When Lightning Strikes (Lightning Series Book 1) (27 page)

“You promise?” she whispered with hope.

“Yes.” Jamie hugged her close.

“But—” Rory started.

“But what? If you wanted Julie, you would have told someone. Did you? Or were you thinking that you could somehow keep your family happy and marry Melissande and keep my sister on the side? She deserves more than that.”

“Thanks, Jamie. I think I can tell him that myself.”

Jamie looked between her and Rory. “See? She’s my sister. She won’t put up with it.”

“Julie,” Rory started again. “Julie, I don’t want to let you go.”

She didn’t know if she was strong enough to say no. She couldn’t deal with him standing there in front of her, looking at her like that.

“It isn’t your choice anymore. You need to leave now. If I wake my parents, everyone will know. Are you ready for that? Because if you are, let’s do it. Are you ready to face your parents?” Jamie asked.

Rory stared at her, but finally shook his head and turned to go. Jamie called out to him as he walked out the door.

“Yeah, I didn’t think so. I pegged you from the beginning. All show and no substance. I can’t believe that you are willing to give this up.” Jamie squeezed his sister’s shoulders. “Most people would kill for what you have with her, and you’re going to throw it away. All for what? Julie is worth it.”

Rory slipped out the window.

Julie turned around and cried on his shoulder. It felt good having her brother there.

“Come on. I will sit in here with you. I don’t think he’ll be coming back or bothering you again.”

Jamie stayed with her, awkwardly rubbing her back, letting her know he was there for her. He stayed with her until she fell asleep. Then he curled up in her chair on the other side of the room. He wasn’t leaving her alone tonight.

She was tired but felt more relaxed than she should. She watched Jamie as she fell asleep. This calm seemed like a layer over her feelings. It felt unreal. Was he calming her somehow? If he was, she didn’t care. She didn’t want to feel anything right now. For once, she didn’t dream of anything.

♦

Chapter 19: Truth Hurts

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J
ulie woke up early. The sun was rising, and the first bit of orange light touched the dewdrops glistening on the trees outside her window. She looked around. There were no flowers in her room this morning. Instead, Jamie was snoozing in her chair across the room. She smiled.

She didn’t know why she was looking. Rory was gone.

Her heart sank. She started to cry again. Angrily, she wiped the tears away and got up. Jamie had said she would get over this.

I can do this.

She went over to her mirror to see if it was obvious she had cried. That is when she saw it—a note stuck to her mirror. It had to be from Rory. Numbly she took it and opened it up, knowing she shouldn’t but doing it anyway. This time the note made her stop.

If you meet me this morning at the beach where you pulled me out of the water I will tell you everything. I don’t mean about us. I mean everything. I’m desperate. I have to see you. I have to explain. I don’t care what happens to me anymore. I have to see you one more time. I can’t live without you.

The note dropped from her fingertips and fluttered to the ground.

Julie wasn’t sure what to do. Did he mean it? Did it change anything? She knew there was more to this, and she needed to know what was going on. She was desperate to know. He knew this. He knew it would make her go to him.

She sat down on the bed, staring at the note on the floor like it was a snake about to bite.

She didn’t have a choice. She had to go.

Jamie was fast asleep, so she slipped the note into her desk and got dressed in a hurry. She pulled the garage open by hand, wincing at every squeak. It was early, and she didn’t want to wake anyone. She was too frazzled to make excuses, and she knew Jamie would see right through her and try to stop her from going. He didn’t like Rory. That was clear even before he found out about them.

The island was eerie and quiet this early in the morning. Her moped buzzed through the streets, the sound carrying far into the silence. Hopefully no one would notice her and wonder what she was doing driving around at six am.

Julie got to the beach path and made her way to the cliff wall. Down below she saw one figure who started to wave at her as soon as he saw her. Rory was sitting on one of the rocks at the bottom of the path.

As soon as she got to the bottom, he pulled her into his arms and kissed her. He kissed all over her face, gasping out words between each kiss. “Oh my god, Julie. I’m such an idiot. You brother is right. I can’t give you up. It’s not the connection—it’s you. I love you.”

He loved her.

But it wasn’t enough. It wasn’t enough until he thought he would lose her. No one should need the threat of the other walking out as a way to stay together.

She tried to ignore the thought as her body responded to him, and she kissed him back. He pulled her into an alcove, almost a cave that was just off the path, and sat her down with her on a stone bench carved into the cliff side. He held onto her tightly, and they spent several minutes making out before he broke it off.

“I promised I would tell you. But I think I will show you instead.”

Julie knitted her eyebrows together in confusion. He pointed toward the front of the alcove, and she gasped.

In front of her, one of the rocks that littered the sand lifted up on its own, nothing supporting it. She stiffened in Rory’s arms.

What the hell?

Was she seeing things? Was this real? A wave of fear went through her.

“Go on, go touch it. Make sure you believe that nothing is holding it up.”

Julie looked at him for several long moments. He wouldn’t meet her eyes. She went over to the rock, waving her arms all over. She poked it. It didn’t budge.

“Put your hands underneath it. I’m going to let it go.”

She held her breath, slipping her hands under it. The smooth rock rested in her palms, and she had to adjust quickly as its weight transferred to her arms. It weighed two pounds or so. She flipped it around.

“How are you doing this?” She could barely get the words out.

He tapped his head.

“With your mind? Is that the big secret? That you can do stuff with your mind? Can everyone here? Or wait, it’s the other kids, right? Jamie too?”

She pictured the day of the boat ride. They had stood at the front of the boat, rooted in place. The dolphin that just appeared. What was he?

The questions shot out of her faster than Rory could answer. After a moment, he smiled at her. He patted the rock bench next to him. Julie hesitated for a moment but sat back down next to him.

“Jamie can do this too?” She was in awe that her brother had an ability like this. But why keep this all a secret?

Rory nodded. “But his abilities are different than mine. They are more like your father’s. He can manipulate thoughts, read thoughts, and emotions. He can do a little physical stuff, though all of us can do a bit of everything. That’s how I let the dolphin know to give you a ride.”

She couldn’t believe it.

Julie pulled her legs up to hug them. She was numb, unable to figure out how she felt about anything. Rory kept a tight told around her waist, his hand rubbing up and down her arm.

“What about my mom? What about me?”

Rory sighed and looked out over the ocean. “There are some Fey that are more human than Fey. They don’t have abilities. I’m afraid your mom is one of them, and you are too. It’s unlikely that anything will appear in you now at your age. It usually shows up when you are fourteen or fifteen. There are usually a few duds each generation.” He passed his hand through his hair. “Not that you are a dud! But almost every family has them. Usually they choose to leave the island when they’re told the truth, knowing that they can’t return.”

“What are Fey?”

“Me, you, your family, my family, and everyone on the island is Fey.”

“You are trying to tell me I’m not human?”

“Yes.”

I’m not human.

Her skin crawled. “But I won’t be able to do what you or Jamie can?”

Rory hesitated but shook his head. “It doesn’t look like it. I wondered a little about it when you said that you figured out the emotional mind washing trick. But I think that may be your stubborn nature. I can’t sense anything about you. It drives me nuts. It would be so much easier if I knew what you were thinking or feeling most of the time. Which is odd, since usually even with the duds, we can sense something.”

He tipped her head up to kiss her nose. Julie barely felt it. He wanted to be able to read her thoughts and emotions, even if she couldn’t do the same back? What about her privacy? She let out a breath, glad that she somehow was able to block him out.

She wasn’t human. Her brother and father could do things. Her mother was like her.

“What did you mean, the duds can’t return?”

Rory hesitated. “If they choose to go out in the human world to live normal lives, they can, but they have to wipe their memories clean of anything but human–like ones. It’s why you and the others are kept apart. It’s to help you have more memories for when you leave. There are only a few who choose to stay with their families here who don’t have abilities. Your mom, Ariel, the lady at the coffeehouse, and a few others you probably haven’t met are about it. They’re allowed to keep their memories. But they’re not allowed to leave. They are trapped on the island. Or in your mom’s case, with your dad.”

“Like prisoners?” That was why Ariel and Andromeda were such good friends.

He shook his head. “No, they can leave at any time. They have to agree to leave their families and memories of what’s here behind. You can understand why your mom wouldn’t want to do that. If she moved away from here with you, both of you would be made to forget your father and Jamie.”

Julie shivered. Andromeda had chosen a half–life to be with Lir. She had to agree to be under his watch all the time. Did he read her thoughts and emotions all the time, making sure she didn’t want to leave him? She had to move back here so she wouldn’t be made to forget her family, which is why she couldn’t go to New York. She would have had to give up all she loved, and Julie would have had the same fate. Andromeda’s misery made more sense now.

“Everyone else leaves? They leave behind their families?”

Rory frowned. “Yes, I think it’s too hard to live here and see what others can do and they can’t—knowing that it passed over you for some random reason, that you’ll always be inferior to the others. It’s one of the reasons I should let you go. Let you go live a better life than you’ll have here—a better life without me.”

Julie stiffened. “Is that how you feel about me? That I’m inferior?”

Rory squeezed her tight so she couldn’t leave. “I love you. It doesn’t matter to me now. But it will matter to most of the others.”

The words sounded great, but it was clear that he would always feel like he had given something up to be with her. She thought she might love him too, but wasn’t sure she wanted to be with him if he felt like he’d settled for her.

A shiver of dread went down her spine. Julie unwrapped herself from Rory, trying to ignore the cold feeling that swept over her as she got up and walked a few feet away. She turned around to face him and closed her eyes to block out the pained look on his face.

“I have so many questions. But I can’t think about us in all this. I’m starting to understand why you stayed with Melissande. I know you believe what you’re saying now, and I want it to be true, but what if you regret it…me…us again? I’m not sure what this is between us, but what if it isn’t enough? What if we both give up everything, and it isn’t enough?”

“It was enough for your parents.”

That was what kept Andromeda here. She loved Lir, but was there more. She felt this kind of compulsion to be with him, to give up her dreams to have a life with him. Would she be happier if she walked away and forgot them all, able to live where she wanted? But she couldn’t leave him. If she did, she would lose her family too.

This painted Lir like a monster, but he wasn’t. He must have given up his family, told them that he chose to be with her too. What was it like for him to have to be responsible for her—to want her to be happy but always have a tainted view of their relationship? He might have to step in and take away memories of himself and their children any time she asked if she wanted to walk away.

No, it wasn’t like this for her parents. They loved each other. They tried to work with what they could to have a life together.

Julie opened her eyes. He was staring at her like he wanted to grab her and never let her go. Would they have what her parents had?

“But they left. I don’t know why they had to leave, but it’s like you said—others wouldn’t understand. Do you want to leave here, leave your family forever? I know you want to have kids here. I don’t…I can’t live here.”

She didn’t want to be trapped here with someone who wasn’t sure about her, someone that loved her despite themselves. She wanted more than that.

Tears streamed down her face. It hurt to think about their relationship logically. To understand that no matter how they felt about each other now, the difference between them would kill it over time. These differences were like a slow poison hiding in the drug of being together. The longer they were together, the worse it would hurt. It already felt unbearable now.

She didn’t want to waste years trying to be happy with him or watching him trying to be happy with her. She wanted to have a chance to live her dreams. To find someone else. So she wouldn’t have this physical connection, but she would have a partner to live out her life with. She wanted different things than he did, and it wasn’t fair for one of them to give up everything for the other. That would only lead to bitterness.

Rory got up and put his arms around her. She cried into his shoulder as he rubbed her back.

“I don’t think this is going to work.”

“Julie, I love you. I want you. It isn’t the connection. I’m an idiot. I was scared. I’m not now. I will face whatever I need to be with you. I should have from the beginning.”