17And now, without further ado, my love, hugs, and kisses to you all for waiting so long...
PS- Sorry for the html problems before. I'm trying to stop using it now.
Oh. Right. Story. Heh. Sorry. moves out of the way
Chapter Two
Fairies No One Can See and Dreams That Are Repetitive
Evelyn's mood had not improved by the time she reached the Montgomery Museum of Fine Art, where the Magic School Bus would pick her classmates up. Mrs McClure practically shoved her, Brittany, and Rebecca out of the van. Throughout the week, Mrs McClure's patience had been getting thinner, keeping pace with her hair and cheeks.
"Have a good time!" she called hurriedly with a quick wave. The van's tires smoked as she screeched out of the parking lot.
"I think she's glad to be rid of us," Rebecca observed.
Brittany shook her head. "After this week, she'll be glad to be rid of anyone."
There was a harsh, tinkling laugh from above them, and they turned to see Marie Rochester standing on the steps. Marie was one of the most beautiful witches at the School of American Magic, if beauty was only skin-deep and wasn't all that pretty. Her blond hair had been trimmed to her shoulders, and she was tall and slim. Her cheekbones were high, as was uniform with model-esque faces, her eyes bright and hazel. Her mouth was wide, and her teeth were almost pure white. Little could be said about her ears except to say that they were proportionate to her small curved nose and wide eyes. Her skin was tan, and she wore a tight aqua-blue tank top and long jeans with heels. She wore a variety of gemstone rings and large silver hoops hung from her ears. Small rings glittered on her toes.
"I understand how your mother feels, Brittany," Marie announced grandly. Her eyes found Evelyn. "If I were her, I'd be glad to be rid of you too." Brittany scowled, but Marie wasn't done. Evelyn, dear, I heard you got into tons of trouble over the summer."
Evelyn blanched. "Did you just call me 'dear?'"
"Oh, I'm sorry," Marie said, fingers gracefully going to her heart as if they were shocked at something. "It's something they do all the time in England. That's where I spent my summer. In jolly old England." She laughed again. "I couldn't expect you to understand. I was modeling."
"For a fish-and-chips billboard?" Brittany asked.
"The other white meat," Evelyn said softly.
Marie didn't hear Evelyn's remark. "No, for their Vogue magazine. I'll show you a copy when I get it, Brittany. Maybe you have taste after all."
Brittany smiled wolfishly, but to Evelyn's surprise, no insult came out of Brittany's mouth. Instead, she said, "Maybe I do, Marie. I'd be happy to see your photos."
Marie laughed again, looking pleased. She glared at Evelyn and Rebecca and then went off to the side, where Tabitha Brooks was sniggering. The two went off to join a group of other attractive people.
Evelyn grabbed Brittany by the ear and started dragging the girl in the opposite direction, toward a brick hallway with wide blocks missing from the walls like open windows. She stopped once she judged they were out of hearing distance. "What was that?" she demanded.
Brittany grinned wickedly. "House B," she said, popping her knuckles, "is going to suffer. Even if I have to vomit to do it."
Jacques Dupont stuck his head through a window. "Why are you three talking about vomit?" he asked patiently, stepping through to join them.
"I'm not talking about vomit!" Rebecca exclaimed. "Neither is Eve, actually. Brittany is."
"Of course Brittany would."
Brittany made sounds of protest, but Evelyn shoved her out of the way. "Hello, Jacques. You're early, aren't you?"
He shrugged. "My parents had things to do." Jacques was one of the most popular boys at the School of American Magic, mostly because the girls tended to swoon over him. Not only did he have a French accent at times and could speak the language fluently, but he hard dark brown curls and sparkling blue eyes. He had a square jaw and strong nose, with ears that were a touch too big but managed to look handsome as they were often covered by his curls. He wore a faded green T-shirt and jeans. "It took you guys forever to show up."
Evelyn looked at the spot where he'd been standing, out of view of Marie and her friends and the additional advantage of being blocked by a bush. She looked at Jacques in shock. "Jacques," she said carefully. "Were you hiding?"
He looked abashed. "No."
"From Marie?" she pressed.
He cleared his throat. "No."
She, Brittany, and Rebecca exchanged knowing looks.
"I wasn't!" he said quickly. "I- I'm going to sit over there." Jacques walked farther down the hall and sat on the gray tiles.
Brittany led the way to where Jacques was sitting, saying, "Marie will doubtless try to befriend me to lead me into a trap, but she won't realize that all the while she's trying to lead me into a trap, I'll be doing the same to her. Only my trap will be better. Fiercer. More memorable." She grinned a wicked smile that had struck fear in the heart of her little sister. "More embarrassing."
Evelyn and Rebecca exchanged glances but said nothing.
Nearly half an hour later, they had been joined by Sean Waits, Brittany's boyfriend, and Jacob Hudson, Rebecca's boyfriend. Evelyn wondered if Jacques felt as much like a fifth wheel as she did. They sat on the "windowsill" of one of the walls, talking about their summers as they waited for the bus to arrive. And before long, it did, a yellow vehicle winding its way around the road leading to the parking lot. It was short, like a nursery school bus, and "Magic School Bus" was painted across the side in child-like print. It stopped in front of them with a squeal of brakes, and nearly all of the students voiced complaints and rubbed their ears.
BoBob opened the door and called out, "Sorry! I'll fix those!"
"When?" Sean grumbled.
Many other students were saying things along the same lines, but they were all cut short when a wisp of a woman stepped regally off the bus. Evelyn's jaw dropped. The woman made Marie look ugly, like an eagle standing next to a balding chicken. The woman was tall and slender, graceful. Her hair was as black as obsidian, tied in a braid that fell all the way to her feet. Her bone structure was thin and fragile, but her black eyes attested that she was anything but weak. She wore a simple dress the color of leaves in spring that fell to her ankles.
"She's a fairy!" Evelyn exclaimed as she caught sight of thin gossamer wings folded behind the woman's back. She could see their tips under the woman's dress, veined with black.
"She isn't," Brittany said. "She's just pretty." Brittany's arms were crossed over her chest, and her face was openly hostile. Evelyn wondered if Brittany was just jealous.
"She's beautiful," Rebecca said dreamily.
Jacques, Jacob, and Sean didn't voice their agreement so much as bob their heads up and down dumbly.
"Good afternoon," the woman said to the hushed group. "You may call me Henna. I will be supervising this trip."
"Ugly name," Brittany muttered.
"A fake one," Evelyn said softly. She couldn't explain how she knew, but she told Brittany anyway. "If she told us her real name, we wouldn't be able to pronounce it anyway."
Brittany didn't seem to hear her. Her other friends didn't either. They were all hanging on the woman's words, unaware of anything else. Evelyn shook her head and tried to pay attention, though she was beginning to distrust "Henna."
"I would appreciate it very much," Henna said, "if you would tell me your names as you board the bus. This way I will be sure to miss no one. Shall we begin?"
The students, all of C Houses at SAM, moved into a line as if in a dream. Evelyn watched, a sinking feeling in her stomach. It was as if they were under a spell. She followed the others to get in line and searched for BoBob. He was watching Henna with a look that might have been admiration, but she didn't think it was the same spell everyone else was under.
Despite having to check off fifty students, progress was quick, and Evelyn found herself standing beside Henna sooner than she'd anticipated.
"Evelyn Smith," she said, trying not to sound nervous.
"Ah, yes. I have heard of you, Evelyn Smith." Henna studied her, one black eyebrow raised. "You are the one with the fairy blood."
"Yes," Evelyn said, wondering how to converse with strangers about what kind of blood she had. It didn't seem usual, but then again, the magical world was anything but usual.
"I have fairy blood too," Henna told her. "I would love to discuss it with you sometime."
Evelyn tried to grin. "All right," she said. She hurried aboard.
Once everyone was situated on the bus, Henna stood before them and said, "I will be your new Manipulations teacher until Ms Bronson is found." She spoke softly, but everyone heard her nonetheless. "It is a pleasure to meet all of you." She sat down gracefully, half turned to them so her wings were where her feet would be and where they wouldn't crinkle. The position looked uncomfortable, but her expression only showed peace and serenity.
"She looks like a freak," Marie said from where she sat behind Brittany and Evelyn.
"Agreed," Brittany said. She looked back to Marie, sizing the girl up. "And you have no idea how much it pains me to agree with you."
"Like swallowing acid? I get that same feeling just talking to you," Marie said. Neither of them spoke with venom, though, and Marie quickly moved on. "I told Tabitha that Henna's ugly, but she just told me I was prejudiced."
Evelyn looked behind her as well to study Marie, and then surveyed the rest of the bus. All the guys were staring at Henna, as well as many of the girls. "She's a fairy," she said. "Maybe she's using magic."
"She's definitely using magic, but she's no fairy," Marie said flatly, looking at Jacques, who was looking at Henna with fogged-over eyes.
"Eve, a fairy's a flaming gay guy," Brittany explained.
"No, it-" But Brittany was already talking to Marie about how fickle guys could be. Evelyn looked for Rebecca, but her friend was staring at Henna with the same doe-eyed expression of nearly everyone else. Had everyone forgotten they were in the magical world, where fairies existed just as much as any human did? She sighed and retreated into her own thoughts.
"Where to?" Jacques asked.
Evelyn stopped herself before she answered; she wasn't the person he was asking.
"You will need uniforms," Henna said. "It would be wise to patron Cincy's Clothing."
"I don't know where that is," Tabitha said dolefully. "Could you show me, Henna?"
There was a chorus of voices to much the same effect, and Henna graciously accepted the responsibility, making a map with her own wand. Evelyn's eyes narrowed. She was no fan of the maps at the Magic Mall, but something didn't seem right about Henna making her own map. A three-dimensional replica of the mall sprang to life, stories tall and almost eight inches wide. "Could you please show us the way from where we now stand to Cincy's Clothing?" Henna asked the map. The map shrank, cutting off floors until Cincy's Clothing was on top; they could have looked into it as if they were looking through the roof of the store itself. At the same time, the image expanded, growing and then fading until onto one path remained.
Henna studied it for a few moments and nodded. "It is this way." She led forty-seven sophomores down the hall, all of them vying for her attention.
"They're like sheep!" Marie exclaimed in disgust.
Evelyn sighed. Marie was just upset that Henna was leading Marie's sheep around the mall.
"Makes me sick," Brittany agreed. "What say we avoid them?" She looked at Marie but didn't seem to see Evelyn.
"Sounds good to me," Marie growled. "Let's go."
As they walked off, Evelyn looked after them and scowled. "Well, that's loyalty!"
BoBob shrugged. "Yeah. I've got to fix the bus. I'll see you."
He walked off. She scowled after him. Some things just weren't right with the world.
But now she was alone in a huge mall that was easy to get lost in even when she had a map. Resigned, she went to the sign in the middle of the hall. "Comefuschia," she said calmly. The sign, which gave instructions in how to use maps to the mall, was infamous for playing tricks on people and leaving steps out of the directions, but this time, all the instructions appeared in brown ink, almost floating on the brown paper. As a puff of smoke dropped a map into her hands, Evelyn looked at the sign curiously. "We're friends now, are we? After that joke you played on me last year."
The sign's instructions bobbed up and down.
Evelyn tried to act as if this was normal. She had never heard of magical objects acting with minds of their own, but perhaps it was advanced magic. She'd never seen anyone else talking to magical objects and getting answers back, though, and she wondered if even the magical world had insane asylums.
But it would be rude not to answer the sign after it had answered her. "Thanks. It's... nice to have a friend."
The sign's ink jiggled with joy and disappeared. Evelyn, dismissed (by a sign!), walked off, trying to ignore the incredulous and somewhat worried expression on an onlooker's face.
As most of the group was getting their uniforms, Evelyn decided to avoid them and go to King's Wands and Other Magical Objects. She was glad to find that the elevator was working this year, and her ride was easy enough. But as she went along, she noticed more and more people openly staring at her. She buried her nose in her map, her face turning red.
By the time she got to King's, she knew something was wrong; people were stopping to watch her pass. In the store, she grabbed a basket and sought to lose herself between the shelves, occasionally checking her list but more often looking at the people around her.
"I'd heard you were here."
Evelyn jumped and saw Brandy Cox's brown hair, curled inwards at her shoulders. She was taller than Evelyn, with a smaller nose and rounder eyes. Her dark eyebrows pointed to small ears. Her mouth was flat, and she was giving Evelyn the same no-nonsense expression she had given Evelyn when they'd met the previous year.
Evelyn tried to grin and failed. "How?"
Brandy waved a hand to encompass the store. "People are talking. You're infamous."
Evelyn stopped trying to smile and scowled. "I take it everyone's been reading the news?"
"Only the gossip rags, apparently. Have you found everything you need? I don't want you calling the MBI on me if you're displeased." She took Evelyn's list from the girl's fingers and looked it over.
It took a few moments for Evelyn to realize that Brandy might have just made a joke. Hadn't she seemed livelier last year?
Brandy's brow furrowed. "I heard SAM was getting uniforms. I'd hoped it wasn't true."
"It's true," Evelyn said solemnly. "We don't like it either."
The woman sighed. "Oh well. What have you got so far?" She studied Evelyn's basket and then nodded. She led the way through aisles and handed Evelyn item after item. Evelyn realized how lucky she was that the basket was charmed to be lightweight; she wouldn't have been able to carry everything otherwise.
At the counter, as gizmos and toys built to resemble whirl-o-wisps careened above their heads, Evelyn saw a fairy dancing on a small display on the countertop. It wasn't a real fairy, of course; the magical world didn't seem to go in much for decorative fairies. It was like a doll, so small its arms were needle-thin, and it danced effortlessly with its eyes closed, a glittering maroon dress swirling around it. The sign on the display read: "Fairy Dust. Wards off all spells that smell of the Fae."
Evelyn's brow knit as she studied the fairy dust, held in small, glass phials arranged in neat rows. The dust came in a variety of colors, and all of it sparkling like a dragonfly's wing. "Is that real?" Evelyn asked, nodding to it.
"We only carry the best," Brandy said firmly as she rang up Evelyn's purchases. Evelyn noticed that none of her new positions were cheap, but she overlooked it. She couldn't afford to be mean or snippety when it might be blown out of proportion. "It's made from fairy parts," Brandy continued, too softly for anyone else to hear. "We wouldn't carry it at all, except that fairies have been making a comeback in the magical world lately, and it sells well."
"From fairy parts?" Evelyn repeated in an undertone.
Brandy gave a slight nod. "There's a reason relations between the Fae and humans are so bad." She looked at the small cases with disapproval. "I don't know if that dust works or not," she said, "but I don't really care. It encourages the wrong things. Will this be all?"
Evelyn nodded and counted out the money to purchase everything. She stuffed everything into her Storall, her box that could change its size to fit anything, and it drew more than a few stares.
"Where'd you get that?" Brandy asked as she eyed it. She looked almost hungry.
"Family heirloom," Evelyn explained, tucking it into her pocket hurriedly. As she left the store, she bit her lip and kept her eyes on the floor. Body parts... People were harvesting fairy parts? That would explain some of the conflict between the two races. Evelyn frowned. She had read books the previous year from SAM's library, but none had been very good or in-depth. Maybe it was time to find out what she could. After all, her mother had been a fairy.
A quarter of an hour later, Evelyn was in one of the Magic Mall's many bookstores, titled Flights and Writes. Some of the titles in the magical world Evelyn wondered if she would ever understand.
The story itself was dusty. It didn't carry textbooks or even new books, but that was one of the reasons Evelyn had been drawn to it. The facade outside was brown wood, and someone had shoved bookshelves against the window and filled them with books, all crammed together so tightly their covers would stick together if anyone tried to removed one. Evelyn found the inside was just as crammed, only dustier than the window had indicated, but she was intrigued by titles like "The Eye I Dropped In My Soup" (about magical cooking mishaps) and "The Abnormal Neighbors" (about a non-magical family living in a magical neighborhood). But after half an hour, she still hadn't found any books on fairies.
"Ah, I see you are more selective." A man stood beside one of the many bookshelves. He was old, nearly as short as Evelyn herself, with age spots on a nose as smooth as chalk. His cheeks hung near his jawline, and his eyes were almost completely hidden by thick eyebrows; salt-and-pepper hair just as thick as his eyebrows radiated out from his face and stuck out of his ears. He had a rounded waist, mostly hidden by a burgundy jacket with gray leather sewn into the elbows. His slacks matched his jacket.
"Hi," Evelyn said cautiously. "I'm looking for books on fairies."
The man's eyes rose, and she glimpsed black eyes before they fell again. "Fairies. Books on fairies. I see. It's been a long time. But then, the world is changing. The wheel is turning, so they say." He wrung a black cloth in his arms and calmed down. "Right this way, Miss," he said with a morose dignity. He turned and led her to a section near the back of the store. "These are all we've got, this one shelf here. Afraid you won't find much, but you might find something. If you need anything, just give a shout." He squeezed past her, and for a few moments, she felt his eyes on her back. But then the feeling passed and he trudged off.
She shook her head at the world in general and moved closer to the books, scanning titles. Most of them were folk-tales and picture books, but two caught her eye in particular. "The Fairy Wars: The Fight With No Fighting," and "The Other People." She tugged these off the shelf (it took more effort than she'd expected) and carried them to the counter.
"Glad to see you found something, Miss," the man said. "Can be difficult in here, I know. I don't use the organization system those other stores do. So you have a paper on the Fairy Folk?"
"A curiosity," Evelyn said, hoping she didn't sound too much like a dork.
"Ah. Curiosity's a good thing. We wouldn't have gone far without it. Here you go, Ms. Smith."
Evelyn, about to take the bag he handed her, froze.
He gave her a grin that would have been comforting if he'd had any teeth. "Word gets out, Ms. Smith. You're in all the gossip rags."
She frowned and took the bag. "Thank you," she said politely. "Have a nice day." She walked outside and checked her watch. She only had an hour or so left. She pulled out her map and did a search for clothing stores. She didn't want to go to the same one as all the others had, but in the end, it seemed the best bet. Luckily, by the time she got to Cincy's Clothing, her classmates and Henna had finished and gone elsewhere. Unfortunately, she only had forty minutes left to buy the clothes and get back to the bus. The only upside to her infamy was that people were starting to move out of her way when they saw her coming. Normally, Evelyn would have disliked it, but she was running late and was actually rather glad people weren't getting in her way.
She barely made it to the bus. Henna gave her a look of complete understanding as Evelyn panted up the stairs; the girl was made for flying, not running.
"I'm glad to see you felt like joining us," Henna said softly.
Evelyn couldn't tell whether she was being sarcastic or not. "I didn't want to walk home," she responded in the same tone.
BoBob rolled his eyes and started the bus; Henna simply smiled sedately. Evelyn was beginning to hate sedate smiles. It didn't help that everyone was as much under Henna's spell as before, save for Brittany and Marie, who sat at the back of the bus and whispered to each other constantly, their tones either fierce or gleeful.
"Isn't she beautiful, though?" Rebecca said dreamily as she crawled beneath the covers. "Such a figure! And those cheekbones!"
Evelyn glanced at Rebecca, who didn't lack cheekbones of her own but thought they were invisible regardless. She decided not to get into another discussion with Rebecca about Rebecca's personal appearance. "Pity about those wings, though."
"What wings?" Rebecca asked.
"You didn't see her wings?" Evelyn asked, astounded. "She had to sit funny on the bus to keep from sitting on them!"
"She didn't sit funny on the bus," Rebecca said. She sounded as if her family's honor had been insulted.
"But she did!" Evelyn insisted. "I saw her!"
Brittany stood in the doorway to the bedroom. "You kept going on about fairies, Eve. I think you've just got fairies on the brain." She started scrubbing her teeth.
Evelyn opened her mouth to tell them about humans harvesting fairy body parts, but realized that would only reinforce what Brittany had said. She was suddenly struck by a new thought: If she could see something no one else could, might that mean she was insane? Maybe she was projecting some psycho-babble on Henna. But she couldn't have imagined it all, right?
She swallowed, afraid to know, and looked to Brittany. "You were awfully chummy with Marie today," she said. She'd hoped to change the subject, but her voice sounded too grumpy for her liking.
Brittany grinned. "Jealous?"
"No. I wish you both the best. I hope you have a nice two-story house with red pansies out from and a white picket fence."
Rebecca yawned and stretched her arms.
Brittany growled. "I'm a sheep in wolf's clothing," she said. It took Evelyn a few moments to understand what Brittany had said; the toothpaste was making Brittany slur. She hurriedly turned back to the sink to rinse out her mouth.
"Or a wolf in sheep's clothing," Evelyn muttered.
Rebecca started snoring.
Either Brittany hadn't heard her, or she chose not to respond. Unless stepping on Evelyn as Brittany made her way to her bed was intentional. Evelyn didn't protest. She had other things to do than to bicker with Brittany.
She fingered the air elemental stone that hung around her neck and felt Air lift some of her hair. The Element seemed always to be around her now, and one of its favorite things to do was play with her hair. She smiled and let it as her mind wandered.
Was Henna really a fairy? If not, why had Evelyn imagined she was? And if so, why hadn't anyone else noticed? She couldn't have imagined the spell on her classmates. She wished she could have spoken to BoBob, but she hadn't gotten the chance. There had always been other people around, or he had been in too much of a rush. Another frightening thought occurred to her. What if BoBob was avoiding her?
She quelled the panic rising within her. He wouldn't do something like that.
Fairy parts. BoBob was a fairy. Had he known that she'd almost bought fairy dust? No, that couldn't be it. He'd been distant towards her before that, too.
And what about Marie and Brittany? Were they really becoming friends? Brittany had said she was just tricking Marie, and Marie was doubtless doing the same to Brittany, but they had acted so friendly towards each other...
Was she jealous?
Evelyn began to contemplate the thought with growing horror. She was jealous. Brittany had left her alone to be with Marie, and that had hurt her. Rebecca had left her to be with Henna, and that had hurt as well. Both her best friends had abandoned her today, and she couldn't pretend that it hadn't hurt. But that wasn't grounds to be jealous, was it? Was jealousy okay?
She felt Dusty kneading the blanket near her feet and blew him a kiss. He came forward, let her pet him a few times, and with a croaked soft voice, said, "Good night." He lay his twenty pounds at her side and promptly fell asleep.
She should be so lucky, she thought wryly. She'd nearly forgotten about Danielle Twain. The woman was spreading lies about her that were becoming an annoyance. She'd gotten more hate mail than she cared to admit since she'd been staying with the McClures. But what could she possibly do? Did the magical court system have laws for libel?
Sleep came so gently she hardly knew when it happened, but she felt herself kicking at the sheets until Jake and Nick had refused to sleep near her feet. They instead curled up with each other on the rug. Even as she lost herself in it, Evelyn knew she was in for a restless night.
She ran down a hall that was at once strange and familiar. She'd run down these halls before, but now they were lit by torches, fastened to the wall with iron frames. Her footsteps pattered against the gray tiles. She wasn't afraid of the darkness, she wasn't afraid of anything. She was simply there, feeling nothing but observing everything, detached from her body. The stones still unmarked by time, the yellow flames flickering against the walls.
And then the flames went out.
Evelyn stopped running as the darkness surrounded her. There was something in it, whispers of things she couldn't place. She knew if she reached out and tried to grab some of that substance, her fingers would wrap around it as they would around fog. She couldn't explain how she knew, but that was the way of dreams. Or was this a dream? Hadn't someone wondered if it was a vision? The last time she had been in these halls, she had seen two men fighting, the Elemental Stones being hidden, and Aleridge being destroyed.
But this time was different. There was no fighting. Only one of the men; he had been fighting when last she saw him. Culleran, her mind said, and the name echoed into the darkness.
He looked up. He seemed to see her, but he also seemed to look right through her. His hair was dirty-blond and scruffy; his beard thick. One strand of hair she hadn't noticed last time was tipped with beads. He stood as if leaning against a wall, his arms and ankles crossed. He wore a loose shirt of a time period she couldn't place, dark pants, and black boots.
His blue eyes were empty as he spoke. "One shall lead to the other. The first shall be found by a brother. The same and the rest by the Blood, who from the Darkness will have to hide, fight, or run."
Evelyn frowned. She'd heard that before... The last time she'd had her dream. She didn't understand it any more now than she did then. "Excuse me?" she asked.
"One shall lead to the other," he repeated. His voice, toneless before, was now gathering fervor. "The first shall be found by a brother. The same and the rest by the Blood, who from the Darkness will have to hide, fight, or run. One shall lead to the other. The first shall be found by a brother. The same and the rest by the Blood, who from the Darkness will have to hide, fight, or run."
Evelyn tried to raise her voice over his. "Yes, I heard that, but what does it mean?"
He continued the lines over and over, shouting now, and the things that had been dwelling in the dark earlier were beginning to pick up the lines as well, so that his voice didn't only echo but was repeated by hundreds of voices which echoed the same words.
Evelyn spun around. She'd never been afraid of ghosts before, but now it seemed like a good idea. She covered her ears to block out the noise, but it was to no avail. It was as if her hands didn't exist.
She woke up with a start, panting. Her mind spun as her heart calmed and she got her breath back. What had it meant? Had it been real, or had it been like seeing Henna as a fairy? A falsehood she didn't understand?
Her hand went to her chest to feel her heart and hit something hard. She pulled the Air Stone up to her face, but she couldn't see it in the near-darkness except for a shimmer here or there. One shall lead to the other... Her brow knit together. The first shall be found by a brother... Her grandfather? The same and the rest by the Blood, who from the Darkness will have to hide, fight, or run.
Evelyn thought of the darkness in her dream, the echoes and whispers that had been everything and nothing. Running sounded like a pretty good idea.
She looked more closely at the Stone as if it would reveal something to her, but she only succeeded in pressing her nose flat against it. She grumbled and tucked it away. No matter what the dream meant, no matter if it was real or not, she had to get the Stones before Isabella Silverthorn did.
But really. Running was looking better by the minute.