Love lines (27 page)

“They will never stop fighting,” he said, hardly
stopping between laughing.

“I think you are right,” I said, wiping away tears
caused by the laughter.

When we came to the dining room, still chuckling over
our fugitives, they were sitting at one of the tables. Amanda was screaming
angrily something to Evan, while hitting him on the shoulder. He pretended to
be badly hurt, but he couldn’t stop her, still unable to hold back his own
laughter.

“Christian, your sister will be the death of me!” he
complained, when we sat down next to him at the table.

“You asked for it yourself,” Christian replied.

“I’m your best friend!” Evan exclaimed indignantly.

“Amanda, that’s enough!” I said stopping her. “He will
still need his arms and shoulders, especially tomorrow.”

“Don’t you even dare to talk to me again!” shouted my
friend, beating Evan for the last time. “I swear, if you say another word to
me, I won’t stop with my fists, Evan!”

He pretended as if closing his mouth and throwing the
key away. Then moved closer to Christian and away from his
evil
sister.

“What are we going to have for dinner?” he asked.

“Only tea with milk,” I replied.

“We all need to eat better,” said Christian. “We don’t
know how much time we have to spend on our feet. And you, Eileen, too.”

“Okay, then choose something yourself,” I said. They
went with Evan to take some food, leaving Amanda and me alone.

“You seem to have completely forgotten what I’ve told
you before,” I started. “The more you react to his jokes, the more he will
continue to rile you up.”

“I just can’t stand it anymore! It seems to me that soon
I'll hate him wildly!”

“Just don’t pay any attention to him,” again I repeated.

“Easier said than done! He wasn’t having so much fun
with you!”

“Not true! He
was
, actually, but I wasn’t running
after him with fists.”

“Okay, I shouldn’t have used my fists. It was just too
much. But believe me, it was the least of what I really wanted to do to him at
that moment.”

“Probably, Evan was smart enough when he decided to run
away from you,” I chuckled.

“And you are supporting him!”

“Come on, Amanda! I'm just kidding,” I laughed.

“What a joy life is with so many jokers around!” she
hissed.

“You would be bored without us,” I suggested.

“Ha, ha, ha,” she grimaced in response.

Evan and Christian came back with the trays. Evan gave
me mine and Christian handed Amanda hers.

“I'm afraid even to touch her food,” Evan whispered.

“Hi, Amanda!” said a guy, sitting on a chair next to
her.

“Hi, Lucas!” she replied. “Guys, this is Lucas Stanton -
my group mate.”

“Jared’s son?” Evan asked.

“Aha,” the young man replied. “Amanda, I wanted to
ask... Have you already decided who you will go to the ball after the Festival
with? If not, we could go together…” he suggested shyly.

“Hmm... I didn’t even know that there would be a ball,”
Amanda said. “But since you asked, of course, I would love to go with you.”

My friend's cheeks blushed at the same time.

“Great! We can decide later where to meet,” said Lucas,
rising. “See you later!”

“See you!” Amanda said. It was clear that his invitation
was a complete surprise, but she was definitely pleased. And that was
understandable. Lucas was handsome. He had blond curly hair that looked so sexy
with his  light-green eyes. Judging by their color, Lucas was a descendant of
two combined founding families.

“Who are his parents?” I asked my friends.

“His father is a hereditary Fairey, although he has a
different name. Jared now is one of Wizardy’s teachers. And his mother is
Evangeline Meridin.”

“How do they determine at what department children of
mixed families will study?” I wondered, chewing a piece of hamburger.

“As a rule, they have the abilities of both parents, but
some of them are better developed. Not everyone is as talented as you are,”
Evan said to me. “They have to sacrifice one power for another. Although anyone
can choose the faculty, where he will study his weaker ability too, but in this
case, the training will be more difficult. And the initial stronger power will
lose its significance.”

“Lucas is very smart,” Amanda pointed. “He can read
auras better than anyone else in our group.”

“How do  you know him so well?” Evan asked stiffly. It
was evident that her new acquaintance hadn’t pleased him very much.

“I know him quite well. Since we have many classes
together,” Amanda responded as if nothing had happened. On her part, it was
obvious that she was flattered by Evan’s discontent. He was clearly jealous.

“Lucas is a good guy,” suddenly said Christian,
surprising us all with his awareness. “I helped him look around here, when he
first arrived to Dever a few weeks ago.”

It sounded as if Christian had just approved his
sister’s relationship with
such a good guy
. Evan definitely didn’t like
it, but Christian was too busy with the content of his tray to notice anything
around him.

After having dinner, we returned to Christian’s room.
Later we were joined by Darcy. Despite her fatigue, she agreed to stay and wait
with us for some news.

Patrick called at almost midnight.

“Yes,” said Christian, answering the call. “So soon?
Okay, we'll try to have everything ready.”

“Nora has set up the appointment for eight in the
morning,” he told us.

“Why so early?” asked Darcy.

“I think it’s obvious,” Evan replied. “The sunlight,
remember? She feels stronger in the morning sun.”

“Will you be able to get there on time?” I asked.

“I'll have to fly straight from here, because there’s no
time to get to London first.”

“My father said that you can use one of the private jets
of Dever. Just in case he reserved it under his name tonight. The pilot needs
only a password,” said Christian.

“I need a few minutes to gather all the necessary
things,” said Evan, going to the door.

“Be careful,” I said finally.

“I have already told you that nothing will happen to a
scoundrel like me,” he replied, smiling.

“I will go with you to your room, and you, girls, stay
here,” said Christian.

They both left. Darcy laid on the couch, as the remnants
of her energy were already on the wane. Amanda and I sat down on the floor,
where sheets of Camilla’s diaries were still sorted. I took some papers and
began to look through them. My attention was drawn by two pages glued together.
The pages  were  rather  dilapidated  and  very  strong  at  the same time.

“Weird,” I thought. I picked up the pieces of paper and
put them closer to the light bulb, and then I saw a picture put in between
them.

“Amanda, do you know how to unpaste these papers? There
is something there.”

“What is it?”

“It looks like a picture.”

“There should be something we can use to heat the paper.
Wait.”

She went to the table and took an electric kettle.

“We need to boil the water and try to get them apart
over the steam.”

And so we did. But since the papers were old, it was
really hard to separate them. However, we found that the drawing wasn’t just a
picture, but a photograph.

“I can’t believe that!” we said in unison.

“It's Alexis!” Amanda exclaimed.

“And this is the woman whose portrait Evan and I found
in the archive.”

On the back side was a short note:

“Cassandra Wizardy. Find her!”

“Apparently Cassandra is the woman from this picture,
but who is this young man?”

“I don’t know, but I assume that he’s Alexis’s brother,”
I said. “They look alike.”

“They both remind me of Cassandra. Maybe she's their
mother? Does Evan know her?”

“That's the point he doesn’t. He said he had never seen
this woman's portrait, and I can swear that this is her!”

Wizardy... Bits of the legend of the Black Lake began to
flow into my head: Medellin’s sister, her two sons...

“It is impossible!” in a barely audible voice I
whispered.

“What are you talking about?” asked Amanda. “Eileen!
What's wrong with you?” she asked again, shaking me slightly.

The legs simply refused to keep me balanced, and I sat
on the floor.

“Eileen!” Amanda called again, this time seriously
worried about my condition.

“Give me your phone, we need to call Evan,” I said,
finally coming around.

“What’s happening?”

“Evan!” I said into the phone. “She is not Medellin’s
descendant! Nora is not her descendant! She’s Jillian Wizardy’s relative! I'm
sure about it. Remember that woman in the unsigned portrait that we found in
the archive? So that was Cassandra Wizardy! She’s Nora’s daughter. It’s a long
story. Evan, Cassandra is Alexi’s mother, and Nora is her grandmother! They are
all in this together! Okay, I understand. Bye.”

I hung up the phone and Amanda looked at me wide-eyed,
finally realizing why I had nearly fainted. Even Darcy, who was almost asleep,
was awakened by the loud conversation, and was now carefully looking at the
photo of Cassandra.

“I remember her,” she said. Amanda and I stared blankly
at her.

“I once saw this woman in my grandmother's house. They
were quarreling terribly. I don’t know what it was about, but she faced me at
the door, and I heard her saying:
“You'll be sorry about it, Camilla. She
will still be here!”
I don’t know why, but her words stuck in my mind. I had
replayed them over and over again because my grandmother was dead just a few
days after that incident. I always wondered if the threat made by this woman
could have been the cause of her death.”

Now Amanda and I were in a complete shock.

“Why didn’t you tell us about that?” I asked.

“I decided that it didn’t matter, since my grandmother’s
diary pointed at some other people. So that is how Alexis came here!”

“You think that Cassandra was talking to your grandma
about her?”

“It's so obvious! Alexis couldn’t become the head of
Dever, because Camilla wouldn’t have made it possible, knowing who she really
was. Therefore, Cassandra, used some sort of spell, a very strong one I think,
to make everyone believe that Alexis was the one who had passed the tests.”

Neither I nor Amanda had ever considered what Darcy was
now trying to explain to us. Everything really began to come together and make
sense.

“So then, with the help of Nora, she made some poison,
that caused my grandmother’s death. And now I’m definitely sure that Alexis was
the one, who added it to her drink.”

“Then I can’t understand why Camilla didn’t warn anyone
about Alexis,” said Amanda.

“She wanted to,” I corrected her, turning the photo,
where was an inscription. “She just didn’t manage.”

“Eileen, where did you find these pages?” asked Darcy.

“In the pile, that's on the table.”

Darcy went to the table and began leafing through the
remaining papers.

“Got it!” she said, coming back to us. “It's an envelope
with the recipient’s address. I think my grandmother was going to send this
photo, so that’s why it was hidden.”

“Who was the recipient?” I asked.

“Frederic Fairey,” Darcy read.

“That’s not a surprise,” I inhaled deeply. “He is
everywhere!”

Christian came back to the room.

“Evan called and told me about what you had found,” he
said.

We told him about the letter, and about our
favorite
Frederic.
At the mention of his name Christian became visibly nervous. The same thing
could be said about Darcy and Amanda. However, I couldn’t understand the reason
for their behavior. Christian then called his parents and told them everything
that we had discovered in their absence.

“Dad said that we need to guard Eileen more closely.”

“Maybe it would be better to take her away?” Amanda
suggested.

“No. It may arouse suspicion. We should pretend that
nothing has happened. Alexis will have to open the Festival, so until then, we
won’t do anything. Also we should wait until tomorrow, no -
today’s
meeting,” he said, looking at his watch. It was almost dawn outside.

“We shouldn’t separate,” he added. “It’s safer for all
of us to stay together.”

“Evan’s presence wouldn’t hurt as well,” Amanda said,
making us all smile.

“What is most important - is not to let Alexis know that
we want to find Nora. Let's hope that she is busy enough with other things.”