Dark Nebula (The Chronicles of Kerrigan) (34 page)

You’re wrong
, she thought. Carter might
appear
clueless,
but
that was impossible to tell.
She hadn’t yet proven Kraigan’s statement about Carter true or false, wasn’t entirely sure where to even begin with that, but
Molly knew something. She saw the attraction, which meant it was there to be seen by others.
But wait
—
he’s denying anyone could know…
Rae decided then, either
Devon
already knew his father knew and was pretending that he didn’t
for reasons unknown
, or he truly hadn’t spoken to him yet and was totally unaware there was a problem. As chicken as she was, Rae decided it didn’t matter which, as long as
Devon
was back, and safe.

“
Did you know Carter can see stuff in your past without you knowing?”

“Seriously?”
Dev
on
blinked then looked worried.

“Kraigan mentioned it.”

“When?
How would he know?”

“The other day we were talking.”
Is he jealous?
Rae tried to suppress a smile. Even if she didn’t feel anything for Kraigan, it felt good to know it kind of bothered
Devon
a little. “He asked if I’d mentor him. We have stuff in common, like not knowing about tatùs.” She flipped her wrist. “But what if Carter knows? What if he’s touched me and saw it. Or if he thought he saw it and then checked you to confirm it?”

“
Kraigan’s probably wrong. Sounds like he’s making crap up to impress you.”
Devon
snorted. “Or have an excuse to talk to you.”

“Never mind that.
” She leaned toward him. “Even if it’s a slight possibility, it’s easy enough to hide.
Y
ou take a memory or thought you don’t want him to know, or someone else with the ability, you just have to mentally put the memory under lock and key. Visualize it and it’s supposed to work.”

“Oh,” he said looking relieved. “You figure that out on your own?”

Great! Now if I wanted to check on this Anna chick,
Devon
will be able to hide the memory
from
me. Not that I would do that, of course. Right?
.
“
Sorta. Back to the previous topic,
what if someone’s already figured
us
out?”

“
We’re fine. The Privy Council doesn’t know. That’s all that really matters in the end.
You’re
leaving
in
a few
days and
I don’t know how much time we’re going to get to spend just the two of us.
I
kind of
wanted to surprise you with
your
Christmas present
today
.
So,
if
you
don’t
s
top worrying
for a
sec
,
you’re going to ruin the moment.”
He winked at her and bent down to reach under her bed.

“Present?”
Suddenly
,
agonizing over getting caught seemed irrelevant.
She scrambled off the bed,
ran
to her
desk,
and
opened the bottom drawer.
“I
got something for you, too.”
The thought of
Devon
taking the time to buy her something made her feel giddy
.

Rae held out the shiny silver wrapped gift, almost tossing it at
Devon
as she reached for his.
Bouncing on her toes, she ripped the wrapping off his small gift and
threw
the garbage on the floor.

Devon
laughed.
“Slow down
!
It’s like you’ve never had a present before.
I’ll have to remember to buy you stuff more often.” He scratched his hair behind his ear, looking a bit nervous.
“
It’s nothing
big.
I just thought you might like it.”

“It’s from you
!
T
hat’s awesome enough for me.” Rae
kissed him and then lifted the lid off the box.
H
er breath
caught
.
Inside
la
y
a beautiful, antique necklace.
Made of rose gold, the pendant was a locket.
“It’s gorgeous
.”
She pulled it out and opened the locket.
Remembering her m
anners, she added, “Thank you.”

“Here, let me put it on you.
The locket’s empty right now
except for the tissue under the frames
.
I wanted to get a picture of your mom to put inside but didn’t have time.”
He linked the clasp together as she held her hair out of the way.
“Plus, I figured you probably had a special photo.”

“I love it
.”
She had a picture back in
New York
.
She would
get it
copied and put in the necklace
over
Christmas
break
.

“I saw it in an antique shop window and knew it wo
uld be perfect for you…well,
hoped it would.” He stepped around and lifted the locket, admiring it around her neck.

Rae stood on her toes, wrapped her arms a
round
his neck and pulled him close.
“It’s the best thing
anyone’s
ever given me.”
She kissed him on the lips, e
njoying the fluttering inside
her as he returned the kiss
.

Gently
, he pulled back.
“Now I get to open mine.
You keep up this distraction and someone’ll end up knocking on the door and I’ll have to hide my present
.”

“It’s nothing extravagant.” She shrugged, nervous about the silly gift she
had
chose
n
.

Devon
opened it
, taking much more
care
with
the wrapping
than she had
.
He fumbled with the tape on the box and
then
pulled out the Swiss Army knife
–one of the big one
s
with all the gadgets neatly folded inside
.

Rae bit her lip, nervous
,
as she watched him open
its
sides and turn the knife over a few times.

“Hey, this is really cool
!
I could’ve used this
quite a bit over
the past few weeks.
It’s got everything on it.” He
opened the main knife and then
squinted
at the blade
.
“
Is it a knock-off?
Who’s
DR. Swiss Army?”

She swatted him on the shoulder.
“Ha-ha.
It’s
Devon
and Rae.
I just had the guy put the engraving by the Swiss Army symbol so people won’t figure it out.
I never
figured
you wouldn’t get it
!
”

He started laughing. ‘You’re kidding!” He laughed again and reached for her locket. “If you lift the tissue on the right side, I had the same initials engraved. Even had them done in calligraphy to make them look old.”
He hugged her and his breath
was
hot in her hair. “I love it
—
love the
initials
—
love you.”
H
is body
froze
.

Rae’s heart jumped into her throat.
She wanted to do a crazy, happy dance around him.
I doubt that’s
the mature thing to do.
“T
he feeling
’
s mutual.”
In the back of her mind, she wondered if she should tell him about his
dad
.
But there was no way she
was going to ruin this moment.

He relaxed his iro
n
-
grip hug. W
hatever fluttering Rae felt from his previous touches burned away
to ashes
in her memory when he kissed her.

Suddenly everything that had seemed awful and worrisome the past few weeks drifted away.

She didn’t try to interrupt him when
Molly knocked and shouted from
the
other side of the
door.
Molly could have
broken down the door;
Rae wouldn’t have noticed.

Chapter 1
8

Christmas Break

M
olly and Rae lay in her double bed
on the top floor of
Uncle Argyle’s
two-
stor
y
home
.
During the night
a heavy covering of
snow
had
turned
the
outside
world in
to
a winter wonderland.
The day after Christmas
,
Rae laughed when
Molly
woke,
complained about
a
cold
nose,
and then scampered out of bed, shocked at the
amount of
frost on the windows.

“
New York City
’s beautiful
.”
Molly
bl
e
w hot air on the window to create a little opening to gaze into the bright, white backyard.

“Yeah,” mumbled Rae, pulling the duvet tighter over her shoulder. “Till the snow plows come salting the roads and e
verything turns from white to nasty brown
.
Dirty snow mixed with mud and everything else
”

“People drive in this wea
ther?
If we had
two inches of snow at Guilder, I betchya classes would be cancelled.
Ha! They’d be cancelled if there was half an inch.
”

“Not here
. Y
ou need about three feet before people start to act cautious.
There are a lot of idiots on the road.
”
Rae sat up
and
shiver
ed as the blanket fell away
.
She smiled as she watched Molly write her name on
another panel of
frosted window.
She wondered
if
the
leaded glass windows at Guilder would throw rainbows on the walls if they were frosted with snow
.

“Will shops still be open?” Molly glanced at Rae over her shoulder.
“I feel the urge to buy a proper winter hat, scarf and mittens set.
Maybe even a winter coat.
”

“
No worries
. T
he sales are waiting for you.”
Rae put a tentative foot down on the hardwood floor, quickly pulling it back up when the coldness shot up her leg.
She bent over the bed, looking for the slippers she
had
stuffed there last night.
She found the
old,
fluffy rabbits with big ears near the foot of the bed.

“You’re not
gonna
take those back to Guilder, are you?” Molly
grimaced
at the slippe
rs
, one eyebrow raised.

“Hey, I’ve had these for
four years.
They’re awesome. T
hey stop t
he
ice-cold
hands of death from creeping up from the floor
.
I’
ve no idea why my uncle kept the
hardwood
throughout the entire house and then put ceramic tile in the kitchen.
The floors here are like an ice rink.”

“Wimp.”

Rae tossed a pillow in Molly’s direction.
“I never thought I’d live to see the day you’d call me a wimp
.”

“If the shoe
—
er, slipper fits
—
” Molly laughed.
“By the way,”
she
said, point
ing
to a cabinet on the wall, “What’s with the tiny porcelain figurines? You’ve got about
a
thousand
stuffed inside that tiny case.”

Rae stared at
the
cabinet a
s
a pang of sadness shot through her.
“They’re whimsies from a company in
England
called Wade.
My mom used to collect them. They’re hers.”
Were hers.

Molly moved and peered inside the glass. “They’re cute.
I see l
ittle nursery figures and animals.
You should see if it’s a set an
d
find the missing pieces to complete it.
Then it could be yours and your mom’s set.
Maybe there’s a book about them.
” She walked over to her suitcase and started digging through it. “How ‘bout we get some breakfast?”

Rae smiled.
Molly
had a way of turning something sad into a good feeling.
She went to the dresser and ran a finger lightly over her mom’s case.
Miss you, Mommy.
The locket around her neck bumped against her as she straightened. She reached and opened it. Yesterday
she had
found the picture of her mom and made a copy
,
which she
had carefully
cut and set into the locket. It was the last photo taken of her mom
,
and Rae
loved it. They’d been outside playing in the grass and her mom had let her hold the digital camera. Her mom lay on her stomach peering up at Rae through the grass and her long hair.
Gorgeous!
The rest of the pictures Rae had done were blurry, or of grass, or something a six year old would focus on. This one just zoomed perfectly on her mom’s face.

Closing the locket she tucked it under her shirt. “Let’s go eat. I’m starving.”

Throwing on
hooded
sweatshirts, the girls headed downstairs
. The smell of
bacon cooking
met them in the hallway
.
Uncle Argyle stood
in front of
the stove,
dressed in an old Scottish wool sweater and checkered pants.
O
ne
of his
hand
s
absently
mix
ed
scrambled eggs with a spatula, the other
held
a book pressed close against his nose.
Ah…home sweet home.

“Morning.
Is Aunt Linda gone?” Rae poured a glass of orange juice for Molly and
one for
her
self
.
Devon
’s locket pressed against her skin and she smiled to herself. Maybe
she would
put a picture of
Devon
behind
the one of her mother
’s
. Then
he would
be even closer to her heart.

“Oh, good morning.
I didn
’t notice you
come in
.” Argyle
reluctantly closed the thick book and set it beside the stove.
“Your aunt
’
s
gone to her favorite pet store. T
here’s a big sale on cat accessories today.
She was up at dawn, determined to be first in line
to buy presents for
King
Arthur
.”

Rae rolled her eyes
,
and Molly hid her mouth behind a hand.
King Arthur was Aunt Linda’s thirtee
n-year-old
, very large,
orange
,
crusty
tabby cat.

Molly grabbed
three
slice
s
of toast and a handful of bacon. “Rae, I’m gonna jump in the shower so we can get a head start on those sales.”

Rae
nodded
,
not able to speak,
her mouth full from
stuffing two
slice
s
of
greasy
bacon
into it
.

Molly disappeared, her feet pounding back up the stairs.

Uncle Argyle set a
large
bowl of
scrambled eggs onto the table and,
book in hand,
disappeared down the hall
.
B
lowing her bangs away from her face
, Rae watched him go
until a thought occurred to her. This was her chance to talk to him about her parents, and likely to be the only one she got, considering the fact that this subject was basically off-limits when Aunt Linda was around
.
Of course, Argyle had never really talked…about anything, but specifically about her parents. Still
—
she had to try.
She stood quickly, grabb
ed her plate and chased
after him.

Outside the closed study door
,
she hesitated
.
Inhaling a deep breath for courage, she knocked on the wood and stepped inside.
The musty scent of old books greeted her along with the crackling noise from the wood burning in his
fireplace
.
Her uncle sat behind his antique desk, his mouth open in surprise.

“Is there
—
Can I
—
something
—
”
His voice trailed off, his words as awkward as the rest of him.
Good ‘ol Uncle Argyle. Speaking never has been a skill he cultivated.
As ridiculous as it sounded, his awkwardness made her feel awkward too.

Rae chewed her lip
and spun the antique globe by the leather couch with her hand
.
Uncle Argyle
had
attended Guil
der years ago, thinking
he would
be marked at six
teen.
Instead
,
his sister, Rae’s mother,
had
received the tatù when Argyle
was still fifteen
.
He
had been required to come
home
,
to teach his sister everything he
had learned
from Guilder.
After
Rae’s parents
died
eleven years ago
, Argyle
had taken
her in and never mentioned the tatùs
.
Guilder
had
invited Rae to attend their boarding school
, seemingly out of the blue
.
Even then, he had shuffled her off “across the pond” without even the vaguest of explanations. Until her first day at Guilder, she had known nothing of her tatù heritage, her father’s evil plan to dominate the world, or the power that she received on her sixteenth birthday.
He rarely spoke of the gift and made it clear
that
Aunt Linda had no idea and would never learn of it.
Was it worth bringing up old memories when he clearly want
s
nothing
to do with
them?

Ra
e decided to
dive
in
headfirst
.
No sense in prolonging the conversation with polite chitchat
.
It would only make her uncle more uncomfortable
.
She took a deep breath.
“
Do you remember anything weird about my dad when you went to Guilder?
Last year, Lan
—
Lan
ford
said you two
were
good friends,” she rambled, feeling like Molly. “I was just hoping you might know something that might help figure out why all
the
people followed
—
still follow him.”