Reckless Magic

Chapter Eleven

I parked my car in the long line ofblack something or others, taking up two parking spaces. My sunflower yellowLand Rover stuck out terribly, but I could have cared less. I took a bigbreath, thankful that I didn’t fit in there. But even more thankful that I wasallowed to drive myself that morning.

Of course, that was only due to thefact that Aunt Syl was called into the ER in the middle of the night. Feelingslightly sorry for her, but still happy to have my independence back, I grabbedmy backpack and stepped out of the car.

Although I was ru

I was pleased that my closeencounter with Kiran brought no immediate spells of unconsciousness, and hopedthat my previous behavior was all just a phase I was now, hopefully, over. Istill could not mentally wrap my head around Kiran’s unexpected visit or hiseven more unexpected exit. I unconsciously brought my hand to my cheek andsmiled. I felt the heat rise beneath my fingers and quickly shook my head,physically trying to forget last night’s intimate moment.

The student parking lot sat on theback of campus, near the football and soccer fields, so I bypassed theAdministration Building and headed straight for English. A nice change frombeing dropped off at the front of campus like all of the other students whowere too young or too rich to drive themselves.

A handful of students were in frontof me, scrambling to get to class on time. All of them dressed in their navyblue and white uniforms; the only change today was the addition of navy blue orcardinal red cardigans, signaling the change in temperature. I was alwaysamazed at the ability some girls had of changing a dowdy school uniform into astripper piece from some teenage boy’s wildest fantasy; I was not one of thosegirls.

 I clearly picked out Kiran and Talbott in thethrong of students ahead of me since they were walking much slower thaneverybody else. I slowed my pace slightly, not sure if I wanted to pass them,or be brave enough to join them. I mean Kiran and I were friends right? Orsomething more? Or something entirely different all together? I actually had noidea what we were.

I noticed how much taller Talbottwas than Kiran, how much taller than everybody he was, and how strong he wasbuilt. I had a hard time picturing him in a bowler hat, but realized it musthave been him behind the tree last night. An instant wave of relief washed overme. I had no idea why he would wear a disguise to accompany Kiran to my house,but it was the only thing that made any sense.

I was still pondering whether topass or wait them out when they simultaneously turned around to look at me.Kiran gave me a small wave and an almost sheepish grin. I noticed nearembarrassment in his eyes; it was the most endearing he had ever looked. I gavea small wave back and felt my cheeks burning from the memory of last night.

Talbott noticed our exchange andslapped the back of Kiran’s head. My mouth dropped open from shock andamusement. Kiran stopped dead in his tracks and Talbott followed suit. Theystood there staring at each other, both refusing to say or do anything more.For a second I thought they were going to fight.

“Enough of this Kiran, go toclass,” Talbott demanded.

“Who do you think you are?” Kiranshouted hostilely. They were both angry enough that their accents were makingit difficult to understand them. The remainder of students, ru

“Go to class,” instead of shouting,Talbott’s voice was a low growl.

“You ca

“You can’t keep playing this gamewith him,” he started speaking to me as soon as I was close; a look of sinceredetermination on his face.

“I don’t know what you’re talkingabout,” I replied, slightly offended, and feeling like I used that phrase anawful lot lately. If there really was anything between Kiran and me, who wasTalbott to get in the way? More importantly, why was Talbott getting in theway? And even more importantly, was there anything between Kiran and me?

“I’m afraid you do,” he allegedsofter, making his accent thick. I continued walking and he matched his strideswith mine. “Listen, we are all curious about you, I’m sure you understand, butKiran is taking this too far. It’s not fair to him and it’s definitely not fairto you. You are only going to get hurt.”

“Thank you for your concern, butreally there is nothing for you to worry about,” I tried to stay polite, butget the message across at the same time. The soft undulating energy that wasonly a hum a moment ago was steadily growing stronger the longer I talked withTalbott, making my temper even harder to control.

“I am warning you for your owngood,” he persisted. “Stay away from him.”

“I am trying to stay away from him.Maybe it’s him you should be having this conversation with.”

“I’ve tried to talk to him….. He isfocused. When he finds something to…. entertain him, it is hard to refocus him;and you Eden, are turning out to be much more than mere entertainment. I amafraid the game is getting dangerous,” When I opened my mouth to say somethinghe continued quickly, “You should know that he has a girlfriend,” he looked atme out of the corner of his eye and I knew that he was waiting for me to react.So I played it as cool as I could, continuing en route to English class.

“Really. Who?” I tried to askcoyly, but I could feel my blood temperature rise and not from the electricitythis time, for whomever the girl was. The energy rushing through my veinscentered unexpectedly and surged out through my fingertips into the grass,creating a small fire. I stopped suddenly to stomp it out, hoping Talbottdidn’t notice. And he didn’t, or at least he pretended he didn’t.

“Seraphina. That is why we are atKingsley. He moved here to be closer to her,” he reached out to open the doorfor me and the gesture gave me a second to recover.

“Figures,” I sighed under mybreath. “Listen, I’m really not into him. As far as I’m concerned, there isnothing for you to worry about. Seraphina and Kiran make a nice couple, really,they deserve each other,” I finished through gritted teeth. All anger hadvanished; instead I could only feel disgust for myself. Clearly, I was makingsomething out of nothing.

“So I have your word, you will notdistract him anymore?” his language was confusing to me, I was not going togive “my word” about anything; the promise seemed too binding. Besides thatwasn’t really up to me, right?

“Whatever Talbott, I won’t botherhim anymore,” we were almost to class and I could not wait to be finished withthe conversation; for some unexplainable reason I was suddenly depressed. Ihoped I wasn’t jealous of Seraphina. I found that especially degrading.

Before I could get through theclassroom door however, Talbott put a soft hand on my shoulder, stopping me.“Eden, he can be quite persistent. He is very intrigued by you. He has nevermet anyone quite like you, so you will have to give him a clear message,” Iturned to look at him in the face, hoping that he was joking, but I was metwith frighteningly serious eyes. “Even if you are human, Seraphina will not bevery forgiving if she senses any competition,” he tightened his grip on myshoulder, sending lightning bolts ru