Secret Worlds (425 page)

“Oh no, Liane,” William said. “Please don’t.”

“You are so evil!” I said and tried hard to hide my laughter.

Then the unexpected happened. The table collapsed and the woman fell hard to the floor.

“Time to go,” Boaz said. He was up and pulling me with him before I had a chance to set down the glass in my hand. William and Liane followed us out, arm in arm, and laughing hard.

I sipped from my stolen glass, and then lowered it to ask Boaz, “Having a good time?”

“Of course.” He smiled. It looked genuine, so I leaned into him and inhaled deeply.

I was glad he wasn’t bothered by me and my friend’s abilities. Boaz couldn’t use magic like we could, being a vampire and all. He knew a few things, but nothing impressive, not real magic. But he made up for this shortcoming in other ways. He was extremely strong, fast as lightning, and I swore he could disappear and reappear at will, but he had yet to admit to it.

“I’m so proud of you, love,” he said and wrapped his arm around me.

“For what?”

“For becoming you.”

I tiptoed and kissed his mouth briefly. “Thanks to you.”

“Hold up, Eve!” Liane called.

I turned around.

“This is where we part,” she said, smiling mischievously. “William and I are going back to the hotel. I’ll call you soon.”

I said goodbye and watched them walk away, thinking how great it was to have good friends. I’d never been able to say that before. And all of this—my friends, my fun, my travels was all because of Boaz.

He squeezed my hand. “Let’s go.”

I was about to turn back when a tall man beneath a lamppost caught my eye. He wore a long dark coat with a black derby hat. He stared at me beneath thick eyebrows, and his thin lips were as straight as piano wire. Hands stuffed in pocket, he held still while people shuffled by him completely unaware of his powerful presence—the power of which I could feel even though he was standing across the street.

I tugged on Boaz, stopping him from going any further. “Who’s that man?”

“Where?”

I pointed across the street. Boaz’s hand tightened around mine. “He shouldn’t be here. It’s too soon.”

“Who is he?”

“Your grandfather. Wait here.”

My grandfather? I squinted to get a closer look. That was him? He didn’t look frightening, but a dark, electric force seemed to pressurize the air around him, similar to what one might feel before a storm’s arrival. I shook my head, still unbelieving that the man who had elicited months of silence and hate between my parents was only a stone’s throw away.

Boaz was saying something to him while pointing his finger toward me. My grandfather repeatedly shook his head.

I took a deep breath. Time to go see what this was all about. I moved to step across the street, but was interrupted.

“You are to stay with us,” said two feminine voices from behind me.

I turned around, surprised that someone had spoken to me like that, and came face to face with identical twins. Their blonde, almost white hair was cut short, framing their pointy chins. They had large noses to match, but nothing was as unnerving as their eyes. Their irises were narrow slits swimming in luminescent sea-green eyes—the exact same color as my own.

“Who are you two?” I asked.

“We are your cousins,” they said in unison.

“I’m Helen,” the one on the left said.

“And I’m Harriet.”

I glanced back at Boaz. “How are we related?”

“Our mother is your father’s sister,” Harriet answered.

This sparked my interest. “I didn’t know my father had a sister.”

The twins looked at each other and then back at me. “She is much stronger than your father.”

“Awesome,” I said and snickered. As if I cared. I hadn’t thought about my parents for weeks. “You know, it’s great that I have cousins, but I’m sort of busy right now. Let’s do this another time.”

I turned to leave but found a force blocking my path. Startled, I pressed my palms against the invisible wall.
Magic.

I swiveled around. Both girls were smiling, their noses pointed downwards, dipping into their wide grins.

“Going somewhere?” Helen asked.

“Trying to get away from us?” Harriet added.

“Um, you guys are creepy. I need to go talk to Boaz.”

At the mention of his name, a far off look filled the twin’s eyes, and air escaped their lungs in a long drawn-out sigh. The invisible wall weakened, and I quickly moved to take a step forward, but both girls reached at the same time and took hold of my arms.

“You are not to speak to Boaz,” Helen said.

“Ever,” Harriet added.

“Let go of me, freaks!” I said, struggling against their surprisingly strong grip. I tried pushing them away by using magic, but somehow they managed to block my attack. This frustrated me even more. No one had ever stopped me from using my abilities before.

“You can’t use magic against us.”

“We’re too strong for you.”

My gaze went to Boaz. His back was to me as he was still talking to my grandfather. The girls spun me around, away from him.

“What do you want?” I asked.

“To prove to Boaz that we are more powerful than you.”

“To get what is rightfully ours.”

“You can’t be serious.” One look at each of their faces told me that they were very serious. “Boaz is a grown man. He can choose whom he wants to be with.”

“Boaz will choose who is most powerful,” Helen said.

“And it’s not you,” Harriet added.

“That’s ridiculous. Boaz will choose whom he loves.”

Both girls laughed; the sounds were ugly and cold, sharing pig-like grunts between the both of them. Without warning, their laughter stopped as they eyed our grandfather. I turned around in time to see him nodding at the girls.

“Time to go, cousin,” they said.

“Go? I’m not going anywhere.”

They tugged on my arms.

“Boaz!” I called.

Boaz turned around slowly, his expression blank.

“Boaz, help me!”

Still, he did nothing.

One of the twins opened the rear door of a nearby vehicle, while the other one shoved me in, making me fall onto my back.
Why wasn’t Boaz doing anything?
Without my legs being visibly touched, they were pushed in and the car door slammed shut, banging my knee. I whirled around and put my hand against the back window. “Boaz!”

He stood next to my grandfather, arms at his sides. The street lamp above cast an eerie light upon him, stretching his shadow beyond what I thought it should be. He stared at me, unblinking, his face no different from a stone statue.

As the car drove off, I startled when it appeared that his shadow detached from his body and followed after me. I must’ve imagined it, for when I looked back again, only the darkness of the night remained.

We were the only people on the road and had been for miles. A forest on each side of us pressed up against the pavement, never giving me a clear view of what lay beyond.

“Where are we going?” I asked.

Neither twin answered.

I sighed. “Come on, girls. We’re family. Can’t we at least be nice to each other?”

Still they didn’t speak.

“Fine,” I mumbled. I slumped against the cold leather seat and stared out the window. Occasionally, the vehicle’s headlights would flash against a green sign. Soon I realized we were headed to Vermont, to my grandfather’s home.

Was that really so hard to say?

I tried to endure the silence by thinking of Boaz. At first, I was angry he hadn’t tried to save me, but surely he had a good reason. He’d never let me down before, so why would he start now?

In front of me, the back of the twin’s white-haired heads hadn’t moved for the last two hours. It really annoyed me, their oddness, almost as if they weren’t mentally all there. It was like they each shared half of a brain between them. Despite the silence, I laughed.

Helen and Harriet turned around simultaneously and glared.

I nodded toward the road. “Watch where you’re going. I want to make it alive so I can figure out what this is all about. Someone’s going to pay.”

They turned back around, wordlessly.

Because I hated to be ignored, I decided to goad them, having a pretty good idea what would make them talk.

“You’re mother’s hardly powerful,” I said. “Did you know my father once crushed a giant tree with a single blast of air? All that remained was a circular wood disk, one inch thick. It was one of the most remarkable things I ever saw.”

Helen gripped the steering wheel, but still, neither responded.

I tried again. “Then another time he completely changed his appearance for over three hours while he sat in on a meeting with the governor of New York. The entire time he thought my father was a high-up European diplomat and divulged some very valuable information. It was impressive, for sure.”

The hair on both girls’ heads ruffled while the temperature in the car seemed to rise. They were close to breaking.

“Most importantly,” I continued, “my father married my mother, the most powerful female witch of her time—that is, until they gave birth to me.”

Slamming on the brakes, Helen swerved the car to the side of the road and stopped. The twins turned around.

“You are not powerful,” they said, each of their half brains working together.

I let my eyes burn bright, power coursing through me like a live wire. “How do you know?”

“Our mother said,” Helen said.

“Our grandfather said,” Harriet echoed.

“They lied,” I snapped back. I clapped my hands together suddenly, and with a simple command from my mind, the windows shattered and blew into the night in tiny shards as small as snowflakes. Then, as if time had stopped, the shards of glass suspended in mid-air, floated for a few seconds, and then returned to the car doors, forming windows once again.

“This is our father’s car,” Helen said.

“We must not hurt it.”

“I will tear this car apart piece by piece, unless you tell me what’s going on,” I said.

“It is for grandfather to say.”

“We are forbidden to speak to you.”

I gasped, appalled by their child-like behavior. “How old are you two?”

“Twenty-two,” they said together.

So they weren’t much older than me. “Then how is it you can’t do what you want?”

“We are good daughters,” Helen said.

“Better than you,” Harriet added.

“So you keep saying. And because you
think
you are better than me, you want Boaz.”

The far-off dreamy look returned to their faces.

“If you’re so much better than me, why aren’t you two with him now?” I asked.

“We haven’t proven ourselves yet.”

“It isn’t the right time.”

“And who do you have to prove yourself to?” I asked.

“Grandfather.”

I leaned forward. “Then do it. What does this have to do with me?”

“Grandfather will tell you,” Helen said. She faced forward and pulled the car onto the road.

“Yes, grandfather will tell you,” repeated Harriet. She joined her sister.

Silence returned. I could’ve pressed the issue, but realized that these two were about as brainless as the humans who allowed themselves to be taken advantage of. They were followers. I closed my eyes and leaned my head against the seat. I focused my anger, which still surged through me. I had a feeling I was going to need all the hate I could muster.

Eventually, a light sleep came, but when the car slowed, I forced my eyelids open. It was still dark. In front of the car, an enormous iron gate opened up. We drove down a long lane until we approached a mansion twice the size of Boaz’s. It looked like a castle right out of the Stone Ages, towers and all.

Lampposts lit up a circular driveway, and at its center, two red lights shined up from the ground, lighting two statues of lions fighting each other. I couldn’t take my eyes off of it, even after the car stopped. There was power in those two lions, frozen in combat.

“You must get out now, cousin,” Helen said.

“Don’t try to run,” Harriet said.

“Why would I run? Someone will be held responsible for the treatment I’ve received tonight.”

They ignored me and exited the car. I followed behind them up stone steps and in through double wooden doors. I couldn’t see much of the inside of the home as all the lights were off, but I could hear our steps echo against stone floors, which told me the entryway must’ve been enormous.

The twins approached a cupboard along the wall and removed two candles. While holding them, the wicks ignited at the same time.

“Follow us,” Helen said.

“Not far,” added Harriet.

The twins pushed open a door that led us through a narrow hallway. The light from the candles made shadows twist and turn unnaturally upon the dark paneled walls. Was it a trick of the light or something magical causing the illusion in an attempt to frighten me? I yawned loudly.

At the end of the hall, one of the twins opened a door. I still couldn’t tell them apart unless they were standing next to each other. Helen always stood on the right and Harriet on the left.

“This is your room,” Helen said.

“It’s well-guarded tonight, so it’s useless to try and escape,” Harriet said.

I stepped into the room and then turned to insult them, but the door had already closed and locked from the outside. I pounded on it with my fists twice, before I stopped.
Get a hold of yourself. You must stay in control.

I took a deep breath and looked around. The bedroom was bare except for a table and chair in the corner and a nightstand with a lamp on its top next to a single bed. The room had the same wood paneling as in the hallway. There were no pictures or decorations anywhere.

After waiting a few minutes, I tried to open the door by using magic, but as soon as I touched the doorknob, a jolt of electricity shocked my body, sending me to the ground. Angered, I jumped up and rushed the window opposite the door, but again was shocked. The room had been fortified with magic. No wonder there weren’t any decorations. The simpler the room, the better guarding spells worked.

The twins were right—I wasn’t getting out.