Feathermore (16 page)

He walked toward his seat, and as he was sitting down, he leaned over to kiss me. I moved away, my eyebrows shooting up.

“
Hey,” he said, moving away and putting his bag on the floor.

I simply nodded at him.

A few girls in the front row turned and scowled at me.

I could see that Avan was truly concerned about what had happened. A little flash of guilt came through his eyes. “I’m sorry about last night,” he said.

“
Don’t be. It doesn’t matter anymore.”

“
What does that mean, Jade?”

“
Exactly what it sounds like. After all I’ve been through, I see you hanging out with
her
?” He tried to reach for my hand, but I pulled away. “Just, leave me alone, okay? I have enough on my plate to deal with. I don’t need the added drama.” I did need
him,
but he wasn’t helping me right now. He was only another source of pain, which I could do without.

Claire and Nate walked in then, effortlessly taking the spotlight off me, probably without even knowing it. Avan kept looking my way, searching every inch of me, as if trying to find something that was out of place. Claire twisted on her chair as she sat down and looked at me. I knew that look. She thought I had gone off the rails. I was crazy. Hell, maybe I was—I couldn’t tell anymore.

“
What was
that
?”
she asked the moment the bell rang and we walked to our next class.

“
I don’t want to talk about it.”

“
Yeah, well . . .” She blew on a strand of hair that fell onto her face. “That seems to be your answer for everything lately. And just so you know, it’s not an answer at all.”

We had reached lit class. She stopped me at the door and made me face her. I could tell she was truly worried about me, but I really didn’t want to talk about it. Talking wouldn’t help. Nothing would.

“
You can’t shut us
all
out, Jade,” she said. “There’s still a lot you need to learn about . . .” She looked around, making sure no one could hear her. “. . . about who you are. Avan has done nothing wrong. He’s been there for you all along—”

“
Really?” I cut her off. “It sure didn’t seem that way last night.”

Walking past her, I dropped into my seat. I threw my bag onto the floor and hid my face in the hoodie as she took her seat beside me.

A few kids approached me. They had suffered Amy’s bullying as well and were happy to hear what I had done to her. Some even said they wished they had been there to see it for themselves. Oddly, though, no one mentioned anything out of the ordinary about it. Maybe their mortal eyes weren’t capable of seeing some of the things we did.

Amy and Savannah looked my way and rolled their eyes in disgust. Claire’s eyes widened as if she saw something around me, as if there was some sort of invisible bubble. Her mouth fell open and she touched my hand. Seconds later, the darkness fell over me.

* * *

I opened my eyes to a brightly lit room. I sat up and looked around. It was the nurse’s office. I threw off the thin white sheet that was covering me.

“
Oh, good! You’re awake.” Mrs. Robbins’s chair creaked as she turned around to face me. She pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose. “How are you feeling, Jade?”

“
What happened?” I stammered.

“
You fainted in class. You don’t remember?” She brought her face closer and looked intently at me.

“
No, I don’t,” I answered as she put her wrist against my forehead and then on my cheeks.

“
You don’t have a fever, but I’m not sure sending you back to class would be such a great idea.” She slid her chair back to her table and wrote something on a paper. “Do you have anyone who can give you a ride home?”

Yeah, I’ll just call my family. Oh, wait! That’s right—they’re dead.
“Uh, no.”

“
Well, you only live a couple of blocks away. You think you’ll be okay to walk home?” She tilted her head to the side as she waited for my response.

Was she
kidding
me?
“I’m sorry,” I said. “You’re the nurse, but is it such a great idea for me to be home alone? Unsupervised? What if I faint again?”

She scribbled something else on the paper and stood up. “You just need rest, honey. I promise, you’ll be fine.”

Yeah, that’s what everyone keeps telling me.

She handed me the paper, and I went to the front office. I handed the paper to the secretary, Nicole, and then walked to my car. No way was I walking home in this cold.

As I drove through the parking lot I spotted Amy’s red convertible next to Avan’s car. With nothing more than a simple thought, all four tires on her car went flat.

I parked in the driveway but didn’t get out—just sat there thinking back on the morning’s events. I looked up at the front door as I was opening the car door . . . and froze. Blake was sitting on the steps. I felt everything around me light up, as if he had erased everything bad that had happened to me. Looking at him sent butterflies doing loop-de-loops in my stomach. I walked around the truck, and when I looked again, he was gone. I could see no trace of his presence, but a single red rose lay on the step where he had been sitting.

16 PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT

The next day, after having seen (or at least imagined) Blake, everything seemed better.

“
Please, Claire,” I said. “I need to learn how to defend myself.”

She slowed down as we left the school grounds. “I know that, and I will help you. It all takes time, Jade. Little by little, you’ll learn it all.”

I gave her an exasperated look. “I don’t have time, Claire! If Lilith shows up again and I’m alone . . .” I closed my eyes as I acknowledged the slip.

She slammed on the brakes and pulled over on the side of the road. “What do you mean, ‘
again
’! You’ve seen her?”

“
Well—I mean, I think I did . . . I’m not sure.”

“
Jade,” she said as she pinched the bridge of her nose.

“
That day at the library, when I ran into you, I was running away from her. She was there right before you got there . . . I think. Because then she vanished, so I thought I was seeing things. Just like the guy . . .” Then I remembered, when Lilith walked toward me, the panic I had felt until I finally broke the trance she had me in.

“
What
guy
?” Claire was trying to seem calm, but her voice betrayed her. “And—and you didn’t tell me about Lilith before because . . .” Her eyes bored into me like augers. Where was the old effervescent, fun-filled Claire?

I didn’t know how to explain it. I had been feeling left out, no one had taken the time to explain what was going on, and, honestly, I hadn’t even been sure of what I had seen.

“
This is too dangerous for you to be trying to handle it all on your own,” Claire said. “You have no idea what she’s capable of.” She stared off into the distance.

“
Then all the more reason to help me learn as much as I can,” I said. “She is after me for some reason, and I need to be able to fend for myself. You can’t always be around, Claire.”

She reached for my hand. “I will always be there, Jade. Do not doubt that for a minute.” I knew she meant it, but I had to be prepared nonetheless.

I shifted on the passenger seat and asked her what we were going to do today. But she didn’t reply—just smiled and drove on.

We drove well out of town and into the hills, where the roads were narrow and winding, with small farms and country stores scattered throughout. After pulling into a dirt lot that didn’t seem attached to anything, she grabbed her cell phone out of the center console and got out of the car. So did I.

We made our way toward the edge of where the deep woods began, with orange and red and yellow leaves in their fading fall glory. She paused and motioned me to hurry, then took off at a slow trot. I hurried after her, and we walked about fifteen minutes into the thick forest. We finally reached a small, slow creek.

“
All right, ready to put those wings to good use?” she asked, giving me a tentative smile. I was about to argue with her. I sure wasn’t ready for it, but before I could speak, her golden wings spread, leaving me speechless. “Come on, Jade, let those babies out.”

I didn’t realize my wings had protruded until I caught sight of them in my peripheral vision.

“
I—I don’t think I’m ready for this yet,” I stammered.

She looked back at me and grinned. “Nonsense. Let’s go.”

She started running along the stream bank, faster than a deer, and so I began running, too. My heart started beating faster, not so much from the run as from knowing what I was about to do.

The moment Claire jumped and pulled away from the ground, I halted.

I couldn’t do this.

She must have sensed that I wasn’t following her, because she stopped moving forward and simply turned around and hovered about fifty feet above me. “Come on, Jade, you can do this. Trust me.”

I looked up at her. “Do I need to run again?” I asked. “Is it like when a plane lifts off?”

I could barely see her shake her head. “No, but since it was your first time, I wanted to get your adrenaline pumping before we took off. You can run a little bit if you feel that you need to; otherwise, work those puppies!”

I stood there for a few seconds, not sure what to do—or even what I
wanted
to do. I closed my eyes and started picturing myself flying, and the wings reacted.

My feet felt strangely lighter, and I opened my eyes and looked down at the ground receding beneath me. I was doing it! I was actually
flying
. Excitement took over, and I started laughing.

“
See? It’s not as hard as it looks. You’re doing great. Are you ready for our next destination?”

I turned my head to the right, where Claire’s voice had come from, and nodded.

She pushed forward, and I followed. I looked down at the treetops, and the colorful view made me sigh with delight. It was so beautiful, but mostly I felt at home. So many times I had dreamed about this. The wind made my eyes water at first, but soon they adjusted, and it felt soothing on my face.

“
Where are we going?” I flapped my wings a little harder to get close to Claire. She looked so divine in this state! I caught myself wondering whether I looked as great as she did, and feeling once again the slightest twinge of jealousy.

“
We’re heading toward Falls River State Park,” she said. “There shouldn’t be people around there right now, so we could do some more training there without the worry of anybody seeing us.”

This was all so exciting, I could barely contain my exuberance. “This is so friggin’ awesome, Claire!” I gushed, and then wondered whether that was the sort of thing angels said.

She smiled at me and started going higher, spinning around and then dipping back down. As much as I wanted to be able to do that, I wasn’t about to go do something dangerous and get myself killed. Then again, could I even die?

I was flitting along in ecstasy when I noticed that Claire seemed to be having a hard time keeping up with me.

“
The only reason you’re faster is because you have bigger wings,” she said when we finally touched down.

I giggled, realizing that she wasn’t enjoying how, as new as I was, I could still fly faster. On foot now, she led me through darker and denser forest, which suddenly opened onto a huge clearing that looked something like a battlefield.

“
What the hell happened here?” I asked, taking in the strange surroundings of broken and torn-down trees. Some boulders were split in half, and in many places the soil and ground cover had been disturbed.

“
We use this space to practice,” Claire said. “Think of it as sparring. We do have to keep in top shape, you know.”

It made sense, I supposed. “But can’t you just find someone that can fight back?” I said half in jest. “You are sort of ripping up the environment.”

“
Ha-ha, Jade. Now, let’s get into battle training.”

“
Uh . . .
battle
training?” I guess I should have seen it coming, but after seeing what she had done here, I was a bit afraid of what she would do to me. After all, she had how many years of practice? And this was my first time—which reminded me of something that had been bothering me. “How old are you, Claire?”

I could see that the question caught her off guard. “Does it matter?”

It did. I wanted to know.

Although I didn’t answer, she replied. “In mortal years, about six hundred.” My jaw dropped. My cute, lively Claire, six centuries old! She then struck a pose and said, “I don’t look too shabby, though, right?”

I laughed and agreed.

“
Now, let’s get this started,” she said. “The guys will be expecting us in, like, an hour or so.” She moved to the center of the clearing. “What we’re going to do is learn from experience. I know this is your first time, so I’ll ask you to come at me and I’ll defend myself, so everything I do, your job is to memorize it—it’s exactly what you will need to do when someone attacks you—I mean,
if
anyone attacks you.”