Unbound (19 page)

“Don’t feel good.”

“Oh, you mean you drank too much last night?”

“Among other things, yes. I’ve been barfing all day.”

“Serves you right. But I’m sorry Har, I hope you feel better. Did Mom or Dad notice?”

“Of course not. Do they ever?”

I laughed, “No. Anyway, how are the animals?”

“Good. Hunter’s in bed with me. How do you sleep with him? He takes up the whole bed.”

“I’m just used to it, I guess.”

“Oh. And I let Romeo out all day today. He made a mess in your room. You can clean it up though. And yes—I put him away and fed him.”

“Thanks Harry. I really do hope you feel better. Remember to drink lots of water.”

“Ok, Mom.”

“Shut up, I know how you take care of yourself. I’ll let you go back to sleep now. Love you.”

“Yea, you too.”

I shut the bedside lamp off and nestled down into the covers. I was really exhausted. I decided I better set an alarm on my phone just in case I overslept. Just as I was about to put my phone back on the nightstand, it rang. I smiled when I saw it was Ethan.

“Thought you might need some company again,” he said when I picked up.

“Of course I could. Though this time I’ll probably fall asleep fast, I’m already tired.”

“That’s ok,” he said. “So what did you do today?”

I went into full detail about everything expect the witchcraft stuff. He laughed when I told him about me answering the door dressed in all leather.

“You better bring that home. I want to see you in that!” he told me. Only half an hour later I was ready to fall asleep.

“Call me when you land tomorrow. I want to see you, if it’s ok with you.”

“Of course it is!” I said with probably too much excitement.

“Sweet. See you tomorrow Anora.”

“Annie,” I said, feeling he had earned the right. “You can call me Annie if you want. My friends and brother do.”

“I like Anora. It’s different and pretty, like you.”

I smiled widely, glad he couldn’t see the goofy grin on my face right now. “Goodnight Ethan.”

“Goodnight Annie.”

Chapter 5 Mud, Blood and Mystery

I had to rush around to get everything ready. I remembered to call Susan, though I had temporarily lost the card she gave me with her number on it, and told her about the food and the boxes I needed shipped to me. She said it was no big deal and that she’d take care of it. I made up a believable story of Aunt Estelle being a Roman artifact collector and that she had some cool weapons that I wanted to take home and give to my friend’s dad who teaches Roman history.

My returning flight wasn’t first class, and the man next to me kept giving me sideways glances as I flipped through the pages of the BOS and the magical herb book. I was starting to feel sleepy when I turned the page in the BOS. I gasped so suddenly that I startled the guy next to me, though he deserved it for reading over my shoulder. Twenty-four squiggly symbols were drawn on this page, with the letters of the alphabet under each one. “THEBAN” was written at the top. I pulled off my pendent and looked back and forth. This was the language it was written in! I rummaged through my bag for a pen and piece of paper. I turned the pendent around several times, trying to decide where to start. Figuring where the chain was attached was probably the beginning, I slowly made my way around the pendent, translating each symbol. “Coven of the Sacred Guardians,” I whispered.

***

“Hunter!” I said in a high pitched voice. My huge Shepherd wiggled his way over to me, so excited his whole body shook with the force of his wagging tail. I dropped my bags to say hi to him. He pushed me over and licked my face. “I missed my big baby!” I told him, sitting up to give him a hug. He followed me upstairs. Romeo didn’t get excited like Hunter, but I liked to think he was happy to see me. After loading the house pictures onto my laptop to show my family. I changed into breeches and took Hunter with me to the barn. Mystery eagerly rubbed his head against my back and even Neptune lowered her head for a good scratch. Laney and Leslie were there and we all saddled up to ride together in the quickly fading daylight. Back in the barn, I showed them pictures of the house.

“That’s so freaking cool!” Laney exclaimed.

“I didn’t know Indiana had such cool, old houses,” Leslie said.

“I didn’t either. I thought it would be a boring old farmhouse.”

“I want to go see it!” Laney said, and we planned a hypothetical trip together to go back to Indiana.

I was really tired and Hunter seemed bored so I said goodbye and drove home. I called Ethan for the second time, I’d called him as soon as I landed, but it went right to voicemail again. I felt a little disappointed. I didn’t think he was ignoring me on purpose though; he’d called me last night just to talk so why would he ignore me now? I didn’t want to think about it. I just wanted to go home and sleep. And I did, as soon as I got home. I didn’t think I’ve gone to bed that early since I was ten, but it sure did feel good to crawl under the covers in my own bed.

For some reason, school seemed even more boring than normal the next day. I wanted to go home and read my magic books. Now, if Rune reading or numerology was taught in school I would eagerly attend every day. Natalie and Jill couldn’t help but over hear me talking about the house at lunch. I had printed off some pictures that morning to show Marie and they wanted to look too.

“That is so cool!” Jill said, sounding genuine. “It looks like something out of a magazine.”

“Yea, I really wasn’t expecting it to be like that at all,” I told her.

“It’s a beautiful house,” Natalie said, “but it looks like it could be the setting for a horror movie about ghosts or something.”

“Yea, Victorian houses do look sorta creepy,” Laney agreed. Marie took the stack of pictures from me. She told me the house was cool and that she wanted to see it in person some time, but it didn’t take ESP to sense her jealousy. I could understand her envy, but come on, why couldn’t she just be happy for me?

Study hall flew by only because I had brought the tarot book with me. I don’t know if I would ever memorize all the cards since there were 78 and each card had two meanings. (Up right or upside down meant different things.)
 
Unfortunately, though I was entertained, I didn’t get any homework done, which meant I’d have to do it tonight.

I had a lesson with Leslie at five, and after that I rode Neptune around the arena with Laney and Abra. I told Laney about my late night phone conversations with Ethan (“That’s so romantic!” she squealed) and about him wanting me to call but his phone being off.

“I never left a message, so technically he doesn’t know I called. I don’t know if I should call again. It just doesn’t make sense. Why ask me to call and then not want to talk to me?”

“If I were you, I’d call. And I don’t think he’s avoiding you since he called you Saturday night. Maybe his phone died.”

“Maybe.” I hoped that was true. The automatic lights had come on already; the days were gradually getting shorter. We untacked the horses in silence. Amanda was getting out of her car just as Laney and I walked to ours.

“Hey Amanda!” I waved to her.

“Hi Anora. How was your trip?” she asked quietly. I didn’t remember telling her I was leaving. I doubted it was hard to figure out though; why else would I not go to the barn for two days in a row?

“It was really nice actually. I’m glad to be home though. I missed my animals.”

“And me of course!” Laney said with a goofy smile.

“And of course I missed my BFF!” I smiled back.

“That’s good. Well, see you guys later.”

“Bye!” Laney and I said in unison.

I had three hours worth of homework that night. Before I went to bed I decided to try calling Ethan one more time. It went to voicemail again. That uneasy feeling settled in my stomach. I wished Laney’s words were right. Maybe Ethan lost his charger or something like that. Or maybe he found some other girl who wasn’t as weird as me. I pushed those unhappy thoughts away and studied reading runes until I fell asleep.

 
I woke up in a cold sweat after another nightmare. This time I was back in the Victorian. Reilly Hartwell’s burned body lay on the dining room table. A young woman with long dark hair sat in the corner weeping. White curtains billowed in the wind from the open windows. Everything was so silent that the quiet hurt my ears. I tried to call out to the weeping girl but I had no voice. I screamed, but still no noise came out. No matter what I desperately did to get her attention, everything was silent. Giving up, I went out the front door. Suddenly it was night, and a full moon reflected off a fresh blanket of snow. I shivered and went inside. The house was lively this time.

Ethan was sitting at the dining room table. He stood up and took my hand. “I want to show you something,” he said, smiling. He led me down the basement stairs. Smoke choked me as I walked. I could feel the heat increasing with each step I took. The entire basement was on fire. “Isn’t it beautiful?” Ethan asked.

“No, it’s terrible!” I cried. I turned to give Ethan a shocked look but he wasn’t standing next to me anymore. Instead, a man with a ram’s head stood with his arms stretched all the way out several feet from me. “We’re going to find you,” the thing said in a deep, raspy voice. It closed its eyes and burst into flames. I jumped back and fell to the ground, shielding my head with my hands.

When no explosion happened, I slowly raised my eyes to look. The fire was out and a twenty something year old Aunt Estelle stood behind where the thing had been standing. A dagger was in her hand and her arm was forward, as if she just stabbed it. She walked over and helped me up. She was wearing the same pendent I now was.

“I’m sorry Anora. I shouldn’t have brought you here. But it’s the only way right now. Please, don’t be afraid. They feed on your fear.” She pressed the dagger into my hand; it was the same weapon I received for my birthday. The metal was hot. Suddenly I realized that the thing hadn’t willingly caught on fire. Aunt Estelle had done it; she killed

Too jittery to fall asleep, I turned on the TV and flipped through the movies channels, looking for something funny to watch and get my mind off of cryptic dreams and ram headed men.

***

“Are you ok, Annie?” Harrison asked me at the end of the day. It was Friday.

“Fine. Why do you ask?”

“Don’t take this the wrong way, but you look like you haven’t slept in days You seem stranger than normal.”

“So?”

“So? So it’s not normal. So you’ve been really crabby with everyone. So I’m getting worried, sis.”

I took a deep breath. It was true. Ever since that freaky dream Monday night I’ve been avoiding sleep. Tuesday it repeated. Wednesday I slept for maybe three hours. And last night, maybe I got four hours in. That, and I was becoming a little obsessed with the BOS; it was just so intriguing. All I wanted to do was read and learn as much as I could. I felt like I
needed
to know everything that was in it. And somehow, knowing it made me feel at ease. I know it sounded crazy, but it just felt right.

“Me too,” Laney said. I hadn’t even seen her come up behind us. Ok, maybe I was getting sleep deprived. My senses were way off.

“Don’t worry guys. I’ve just been having weird dreams that keep me up, that’s all. It will stop soon. It always does.”

“Oh, you mean weird, like
ghost
weird?” Laney asked quietly, barely whispering the word ‘ghost’.

 
I nodded.
 
“It’s fine though. But I think I’m gonna take a nap as soon as I get home, so I don’t think I’ll see you at the barn.”

“Ok,” Laney said as she headed towards her car. “And please think about coming to the movies! I promise you won’t feel fifth-wheelie.”

“I’m not worried about that,” I assured her. “I’m just tired. Staying in sounds fun, really.”

“Fine,” she sighed. “Call me if you change your mind!”

I promised I would and headed out to the parking lot. Ok, so maybe I lied, just a little, about not wanting to feel like a fifth wheel. Being dateless made me think about Ethan. The fact that I still hadn’t heard from him brought up more emotions than I liked, and I didn’t want to be reminded about it anymore than I had to.

***