An Everlasting Amour, page 8
She lay down and pulled the covers up to her chin and shut her eyes tightly and tried to regulate her breathing. It’s all a bad dream. She tried to rationalize it as just another one of the nightmares she’d had recently.
“They’re not nightmares. They are visions. You’re the Magic Shield, guardian of your family.”
Ainthe covered her ears, even though the voice seemed to be coming from within. “Go away!” she screamed.
After a moment, a light flicked on somewhere in the house and footsteps came rushing toward her room. “Annie? Are you ok?”
Ainthe was grateful it was her fifteen-year-old sister who slept across the hall that had heard her outburst and not her mother or father. Miranda was the only person she’d told about her continuous nightmares, finding that they were so vivid…
She shoved down the covers and glanced at the mirror to find that it looked just as it always did, the pink smoke having dissipated.
“I’m sorry to wake you, Randi,” she returned her own nickname for her sister.
“Another bad dream?”
Again, she glanced toward the mirror. She could almost feel as though someone was looking at her through the glass and it caused her to shiver. “Come here.” She held out her hand and her sister padded across the floor and knelt by the bed. She also had the black Carter hair like their father, but her eyes were blue like their mother, although not nearly as icy as—
Ainthe refused to think about the image she’d seen any longer. “It was nothing. I’m fine. Go back to bed. We have school tomorrow.”
Her sister groaned. “Don’t remind me.”
“What’s wrong?” Ainthe frowned, and then she guessed the truth. “Has Addison been a pain again?”
Miranda rolled her eyes. “Always. But it’s not her this time. It’s the math test. I’m afraid that if I don’t pass it there will be consequences.” She lowered her head. “And I feel like such an idiot when the teacher calls on me and I sit there like a statue while everyone is staring at me.”
“Remember what mom told me when I was having trouble?” Ainthe said gently. “It doesn’t last forever. Soon you’ll be heading into your senior year like I will this fall.”
Without warning, Miranda launched herself at her sister, latching her arms around her neck. “Don’t remind me. I don’t know what I’ll do if you leave Colorado and go to school somewhere else.”
Ainthe’s throat tightened as she hugged her sister back. “I’m sure if Axel would finally get up the nerve to ask you out, you wouldn’t even know I was gone.”
“That’s not true!” Miranda gasped, but her face reddened all the same. Ainthe knew Miranda had been harboring a crush on Axel Montrose since Kindergarten. Since then he’d had an on and off relationship with Miranda’s nemesis, Addison, but Ainthe had noticed that as the years had gone by, his attention was being diverted by her sister’s charm and sweet personality.
“Go to bed, you liar,” Ainthe said with a grin, playfully smacking her sister with her pillow.
Miranda rolled her eyes, but she left the room.
And that was when Ainthe’s smile faded.
“Are you sure it was the same dream?” Katelyn Parker said in a hushed tone near the lockers during their break in classes, keeping the door open for privacy as she bent her head close to Ainthe.
Katelyn was her best friend and just as much in love with books as Ainthe was. It was what had bonded their friendship after Katelyn had moved there from Chicago with her parents in the first grade. With dark curly hair and skin courtesy of her Bahamian heritage, she had caught the attention of several of the boys in her class, but Katelyn wasn’t interested in dating at the moment. She had her sights set on a degree in the medical field after graduation, so she was too busy studying to flirt. Ainthe had no doubt she would be the valedictorian of their class.
“It was,” Ainthe returned. “But something was…different this time.”
She was the only other person she had confessed her secrets to other than Miranda, but while her sister knew only bits and pieces that she’d attempted to brush off, she had confessed all to Katelyn, as well as her anxiety about how real it had all seemed.
“How so?”
Ainthe wasn’t even sure how she might even describe the mysterious boy she’d seen in the mirror. Not only that, but she didn’t want Katelyn to think that she was going crazy, or worse, making it all up for attention.
Thankfully, the bell rang and saved her from any further torment. Katelyn shut her locker with a long-suffering sigh. “Lunchtime,” she vowed, and walked off toward her choir class. It was the only one that Ainthe didn’t share with her, but she’d learned long ago that her voice wasn’t meant to be heard outside the car or the shower.
However, she’d found a particular enjoyment for art, and she also liked her teacher, Mrs. March, which made it even better. As Ainthe stepped into the room, she found that the familiar scent of paint teased her nostrils as she grabbed an apron and sat down on a stool facing one of the blank canvases placed on easels throughout the room. A small set of oils and a pallet was also set out next to each one.
After Mrs. March gave the instructions to the dozen or so high school students in the class for freehand drawing, Ainthe picked up her paintbrush and began to dab a few colors onto the pallet. She closed her eyes to picture the serene landscape that blossomed in her mind, and then she peered at the blank white page and made the first stroke.
However, after a time, the image suddenly changed. Although she continued to see the floral meadow in her mind, she started to draw something different. The curve of a face, the upper torso of a body, the ice blue of a boy’s eyes…
Ainthe.
Her paintbrush clattered to the floor when the portrait appeared to move before her eyes. And while she’d done her best to imagine that the ‘dream’ from the previous night was just that, there was no mistaking “Liam’s” voice.
“Ainthe?” She turned her head to see Mrs. March looking at her curiously. “Are you all right? You look rather pale.”
“I…I’m sorry,” she stammered. “I—” Unfortunately, no rational explanation came to mind when she looked down and saw a purple splatter on the concrete floor.
“It’s fine.” Mrs. March grabbed some paper towels and bent down to get the worst of the mess. “I’ll take care of this. Why don’t you go to the bathroom for a moment and splash some cold water on your face. Sometimes the fumes from the oils can be overpowering.”
Ainthe nodded her head, latching on to the excuse that was provided. She removed her apron and hung it on the peg before she headed down the hallway at a fast walk. She was grateful that the girl’s restroom was vacant when she entered. She wasn’t sure she could talk to anyone right now.
She glanced down at her hands to find that they were shaking, so she clutched the edge of the sink. She looked into the mirror and saw what she had that morning before she’d left the house. Long dark hair, a purple undershirt with a black button up tied around the middle, and denim jeans with a belt—nothing unusual for a teenage girl her age. But it was her eyes, wide and frightened in her pale face that caused Ainthe to pause.
She closed them tightly and gritted her teeth to remove the voice of Liam from her thoughts, but the moment she opened them again, she jumped back in alarm, for it was his face that was staring at her from the reflection.
“Ainthe,” he said. “You have to listen to me.”
“No, I don’t,” she returned emphatically, and then shook her head when she realized she wasn’t truly talking to anyone. She pointed her finger at him. “Because you’re not real!” She shrugged with a laugh that was bordering hysterical. “There is no such place as Hifusa—whatever!”
His mouth kicked up at the corner in the semblance of an arrogant smile. “Hifusadon. And yes, it most certainly is. You’ve just never heard of it because it’s not of your galaxy. We’re thousands of light years away.”
Ainthe rubbed at her temples. “Are you actually trying to tell me that you’re an… alien?”
He grinned wider. “I suppose that’s what you might refer to our kind. Yes.”
She shook her head and backed away from the mirror. “I’m hallucinating,” she murmured more to herself than the image that was actually speaking to her. Through her mind. “I need to be committed.”
“You’re not insane. You’re in danger.”
She pretended that she didn’t hear him, although the fission of alarm that shot up her spine told her she had. The bell rang and she blew out a relieved breath. “I don’t have time for this. I’m going to be late for science.” She snorted at the rather absurd irony of that statement, considering she was talking to some sort of spectral being, but she merely turned on her heel and shoved open the bathroom door, nearly smacking her sister in the face in the process.
Miranda’s eyes widened and she gasped, apparently seeing something in Ainthe’s face that caused concern. “Annie?”
“I’m fine, Randi,” she said a bit more harshly than she’d intended. “I’ll see you at home.” With that, she rushed down the hall.
Chapter 2
Ainthe paced the foyer of her house and bit her thumbnail, a bad habit she hadn’t been able to shake since she’d been a child and dreamed of monsters under her bed. Now she had to wonder if they were dreams—or visions.
Stop it! She stopped and forced herself to breathe deeply. She only had two hours to try and…summon this Liam and found out exactly what he wanted with her before her sister got home from school and the questions began. It was bad enough that she decided to skip VoTech with the lame excuse that she had the stomach flu, and why she was late to science class.
She’d drove home, tapping her fingers on the steering wheel of her black Mazda. The used car had been a gift from her parents for her sixteenth birthday. She still remembered the excitement on seeing it parked in the driveway. She’d thrown her arms around her mom and dad and gave Miranda a ride around the block so she’d finally shut up.
All through the years Ainthe could recall moments like that, times that had thrilled her beyond measure—birthday parties and family vacations—but as with anything, you had to accept the bad with the good. Her heart still wrenched in her chest when she thought of her grandma’s funeral, the familiar face lying still and pale in her white casket, her eyes closed in eternal slumber.
But nothing in all of her seventeen years on this earth had prepared her for the confrontation that she was about to embark upon. She still wasn’t sure what to think of the fact she’d been approached by an alien in her school, even if he hadn’t actually appeared in real life, but perhaps it wasn’t any worse than standing face-to-face with a vampire or werewolf. Some people might even enjoy such a tale. She used to, until fantasy had abruptly entered into her reality.
Ainthe took a deep breath and ran up the stairs to her room. She shut the door behind her and walked over to her mirror. She glared at it, setting her hands on her hips. How did one even go about summoning an alien?
“Show yourself Liam of Hifusadon.” She waited, but he didn’t make an appearance, so she tried again. “I’m here. What do you want?”
Silence.
“Ugh!” With a frustrated sound, Ainthe plopped back on her bed. She stared up at the ceiling, thinking that she’d missed her computer programming class for nothing when there was a knock on the door downstairs.
She sat up and frowned. Who could it be? UPS maybe? Her mom did have a particular habit of shopping with Amazon.
She headed downstairs and opened the door, expecting to see a deliveryman in brown, but she nearly fainted when she encountered someone completely different instead. Liam was standing on the front stoop. He brushed his brown hair out of his face with the swipe of a hand, looking like any other high school boy she might have passed on the street—if it wasn’t for those ice blue eyes that had haunted her for the past twelve hours or more. “What—? How—?” Ainthe snapped her mouth shut. Apparently, she couldn’t even form a coherent sentence.
“Perhaps we could talk inside?” he suggested.
Ainthe blinked, still unable to process that an alien had showed up at her house like some kind of distant cousin. She opened the door wider and he entered.
She shut the door behind him and just stared. Her mother would be appalled by her behavior, but it wasn’t as though Liam was someone with a disability that some people might ten to gawk at, or shift their gaze away uncomfortably. However, since it was obvious that she should say something, she stammered. “Um…welcome to Earth?”
He laughed. “Thank you, but this isn’t my first time in your atmosphere.”
She crossed her arms. “So, where’s your…ship?”
“The technology on Hifusadon doesn’t require such transport anymore. We are more advanced than that.”
“Then how did you get here?” she asked curiously. “Some sort of Star Trek trick, like teleportation?”
He tilted his head to the side with a smile. “Something like that.”
Ainthe put her hands on her hips, finding that she didn’t really know what to do with her arms. However, now that she’d found her voice, she demanded, “What’s all this nonsense about me being in danger and trying to scare the wits out of me at school today? I nearly had a heart attack.”
Instantly, that ice blue gaze hardened and he clenched his jaw. “We can’t talk here.”
She looked around the empty foyer. “We’re alone.”
His tone was serious when he replied, “That’s what you think.” He held out his palm. “Give me your hand.”
She eyed the offering warily. “Why?”
“I’m going to take us somewhere private.”
Slowly, Ainthe placed her hand in his.
As quick as it took for her to blink they were whisked away. She stumbled a moment when she realized that she was standing in nearly a foot of snow. On top of a mountain. Her jaw went slack. “Where are we?”
“I believe you call it Mt. Everest.”
She stared at him in disbelief. “We’re in Nepal?!”
“It’s rather lovely, isn’t it?” he murmured, looking out over the expanse.
She put a hand to her head. “I can’t breathe. I need oxygen…”
“You’ll be fine as long as you’re with me.”
“Why? Are you magical or something?”
She’d meant it in jest, but he offered her that grin she decided was becoming rather infuriating. “Something like that.”
With a grumble, she walked over to the edge of the cliff and looked out at the expanse beyond. In that moment, she realized that while the air should be rather thin this high up, she could have been back in Colorado at the top of Pike’s Peak with little issue, used to the mountain range altitude. And strangely enough, the cold didn’t even bother her, although common sense told her she should be freezing.
He seemed to realize she needed time to process all of this, because he remained silent for a time. When she finally turned back to look at him, he was merely regarding her with that icy blue stare. “You keep saying I’m in danger, that I’m some sort of Magic Shield”—She made quotation marks in the air—“of my family. While I have many questions I want to know the answer to, the first one that comes to mind is why me? What makes me special? And what is it that I’m supposed to be afraid of?”
“That’s the first question everyone has. Why me.” He rolled his eyes in exasperation and followed that with a shrug. “Why not you?”
Ainthe blinked. “Um, how about the fact I’m seventeen?” She gestured to her clothes, as if her attire might explain everything. “I’m not even a senior yet! I’m going to my junior prom in two weeks. I don’t have any clue what I might do after I graduate, which college I’m going to, and yet, you enter my mind last night, out of nowhere, and tell me I’m supposed to be something magical!” She crossed her arms. “Pardon me for being a bit skeptical.”
Liam tilted his head to the side, not appearing to be chagrined in the least. “I don’t choose your destiny. You do.”
She frowned. “What does that mean? Shouldn’t you be telling me I was born into this or something?”
“But then it would be a lie,” he returned evenly. He smoothed his hair back from his brow and she resisted the urge to like the gesture, because it was just so…normal. “The day you turned seventeen, you made a vow to protect your family at all costs. Because of this, you were gifted with the power of the Shield.”
Ainthe thought of that day, and the moment she’d blown out the candles on the cake her mother had made—“Wait.” She held up a hand. “Are you telling me I became this…Shield because of a birthday wish to keep my family safe?” She laughed. “That’s ridiculous!”
“So you didn’t mean it?” he returned.
“Of course I did, but that doesn’t mean wishes actually come true!” She put a hand to her forehead.
“Well, you’re in luck, because this time it did.”
“But that doesn’t make sense.” She shook her head and paced back and forth along the summit. “I don’t even feel any different.”
“You can hear my voice in your head. You can see me where others cannot. Could you do that before?”
She whipped her head around to look at him, but he remained as calm and composed as ever, while she imagined her head might explode. But filing all that away to be examined later, she said, “So what can I do as this Shield?”
“Whatever you want, as long as you feel you’ve been threatened.”
“So it just…happens?” she asked in puzzlement. “Will I hurt anyone?”
“I’m not sure as to the extent of your powers.”
“Then why are you even here?” she countered. “Aren’t you supposed to teach me how to control—” She waved another hand down her body. “—this?”
“Do you wish to practice?” he inquired casually, as if he’d just wondered how she did on her math test.
“It would be helpful to know what—”
Ainthe broke off mid-sentence as a green flash of light burst out of Liam’s palm. As it shot toward her, she lifted her arm to deflect the blow, but it never reached its mark. Instead, she was stunned to see that an iridescent barrier had come up between her and the light, preventing her from being injured. It moved with a sort of fascinating aura, the only thing she could compare it to would be the northern lights, before it dissipated.
