Note:
Hey guys,
here goes the next chapter. I hope you still like my story line=)? Please let me know(REVIEWS;REVIEWS!)=)!
I might post a longer chapter tomorrow;-), if you let me know your thoughts.
Have fun reading and good night=).
Chapter 7:
Mark, Julian and Emma were coming through the entrance door of the institute, when they heard a loud smashing sound from down the hall, close to where Kit chose to sleep. They looked at each other quizzicaly.
"Ty, Dru, Livy, Tavy? We are back." Julian yelled. They dropped their euqipment next to the staircase in the entrance hall and went to where the noise came from.
There they were all standing next to one of uncle Arthur's old greek statues and looking horrified. Tavy was clinging on to Dru's skirt, Dru was holding Tavy's book in her hand and standing close to Livy. Her head leaned against a small slit of Kit's door.
"Hey. Where is Ty? What's going on?", Julian asked firmly.
"Shh, they are talking.", she waved at him.
"Ty was bringing him his lunch and when he asked him, if he would like to come to the library and help us with our research he just snapped. He snapped and punched his fist into the wooden door of his closet.
There is a hole now, in the closet I mean. And he is bleading pretty bad. But he doesn't want to be healed. I think he is scared of the stele.
He doesn't trust us."Livy said, only half looking at Julian so her head remained close to the open slit in the door.
Julian nodded and placed one of his hands on her shoulder.
"Let me go in and see, if I can help. He saw me before at his father's house. He might remember."And with that he went through the door and closed it behind himself.
Emma and Mark stood there awkwardly besides each other, not knowing how to behave. Emma was exhausted. Not only had she nearly died just half an hour ago, but also the thunderstorm of emotions that were flying through her head made her feel sick to her stomach. How was she supposed to behave? Just before their trip to Malcom's Dru had discovered her and Mark and surely had told the rest of the children. How should they explain, that it was all a lie, without giving away any details about her and Julian? And how were they supposed to keep up this charade, when the three of them knew what they were really feeling?
She knew she had to talk to Mark. She owed him an explanation. He didn't deserve to be treated like this, especially not after all that he had been through the last years. She felt so selfish and stupid.
"Mark? Can we talk?", she whispered into his ear and grabbed his arm.
He looked at her hand around his wrist, not meeting her gaze and followed her to her room.
She pulled him in and locked the door behind them, before dropping down on the edge of her bed.
He stopped close to the door, as if he was restraining himself to walk one step further and looked at her. In this moment he looked very human, younger even and she realized more than ever that he hadn't aged in farie.
She pulled on the sleeve of her gear, where her long scar on her forearm was, a nervous habit.
"Mark. I am truely sorry. I know what you must think of me now. I mean, you saw what happened between me and Julian. You saw us kissing. And I,...what we have been doing the last week..., I was using you to hurt Julian and it never came to my mind, that I could be hurting your feelings as well. I should never stand between you and your brother. I put my needs over yours...I am sorry."
She could see his eyes change while she was speeking, as if his human soul was pushed back and his fary nature was getting the upper hand.
"I knew you weren't telling me the whole truth. I could feel the weight of your unsaid thoughts. Don't forget I spent many years in farie and faries can't lie, but that doesn't mean I cannot feel when I am being lied to. On the contrary it made me very sensitive to all the shades of truth telling."
At this words he brought his hand up to his collar bone, where his elf bolt had been and touched the skin there lightly.
"And you know in farie there is a difference between the love of the heart and the desire for physical closeness and passion.", he said and the fey-like sparkle was back in his eyes again.
"I...I don't understand. What are you implementing?"
"I am saying that despite everything that happened today, I am still willing to pretend to be your boyfriend. I mean things won't get easier for you and Julian and please tell me if I am wrong, but I had the feeling like you were enjoying our little time together? You know I asked you this before. Why lie, if we could give this a try. If not out of love, but for the sake of collecting the bits and pieces of our shattered hearts ", by that he moved one step closer.
"How can you suggest that now, after you witnessed Julian and me? After you know that I was simply using you? How can you not be repelled by my actions? I am disgusted by myself!"She felt her stomach twist and wrapped her hand around her belly.
He looked at her and she could see a shadow of worry fly past his irises.
"Emma, you should rest. You've been poisoned. And we don't know, if the medaillon has any other longterm side effects, that we are not aware of yet." He moved towards her and sat next to her on the bed. His humanity was back and he seamed concerned. He took off her gear jacket and whipped some of her blond strands out of her face.
"We can talk later."
She looked in his blue-green eye and nodded.
"Ty what's going on in here?", Julian asked as he slide into the Kit's room.
Kit was standing by the damaged closet hiding in a deffensive position behind an old wingchair. Ty was standing a few feet away from him with out stretched arms, trying to calm Kit down.
"He hurt himself and when I tried to heal him with my stele he completely lost his mind. He won't believe me. He is seriously hurt Jules. He lost blood. Wee need to help him."Ty said while keeping his eyes fixed on Kit's.
Julian was still surprised by Ty's interest in Kit and the way he was able to look at him. He normally never looked people's eyes, but he did look directly at Kit and his face was full of worry and...and...Julian didn't know what it was.
Julian looked back at Kit and moved closer, taking Ty's arms down to his sides and the stele out of his right hand. He dropped it down to the floor and then kicked it away to a far corner of the room.
"See? We don't want to push you. I am Julian Blackthorn, Ty's elder brother. I don't know if you remember? We saw each other over at your father's house."
"I remember. You and that blond girl from the market... . I...keep these things away from me.",Kit yelled desperately.
"All right, all right. But you are injured. Your wound needs to be treated. Let me get you some bandages and some iodine. I think we got some in the training room's first aid kit.",Julian suggested.
Kit looked from Julian to himself and down on his bloody fist. He nodded slightly.
"Ok then. Come on Ty, I could use your help." Ty looked like he wanted to protest, but when he saw the determination in Julian's eyes he didn't say a word and followed him out of the room.
When they had closed the door behind themselves Julian looked at his four younger siblings and said "I know all of you just mean well, but Kit has just lost his father. He lost everything he had and almost simultaneously he had to discover, that his whole life has been a lie, that he has been lied to by his own father. He is confused and broken. You have to be patient with him. Don't try to push him. He will come around eventually. Give him all the time he needs."
"Yes ok.", Ty said uncertain. And then after a short break, as if he was rearranging his thoughts he added:" Have you found Annabel? You didn't tell us anything yet. Where are Mark and Emma? Are they ok?"
At that Julian registered that they weren't there anymore. The well known feeling of desperate longing and hurt was back and tearing at his bones.
"They are alright. There has been an incident at Malcom's, but Emma is fine now. We didn't find Annabel, but we found a medaillon. Emma thinks it belonged to Annabel Blackthorn. She found it at Malcom's. It is dangerous and poisoned. Don't touch it!" He grabbed into his right pocket and showed them the medaillon laying wrapped in fabric in his palm. "If you are going to the library now, maybe try to find any hints on this symbol. It could be dark magic or something like that. It isn't angelic or fey...it must be something else."
Livy wanted to take the medaillon, but Julian moved it out of her reach.
„No! It almost killed Emma. Take a picture of the symbol with your phone and then I am locking this away. Just to be save."
Livy nodded and pulled her phone out of her side pocket on her jeans.
After taking some pictures, she slid it back into her pocket and entwined her fingers with Ty's. "Ty come on. We wanted to go to the library again remember? You said something about looking into more of Edgar Allan Poe's other poems. And maybe if we look at the symbolism encyclopedia... "
"Yes,...lets go. Dru and Tavy can come with us. Jules you are taking care of Kit's wound?",Ty asked.
"Yes, sure. I will get the bandages.", Julian answered.
Emma woke up fully dressed in her gear on her bed. She had a massive head ache and the incoming sun rays that had tickled her nose and woke her up, seamed to torture her eyes like hot needles. She shut them closed again, while the heavy events of the day pressed themselves back into her mind. She moved her head to the side and hide her face under her pillows. Her whole body still seemed to feel the aftermath of Julian's iratze. She was feeling feverish and tired, so tired.
Julian...Oh Julian, what had they done. What if this was the first step to madness? What if she can't stop it? She felt so hopeless, her heart started to fell heavy, as if a giant stone was being wrapped around it's muscle.
She felt the urge to get rid of her dirty clothes, but the urge to hide was stronger. She wanted to get up and move on, try to live with it, try to make things work, but the hopelessness of her situation was winning over and she felt unable to move.
She didn't know how long she had been sleeping or how long she had been laying here, when someone was knocking on her door.
She didn't even make the effort to answer, only moved deeper in her pillows.
"Emma? Emma are you in there? Can...can I come in?" When he didn't get an answer he opened her door and looked in. He half feared he would find her wrapped into Mark's arms again, but instead he was finding her curled up under her pillows. She looked pale and more vulnerable, almost as miserable as she had been when she took the whipping for him. She was his strong and fearless Emma. He hated to see her suffering.
"Em? Are you ok? I thought I healed you?" He was at her side within seconds. He dropped his palm to her forehead and almost jumped when he felt the heat radiating from her.
"You are having a feaver Emma. Let me draw another iratze on you and you will be fine in seconds." He started to move his hand towards his pocket were he kept his stele, when she grabbed his wrist.
"No, Julian. We talked about this earlier. No more drawing runes on each other. Not while we are...you know...like this.",she finished and tried to avoid looking into his eyes.
"I will fight the feaver off. I will do it the mundane way."
He looked at her unsafisfied, but accepted her wishes.
"Ok, but let me at least take care of you. I am your parabati after all, I need to be close to you."He pleaded.
"No, Julian. You know as good as I do, that being close to each other at the moment isn't a good idea. Go to the others,occupy yourself. I..we can't... ."Emma whispered her hand still grabbing his wrist.
He took his other hand away from her forehead and under her chin, moving it up so her eyes were meeting his.
