We had to find a safer place than in the middle of the woods with the car parked on the side of the highway, so Embry drove us to a college campus and sweet-talked the librarian into letting us use one of the ‘quiet study’ rooms.
I knew the chances were slim that it would work, since I really didn’t have a handle on the memories. At all. I still didn’t know if they were to help me or to kill me. Or if Annabelle even knew anything for me to find. I based this theory entirely on her habit of keeping things from people, so it wasn’t a lot to go on.
I took the sapphire-encrusted dagger in my hands and thought as hard as I could about Annabelle, and a spell to bring her back.
I could feel the guys watching me, wondering if it would work. I was about to give up and tell them it had been a ridiculous idea of mine, when the room faded away…
“Are you sure you know how to use that?” The Gabriel standing in front of me was maybe twelve years old, and though he was questioning Annabelle’s skills, he was looking at her like she was God’s gift to mankind and could do absolutely no wrong.
“Of course I do. My father taught me how to take care of myself.” Annabelle was holding the dagger in her hand, but I could sense her fear, both that her father would find her in his study, and that the sharp blade would cut her.
“I’m sorry I doubted you,” Gabriel smiled and looked at her in a way that made her heart beat faster, but she knew it was forbidden.
“Look…” she pulled away before the moment could go too far, twirling the dagger like she had seen the men by the docks do whenever they wanted to impress the ladies. Twirling was going better than she expected, but she got overly confident and threw it up in the air. She caught it in her left hand without a problem, but when she tried to throw it back to her right hand, it spun too much, so she caught the blade instead of the handle. It sliced into her right palm, which as long as I was in the memory, was also mine.
“Ow!” She muttered it under her breath, knowing they would be discovered if she cried out any louder, but boy did it sting.
“Are you alright? I’ll go get your mother…” Gabriel offered, taking a step towards the door.
“No, you can’t!” Annabelle bit her bottom lip and let out a sharp breath.
Gabriel looked at her, considering it, then sighed. “The bandages are still in the cupboard?”
“Top shelf,” she agreed.
“I’ll be right back,” he shook his head at her before quietly exiting the room.
Once Gabriel left, Annabelle dropped the act and cradled her injured hand to a chorus of “Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow!” until she heard him coming.
“You should sit down and keep it above your heart,” Gabriel suggested, helping her to her father’s chair.
She bit her bottom lip the whole time he wrapped the white bandage around her palm, holding her hand in his as he did. She took deep breaths against the pain, but also because he was so close and touching her in a way he hadn’t before.
“There. All better,” Gabriel kissed her hand before looking up at her, and in the moment that his lips were on her soft, damaged skin, the pain went away. Or at least she didn’t notice it over the excessive beating of her heart…
“It didn’t work?” Embry and Gabriel were by my side when I came back.
“Not the right memory,” I argued, trying to ignore the spark I felt when Gabriel touched my hand. I told myself it was the remnants of the memory and tried to push the thought away.
“There has to be something…”
“What about the empty pages?” Embry perked up.
“What?” Gabriel asked.
“The blank pages Beth left in the Chronicles?” It took me a minute to clue in, but Beth left a bunch of empty pages right in the middle of her section in the Chronicles. Not to mention random drawings from her daughter, which were cute, but not what I was hoping for when reading all about her outstanding adventures.
“I’m just thinking out of the box.”
“It’s worth a try, but I don’t know how I could reveal something she hid in there…” I grabbed the Chronicles and riffled through the pages as I spoke, eventually stumbling on one of the blank ones, before I got a flash of Beth transcribing something from a frayed piece of parchment.
“Was that another one?” Gabriel asked. It wasn’t a full memory, so I didn’t pass out, but he was right by my side.
“Just a flash. I don’t know who originally wrote it, but Beth copied it in here.”
“It could be invisible ink,” Embry suggested, but even he didn’t think it was likely.
“I doubt this is a ‘lemon juice to a candle’ type of operation,” I argued.
“Guess you’ll have to intend it into revealing itself,” Gabriel tried to make me laugh, getting a tiny smile.
I closed my eyes with my hands on the page, visualizing the flash of Beth writing it down.
“That’s amazing,” Gabriel prompted me to open my eyes as ink formed its way into words across the page, like an invisible hand was writing it.
“It’s magic,” Embry teased, but I was too busy scanning the page to make sure I didn’t have to kill anyone.
“Kiara’s Cure,” I read the title.