Dark Vision (Ballad of the Seer, Book Two)

Chapter 25 - Reminiscing

After Duncan dropped Bobby off at his house, Lily made a call to Ms. Birch. She told the teacher to meet them at the school so they could talk, since she knew that they would never be able to find the woman's tiny cabin in the woods at night. Ms. Birch said that she would only be ten minutes.

Duncan drove back down the street to the school parking lot, where he parked the car and cut the engine.

Lily put her phone down in the empty cup holder and rubbed her temples, feeling very drained after everything that had happened. She wanted to crawl in bed and sleep for a week. But there was no time for that. There were pressing matters to be dealt with. Not the least of which was Hilary. Lily hoped that she really had forgiven her for all of the lies that she had been told. Hilary said she did, but that was when they thought they were going to be killed in the woods. Now that she was out of danger she might start to feel differently. Maybe Dianna would be able to make Hilary see that it was necessary to keep this from her for so long - even if Lily wasn't sure that it was anymore.

Duncan must have sensed her distress, because he took ahold of her hand and pulled it to his lips, kissing it gently. She looked over to him and gave a small smile. "I love you." she told him.

"I love you, too." His tone was stiff. She could see how tense he was, and not even the power of their bond was able to ease his wary mind. He had not taken it well when she told him what happened. He had wanted to run off into the woods and track down the hunters. He was so worked up that she thought she was going to have to push him to calm him down. Fortunately, Bobby had showed up just then, forcing Duncan to drop it. There was no way he could have explained the situation and she knew that he knew that. Almost a decade of running from the warlocks had taught him how to hide things.

They sat in the dark, deserted parking lot for almost twenty minutes before Lily saw the gold wagon coming down the road. It pulled in and stopped right next them. As Ms. Birch stepped out of her car, Lily took in her appearance. Her short brown hair was a mess, sticking up at odd angles all over her head, and she was wearing plaid pajama pants with a long fluffy sweater wrapped around her over a t-shirt with a picture of a cartoon cat drawn on it. She looked like she had been asleep when she got the call.

"Are you alright?" Ms. Birch asked, when they got out to greet her. "You sounded upset in your message."

"I was attacked." Lily informed the woman.

"When? By who?" She shook her head. She seemed quite frazzled.

"Two witch hunters came after me at the away game tonight."

Ms. Birch sucked in her breath, looking shocked. "Did they hurt you? Are you okay?" She grabbed Lily's chin in her hand and turned her face to the light so that she could examine her better.

"I'm fine." Lily finally said, as she pushed the teacher's hand away and stepped back. She bumped into Duncan and he put his hands on her arms, whether it was to comfort her or to keep her from falling over, she wasn't sure. Maybe it was both. "But Hilary was there."

"Does she know, now?"

Lily nodded. "I had to tell her."

"You couldn't push her to forget?" Ms. Birch asked.

Lily's nostrils flared as she huffed out a breath, sending a stream of fog into the air. "No, I couldn't. Or, to be completely honest, I didn't want to. I'm so sick of having to hide things."

"I know," Ms. Birch said, in a kindly voice, like when a grown up tries to tell a small child that something isn't good for them. "But you know what will happen if the Council were to find out."

"Y'know, I just don't give shit anymore."

The teacher looked taken aback by Lily's use of such harsh language. Her mouth opened and closed several times as her mind raced, trying to find a way to respond to that.