Chapter 347: The Way Things Are
Maurice brought out a large book, flipped it open, one finger poised over a black sheet. "Shall we schedule dinners on Sundays from now on, Council Leader? For efficiency's sake."
Mom almost flinched, but nodded. "Yes, thank you."
"Six pm, shall we?" He wrote quickly, magic flowing from his finger to the page as he decided my once-a-week culinary fate for the rest of the year in his stupid appointment book. "Now then," Maurice snapped the book shut, turning to face Mom with a no-nonsense look on his face, "we have business, Council Leader."
Mom rose, set aside her black napkin. "Yes, of course." She paused, eyes meeting mine. I let her see how angry I was, saw her own frustration rise. "Good night, Sydlynn."
"Yeah," I shot back as she turned away, "nice to see you too, Mom."
She left without another word, Maurice hurrying her out as Vincent rushed forward and began to clear the table with brief surges of air magic winging the plates and cutlery out from under us.
I threw down my own napkin, surging to my feet, wanting to go after Mom, to shake her and ask her what the hell was wrong with her. But Meira sat there, looking sad and hurt and I couldn't just abandon my sister like Mom clearly had.
I hugged Meira as she rose. "Love you, Meems."
"Love you too, Syd." She snuffled a little, pulled free. "Did you want to come see my room?"
I followed her to the grandiose, high ceilinged monstrosity she slept in and did my best to murmur appreciation for the dark wood theme that continued throughout, the heavy, elaborate bed reminding me of some Gothic boudoir and the overall feeling of oppression I had from the place.
Not my first choice for a comfy and happy sleeping arrangement, but Meira seemed content so I let it go.
After a tense few minutes talking where I could hardly focus on a word she said, my sister sighed. "Guess I should go do my homework."
I was as bad as Mom. This wasn't Meira's fault. I should be supporting her, not wrapping myself up in my own crap. "I'm sorry, sis."
Meira shrugged. "It's not always like this," she said as Sassafras leaped up beside me on the bed and set one silver paw on her hand where she perched next to me, amber eyes glowing in sympathy. "But mostly."
"I promise I'll come over and visit a lot." I hugged her again, one hand stroking Sassy's fur. "Okay?"
Meira nodded into my shirt. "Kay."
It was hard to leave, but I did. I was in no state of mind to hang with my sister anyway. I'd likely start griping about Mom and Meira didn't need to hear what was spinning around in my head. Hell, I didn't want to hear it, but couldn't make it stop.
I turned my back on Erica when she tried to follow me out, gathering up the angry Charlotte and hitting the down button on the elevator. Erica backed off, face sad and just stood and watched as the doors closed on us.
"I'm guessing that went well." Charlotte's voice echoed with a touch of her wereness.
"You have no idea." I sighed and leaned against the wall as we descended, my dinner sitting unhappily in my stomach. "Be grateful you couldn't come in. Trust me."
It was a short walk from Massachusetts Hall to the dorm, but my feet dragged. My backpack felt like it weighed a million pounds, about as heavy as my heart. I was so wrapped up in feeling sorry for myself and being angry with Mom I almost missed the feeling of someone brushing up against me. I glanced to my left, frowning, Charlotte tense on my right.
"What is it?" She looked around, nostrils flaring.
"You felt that?" I had a good idea I knew the source of the contact, but wanted confirmation from my wereguard before I did anything drastic.
"We're not alone." The Yard was pretty much empty, but I knew what she meant.
I stopped, drew my shields in tight and even spun them out to protect Charlotte. "Alison," I said. "What do you want?"
"You know what I want." My ex-bestie appeared next to me, floating in thin air, eyes sunken, blonde hair rippling in a non-existent breeze.
"You can't have it." She was still fixated on the virus. I felt it suddenly, vibrating against my skin. I had to deal with her, but how? I just couldn't bring myself to destroy the last bit of my friend remaining. I knew I'd regret it eventually, but after the day I'd had there was no way I was adding best friend murderer to the list of crap I'd endured.
"I'll be real again, if you just give it to me." White fire burned in Alison's eyes, the touch of the virus she'd already stolen more than enough to keep her here on this plane, longing for more. "We could be together, you and me, Al and Syd." She blinked at me, all innocent. "Don't you want that?"
Sadness washed away the last of the anger at Mom. As much as I wanted my friend back, I knew this would only end in disaster. And no one else was going to take care of this for me. I had to release Alison, send her on. It was the only way she would have peace.
"Al," I whispered. "I'm sorry things turned out this way. Please always know I love you." Without warning, I reached out with my spirit magic like Gram had taught me and banished her back across to death.
She shimmered like a candle flame threatening to go out, mouth open in a large 'O' of denial before she solidified once again.
That wasn't supposed to happen.
I was too shocked I'd failed to do anything when Alison's anger rose, terrible and twisted, turning her once-beautiful face into a monster's mask. "YOU DARE!" She swelled and grew, body distorting like a balloon filled too far, the white light in her eyes bright pin points like stars burning through me. "I THOUGHT YOU LOVED ME!" Her howl tore at my soul, made me clamp my hands over my ears though it did nothing to save me. This wasn't a human sound, but one of the spirit, aimed directly at me.
Charlotte whimpered, shook her head as she caught the edges of the sonic attack, but was helpless against Alison. The echo of my friend rose from the ground, soaring above me as I struggled to come up with something to stop her.
"She told me you'd try to kill me." Alison's voice emerged in a hiss, a knife-blade compared to the hammer of sound she'd just ended. "I should have believed her. And now I do."
A small group of normal students emerged from one of the dorms and headed toward us, laughing and talking. I reached out with my power to snag and capture Alison before they could come closer, but she was quicker than me, diving out of my grasp and flying right into their faces.
They shrieked and scattered, the four girls clearly able to see my friend. Alison vanished in a rush of white light, leaving me to comfort the normal girl who ran right into me, sobbing in terror.
It took a few minutes to calm the girl down, long enough for her friends to come collect her. By the time they all scampered off, now laughing at their obvious confusion and blaming it on some prank thanks to the memory soothing power of the campus magic, I was in no more of a mood to go back to my dorm than I had been before.
So when I spotted Rupe and Simon sneaking across the Yard, looking very guilty and arousing my suspicions about where they were going by the way they peeked over their shoulders and kept to the shadows of the trees, I couldn't resist following.
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