Dark Vision (Ballad of the Seer, Book Two)

Chapter 24 - Wrong Place Wrong Time

Lily watched Hilary over the next several days, to make sure that her theories weren't true. Hilary never gave any sign that she knew anything. Not even in her mind. As Friday rolled around, Lily was relieved that she had been proven wrong. She was also relieved that there had been no more sightings of the witch hunter. This led them all to believe that it was, in fact, Jade that he had been after. They had just been in the wrong place at the wrong time. Something that was becoming practically a hobby for Lily.

"We are going to annihilate them." Eric told Jack when he took a seat beside Hilary at the lunch table. He grabbed a handful of the fries on her plate and stuffed them all into his mouth.

He was talking about the basketball game that evening. They were to play St. Steven's rival school, St. Ignatius, from the next town over. This was going to be the first really big game of the season and from what Lily had heard around school, almost everyone was going.

"Damn right we are." Jack gave Eric a high five across the table. As he pulled his arm back, he bumped a cup, causing it to topple over. He tried to stop it, but it was too late. The strawberry soda rushed toward Lily. She jumped out of her seat, to avoid getting her cheer uniform drenched. Discreetly, she held out two fingers by her side, to stop the progression of the red liquid before it could spill over the table onto her bag. What she hadn't expected was how the liquid would react. It splashed backwards at the edge of the table, as if it had just hit an invisible wall. She looked around at her friends, but Duncan was the only one to notice. Everyone else seemed occupied with keeping the liquid from reaching them and so they didn't see the disapproving look he gave her. Before anyone else could see what she had done, Lily gave a small nudge to the soda around her food tray to push it back into the middle. Jack's eyes flashed to meet hers when he noticed the ripples appear in the still puddle. He dropped a napkin to cover. She gave him a grateful smile.

"You're such a dumbass, Jack." Dianna exclaimed, checking to make sure that nothing had gotten on her. She and Hilary had backed away immediately, like Lily.

Bobby returned a moment later, with a roll of the cheap brown paper towels that the school also stocked in the bathrooms. They didn't seem to be helping all that much since they practically fell apart as soon as they came into contact with the liquid.

A lunch lady came over with a rag and mopped it all up, looking around at them with a contemptible glare. She was muttering about clumsy spoiled brats as she made her way back to the kitchen. When the bell rang, a moment later, Lily grabbed her bag and the apple that she hadn't had time to eat. Duncan took her free hand as they said goodbye to their friends. "You need to be more careful." Duncan told her. "What if someone else had seen your little trick?"

"No one did." she assured him.

"But they could have." he retorted.

"But they didn't."

"Not this time." he said. "You have to stop being so flippant about this. You may not like the Council and you may think that they are ineffective, but they will bind you for something like that. All it takes is one slip up. The wrong person seeing the wrong thing at the wrong time."

She scoffed, taking a bite of her apple. "I'd like to see them try." she said, around the mouthful of food.

He pulled her to a stop, out of the flow of students. "This is serious. You should treat it that way."

She had a witty comeback, but the look on his face made her swallow it. "I'm sorry. You're right." She pushed herself up to kiss his cheek.

He nodded. "I just don't want a mistake to take this away from you. Despite all of the bad that's happened, I know how much you love being a . . . y'know."