6.

  I stared at my mother, unsure if I heard her correctly. “Are you saying her own magic put her in a coma to protect her?” I was bewildered. I’d never heard of such a thing.

  “It’s a similar mechanism to how our brains sometimes make us forget traumatic experiences in our childhood. Carra’s bad memories came back to her all at once and it was too much for her to take so her magic surrounded her in protection.”

  My pulse began to spike. “How long will this last? When will she wake up?”

  Mum placed a hand on my shoulder. “There’s no way to tell, but know that we’ll do everything we can to take care of her until she does. She’ll stay in this room and I’ll tend to her personally. No harm will come to her.”

  My head hurt. I was so mad at Mum and Rita for doing this because I needed Carra to be awake. I needed her to open the portal to Oreylia. I had no one else to do it for me and there was no way I’d be able to figure out how to do it by myself.

  “Darya, I’m so sorry,” Mum said as I left the room and returned to my bedroom. I crawled under the covers and wished for the world to go away. At some point there was a knock on my door and I was vaguely aware of Mum entering my bedroom and leaving food on the nightstand. I had no appetite though, and the food was left untouched.

  The next day I wanted to avoid school again but I knew I was going to have to face the music eventually. Besides, if I couldn’t go to Oreylia then the least I could do was attend class and try to get ready for my final exams. They seemed like the very last thing that was important right then, especially since I was still heartbroken over Peter.

  The likelihood of bumping into him was high since we shared so many classes, but seeing him was something I’d have to face eventually, too. Even the thought of being in the same room as him made my chest ache. We’d become such intrinsic parts of each other’s lives and now I had to go through each day without him. Tears threatened to spill again but I sucked them back and got into the shower. By the time I was dressed in my uniform and ready to head out there was a knock on my bedroom door.

  “Come in,” I called, thinking it would be Rebecca. Instead Belinda glided through, her brown hair hanging in soft curls around her shoulders.

  “Oh, it’s you,” I said. “What do you want?”

  “I heard about that poor girl being in a coma.”

  I sighed, rubbing an aching spot on my neck that I was certain was down to stress. “Mum and Rita’s healing spell didn’t go according to plan.”

  “What are you going to do now?”

  I shot her a glance while tying my hair up in a ponytail. “About what?”

  “About the plan you two had to go to Oreylia and get your boyfriends back.”

  “First of all, Vas isn’t my boyfriend, and I’m almost certain Sven and Carra were never together. And second of all, how do you know about our plan?”

  Her eyes flicked to the ceiling. “I might’ve eavesdropped.”

  “You’re a nosy ghost, you know that?”

  “What? It can be terribly boring when basically no one can see you, and besides, I might be able to help.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “Help how?”

  “I can transport you to Oreylia. I can move between dimensions now that I’m no longer tied to my mortal body.”

  I gaped at her. “Seriously? You can go anywhere you want?”

  “I can open portals and pass between the space that divides various worlds, but people still can’t see me so it’s not as fun as it sounds.”

  “Okay, but why are you offering to help? You hate Sven. Why would you want to play a part in his rescue?”

  She studied her nails. “Maybe I want him to be brought back so that he can finish his sentence for murdering my uncle.”

  “You do realise where he is right now is way worse,” I stated while tightening my ponytail.

  She gave an irritated sigh. “Listen, do you want my help or not?”

  “Of course I do. I just don’t get why you’re offering it.”

  “I want you out of my hair so I can make your mother prefer me better,” she replied, folding her arms and lifting her chin. “Happy?”

  “You’re lying. What’s the real reason?”

  She glided to the window, staring out at the quiet, tree lined street. “Okay, so the truth is I’ve had some time to think, and if our roles were reversed I’m not entirely sure I’d have gone to the Prison of Thorns to bring your killer to justice. Actually, I’m certain I wouldn’t have. Also, my mum is an ice queen. Even if she could see ghosts she wouldn’t have taken you into her home like yours did for me.”

  “You don’t owe me anything, Belinda. If anything I owe you about a hundred more favours.”

  “Yes, and you can pay me those favours when you get back here safe and sound.” She paused then, a dark look crossing her features. “I want you to murder that bastard Red Armand. He killed me and the least you can do now is avenge my death. My hate for him outweighs any I might feel for Sven.”

  Ah, there she was, the Belinda I knew so well. Her words tapped into my own need for vengeance. My dark half wanted nothing more than to watch the life drain from Red Armand’s soulless, whiskey coloured eyes.

  I swallowed thickly, suddenly apprehensive that going to Oreylia was a real possibility. Was I brave enough to go alone? Could I navigate the terrain without Carra to guide me?

  “Let me think about it. Right now I have to get to school.”

  “Okay, tell Liz and Anna I said hi.”

  “Right, because I really need those two calling me a lying freak when I tell them I’ve been communicating with you from beyond the grave.”

  She chuckled in amusement. “I miss those two.”

  I arrived at school five minutes before the bell. I was on my way to class when I spotted Peter walking towards me down the hall. We both froze when we saw each other. My heart pounded in sorrow as I took him in. “Hi,” I said.

  I didn’t want him to hate me. I could never hate him. In fact, I would always love him, even years and decades from now. Peter was the first person to ever see into my soul. He was good all the way through. How could I ever stop loving someone like that?

  “Darya,” he said my name like the syllables were painful to get out.

  “Um, it’s good to see you—” I began before an announcement came over the speakers.

  “Can Darya Cristescu report to Principal Wolf’s office immediately.”

  I frowned, wondering what that was about. I rarely got called to the principal’s office. Was he going to reprimand me for my unexplained absence yesterday? “I better go,” I said to Peter and he nodded, his voice low when he said, “It’s good to see you, too.”

  Air caught in my lungs and tears threatened to leak out. I held his gaze for a long moment, and though the pain was fresh and agonising, I tried to embrace it, because the only way to get past it was to go through it. I focused on that journey, one where I would eventually reach a place where I wasn’t in this turmoil anymore.

  Finally, tearing my eyes away, I turned on my heel and speedwalked to Principal Wolf’s office. His assistant, Chloe, told me I could go straight in and I inhaled a deep breath for courage, hoping I wasn’t about to get chewed out.

  “Darya, hello, please take a seat,” Principal Wolf greeted as I entered.

  “Am I in trouble?” I asked, warily lowering myself into the chair in front of his desk.

  He set down the pen he’d been holding and rubbed his jaw. When his eyes met mine they were almost apologetic. Oh, no, I didn’t like that look.

  “I haven’t had the chance to speak with your parents yet, but I thought it best to inform you first.”

  “Inform me of what?”

  His soulful brown eyes held mine. “I’m sorry, Darya, but it looks like you won’t be able to graduate this year.”

  Time stood still. I stared at him, wishing I hadn’t heard him correctly.

  “What do you mean?” I finally asked. “I know I missed a few weeks, but those were extenuating circumstances. I still have over a month left to make up for lost time. I can make it work. I’ll study every waking hour. Please, just give me a chance.”

  He exhaled, running his hand across his bearded chin. “It won’t make a difference, I’m afraid. You missed two project deadlines while you were away and your grades were already barely scraping by before you left. As it stands there’s no way for you to bring your grades up to a passing level before the end of term.”

  What he said made me feel like there were a dozen bricks sinking to the bottom of my stomach. After my break-up with Peter, then discovering Carra was in a coma, I wasn’t sure how I could take another piece of bad news. Not only that, I’d failed my parents, let them down.

  Lips quivering, I stood from the chair. “Okay, well, thanks for letting me know,” I said, doing my level best not to cry in front of my intimidating shapeshifter principal.

  “Darya, you’re welcome to repeat next year,” he said but I was already halfway to the door.

  “Sure, I’ll think about it.” I felt like I couldn’t breathe. I needed to get out of there. I was halfway to my classroom when I realised there was no point in even going to class. I was flunking out. One of my worst fears had become reality. I wasn’t going to graduate.

  But then, did it even matter? I’d glimpsed my future, and nothing I’d seen required me to graduate from St. Bastian’s. My aspirations to join the Guard had already faded, so what was the point? Despite telling myself this, I still couldn’t shake the feeling of failure, of being disappointed in myself. Was it simply because I was letting my parents down, or had some part of me wanted to graduate just to prove that I could?

  I wandered aimlessly toward an exit. I left the school building and headed for the forest. I needed to walk and clear my head because it felt like too much was falling apart all at once and I didn’t have the strength to weather it all.

  Everything quieted the further I went into the forest. The sounds of nature soothed my overworked brain and I sat on a rock trying the gather my thoughts. Just because I wasn’t going to graduate didn’t mean my life was over. There were so many other things in the world that I could do, the first of which was to rescue Vas and Sven.

  Saving two lives was a selfless pursuit. Well, perhaps not so selfless since Vas’ mark constantly prodded at me to act, to reunite us. The desire to calm its frantic need to have him close was at least a little selfish. But truthfully, I craved his energy, too, the frenetic excitement that came with being around him, like anything could happen at any moment.

  Another selfish aspect of rescuing Vas and Sven was that it would distract me from Peter. It was a mission that would require my constant focus, which would hopefully take my mind off the agony of being without him. I no longer had his calm, reassuring, protective presence in my life and that was a big loss.

  I heard a bell ring, echoing from the school, signalling the end of class. Had I been wandering in the forest for the duration of one period or more? I’d been so lost in my thoughts I hadn’t been conscious of time passing. Gathering myself, I prepared to walk back to the school.

  In the distance I saw students filtering between buildings as they headed for class. I almost envied them, the simplicity of their lives. They knew where they were headed, knew what they needed to do each day, whereas I was adrift.

  The only path that seemed right was a treacherous one, and a part of me didn’t want to step foot in Oreylia. That part wanted to stay home in the loving arms of my family and take no risks. But without risk, what was the point in living? I needed to be strong, find my courage and do the thing that might make or break me, because the alternative meant never seeing Vas again and it wasn’t merely the mark that hated the idea of that…

  7.

  I’d just reached the school when I spotted Ren who was late for class. “Is everything okay?” he asked, clearly noticing something was off with me.

  I didn’t answer his question, instead I asked, “Want to get out of here?”

  He glanced around, then nodded enthusiastically. “Absolutely.”

  We headed to my car and I hit the gas, unable to get off school grounds fast enough. I’d always had a love hate relationship with my schooling but now that it had been snatched away bitterness consumed me. I drove toward the city, the tall, looming spruce trees of the Yellowbranch forest flashed in my peripheral vision as we zoomed by on the road.

  “You look like you’ve gotten some pretty bad news. I heard the announcement over the speakers,” Ren said. “What did Principal Wolf want to talk to you about?”

  “I’m not going to graduate,” I answered quietly. “My grades are too low.”

  “Ah, crap, that’s awful. I’m so sorry, Darya.” He reached out to give my arm a soft pat.

  “Don’t feel sorry for me. It’s my own fault. What did I expect going off on an undercover mission during the last few weeks of term? If anything I deserve this.” My words dripped with self-recrimination.

  “You can always repeat next year.”

  “I know,” I said, exhaling heavily. “I’m sure my parents will insist on it.”

  “You don’t want to?”

  “I’ve never been cut out for academia. I’ve always just wanted to get out there and start living, join the Guard, but now I can’t even do that.”

  “My gran says that life seldom goes the way you plan it. She’s seen so many people’s futures and they rarely end up where they expect.”

  “Seems like I’m going to be another one of those. Peter broke up with me the other night.” Just stating it made my heart sink.

  Ren blinked in surprise. “Peter broke up with you? Why?”

  I rubbed my chest before bringing my hand back to the steering wheel, hating to be reminded. “Because of the mark. Peter created a spell to remove it but…he sensed I didn’t want to go through with it.”

  “Goodness, Darya, I’m so sorry. That is a lot of bad stuff all at once.”

  “Yeah, and get this, Carra’s in a coma so if I want to rescue Vas and Sven I’m going to have to do it on my own.”

  Ren cast me an empathetic look. I pressed my lips together, pushing down the tidal wave of emotion that wanted to spring forth. Days like this it felt like the world was out to get me.

  A few moments of quiet fell before he said, “Are you really considering travelling to Oreylia on your own? Don’t you at least need Carra to open the portal for you?”

  What he said reminded me of Belinda’s offer from earlier.

  “There’s another way, but without Carra I’ll be going in blind. I’ll have no idea where to go to find them. It’s not like I can conjure a map.”

  “That is a tough one,” Ren agreed. “But since you already saw yourself there in the future you must find a way to locate them.”

  “Are you suggesting I just go and figure out the rest along the way?” I asked, raising both eyebrows.

  Ren shrugged. “It’s reckless, but like I said, if those visions are true it all works out for you.”

  “Right, I just have no idea what I might have to endure before everything works out.”

  “That’s the chance you take,” Ren said and a flame of ambition sparked within me. There was courage there, too. I could do this. If I wanted to see Vas again and get the chance to explain myself, to tell him that I wished I hadn’t kept my undercover mission a secret for so long, then I needed to do this. I needed to take Belinda up on her offer and step into a dimension where I was sure to face new dangers at every turn.

  Gulp.

  If I was going to do this without my parents’ blessing now would be the perfect time. I also didn’t want to be around when Principal Wolf called and informed them I wouldn’t be graduating.

  “What does that look mean?” Ren asked, his attention fixed on me.

  “It means I think I’m actually going to do this.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Not in the slightest.”

  Ren chuckled. “That’s the spirit.”

  A little while later Ren and I sat in my bedroom staring at Belinda. Well, I stared at her and recited what she said for Ren while he looked in the general direction I was looking. He’d insisted on tagging along back to my house out of sheer curiosity.

  “I haven’t tried to open a portal for an actual live person yet,” she explained. “So there’s a chance it won’t work.”

  “Don’t worry about that. Let’s just try and see what happens,” I said, eager to get the show on the road. If I paused and thought about things for too long I might change my mind.

  “What if she sends you to the wrong place?” Ren asked, his brow crinkling.

  “That’s a chance I have to take,” I replied, my hand trembling as I pulled out a clean T-shirt.

  “Why are you rifling through your wardrobe?” Belinda questioned. “Are you planning on putting on a fashion show?”

  “I’m searching for the best clothes to bring with me.”

  “Have you got any boots?” Ren asked. “A hardy pair of boots are always a good idea when venturing into the unknown.”

  “Yes, boots. Good suggestion,” I agreed, grabbing the black leather lace ups I wore in the winter. My outfit consisted of jeans, a T-shirt, black hoodie and a wool coat. I recalled Vas saying that though his city was hot during the day, it turned freezing cold at night. I stuffed some extras into my backpack, as well as some non-perishable food I took from the pantry. Before I forgot, I grabbed the scarf Roman gave me, as well as the dagger that could kill demons, sliding it into a discreet side pocket.

  I decided that I would only spend five days in Oreylia, which equalled to one day here. In approximately twenty-four hours, Belinda would reopen the portal so that I could haul my arse back home. This meant my parents would barely have time to notice I was gone. I’d set an alarm on my old digital watch so I’d know exactly how much time I had to get back to the portal.

  “So, what exactly is your plan?” Ren asked.