The Fake Heart (Time Alchemist Series) (26 page)

And…
that really hurt.
I had been hoping that…we would all still have some time together, even when I come back from winter break—but my mind never wanted to think about what could happen afterwards.

After I was healed, Dove and Leon wouldn’t have a reason to stick around. They would probably go off and search for more pieces of the Elixir but…what would they do with them? How would they even find them? Would they try to work together or go back to their old ways, fighting and bickering to the death?

Her cool blue eyes held my gaze, a sad flicker of a smile on her pale face, “You wo
uld have found out either way, b
ut we promised we wouldn’t leave you in the dark. You have to understan
d, Emery, if we plan this
right,
there
is a high possibility that the Ice A
lchemist, or any person, could be following us. People have killed over less, haven’t they?”

The hot chocolate felt like I was choking on
thick
sludge as I swallowed. She was right. Of course she was right—she was
, well,
Dove!
At least Leon had a chance to fight back, and take care of Dove at the same time. There was no way he could watch me an
d Dove, especially if this Ice A
lchemist was as powerful as we thought. And my powers…what little powers I had were pretty much useless. Unless the enemy decided it was much more amusing to watch me concentrate on slowing down time, I was dead meat.

But my heart clenched whenever I thought of the danger Dove and Leon would be in
—they could get seriously hurt, while
I was still at the grounds dancing away and kissing Jack under the mistletoe
like Cinderella. C
ouldn’t
I
do a
ny
thing to help them?

Then it hit me.

It was so obvious
.
If it was a snake it would have bite me in the behind.
I knew what I had to do—and,
I wouldn’t be in the way at all. (
a
t
least,
I’m pretty sure it would work). It was daring, bold, and quite frankly, a little stupid. But it was perfect.

Besides, whatever Dove and Leon didn’t know wouldn’t hurt them, right?

◊◊◊◊◊

Up bright and early the next day,
I scurried off towards the clock tower. The morning light filtered a soft gray blanket on the dead trees and the brick buildings. My breath hung in the air as I marched towards the clock tower, backpack in tow.

There wasn’t a soul around, and I kept glancing over my shoulder, feeling eyes on me. The hairs on my neck stood up and I set into a run. But even when I reached the back of the tower, nothing had happened. Yet, I couldn’t shake this weird feeling that whoever was watching me was waiting…for something.

Something big was going to happen tonight at Bonaventure.

Something bad.

I couldn’t figure out what, but let’s just call it intuition. All night I kept tossing and turning, the picture of a sweet, innocent barely thirteen year old Kathleen staring right into me, burning into the backs of my eyelids, begging for questions. The tugging I felt in my gut seemed to grow stronger after Dove finalized the plans. There wasn’t much time left.

I pushed open the back door; it groaned in protest, and I was met with a stale, dusty cold. Normally it was somewhat warmer than the outside, but the hallway felt lonely and abandoned. I
figured that Mr. Jones
had taken off for the holidays (since tomorrow was technically the start of vacation), but what about Leon?

I heard heavy
shuffling, and a flickering light near the stairs. I quickly tucked my bag in the hall
closet, nestling it between a faded red
vacuum and the wall before heading up.

Leon’s door was all the way open and I peered in. Everything was gone. The furniture was pushed to the far wall and the plates and cups were packed up in a plastic bag. An orange duffle bag was on top
of
the mattress, the linens and pillows all missing, as Leon finished stuffing what looked like books and clothes inside it. It was almost bulging out of its zipper.

“What’s going on?”

Leon whirled around, a toothbrush sticking out of his mouth, “
Whah
the
hech
, Emery?” he spat out, foamy toothpaste falling onto his blue shirt. I snorted; his shocked expression was
kinda
cute, but seeing the bag quickly quenched my happy mood.

“Sorry for scaring you,” I said, looking out the large window. The sun was starting to shine a little brighter, unusual for a December morning. It loo
ked like it would be a nice
day for the Formal. I leaned against the oak door frame as Leo
n busied himself with cleaning.
“I just wanted to stop by and say hi…but I guess you’re going somewhere, so I guess it should be a
good
bye instead.”

He gargled loudly and spit in a
plastic
cup before dumping it in the trash. His eyes were very calm and warm as we spoke, “I take it Dove told you.”

I nodded. No words were really needed. I gestured over to the backpack and the bags full of food and silverware, “I take it that you’re moving out.”

He nodded, a
thin and strained frown formed on his lips.
“If you think that I’m going to gr
ab the Elixir and run off—”

I shook my head, walking over to him before poking his chest, “Of course not, dummy!” I said, “I know you better than that. I also know that it’s time for us to all move on, isn’t it? That’s why I came by—to wish you good luck
. But I’ll add a ‘see you later’
to that also. Just don’t do anything stupid like getting yourself killed or…” my voice trailed off. My mind went blank. But then a firm, warm hand enveloped mine, tugging it closer to his chest.

I could feel the steady beats of his heart beneath his shirt
, thrumming like a bass
drum. “Emery….” His voice sent a ripple of electricity through my skin.

I felt my skin flush; I was sure my face was a bright as a tomato. “
Wh
-
what is it?” I stammered, instantly wishing the earth would swallow me up before I made a gigantic idiot of myself.

“You…
aren’t planning to follow us, are you?”

“Geez, of course not!
I’m not stupid!” and I felt like a bigger idiot. Here I thought he was going to do something…romantic, since we wouldn’t see each other after this.
Dammit
Emery! You have
Jack!
You like
Jack!
Just because…just because this isn’t as sweet as you thought doesn’t mean you should be an ass!

But I was being an ass.
A huge,
cowardly
lying one.
That’s it: I was just like the cowardly lion from the
Wizard of Oz
, getting left behind while these two went to find Dorothy’s
ruby red slippers—except replace the slippers with a…what did the Elixir look like, anyway…well, replace the slippers with the Elixir and it was pretty much a fairy tale ending.
And for some reason I couldn’t help but feel guilty at these…emotions I was feeling when Leon looked at me like that. My cheeks burned hot as I felt his sea green glassy eyes bore into mine.

“I
gotta
…go,” I said, slipping my hand away from his grasp.
My hand already felt cold.
“See
ya
—or, I mean, bye.
Be careful.
”

I walked out, tears starting to well in the corners of my eyes. I barely heard what Leon’s reply was before I had
rushed down
the stairs
and fled the tower like a crying little girl
.

“
Bye
.”

◊◊◊◊◊

A large, rectangular box wrapped in silver and frosty blue ribbons awaited me when I came back from my trip to the clock tower. It
was perched carefully on the door to my single room;
the paper sparkling in the hall lights. I heard whispers echoing in the halls and girls poke their heads out, faces covered in thick mascara and luscious cherry red lipstick; hair piled up in tight, curly buns or cascading down their shoulders like the ripples in an ocean.

Which made my mind travel back to Leon’s swirling eyes, and the sour taste in my mouth made it hard to swallow
, like I had chewed on a piece of Uncle Bob’s horribly made fruitcakes that were anything but fruit and cake.

Mallory stood outside her door, polished
pink-and-white
French cut manicures posed on her slender hips as she bore tiny holes into my back when I bent over to pick it up. Tasha peered out over her shoulder briefly before heading back inside to finish whatever. I even saw Samantha’s strawberry blonde curls peak out underneath a large fluffy pink towel before she too disappeared back inside.

There was a tiny white stock card nestled between the ribbons, and my heart leapt at the note:

Em
,

I thought this dress would look absolutely stunning on you. Let’s prove me right, for once in our relationship?
I will be waiting for you tonight.

Your prince charming
,

Jack

I smiled at our own personal joke. Ever since we met—ever since we started officially dating—I had confessed that his actions and speech always reminding me of a corny fairy tale Prince Charming, just as he had joked about in the woods back in September. It was nice, having a private joke between your
boyfriend
, no matter how cheesy it was.

I heard Mallory fake a cough behind me, and boy, did I want to tear the beautifully wrapped package
open and flaunt whatever was inside in front of Mallory’s perfectly, blemish-free face
and watch her pretty brown eyes fill with jealousy
, but I didn’t. It made me so happy that Jack thought of buying me something, and the timing couldn’t have been any better, but my heart still ached, like somebody had punched a hole in my chest and kept prodding the open would with a stick.

Maybe it could take my mind away from what was going on, or at least distract me for a measly five minutes.

I shoved open the door, balancing the package and giving Mallory a curt smile before shutting it with a click. “Hey Dove,” I said in a low voice, just in case the other girls could
hear me, “You won’t
believe
what I got from Jack—!”

But the room was empty.

The curtains were drawn together, but a slim string of light shone through the crack. Everything was in place—the
framed picture of me and my Dad,
my school books stac
ked neatly in a box to take back to the library, and
my school uniform hung on the closet door, the black buttons as dark a
s night. It was all in perfect order. Just like always. Everything, save a few minor things, was ready for me to pack up to leave for home. Everything was normal.

Except….it wasn’t. The hundreds of papers and pens and weird research instruments that Dove always littered over my floor and desk and bookshelves weren’t there. The muddy tracks that Leon’s boots kept trail
ing
in, no matter how many time
s I had scolded him about it, w
ere wiped clean. Even the window perch looked like it was missing a friend.

I slumped against the door
.
Yup, still perfect and
normal…and
empty and lonely, even in the bright translucent lights of the dusty overhead bulbs.
  Still, I opened my c
loset and peered up at the hole, calling Dove’s
name softly, ho
ping she was just taking a nap, or maybe even planning to surprise me.

No answer came from the creepy hole that Dove had failed (or forgotten) to cover up. I’d have to find a way to fix that before the House Mother or some cleaning crew found it like that.

Girls in the hall chattered happily like baby birds, all full of light and laughter and the same, glowing warmth that friendship provided. The wind howled outside like it was lonely. Just like me.

Dove was gone.

And she didn’t even say goodbye.