Witches in Training (#2 in the Witches Trilogy) [rewrites ongoing]

Chapter Forty: An Overflow of Events

VERA

Someone screams my name. I blink and fuzzy objects come into focus, particularly Vinni. My sister is crouching next to me, face flushed and anxious. "Vera, where the hell have you been? Do you know how freaked we've all been?"

"I saw Raelynn."

She shuts up. "What?"

"I talked to her." I correct. "And ate her sandwiches."

"What?"

Someone-Louis-helps me into a chair. There are fairies swarming around Sher in a cluster, but most of the attention is on me. "I think you'd better start from the top." So I do. I start from when we first saw Raelynn up till Kieran's deal with her. Faces grow steadily paler. My news is not good. "Vera, that bracelet." Louis' eyes pinpoint it. "Is that-"

"It neutralises magic. She had like ten of them."

Russell's face blanches. "Ten? Vera, there are only twenty-nine of those in known existence. According to you, Raelynn has a third of them?"

"Kieran said they were in his room, and Vinni broke through the wards locking it up."

"So everything is my fault now, is it?"

"She didn't say it was, Vin." Russell frowns uneasily. "Do you know where the cave was?"

"Underwater. Otherwise, not a clue."

He sighs. "All right. Thanks, Vera. Vinni, could you..." He trails off, glancing from me to the door. Apparently I'm not needed anymore. Vinni escorts me out of the room while behind me the fairies burst into a clamour, buzzing with activity. 

"Ver, what was Raelynn like?" Her question startles me out of a daze.

I frown. It's been troubling me, actually, lingering on my mind since the beginning. "She seemed... okay. Bracelet and stone prison aside, she seemed normal. Exactly like a best friend's older sister."

Vinni purses her lips. "Master of deception."

"No. I mean, yes, she is. But this... this was real. I could feel it. The way she talked and acted around Kieran especially. She was human. Almost nice, even. Everyone keeps making her out to be incredibly evil, but I didn't see that. She really didn't hurt me. She said she wouldn't and she kept that promise."

"She's acting."

"No." I insist. "I promise you. It was the real her. The Raelynn that Kieran knows, and he knows her better than anyone. The one you know... that's the act. Maybe she seems bad to you, Vin. But around Kieran, she's real."

Vinni glares at the wall behind me. "She wanted to kill me." She says curtly. "She still does."

"You're prejudiced against her."

"And you're siding with her."

"No, I'm not. I'm just saying. Beneath all the villianous stuff is someone real. She's doing this with a purpose. I think it's something to do with Kieran." I remember the wall of Polaroids in Raelynn's room, and know I'm right. Raelynn isn't a steel-faced, stone-hearted killer. 

Vinni, looking distinctly annoyed, says, "and suddenly you're the expert on Raelynn?"

"No, but neither are you. I'm telling you. If you'd seen her just now..." It's going to help you, she had said, with surprising earnesty. "You'd be rethinking everything too."

Vinni folds her arms incredulously. "Fine. It's not an issue. We need to get Kieran back." She says with the huffy air of someone clearly trying to change the subject.