Call to Arms (War of the Fae: Book 2) (23 page)

I looked at his face, noticing that his eyes and mouth were closed.
 
He was breathing regularly, in and out.
 
I turned his big hand over, running my fingers on the lines of his palm.
 
“I don’t know why I’m sitting here talking to you like this.
 
I’m not sure you can hear me or if you’re going to remember this.
 
Anyway, this place is super messed up.
 
I don’t want to be here anymore.
 
I miss Tony.
 
Some guy named Ben is messing with him – changing him.
 
It’s weird and it worries me.
 
It’s only been a few days and already this guy is influencing the shit out of Tony.
 
And there’s a friggin’ miniature fae with wings sitting under a big glass jar on Dardennes’ desk that everyone freaked out about when I almost let him out.
 
They say he’s a pixie.
 
What’s an itty-bitty friggin’ pixie
gonna
do to bother all these giant, powerful fae?
 
Anyway, I’m not sure I’ll be here when you get up.
 
So I wanted to say sorry and I’ll miss you.
 
Look me up if you ever come to West Palm.”

I let go of his hand and stood by the side of his bed for a little while longer.
 
I leaned over and kissed him on the forehead before leaving to go back to my room.
 
I’d had a long day and I had to make some plans.
 
I had to figure out how to get the hell out of here and back to Tony.

I got to my room and fell asleep on my bed immediately.
 
I didn’t even get under the covers.
 
No one came to wake me for dinner, so I slept right through it.
 
I didn’t care.
 
I woke up in the middle of the night, around three in the morning, and decided to go check my emails.

I got to the computer room and checked my account.
 
There were two messages from Tony, sent three hours apart.
 
I opened the oldest one first.

‘Hey Jayne, what’s up?
 
Well, I got my contacts.
 
Ben says I look cool. I feel cool too.
 
This is the first time I’ve been without glasses since I was four!
 
I got a haircut and I think you’d like my new look.
 
My mom’s not too happy but I don’t care what she thinks. She’s a pain in the ass.
 
Are you okay?
 
I’ve been getting strange vibes, like you’re upset.
 
Is that weird?
 
Ben says to ignore them, that you’re fine.
 
I should probably take his advice.
 
Well,
that’s
all.
 
Tony.’

I opened the second message.

‘Me again.
 
Sorry to bother you.
 
Listen, I’m
gonna
be busy for the next couple days, so you probably won’t hear from me.
 
Talk to you later, Tony.
’

I read that last email about five times, each time the pressure around my heart squeezing tighter and tighter and tighter.
 
Was my best friend breaking up with me?
 
Maybe I was crazy, but that’s what it felt like.
 
I stood up as if to go, but then decided I had to write back.
 
As if I was going to walk away from that bullshit email and not say anything back ...
like hell.

I opened up a new message.

‘Dear Tony.
 
What the hell was that last email all about?
 
You’re acting strange.
 
Just so you know, I am
not
okay, that’s why you’re feeling those vibes.
 
Don’t listen to that Ben guy.
 
Who is he anyway?
 
You’ve been hanging around him for less than a week and now suddenly you listen to and do everything he says?
 
Shit, Tony, it took me a year to become your friend.
 
I’m trying not to be jealous, but you’re not making it easy.
 
I’m coming home soon.
 
Love, Your best friend forever, and if you try to stop being my friend I will stalk you, Jayne.’

I re-read my email a few times, making little corrections, additions,
deletions
.
 
I wanted it to be perfect.
 
A little sad, a little angry, a little guilt-trippy.
 
Perfect
.
 
I sent it off, hoping Tony would read it, even though he said he was going to be gone for a while.
 
What the hell did that mean, anyway?
 
Where was he going?

I logged off and went back to my room.
 
I
laid
awake for two hours, trying to think of how I was going to get out of here.
 
I never got my five hundred bucks from Dardennes and them for finishing my test.
 
That’s the first thing I had to do.
 
Then I could buy a ticket back home.
 
My mind went over and over the different scenarios of what could happen and all the things that could go wrong.
 
It was a very long list, actually, which was really depressing.
 
I didn’t even really know where I was.
 
I needed a map or a picture of the right door to go out of.
 
I needed a guide, someone who had come and gone before.
 
Jared was the person who jumped into my mind.
 
He’d probably be glad if I left.
 
Maybe he’d be back soon and I could ask him.

There was a knock at my door, and I glanced at my clock before getting up – five-thirty.
 
Ugh
.
 

I opened the door and Becky was standing there, all smiles.
 
“Hello!
 
Time for breakfast!”

I walked back to the bed and threw myself down on it, not even looking at her.

“What’s up?
 
You weren’t at dinner last night.
 
Are you okay?”

“No, actually, I’m not.
 
Go ahead to breakfast without me.
 
I’m not hungry.”

“Well if you didn’t eat dinner then you have to eat breakfast.
 
They’re not big on in-between meal snacks around here.”

“I don’t care.”

Becky sighed.
 
“Okay, listen.
 
You stay here, I’ll be right back.”

She left and I sighed.
 
Good
.
 
Now I could go back to sleep.
 

I had just started to drift off when I heard voices outside my door.
 
There was a knock and then the door slowly opened.

Becky came in with two plates followed by Finn and Spike.

“I’m back!
 
And I brought reinforcements!” She walked over and set a plate with some food on it on my side table.
 
“Eat.
 
And don’t argue.”

I groaned in disgust at her, but I sat up and took the plate in my lap.
 
Becky sat on my bed and the guys sat on the floor next to us.

“So,” said Becky, shoving half a sausage in her mouth, “What’s the deal?
 
Why are you so cranky?”

I pushed the food around on my plate.
 
None of it looked appetizing.
 
“I don’t know where to start.”

“Tell us what happened yesterday.”

I told them about the incident with Chase and then the incident in Dardennes’ office, including the fact that I had to work with Gregale today.
 
By the time I was done, they were pretty much speechless.
 
“And I haven’t even told you the worst part yet.”

“Tell us,” said Finn, putting his plate down on the floor, giving me his full attention.

“You know I’ve been emailing Tony, right?”

Becky and Spike nodded.

“Well, he’s made a new friend, some new guy at the school named Ben who I’ve never heard of.
 
Anyway, in just three days this guy has like totally taken over Tony’s life.
 
Tony has changed his hair, his clothes, he wears contacts now ... he’s totally different.”

Becky looked at me all sensitive-like.
 
“Well, some of that is a good thing, right?
 
I mean
,
Tony was kind of awkward looking.” She cringed a little, probably worried about offending me.

“That shit doesn’t matter to me.
 
It’s just like this guy has gone in and totally bulldozed Tony’s life.
 
In less than a week, he’s quit computer club, chess club, and he’s bad-talking his mom, which he never did before.
 
He told me in his last email not to expect to hear from him for a few days.
 
And he’s saying stuff that tells me this guy Ben is telling him not to email me or something.”
 
I shook my head, “Maybe I’m just being jealous or paranoid or something.”

“Well, I know Tony is special to you,” said Becky, “So it’s only natural you’d be jealous as he moves on.”

“But this is more than moving on, Becky.
 
At least, it sure seems like it.”

“You know,” said Finn carefully, “we’ve been learnin’ a lot of this warfare stuff in our trainin’ and this sounds a lot like psychological warfare to me.”

“Oh, come on, do you really believe that?” asked Spike, laughing.
 
“Why would anyone wage psychological warfare on Tony?
 
Of all people?
 
He’s not even fae.”

“It ain’t Tony that it’s being done to, dumbass.”
 
Finn looked meaningfully at Spike and then at me.

I was just confused.
 
“What do you mean?”

“What I mean is, don’t you think it’s a little coincidental that Tony goes back and immediately he’s got a new best friend who’s takin’ over his life, and at the same time Jared goes back to south Florida to deal with some Dark Fae issues?
 
I mean, it’s a long shot, but if the goal is to mess with Jayne, it’s workin’.”

I looked at him like he was crazy.
 
“Nawwww.
 
That’s not what’s going on.
 
This guy is just ... I don’t know.
 
Looking for a certain friend and he’s fitting Tony into that mold.
 
I’m just not happy with how easily Tony is letting himself be changed.”

Finn shrugged his shoulders.
 
“I dunno.
 
The way the green elves talk, this war is a heck of a lot closer than any of the elders are lettin’ us think.
 
And the Dark Fae
know
an awful lot about us.
 
Shee-it
, Jayne, one of them tried to get you shot with thirty elf arrows two days ago, and a spelled arrow yesterday!
 
If they know that much about you now – that you’re some important fae that should have a target on her back – I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch to think that they know about your relationship with Tony.
 
He was here too, you know.
 
Best way to get to you is through the people you love.
 
Them’s
war tactics one-oh-one, ladies and gentlemen.”

I didn’t want to think about what Finn was saying because I was already worried enough about Tony; this was going to put me into panic overload.
 

“Shit, Finn, you’re getting her all freaked out now.”
 
Spike stood up, disgusted.
 
“Listen, Jayne.
 
I hear what you’re saying about Tony.
 
He’s a good guy.
 
Talk to him; see what he says.
 
If he’s still acting all wrong, maybe we can talk to Dardennes about making a visit, or seeing if Jared can at least stop by to see him while he’s there or something.”

Becky rubbed my leg.
 
“Yeah, that’s a good idea.
 
Why don’t we just do that now?”

“I think when I left Dardennes’ office, cutting Ivar on my way out, I probably put myself on the bottom of the list of people he’s willing to help.”

Becky shook her head.
 
“Dardennes is fair.
 
He likes you.
 
I know you don’t think so, but he does.
 
But hey, if you don’t want to talk to him, we can go talk to Céline.
 
I know you like her.”

I nodded.
 
She was right.
 
I was okay with talking to Céline.

“Come on.
 
Maybe we can catch her before she’s done with breakfast.”

We all stood up.
 
I grabbed the brush out of my dresser and did what I could to get a decent ponytail going.
 
I threw the brush back in the drawer, noticing the empty silver tray on top of my dresser.
 
“I have to get a token too.”