The Trinity War (Book 3 of the Trinity series)

Chapter 15

I marked off the final date on the calendar before the circled date. August 22nd. The day I would leave for Italy.

I heard a knock at my door and turned around to see my father walk in to my room.

"All packed?" he asked, looking around at my suitcases. I nodded.

"I'm packed," I said, my voice small and quiet. 

"Are you ready to go?" my father asked. He wasn't asking in an urgent way, telling me to hurry and get going. He was asking me because I knew he knew that I wasn't completely sure that I wanted to go anymore.

"I'm as ready as I'll ever be," I said.

"You're going to have a really great experience, Caley. Italy is the place to go to learn about some of magic's most ancient roots. It's a place full of history. You can even visit the Trinity Government while you're there and see for yourself how our system functions," my father told me.

"I thought the government was being taken over?" I asked. He frowned.

"That's true. I guess you're not exactly picking an ideal time to leave, then, are you?" he said, a half-smile on his lips.

"I'm sorry I won't be much help with the war," I said.

"I think it's better that you'll be away from it. I'd rather you be safe and far from here than in the action," he replied. I bit my lip, looking down at the ground. I am more a part of this war than you would ever know, Dad. I have so much invested in this, so much to lose that I can't afford to.

"A year's a really long time," I said.

"I've been away from you for much longer. I think time will go by pretty fast," he said. I looked up at him, blue eyes meeting blue.

I hope so.

"Keep Trey on track, will you? Make sure he doesn't put too much into the war," I said. I saw my father's expression darken slightly before he nodded silently.

"We should get going. You still have to say good-bye to Trey and your friends. We don't want to miss your flight," he said. I nodded and stood up. I grabbed one of my suitcases and dragged it out of the room. My father followed behind with the other two.

The plan that Gerrard and I had made was that we would meet in Sicily. He would come pick me up at the airport and from there, we'd go to the apartments that I would be staying in. Gerrard was going to get there a little bit before to set up.

We had taken one of the captives that Elijah had locked up in the dungeons that had blonde hair. Her name was Nina. We transformed her to look like me and then spelled her into obeying our orders. Nina would take my place in the classes that I had been signed up for so that my father would be able to receive a monthly report on how I was doing and what I was learning. We had compelled her into drinking weekly the potion that would keep the disguise up. The compulsion spell was permanent until one of us died; it was an ancient spell that we had found in Elijah's library when we were researching during the summer and creating our plan. Nina would continue to obey our orders until we set her free when we were done with our mission.

Gerrard and Nina would be waiting for me at the airport in Sicily. Initially, he had wanted us to go together. But I wanted to say a proper good-bye to my friends and family. Who knew if I would ever even see them again? And if I did, under what circumstances would we meet? I had to say my farewells because I didn't know if I would get a chance to later.

After about an hour, my father and I reached the John F. Kennedy Airport in New York City. The city was bustling and busy as usual. The airport was crowded with people of all different nationalities. We parked at the terminal where the flights to Italy were departing from. As I got out of the car and helped my father get my bags out of the trunk of the car, I felt my heart beat escalate.