thoughts were too much. Ezra, Ax, the ECU, the demons…when I finally left my bed at six, I felt even more tired than before.
Showering again felt amazing. I’d almost forgotten what it’s like to shower every day. My clothes weren’t exactly clean, but for once, I’d be happy to take them to the dry cleaner’s and pick them up on my way back. I wore the same clothes as yesterday and took a second to really look at myself in the pieces of my broken mirror. So much needed to be done around the apartment still. So much needed to be done on me.
I had my makeup bag in one of the boxes the ECU gave back, but I just couldn’t find the will to put any on. Not when I looked like that. My skin was so pale, it looked green. The bags under my eyes were the reason people call them bags. My eyes were dull, not a sparkle in them, but at least the bruise from Wilder’s fist in the training arena had all but disappeared. And my hair…the red in the ends had long washed out, leaving way for a sickening orange. I searched for some scissors, and when I couldn’t find them, I used a kitchen knife to cut through them. The orange, burnt strands fell in the sink, and I felt like I’d just shed a skin. My hair was still long, reaching all the way to my elbows. It was a disastrous cut, but I convinced myself my natural waves hid it. Anything was better than what it was like before.
Who knew? Maybe tomorrow, I’d even have the will to put some lipstick on now that things had changed. I guessed it would depend on how my day went.
With that thought in mind, I turned to leave the bathroom and came face to face with my nightmare.
Well, one of my nightmares.
He stood with his hands folded in front of him right in the middle of my living area. It was so surreal that I thought I was just imagining it. My heart beat like a thousand demons were around me, but there were no demons there.
He was something far worse.
When his green eyes met mine, a cry escaped my lips because I knew in that second that he was real. That he was here. The man who could walk through walls, who could grant impossible wishes for a kiss, was in my apartment.
Had I thought about him unconsciously? Had I been foolish enough to make such a mistake?
No. He had been the furthest thing from my mind that morning. There was no way I’d even remembered his existence since I woke up.
Which could only mean…
“Hello, Scarlet. You sure look surprised to see me.” His cold, melodic voice caught me by surprise. My body moved back into the bathroom instinctively, and I kept shaking my head.
“What are you doing here?” I asked in a broken whisper. Whatever the answer was, it couldn’t be anything good. Nothing close to good happened when he was around. I looked at the door through the corner of my eye. Still closed but for how much longer? What would it be this time? A fire? Demons? Something new?
“I’m here to see you, my lovely witch. Isn’t that obvious?” he asked, but he wasn’t looking for an answer. His green eyes, two wild, deadly jungles capable of rendering me defenseless without a warning, turned to the living area once more, setting me free for a second. “I see you’ve made no improvement. I could fix all of this for you, if you’d like. It wouldn’t take longer than a second.”
“No!” I shouted before the words had left his mouth. “No.” No more favors from him. Not for anything in the world. “What are you really doing here?” I asked and convinced myself to take a step forward. He wasn’t there to hurt me, and if he was, no bathroom door was going to save me. “And what is your name?”
