“Violet?” I heard Becky’s voice behind me. “Can you wait up?”
Annabel and I stopped and turned around. Becky was the only person standing there; the other girls were nowhere in sight. “Christy needed to stop again, so I said I’d catch up with you,” Becky said as she looked over her shoulder toward the rest of our group.
“Oh, okay. How far back did they stop?” I asked, taking a step back down the trail.
“They’re just around the bend, but I wanted to talk to you real quick.”
“Say no more.” Annabel said bouncing back toward the other girls.
Once she was out of ear shot, Becky said, “I wanted to say sorry. I didn’t mean to out you like that.”
“Yes you did.” I smiled. It was Becky’s nature to get in everyone’s business. I learned a long time ago not to hold a grudge.
The tension in her shoulders eased as her guilt quickly abated. “I just don’t want you to feel like you can’t talk to us. I know you have your reasons for being guarded, but we’re your friends.”
“I know you guys are, but you know how private I am. And this thing with Robert is complicated. Now you’ve got ‘Miss Happily Ever-After’ down there all excited about something that might never happen,” I said, motioning back in Christy’s direction.
“I know, I know. It’s just, he seems like a nice guy and you should be excited about him. It may be complicated but good God, Violet, have you taken a good look at the man who happens to be completely engrossed with you?”
I couldn’t help but laugh. It was true, Robert really was an attractive man and that kiss proved I was more than just The Waker to him. In a perfect world, I should be able to enjoy being with him and get excited about where this might lead. But one simple fact remained: he was only in my life because someone wanted me dead.
“Why don’t we go grab the girls? We’re almost to the end of the trail and I’m itching to get to the top,” I suggested, changing the subject. I put my arm around Becky’s shoulder and pulled her back down the trail toward our companions.
Chapter 18
I got up the next morning and put on a pot of coffee for everyone. I didn’t need caffeine to get me moving with the rest of the waking world, but the girls did. Over dinner last night, Becky said she wanted to head over to the waterfall and have a nice picnic lunch. As much as I loved the outdoors, I just wanted to relax and do nothing for one day. My life had been so chaotic lately that a day of lounging around seemed like heaven. I knew getting rid of the girls wouldn’t be easy but I formulated a plan while they slept.
In the back of my mind, I knew I should probably stay with them and not make myself vulnerable. But Annabel would stay with me and Robert was close by, if anything happened. I thought about calling Robert and having him join us, since the girls would be nowhere in sight, but I had to admit it was nice not having him around watching my every move.
Once everyone was awake and getting ready, I told them I wasn’t going to join them today because I wanted to get lost in the woods and take pictures. Annabel dutifully volunteered to assist me against the other girls protest. I was ninety-eight percent sure this would get them to leave me alone. No one ever liked coming with me to take pictures. I tended to be very focused when I was trying to get the perfect shot and spent a lot of time in one place, sometimes just making small adjustments. It wasn’t much fun for anyone tagging along.
“You sure you guys don’t want to come with us?” Becky asked again as they got ready to leave. She wasn’t too keen on leaving us behind, but the thought of spending the day with me in the woods taking pictures of things she wouldn’t find interesting in a million years kept her from offering to stay with us.
“Yeah, we’ll be fine,” I replied. “There are a few shots that didn’t come out the way I wanted them to last year so I’m going to try and get the pictures right this time around.”
Becky laughed. “Alright, we’ll only be a couple hours though so don’t disappear into the woods for too long,” she said, anxious to get out of the house.
“We won’t. Besides, I don’t think the weather is going to hold out much longer,” Annabel noted.
Looking out the window I grimaced at the dark clouds descending on the cabin.
“Christy, come on already!” Becky yelled.
“Coming, coming, geez,” Christy said, shuffling to the front door while juggling her jacket, a Power Bar and a cup of coffee.
“Have fun,” I said and waved to them from the porch.
“You too,” Becky called over her shoulder.
With the girls out of sight, I went into the bedroom and pulled Robert’s family journal out from my bag. I made myself comfortable on the couch with a small blanket and sifted through the pages.
“What’s that?” Annabel asked grabbing her own blanket and curling up on the leather chair adjacent to me.
“Family journal that, Robert gave to me.” I said flipping the pages back and forth.
“Any juicy family gossip?” She wiggled her eyebrows suggestively.
I laughed, “So far, nothing too scandalous.”
“So you and Robert, huh?”
I groaned. “I’m sorry about yesterday. That was humiliating.”
“Naw, don’t worry about it.” She waved off my apology. “It was nice, pretending to be normal for a change. We get so caught up with Magic sometimes that we forget the little things.”
“I’ve noticed. It’s been a bit of a rollercoaster,” I said biting the inside of my cheek.
“With Robert or with Magic?” Cocking her head to the side, she watched me with an amused expression.
“Both.” I laughed a tucked my hair behind my ear.
“They can both be a handful at first. But you were made for this.” For the first time, Annabel looked at me with the same sort of reverence that Robert did.
“Right, because I’m The Waker.” I shifted on the couch to avoid her gaze.
“No.” She shook her head and sat up adjusting the blanket on her lap. “Because you’re you. Robert can be a stick in the mud sometimes, but you bring him to life. And Magic, sure it’s a lot to take in,” she shrugged, “but you didn’t run for the hills when you found out it was real.” She paused letting her words sink in. “You were meant for this life.”
I looked at the journal in my hands and let my fingers graze the front cover. Maybe she was right. Destiny aside, I did choose to stay. “I guess, I’ve never been one to run from a challenge.” I shrugged and a small smile played on my lips.
It was so nice talking to somehow I didn’t have to lie to. Magic had changed my life so much already and it was hard having only Robert to talk to. Relaxing into the couch, the tension I always held now, melted away.
“So how old were you when you found out about Magic?” I asked.
“I was four when I realized I was different. But my ability-“
“The vanishing thing?” I interrupted her.
“Orbing,” she corrected me. “I didn’t find out about that until I was about twelve. Sometimes it takes longer for an ability to manifest itself,” she said casually as if we were talking about shoe size.
Annabel’s phone rang in her lap, before I could ask her anything else.
“It’s Jake.” She smiled from ear to ear, “I’ll be right back.” She hopped off the couch and bounced into one of the bedrooms.