"Blue wakeup" Maura said stroking the dark strands of hair out of her daughters face.
"Mom?" Seeing her mothers face was a sweet reminder that Blue had her back that she could hug her, talk to her again. The thought of loosing her was to hard to bear, the thought that she could never touch her, never go to her for help, the painful thoughts that she was alone was to much.
"Could you help me with something?" She asked ever so gently.
"With what?" Blue asked sitting up on her bed, she had fallen asleep reading again and her book fell of on the ground.
"Come." Maura gestured to the door and then exited looking back to see if Blue was following, which she was. Blue grabbed a small sweater that had been thrown over her bedpost and threw it on over her tank. A quick glance in the mirror as she left the room showed her the messy state of her hair bulled up in a loose bun. Blue followed her mother down the winding of stairs into the living area.
"Is there any particular reason you woke me up at-" Blue pulled out her phone and checked the time. "OMG 5:30! Who wakes up at this time?!" Blue practically yelled that last part and then was hushed by someone else in the house to keep it down because they were trying to get some sleep. "See every norm- well person is asleep at this time." Blue whispered to her mother, who pretended not to hear her.
"Stop complaining, I will make you some coffee." Maura walked over to the table and picked up a deck of Tarot cards.
"I hate coffee." Blue said now standing right next to her. "You woke me up for a reading?"
"Not just any reading." Maura said as she impressively shuffled the cards between her tan fingers. "He's an important client, and since you make the connections stronger you'll have to assist me." Just as she finished talking there was a soft knock on the door. "Ok just on time, Calla, Persephone he's here!" Calla strode out of the kitchen holding a Mimosa between her dark hands that showed off about a dozen gold costume rings, following her was Persephone in one of her patchwork outfits she held a mug of tea between her hands tightly.
Maura walked over to the door and exchanged words with their client, there was a little flirtation provided by him, which Blue's mother completely ignored. Blue knew if the Mr. Gray was here, the man wouldn't make it past the front door and would probably never make it to his car either.
As Blue was lost in thought the man had already seated himself, he wore a long coat and leather loafers polished to perfection. "It is nice to meet you Mr-" Maura asked sitting across from the man.
"Mr. Irvine, but please call me Jacob." He said with a smile that showed of his pearly white teeth.
"Ok Mr. Irvine If we could get started, this is Persephone and the woman over there is calla." Maura gestured to each of them with a quick hand movement.
"It is very nice to meet you Mr. Irvine." Said Persephone, Calla made a grunting noise.
"And the girl over there is my daughter, Blue." She said giving a small grin; the man turned his head to see. "Now that your all introduced lets begin, were going to start with you picking a one of these tarot cards." Maura swept the dark grey and gold cards across the table touching each one at the top to press forward. "Wave your hand across the deck until you feel a strong energy connection with one of the cards." Maura instructed.
"Eh, but-" Mr. Irvine began. But calla cut him off instead.
"You will know." Blue had almost forgotten that calla was here she was good at blending into silence. The man did as he was told waving his hand across the deck repeatedly.
"I don't think whatever is supposed to happen is happening." He said aggravatingly.
"I thought this might happen." Maura said "Blue, will you come over here and shuffle the cards?"
Blue walked over and picked the cards letting them fly through the air as she shuffled, Blue sometimes liked to show off her card shuffling skills since she wasn't a physic and couldn't actually do the reading with the cards. She fanned them out, offering them to Mr. Irvine. He asked Maura what difference it would make if Blue did it and she explained that Blue made energy stronger.
The man again moved his hand over the deck but this time slower and with more patience; he focused and then stopped on one card hovering over it. Blue flipped over the card, it was the king of swords, and Persephone described the card in great detail.
"A King of Swords is a man of the highest ethical standards. He is totally
Incorruptible, a pillar of strength who gives sound advice to everyone, no matter who they are. Though not the same as the King of Wands, the King of Swords is a leader in his own way. His command style is more like a general than a governor. He does not inspire people, he commands them, and they obey him because they trust him. His decisions are almost always the right ones, because he sees the big picture and never lets his heart sway his judgment. Though they might not benefit the King directly, his decisions are always in everyone's best interests He has powerful emotions, much more so than the other Swords court cards, but he keeps them under control and uses them for the best possible purposes. The King of Swords is the figurehead of government, law, administration and all the duties associated with his suit. In the majority of cases he appears in your life as another person, though sometimes he is a part of yourself that must be brought to the surface."
"What does all that mean?" For the first time since Blue had meet the man, she saw a break in his mask a glimpse of something so fragile and precious that had been hidden away, Blue felt sympathy for him, knowing how hard it was to conceal your emotions. The remorse was gone as quick as his expression, Mr. Irvine cleared his throat with a fake cough and pushed his chair back quickly opening up his wallet.
"Howw uhh- how much was that?" His voice had sounded raspy but now smoothed down.
"Thirty." Calla said with a crooked smile. He grabbed a fifty and handed it to blue, Blue was amazed at how carrying around fifty's in your wallet was normal. Blue had been lost in thought when the man reached out to give the fifty to her so it slipped out of her hand and began to float to the ground. Both Mr. Irvine and Blue went to grab the bill at the same time and their hands touched a chill went through Blue's body and then a series of images flew through her head.
A man standing over a fire screaming, tears rolling down a familiar face, Mr. Irvine's face dirty and smeared with ash and blood. The next image was of him holding a baby whispering that it was going to be ok, as he handed her over to another man, telling him to keep her safe. A few more past and a tear spilt over her pale cheek, he had been through so much, that face she had seen was his vulnerability, his pain, his suffering and she couldn't explain the feelings that grew inside her she felt everything he felt. In a second it was gone replaced with a few stares from Calla, Maura and Persephone, Mr. Irvine didn't seem to notice though as he picked the fifty dollar bill of the ground and gave it to Calla, who held her hand out. Mr. Irvine said goodbye, thanked everybody and left without another word.
"Blue would you mind explaining to me what just happened?" Maura said warily.
"I-I don't know." Blue snapped back when she remembered her shift at work in the morning, glancing up at the clock she swore and then ran upstairs to get ready.
Before leaving Maura had told her that they needed to talk about what happened when she returned home, and with that Blue had run out the door and rode away on her bike to work.
Blue swung around with two trays of dirty dishes, almost hitting another waitress in the head. "Oh my god I'm so sorry!" Blue apologized and then ducked into the kitchen. Ever since this morning Blue was constantly distracted with the images she had seen when she touched Mr. Irvine's hand.
"BLUE, TABLE 7!" The cashier yelled from the front.
She grabbed a notepad out of her red apron and a bedazzled pen, ready to take Table 7's order. Her head was facing down as she approached already scribbling their table number and the hour on the pasty yellow piece of paper, when a ball of rolled up paper, the size of a marble, hit her face with great force. "What the-" She began.
"BLUE!" A familiar voice said excitingly. Looking up she realized Gansey, Ronan, Adam and Noah sat there now all staring at her with amused smiles.
"Is there any particular reason you guy are making a mess that I will have to clean up later?" She said in aggravatingly.
"Nice to see you too." Ronan replied sarcastically, tooth pick hanging from his mouth.
"We came for your exquisite service- and because we might have a new lead." Blue's eyes widened in shock they hadn't found anything ever since the whole cave collapsed and they were all almost killed. Blue looked at Gansey holding his gaze and then plopped down on the seat next to Adam.
"What did you find?" She watched Gansey pull out an old crumpled up piece of paper, and slid it across the table.
"We found a few of them beneath the ravish of that shitty cave." Ronan took the toothpick out of his mouth and starred at her with a now entertained smile. Blue looked up and down the paper trying to depict what it translated.
"Latin of course." Adam, who had been looking out the window turned and pointed to the paper. "When I first saw it I could pick out only a few words I knew, but it wasn't until Ronan translated a few sentences that I could actually understand what it was saying."
'Electus moriens spectat ad regem, fugit vita victusque cogitatio compunctionis corpora eorum. "Animus ad immortalitatem animae" spiritus vitae commutantur. Quod ad sitim crevit potentia, eius aetatis aptaretur paenitentiam." Quid aliud est vita quam ante mortem lapsus.'
Blue traced the words with her fingers; the paper felt old and smelt of dirt and must. It was like touching worn out sand paper everything was a stained yellow except for the black ink the twirled across the page.
"The chosen who has fled death, looks to the king, fleeing their corpse to the everlasting flame and the thought of compunction. A soul to the immortality of the soul, the spirit of life has changed. It has grown a thirst for power, adapted to his age, his repentance. What else is life but the lapse of time before his death." Ronan spoke with an angelic grace that almost didn't even belong to him; when it came to Latin Ronan spoke with a poet's tongue.
"I am almost positive there are more, this page looks like it was torn out of something like a journal. If we find that then we will have much more to go on, but-". Gansey was interrupted by a loud shout.
"BLUE STOP FLITING AND GET BACK TO WORK!" Her boss was a real stickler for slacking, not wanting to get fired for the only job she could get Blue stood up and began to work.
"I'll meet up with you guys at Monmouth after my shift ends, and you can finish clueing me in. Anyway did you guys actually want to order something?" She took their small order and waited on some other tables, after a few minutes of viciously gobbling down their food the boys left.
Blue hadn't realized how late it was until she left the diner, her boss asked Blue to lock up when she was done cleaning off the counters. This was probably a punishment for slacking off earlier. Typing in a code turned on the security and locked the doors, so Blue unlocked her bike from the rack and jumped on. She only rode a few feet before her bike collapsed underneath her. One of the tires had popped and in result, the rusty frame of the bicycle's gear had shattered in pieces of dirty scrap metal.
"Great." There was nothing she or anybody else could do to fix it. Blue had no choice but to walk to Monmouth, which wasn't to far away thankfully.
Her arm hurt really bad from falling off her crumby bike, there was a long cut that went up from her elbow to her wrist. It was good think that it wasn't to deep, and she would also have to explain to the boys and her mother that she was fine. Blue wiped some dirt off her face, as she continued her walk she could only think of what Ronan had translated off the paper. The words hadn't understood them at the time but now she did. 'The chosen who has fled death looks to the king…. A soul to the immortality of the soul.' These two lines had caught her attention, who was chosen? What did that have to do with a King?
A sharp whistle noise snapped Blue out of her trance, she looked to the road where a mustang had slowed down right next to her, two boys were sloping out the window. "Hey babe, wanna take a ride with us?" Blue looked past him to see pile of empty beer cans thrown across the seat.
"As much as I want to say yes-" She said with a sarcastic sigh. "I have been taught by my family to not get in a car with strangers." Blue continued to walk forward trying to get away from the alcohol drenched rich boys.
The black and gray muscle car that had now pulled up and stopped at the edge of the curb, a few feet away from where Blue stood. She was trying to look as tough as she possibly could, wearing one of Nino's colorful aprons. She had watched a nature film on the discovery channel once, it had been about survival in the wilderness and it was talking about what to do if you are at an encounter with a large potentially dangerous animal. The old guy who had been talking straightened his back and put his arms up, quite ridiculously if I might add, to look even bigger than he already was. He had said that animals in the wild, would feel you're a threat since their brains couldn't tell the difference between a small girl and a big threating predator. This being the only training blue had for fighting well, anything, she stood tall. Not to mention these guys probably couldn't tell the difference between the two either in their state right now. "Aw baby, don't be like that" one of them spoke as he leaned out of the slanted window; he held his hand to his heart, as if he had one, looking quite offended. "We just wanna have some fun."
"Well I don't wish to keep you from it so you best be on your way." Blue said trying to keep her voice as steady as possible. The one that previously leant out the window turned and said something to the driver who then smiled. Blue couldn't hear what was being said and she didn't stick around to. Her legs moved fast under her as she charged forward and ran kicking her feet to the ground harshly. Her apron, much like the rest of her wasn't made for running and tore at the waistline. "I am a girl who engages in no athletic activity-" she barely whispered to herself between breaths. "And I am running for my life-" She took a heavy breath "If this isn't the definition of Irony I don't know what is." She ran around a corner and was stopped in her tracks, her heart sank, the muscle car had parked just next to a barbed-wire fence and there was no one inside. Blue went to turn around but was grabbed by a tall boy wearing, Blue gasped, an Algionby sweater. His sandy brown hair swept back as he loosened his grip and pushed her to the ground. "Sammy, Nick! I got her!" Like dogs they came running when they heard their names. "Hey girl!" One of the boys that had just run over said to her, his breath reeking of alcohol.
"Get away from me, let me go!" Blue screamed as they pulled her off the ground and held her arms tightly. "What do you want from me?!" She asked trying to stall and think of a plan to escape their grips.
"Like I said were just lookin for a good time-" He was stopped by the sudden burst of excruciating pain, Blue had swung her leg and kicked him in the crotch. His outburst of yelling distracted the other boys long enough for her to free her arms. "YOU FUCKIN BITCH!" Blue tried to run but the guy she had kicked, pulled out a blade from his expensive leather boot, and pointed it on her chest. The sharp metal pushed into her skin sending small shocks of pain throughout her body. The boy with shaggy ginger hair laughed as if he was watching a funny movie.
"What are you gonna do now, you gonna cry?" Blue didn't want to cry she wasn't sad she was angry; if Ronan were here he would laugh at how weak and pathetic she was being. In Blues last attempt of bravery she punched the boy, with the knife, in his face. It was a pathetic punch but it was the best she could do at the moment, it didn't look like it hurt, he just looked startled like he wasn't expecting her to fight back. He did become even angrier though, his already pink face turned bright red with frustration. "That's it!" The hand that was holding the knife swung back in a quick motion about to strike her, but then stopped his face resembled the face of a dear in headlights. Blue had screamed stop and the gang of boys did, their bodies froze like statutes. Blue picked up the knife and caught a glimpse of her reflection her eyes had turned to a neon teal color and were almost glowing, the dirt that coated her pale skin made the color even more illumines. She looked back over at the guys they still didn't move they were literally frozen in place. She moved over to the boy with sandy brown hair and poked him with his own blade, no response.
"Ok this is weird." Blue said to herself. "What is wrong with you? Come on, move!" The boy moved his hand up and then down, but nothing more. " What the hell-" She said her voice filled with shock and confusion.
"Get back in your car and leave!" In response they all slowly walked back to their car and drove away. Blue stood there with a blank expression just starring where the boys had driven away, dirt was still settling on the ground.