Evelyn woke up after a while but instead of going crazy and throwing a fit, she just sat in silence, staring straight out in space. Once in a while, she would say 'why' very silently to herself and rock a bit back and forth. Jaclyn told us she was going to take Laura with her and swipe her as soon as she could, but before that, she told us the story about Megan. You see, Megan had been a pretty girl with long dark brown hair, who just didn't come home after a night out with her friends. Megan disappeared without a trace and the people that saw her last said that she was on her way home. Megan also happened to have been Evelyn's daughter. Evelyn went all sorts of crazy and started looking for her with different scrying spells, but she didn't have much luck. After a while, she resorted to asking Jaclyn for help and they actually found her with their co-joined powers. The only problem was that sweet little Megan wasn't so sweet anymore. She was strigoi. Evelyn went into shock and insisted that she needed to take whatever measures needed to get her daughter back. They looked for some spells but the only one they stumbled upon required for them to find extremely rare ingredients, and also, they needed someone more powerful than they had ever been. That's when Jaclyn gave up and returned to her work at Amberwood, only to stumble upon Sage and her powers only a few short months afterward. She decided to tell Evelyn that she had found someone who might be able to pull the spell off but when Sage explained that she didn't want anything to do with magic, Jaclyn told her sister that they couldn't use her. Evelyn refused to accept that and stopped talking to her little sister, while putting together a plan to get her daughter back. The rest of the story is history, Evelyn kidnapped Sage, I came to the rescue abracadabra here we were. When the story was over, Eddie and Sage kind of shared a look and then she spoke.
"We know another way to restore strigoi.", Sage said and looked at her former teacher.
"Wait what? You do?", Jaclyn was really surprised. "Tell me how!", She demanded and looked at us eagerly.
"You just take a charmed silver stake, one that we guardians have, and charm it with some spirit. Then you just jam the stake in the strigoi's heart and they get restored.", Eddie said, all guardian. Jaclyn's face lit up.
"I can't believe we didn't know about that..", She muttered. Eddie shook his head.
"It's kind of new to us too.", He shrugged. "We'd love to help you get her back, but we have some problems of our own at the moment.", Eddie pointed to me and Jaclyn nodded.
"The spell he's under can only be broken by himself, otherwise, I would have helped.", She sighed and looked me deep in the eyes. "It's all up to you to get your memory back. Nobody can help you.", She spoke and took Evelyn out to her car with her. Eddie followed her, carrying the still unconscious Laura, and put her in the back seat. She waved before getting in the car herself and driving off. Sage set off to talk to Clarence and Dorothy about the whole thing that had went down in the kitchen only minutes ago, while I helped Eddie pack our car. We were going back to court in another attempt to get my memories back, but after Jaclyn said that I needed to get my memory back myself, everything felt kind of hopeless. I didn't feel ready to get back the memories yet. It wasn't time. After we had packed up the car, we went and said our goodbyes to Clarence and Dorothy. We then went back to the car, and drove off. Eddie was driving this time and I was sat in the back seat, stuck in my own thoughts and the different things I tried so hard to sort out. The fight and Sage's determination to protect me had started an avalanche inside of me. She had started to become more to me than just the alchemist girl who saved my life. She was becoming something greater, something that made me unable to stay away from her. She pulled me towards her, she was like the sun and I was the earth revolving around her. It felt strange, it wasn't love. Or at least I didn't think so. This wasn't the same feeling I had felt toward Rose, this was stronger and more magnetic. I couldn't put my finger on it.
The next day, we arrived at court. The guards let us in and since Jill saw me through the bond, she was stood waiting for us when we arrived. Immediately when she saw Sage, she ran up and hugged her very tight, very long.
"I missed you so much.", She muttered while hugging Sage and the alchemist smiled.
"Well, I'm back now, I can tell you everything some other time, right now we need to focus on the party-boy over there.", She pointed towards me and Jill giggled. Jailbat then proceeded to give Eddie a quick hug, and then she went up to me. She stood in front off me and looked me in the eyes with sadness painted on her face.
"Hello Jailbat. How's it going?", I asked, a smirk on my face. I couldn't stand seeing her sad.
"Shouldn't I be asking you that?", She answered with a question and then smiled, but the sadness was still displayed in her eyes. I was getting sick of these negative emotions. They disgusted me.
"Fair enough, I'm doing fine. Nothing has come back yet, but it's only a matter of time.", I tried cheering her up, and it worked for a second. A flash of joy came to her eyes but was soon overpowered by the sadness.
"Well, good.", She smiled. "Let's go, Sonya is here and she wants to see you.", She grabbed my arm and started dragging me after her. Sage and Eddie kind of shrugged before following us. Jill dragged us halfway across court to Sonya, who was standing by some pots, caring for some plants. She looked up when we were closing in, and immediately wrinkled her forehead. She was staring at a spot right above my head. My aura must look awful. Before we even had time to say hello, she looked away from my aura, and hugged Sage. Apparently, everybody had missed her a lot. It didn't make sense to me, but by this point, I had learned to not over-think everything that was different than the last time I remember seeing them. It just made me tired. It was better to focus on the present.
"Long time no see.", She said and looked Sage in the eyes with a wide smile on her face.
"Too long.", Sage answered and returned the smile. "Any thoughts about Adrian?", Sage asked and Sonya nodded.
"There's this cloak on his aura, it's gray and a bit thick, but I see his aura underneath.", She started and Sage nodded.
"My aura was the same, he told me that.", She looked at me and gave me an encouraging smile.
"The thing is, it's ripped on some places.", Sonya squinted and Sage's eyes darted to me. She looked a bit angry for a second before putting on a neutral expression. "The rips are not big though, they are tiny.", She sighed and stopped squinting. She then got an amused expression and muttered 'interesting' for herself and smiled. Nobody else seemed to care about what she said, but the word stuck with me. What had she seen that was 'interesting'? It always scared me when I didn't know about something that concerned me.
"Adrian, can I talk with you alone for minute?", Sage suddenly broke the silence and I felt cold inside. What had I done now?
"Um, yeah, sure, why not?", I answered hesitantly and she took me aside. She crossed her arms against her chest and looked me deep in the eyes.
"Why didn't you tell me?", She asked, clearly disappointed. I didn't even know what she was talking about.
"Tell you about what? What have I done?", I asked, confused. What the hell.
"You didn't tell me about the fact that you've had flashbacks.", She sighed and looked away. "Why didn't you tell me?", She looked back at me with a look of sadness in her eyes.
"Because I barely knew that they were flashbacks. I just keep seeing these random images, nothing important.", I assured her. I still didn't feel like telling her about the cross, and I didn't know why. I could just feel that I shouldn't tell her about the fact that I kept seeing this stupid necklace whenever I remembered something. She didn't seem content with my answer, but after a moments hesitation. She nodded and seemed to accept it.
"Well, okay then. Just, keep in mind that I have gone through the exact same thing, I could help.", She said and I nodded in to show that I understood. She then lead the way back to the others who was talking and laughing. When we arrived back, they looked at us and Sonya smiled. She practically beamed and kept looking between me and Sage. What was she all about? Did she think something was going on here? No chance, no chance at all. Then something hit me, she kept looking like that on Eddie and Jill too, and when I looked at them, I could see it. They liked each other a lot. Wow, that was new. It was cute to see them all awkward around each other, but it was also a painful reminder that I couldn't protect Jill from everything throughout her life. I saw her as my little sister, and I would do anything for her, but I couldn't decide over her. She wasn't my little sister. Don't get me wrong, I was happy that she was crushing on Eddie, and I totally approved of those two, but it was just a reminder that she wasn't really that awkward little kid I first got to know. She was more mature now and she was exploring the world in her own way. We stood there, talking for a bit, when Rose suddenly came walking around the corner. She gasped in surprise when she saw us and then rushed forward and hugged Sage tight. She then let go and went up to me and punched me on the arm. Strange, the punch hurt, but it didn't hurt seeing her. That was new.
"That's for leaving me here while you sneaked away and rescued Sydney.", She looked mad for a second but then her face split in a smile. "But I'm glad you found her."
"Thanks, I guess?", I said hesitantly while rubbing my arm. She didn't have to punch so hard.
"Rose? He's not really himself.", Sage said carefully.
"What do you mean by that?", She asked and looked curious. Sage then threw herself into the whole story of me finding her with memory loss and when I was locked in witch jail and she then finished with telling her about my own memory loss. Rose looked surprised and worried when story-time was over and I kind of shrugged to show that I didn't know what to say or do.
"Wow, okay, let me get this straight, you don't remember anything after the attack at court? Nothing at all?", She looked really confused. She probably didn't know how to handle this, memory loss wasn't exactly the kind of thing guardians dealt with.
"Exactly. It's completely blank.", I answered and she kind of sighed.
"That is so bad.", She muttered to herself and then looked around her. "Does anyone have any idea how to make him remember or what?", Rose didn't waste time.
"An old friend told me that he needs to remember on his own. We can't force it.", Sage said and sighed.
"Well that was bad.", Rose said. "I just feel like we should help.", She seemed disappointed. Maybe because she was useless for once.
"Come on people, I can do this on my own. Stop worrying.", I was getting pissed over the fact that they seemed to think they decided over my life and my actions. Okay that I was kind of handicapped with this amnesia, but that didn't mean that I needed any special treatment. "I'm not a child you know, I can fix this.", I continued and they just looked at me.
"If you say so.", Offered Rose while Jill and Eddie nodded. Sonya and Sage seemed more hesitant to leaving this responsibility to myself. I wondered why.
"Everyone agrees to let me figure this out on my own unless I ask for help?", I pressed and stared at Sonya and Sage. The two women hesitated for a second before both nodded.
"Good.", I said and flashed a cocky smile. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have some bags to put in my room."