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Chapter 3

Stella slowly opened her eyes and saw that she was back in the nurse's office. Her headache was gone but she still felt very weak.

"Feeling better?"

She turned her head to the side and saw America sitting by her bed and next to him was a table full of flowers. Stella wanted to ask where the flowers came from but when she opened up her mouth to speak, she only managed to mumble out a few words.

"Talk slowly." America said quietly and leaned in to hear better.

"Who....sent...." Stella said and pointed to the table of flowers. She couldn't believe how much energy it took for her to say two small words.

America shrugged. "Amandine, Ujana, Caia and other people that are worried about you."

Stella tried to push herself up in a sitting position but her arms were to weak to hold herself up. America saw this and got up to help her. He put some pillows behind her back to make her comfortable. "Better?"

She nodded. "What...happened?"

America could see how hard it was for her to speak and decided to keep it short. "They don't know. Your blood seems to be changing. It's more thicker and darker then before."

"Why?" Her voice was so weak you could barely hear it.

"We think that the guy who attacked you cast some kind of a spell on you." Alexandria said from the doorway. Neither Stella or America knew that she had been listening. "We think that he has weakened your powers or maybe blocked them some way."

Stella remembered the day he had attacked her. He seemed just as surprised as she was when the strange thing with her blood happened. Her handed touched the bandage on her neck and had a flashback when she first saw his red eyes. How terrified she was when he tried to kill her.

"How long-" Stella stopped to take two big breaths. "-was I asleep?"

Alexandria smiled. "Don't worry. It's only been one day."

"But your recovery will take longer." America said and poured a glass of water for Stella. The pain in her neck intensified when she poured down the whole glass in one gulp and the glass fell form her hand. Not because from of the pain but because it was to heavy.

"How long?" Her voice sounded hoarse.

"You will stay in your room for three days." The was Alexandria said it made no room for arguments.

Both America and Alexandria helped Stella out of bed. She was dressed in her PJ's and Stella didn't even want to think of who might have changed her clothes when she was unconscious. She managed to walk by herself but she couldn't hold on to anything. She even had use both hands to opened the door to her room. America was sent to his room. Alexandria didn't want him anywhere near the girls-dorm. She herself had left right after she helped Stella up the stairs.

Amandine was not in their room so Stella took this time to take a quick shower. She was sure that once her roommate came back she would have a thousand questions that Stella would be forced to answer.

The hot water felt nice on her skin and helped her relax. She was very careful not damage her wound any further. It had stopped bleeding but it still burned like hell. Not to mention that she had trouble eating and drinking. She turned off the hot water and wrapped a towel around her naked body. She must have been in the shower longer then she thought because steam had gather in the room. To be able to see her reflexion she had to wipe her hand across the mirror. She carefully took off the bandage and saw the big dark purple mark in the side of her neck that looked like a big bruise.

Memories of what happened started coming back and she quickly put on a new bandage before to block the memories out.

Amandine still hadn't returned and Stella was thankful for that. It was strange how she had spent most of the days since she came here asleep and yet she was still tired. Without pulling the covers back she just laid down and shut her eyes until she felt sleep overcome her. Only to have the nightmares begin again.

This time Noctis was alone in a dark room with a book in front of him. He flipped the pages until he came to the right one. Then he started to mumble something in Latin. He spoke so quietly that Stella could only make out a few words. All of a sudden her dream started spinning. Her vision got blurred like she had been drugged.

Stella woke up and was back in her room. It was night and Amandine had already gone to bed. The burning in Stella`s throat had subsided and she felt that some of her strength had returned. She got up to get a glass of water but as soon as her feet hit the ground the dizziness returned. Along with the nightmare.

She tried to remember the details as she made her way to the mini-fridge. Only bits of pieces returned. She remembered Noctis mumbling something and there was a book with some kind of a symbol on it. Her head still hadn't cleared up by the time she made it to the mini-fridge and bent down to take out a bottle of water.

"Crap!" Stella cursed when the cold water hurt her throat. She took a few more careful sips before returning to her bed.

After laying there for an hour, she decided that sleep was not going to welcome her tonight so she crawled out of bed and got dressed. Maybe a walk would do her good. There was a rule that no students were to leave there room after 23.00 so Stella had to be extremely careful on the school grounds. She quietly closed the door behind her and made her way down the hall and big room to the stairway.

She had only made a few steps down when America appeared in front of her.

"Why are you here?" Her voice was only a whisper but still stronger then it had been earlier today.

"Looking for you." His lips hadn't moved and inch but his voice still appeared in her head. It was only a hand full of Circes who had that ability.

"Why?"

He ignored her question. "How are you feeling?"

"Better." She stepped around him continued down to the first floor with him right behind her. "You're not supposed to be here."

When the reached the first floor America walked ahead of her and for some unknown reason, Stella followed. He led all the way to the other side of the building where the library was. The room was completely dark so America used a spell to temporary light up the room. The walls where dark brown and undecorated. Almost all over school there were pictures and photos covering every inch of the walls but this room was completely empty of that kind of stuff. The bookshelves where placed in the center of the room and build like a pyramid. Computers were pushed against the entire east wall and behind the labyrinth bookshelves was a small staircase that led to a small place with tables and chairs.

America went over to one of the computers and turned it on.

"Why are we here?" Stella asked and pulled out a chair to sit next to him.

"You remember the guy that attacked you." He didn't wait for her to answer. "He stole a book. Alexandria doesn't think that it's all that important. But the book that he stole holds ancient dark magic that hasn't been used in thousands of years."

"Why do we have a book like that here at school?" Stella wondered.

"It's a part of history and because the art of the magic has been lost, no one thought that it was a threat." America quickly accessed the school's database and a picture of a purple book with a symbol of a hourglass with a dotted circle around it.

"I remember that book." Stella whispered. "I saw it in my dream."

America turned around to look at her. "What dream?"

Stella explained how ever since she'd been attacked that she's been weak and had nightmares. She described both of her dreams to him. For some reason the last one seemed to really draw his interest.

"What his it?"

America pointed on the screen. "I have read this book. It's called labores solis which means eclipse of the sun. It was written by people who weren't Circes or Endymions. They called them selves spiritus."

"I have never heard of them." Stella said.

"That's because no one believes that they exist or ever existed. The spells in that book can only be performed by a spiritus, so people believe that it's just a bunch of crap." America had leaned in so close that Stella felt his hot breath on her skin.

"But you believe that it is true." Stella confirmed.

America leaned back in his chair. "I never had proof, until now."

"What do you mean?" Stella wondered.

"This book contains different kind of spells. One of them is a healing spell just like you described earlier. The dizziness you experienced is meant to heal illnesses or weakness. It almost like it makes you sicker to make you feel better. That's why you felt so much better when you woke up again." America explained. "If that guy can use those spells then he's a spiritus and that means that we have some serious trouble in our hands."

"Why would he help me?" Stella asked herself. He tried to kill her and now he wants to save her?

All of a sudden the computer turned off and his light spell was broken. Before Stella could ask what had happened, America put his hand over her mouth and pull her out of her chair. He dragged her out of the library ad further down the hall but not in the direction of the girls-dorm.

"They know we are here." He whispered and made a right turn. This hall looked exactly like the girls hall except that here everything was on the opposite side.

"Where are we?" Stella asked.

"The boys dorm." His voice appeared in her head again. "Don't speak. They can hear us."

He led her through a liquid door that looked exactly like the one in the girls hall and then up the stairs. Stella thought that he would stop at the 3th floor where the boys rooms were, but he continued all the way to the top. There was the same small door again except that this one had a picture on it instead of writing.

America suddenly turned around. "I'm sorry."

He wiped his hand across her face and Stella fell unconscious in his arms.

The morning sun burst through the thin curtains and hit Stella`s face.

"Wake up sleepy head." Amandine said and pulled Stella`s covers back.

To be continued....

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