"Oohhh- can I borrow too?" Jess asked as she emerged from a bathroom stall. "My lips are dying for some gloss. And someone who will remain nameless left our makeup bags at her house. Macy."
I rolled my eyes as I ran a brush through my long dark hair. I couldn’t help it. She had been rushing me, like usual.
"You’ve got gorgeous hair," Jade remarked. "But your eyes. Wow. They’re amazing. I’ve never seen eyes that color of green. Are they real or contacts?"
I smiled because I get that a lot. My eyes are a startling, vivid green- so bright that they do seem like they should be contacts. In fact, they almost seem to glow. But I’ve had the same eyes in every life; it is one physical trait that has been constant. That and my dark hair.
I nodded. "They’re real."
Jess elbowed me. "We’ve gotta go—Jenn’s going to kill us if we leave her up there by herself."
I handed Jade back her make-up bag.
"Thanks again. And if you get bored and want to hang out sometime, give me a call. Do you have a pen in your purse? I’ll give you my number."
She nodded and dug one out, handing it to me with an empty gum wrapper. I scrawled my number on it and handed it back.
"It was nice to meet you. Welcome to San Marino."
"Thanks. I’ll call you soon- it would be nice to hang out."
I nodded and let Jess pull me out, wondering if Jade felt the same vague familiarity that I did. I was in the loop this time, though, and that was nice.
This cycle was different than any of my others, because my memories had already been unlocked. Normally, I live just like a normal girl until it is time for my cycle to begin, at which time, my Aegis (my handler, of sorts) appears to me and gives me my bloodstone, a powerful stone created just for me. The second I touch it, my memories are unlocked and my cycle begins.
But this time something unusual had happened. Because a mysterious high priest had tried to coerce me into undoing the past, my memories had been unlocked before my cycle even began. My Aegis, Ahmose, and I had to travel back to ancient Egypt in order to, well, save the world.
It had been gut-wrenching. Being back in Alexandria had been amazing. It had been as though I had never left, which was a little odd. But Gavin was there, in the form of Hasani, the commander of Marc Antony’s armies. He was as beautiful as ever, strong and brave with a warrior’s heart.
In every life, he is with me in some form. But in Alexandria, I had known he was going to die and how, which made every single second that we spent together wretchedly painful. I had ultimately managed to allow Fate to unfold as it was meant to, which meant that I had allowed a Roman soldier to run his sword through my soul mate. Hands down, it was the most difficult thing. Ever. In the history of the world.
And here we go again. My Daedal had found her way into my life. Which meant it was time for us to walk her difficult path yet again. I never had any real blueprint for the choices that she was supposed to make, but I had strong innate urges that guided me toward the right decisions. Plus, of course, the bird-shaped birthmark on my wrist throbbed like crazy when we were doing something wrong, sort of like a bad-decision compass.
As we wound our way through the crowded gym back toward the stage, I shook my head to get rid of my dark thoughts. There was no reason to stress about it now. One thing that I had learned after all of these years, was that no good came from worrying. What was meant to happen would happen. What I should do now instead of stressing, was spend every minute that I still had left with Gavin.
He was waiting for me at the base of the stage and I leaned into him, brushing a kiss against his soft lips. He smiled and I felt my knees literally weaken. He winked as I jumped up onto the stage, and I felt my heart crack just a little. He had no idea. He thought everything was fine. Normal. And normal it was notthe absolute story of my life.
Jenn started banging the drums and the throngs of people on the dance floor cheered, so I focused my attention on their faces, waiting for my cue to sing. The heat from the lights shone on my bare shoulders and I soaked it in now, while it still felt good. In about fifteen minutes, it would start getting too hot.
Allowing myself to become immersed in the moment, I concentrated on the bass thumping in my chest, tapping my foot to its beat. I could feel Derek’s stare, Tara’s glare and Gavin’s soft gaze. And something else. Scanning the crowd, I searched for whatever it was that was making me feel wrong.
Teachers lined the walls, dutifully supervising the hyped-up student body. Bodies writhed and undulated on the dance floor, stirring the subtle smell of sweat and the heavy scent of perfume. The colored lights flashed and shadows were cast against the walls. There was nothing out of place, nothing out of the ordinary. Everything seemed fine, but it wasn’t. I could feel it.
Jess worked her way next to me and nudged me with her eyebrows raised and I realized that I had missed my cue. She back-tracked and played it again and I lifted the mic, singing into it absently as I continued to examine the room.
Jade stood alone at the back of the gym, moving gently in time with the music. It was painfully obvious that she didn’t know anyone yet, since she was all alone surrounded by a crowd. I hoped she called me soon. She was bound to be lonely without anyone to talk to. She had always been a social butterfly.
Just as I was about to shift my attention, something about the way her eyes were fixated on the curtains lining the wall gave me pause. I peered more closely into the darkness, trying to see what she was staring at through the flashing lights. There was nothing there but suddenly, as she gazed at them, the curtains began fluttering--starting where she was standing and moving down the long wall like a tidal wave. It took me a second to comprehend. She had done that.
I gasped but before I could react, a piercing pain ripped through me, radiating from my wrist. My birthmark throbbed wildly, spreading pain into my arm and quickly traveling throughout the rest of my body. The pain was so intense that I couldn’t breathe. I dropped to my hands and knees, the mic flying from my hand and skittering across the stage. I vaguely recognized the shrill metallic feedback as it slid to a rest against a speaker. People covered their ears in the crowd as Jess ran to me and dropped to her knees beside me.
"Are you okay?" she asked frantically. "What’s wrong?"
I struggled to breathe, trying to force air in past the pain. I couldn’t speak. All I could do was shake my head and wrap my arms around myself as I laid on the floor, gasping for air. It was like a hundred knives were stabbing me, twisting and turning and wrenching.
"Macy, what is it? Do you need an ambulance?" Her eyes were flooded with panic as she was shoved out of the way by her sister. Jenn peered into my face worriedly.
"Macy, oh my God. Are you alright?" Jenn turned to the audience and screamed,
"Someone call an ambulance!"
Gavin jumped onto the stage and sprinted to where I was lying. He dropped to the floor and picked up my hand as he loomed over me.
"Macy, look at me," he commanded. "Please, sweetheart, breathe. It’s okay."
And I realized with a start that I still wasn’t breathing. The pain wracking my body was preventing me from drawing a breath. I was still gasping like a fish out of water. And just when I thought it couldn’t get worse, the pain spread to my temple, exploding into a million shards of light.
My last conscious thought was hearing my own scream.
Chapter Two
When I opened my eyes, the lights were blinding. Loud noises and rushed voices swirled around me and I squeezed my eyes closed again to shut out the dizziness.
"Macy?" A strange male voice asked. "Can you hear me? Squeeze my hand."
I squeezed his hand, but didn’t open my eyes.
"She’s responding to commands!" the stranger yelled. Suddenly, my right eye was wrenched open and a light shone into it. Then the left.
"Her pupils are equal and reactive to light!" he announced.
Something firm was strapped around my neck and I couldn’t move my head. But I kept my eyes closed. My insides were on fire, a burning, gut-wrenching pain. If I just kept my eyes closed, I could focus on staying conscious. If I opened them, I might fade away. The pain was that intense.
And then I was moving. Someone was rolling me on a stretcher. It was a jolting ride.
Every time they hit a bump, my insides screamed. Where was all this pain coming from? I’d never felt anything like it. Appendicitis, maybe?
All of a sudden, I dropped down as they unlocked the legs of the stretcher and then I was lifted back up manually. I opened my eyes.
The night sky yawned over my head, huge and black. Twinkling bright stars winked at me from the darkness and I stared silently at them, trying to focus on anything other than the blinding pain. I was still at the school in the parking lot. And they were lifting me into an ambulance. I could hear Jenn’s nervous voice and I summoned the strength to speak.
"Wait," I murmured. No one heard me in the melee. "Wait!" I croaked louder. Everyone paused and the man in charge looked at me.
"Where’s Hasani?"
Everyone looked around in confusion and I realized my mistake. Oh, god no. My thoughts were so jumbled that I had called my boyfriend by a two-thousand year old name. I rushed to fix it.
"I meant Gavin. Where’s Gavin?"
Gavin stepped into my line of sight and laid his hand on my arm. I focused on his face, which was calm in the midst of the swarming chaos around me. The familiar warm presence of his hand on my skin was calming.
"I’m right here, Macy," he answered quietly. "I wouldn’t be anywhere else. I’m going to follow the ambulance and call your mom, okay? You’re going to be alright. Do you understand?"
I wasn’t sure if that was a directive or meant to be soothing but I nodded as best I could with the neck brace on. I felt his hand slip away from my arm and I wanted to protest, but I couldn’t. He was gone and I couldn’t see him anymore. They hoisted me into the ambulance and slammed the doors shut. A female EMT knelt beside me, cleaning my arm for an IV and talking to me in a soothing voice.
As I stared into her face, it morphed into the dark scary face of Annen, the high priest who had caused me so much trouble in Egypt. As the EMT murmured, all I could see were Annen’s jagged teeth and I gasped, shrinking back into the stretcher. Just as soon as the sound came out of my mouth, though, her face returned to normal. Blonde hair, blue eyes, freckles on her nose.
White teeth. Not the face of the high priest. She stared at me in concern.
"Are you alright?" she asked, with medical crispness. "Here, this will make you feel better."
She injected something into the IV and the walls of the ambulance got blurry as warmth spread quickly throughout my body. I closed my eyes.
I was suddenly standing in front of three women. And my pain was gone. The room we were in was cavernous and plain with white mist hugging the ceiling and swirling around our feet, clinging to my skin. I had no idea where I was and my disorientation only grew. There were no windows and I could see no doors, yet there was clearly a breeze blowing through, disturbing the strange white mist. It was curious. And I had no idea how I had gotten here.