Each walked in silence until they reached the top and made a noticeable effort to swerve around the area of rubble infused with power. Blaise cleared her throat and broke the silence, "What did happen there?"
Nick shifted around, twisting his head as if his neck were suddenly stiff. He dug in the pockets of the jacket in his arms to find his lighter and pack of cigarettes, lighting one in his mouth, the flame of the lighter dancing in the breeze. Blaise waited patiently, thinking it best to allow him to carry out this ritual of nervous habit, walking quickly enough to travel beside him instead of behind him. He glanced at her from the corners of his eyes and when he opened his mouth to speak, a cloud of smoke escaped and floated up to the sky. "A battle," was his only reply.
Blaise opened her mouth to speak, but closed it again, deciding it best to leave him smoking in silence. He drew to a stop in front of a well-kept pale yellow house and looked at his watch. It was close to midnight. "Listen, Blaise, it's late. Why don't we both go and sleep on it and meet again tomorrow?"
She looked at him, meeting his eyes and forcing herself to keep looking at him. A smirk appeared on her lips as she said, "And you really think you'll be able to sleep when you go?"
One final drag on the cigarette and he tossed it away into the grass, following it with his eyes; giving him reason to look away without seeming intimidated. "No, but that's no reason to make Diana suffer, too. She's probably been in bed for..." he trailed off as the door was yanked open, Diana standing there in navy blue sweats.
"Nick! Why aren't you swim..." then she actually looked at him, hair tousled and dripping and body shirtless, "You're wet."
Blaise watched as Nick's face softened and she felt jealousy flare up within her that this Diana, this blonde haired waif, could make Nick look like that. Blaise stepped out of the shadows, her sweater still draped over her arm, comfortable in her bikini top and jeans. Diana looked her up and down, a quick appraisal and an even quicker disapproval, pursing her lips. She recovered quickly, though, as Diana does, and the smile returned to her face as she looked from Blaise to Nick once more. "Nick?" she said, shifting her eyes to the dark haired girl, signaling an introduction was necessary.
Diana had to guard her expression again, this time not to gape at Nick's nervousness. He practically stammered the introductions, "Oh, um, Diana this is, uh, Blaise and Blaise this is Diana."
Diana offered her slender hand and Blaise took it, offering a quick business-like shake and a nod in response to Diana's mumbled "Nice to meet you."
Both Blaise and Diana turned their eyes to Nick and he looked back and forth between them, supremely uncomfortable. He cleared his throat and looked to Diana, meeting her eyes. "Diana, you said nothing would happen." His voice dropped in pitch and volume as he spoke and he ended up looking at the ground.
No longer able to catch Nick's eye, Diana looked to Blaise hoping to find some explanation there. She met Diana's eyes, lucid green versus smoky grey, and held them. But Diana found no answers there. She stepped back from the door and opened it wide, ushering them into the living room. Blaise seated herself at one end of the couch and Nick in a chair in the opposite corner of the room, as far from one another as they could get.
Diana noticed this as she entered behind them, having locked up the front door again, but she didn't say anything about it. She thought it best she let them talk first, especially since she had no idea of what was going on now or of what had happened at the beach.
Blaise was watching Diana with barely masked hostility as Diana was watching Nick, concern plainly showing on her face. She decided the silence had to be broken, so she spoke up, "Nick, what did you mean? What did you mean by 'you said nothing would happen'?"
He lifted his eyes once more to meet Diana's and he thumbed through the pockets of the jacket for another cigarette. He stuffed it between his lips before he remembered he was a guest in Diana's house, taking it out and dropping it reluctantly back into the pack. "You said the love spell was 'muted' and that it was safe. It wasn't."
Diana's brow puckered into a frown, not completely understanding. "It... wasn't?"
"No," came Blaise's voice from the couch, "it wasn't. And we want to know what you added to it and how we can fix it. Now."
Whirling around to face Blaise, Diana's eyes flashed defensively. "There was nothing extra in the spell. Only the ingredients the spell called for, nothing else. Its effects will wear off on their own. And, Nick did the recitation himself. There was a small... very small... enchantment on," she turned to Nick again, eyeing the lump in his coat and grabbing for the wine, "this, but that's all."
Nick said, "Then what the hell was it?"
At the same moment Blaise said, "I don't believe you," looking at the wine curiously, wondering what that had been for in the first place. Surely he hadn't expected a romantic interlude with a girl he'd known for all of six hours.
Diana ignored Blaise's cloaked accusation and studied Nick more closely. "What the hell was what?"
He grimaced and swallowed hard. "A haze around us, a silver cord between us..." he trailed off not wanting to say more. Not needing to say more.
Enough of the spell had finally worn off that a small chill passed through Blaise's body and she pulled her sweater back on over her head, settling back into the couch just as Diana began to speak, to say the word neither Blaise nor Nick wanted to hear, "You mean you two are soulm..."
"No," Blaise interrupted her fiercely. "No, we are not now nor will we ever be soulmates," she spit out the word as though it were an obscenity to her very existence.
Nick nodded in quick agreement. "She's right, Diana. There's no way..." an air of desperation weaved into his voice.
"Oh?" Diana looked back and forth between them. "Neither of you thinks so? Then touch."
Nick sneered and bared his teeth, his own swallow of the spell wearing off, forcing him to put the charcoal sweater on again. Blaise frowned and sank more deeply into the cushions, a staunch refusal to move. "No takers?" Diana asked from her position between them. "Then you have no proof one way or another," she looked at their sweaters, each now on the body of its owner. "The spell's effects have obviously worn off. There is only one way to find out the truth. Now, either you touch or you leave one another not knowing." Her hands were on her hips, her face set in a stubborn expression that Cassie had taught her specifically to deal with Nick.
He glared at her, his own expression one formerly reserved only for Faye, and stood, crossing the room in just a few paces, to sit on the opposite end of the couch. He reached out a slow hand, extending it half way down the cushions, giving Blaise the option to take it. She stared at it as thought it may strike given the opportunity, but she stuck out her own hand anyway, feeling compelled to do so.
Her fingers dipped into the cup of his open palm and they were again drawn into the world of haze and silver cords. Both sat in stunned silence, blinking through the clouds which had befallen their vision. Diana watched each of them closely, seeing so much of Adam in Nick that her heart ached. She turned her eyes to Blaise. The girl's expression harbored a softness which it had been lacking since she'd arrived on Diana's doorstep and, unbeknownst to Diana, a quality which had been absent her face since childhood.
Blaise withdrew her hand in a rare display of timidity and let it fall to the couch, Nick returning his own empty hand to his lap. "Only a fool would believe in this." Blaise spoke without raising her eyes.
Diana spoke with no hesitation, "Then I am a fool. I've seen it only once before, soulmates together, and now I'm seeing it again."
Nick looked to Diana, mixed emotions on his face; he looked defeated, almost deflated, and yet somewhat hopeful at the same time. "So what now?" his voice came out strained and genuinely confused. Blaise remained still and silent.
"What now?" Diana thought for a moment. "You can choose. You can choose to stay apart, as far from one another as possible but," she looked pointedly at Nick, "both you and I know that the heart of a person who has found their soulmate can never truly belong to another." The two friends shared a silent moment in which their common bond seemed stronger than anything else in the room – they had both lost a love to that love's soulmate. "You also know that living without her, or her having to live without you, would be your own personal hell on earth."
Blaise's fist smacked into the couch and she bolted upright, heading for the door, repeating "No" under her breath. She fumbled with the lock, mumbling obscenities at it, finally ripping it open and reveling in the rush of cold air on her skin.
Nick and Diana watched silently from the living room, neither one trying to stop her; Nick afraid that touching her again may send her over the edge and Diana afraid to leave Nick alone. Nick breathed out a simple question, "How many times does that happen when someone finds their soulmate?" Diana immediately moved to his side, catching a glimpse of dark hair through the picture window, heading toward the beach.
