We slept in a little the next morning, but since Rowan was supposed to pick me up for lunch around noon, I had to get home. Ginger and Giselle dropped me off at my house, promising that we’d have another sleepover soon. I didn’t expect my parents to be home. Saturday was usually a busy day for the store since lots of people were off work. Slipping the key out of my pocket, I unlocked the front door and went inside. Since I was in a bit of a rush, I left my backpack and overnight bag by the door and went up to my room to grab a jacket. It was a little cold outside, and the shirt I’d packed to wear today wasn’t warm enough. Without having a moment to think, I opened the door to my room and screamed.
Jack was sitting on the edge of my bed, crying. He looked up at me, his eyes puffy and red. He looked like he hadn’t slept in weeks.
“Jack, what are you doing in my room? And why are you crying?” I asked.
“Lily, I’m so sorry. I tried to stop this, I really did, but you wouldn’t listen to me.” Jack looked back down at the floor, his hand balled into tight fists.
“Stop what?” I asked. “Jack, is this about the drinking?”
“No, Lily, this is about you and Rowan. About you refusing to give him up no matter how many times I asked you to.” Jack ran his hands through his hair, tugging and ripping small parts out.
“Jack, I know about your feelings for me. I just don’t feel the same way about you. I’m sorry.” I started walking toward him, but he put his hand out to stop me.
“I’ve always loved you, Lily, from the moment I ran into you and knocked you over at freshman orientation. And I still love you. But just as I knew from the moment I started loving you, I still know that you can never be mine. But that’s not what any of this is about. I’m a faerie, Lily, like Rowan is. My parents are watchers. That’s why I knew I could never be more than a friend to you. And I was prepared for that. I was prepared for you to fall in love with a human man and have a family with him, completely oblivious to my feelings for you. My parents were even all right with it as long as I never told you what I was or how I felt about you. Everything was fine until you became involved with him.” Jack said the word “him” like it was a curse. “Rowan ruined everything. He made you fall in love with him before I could convince you to stay away from him. They gave me months, Lily, months to talk you out of being with him. But now my time is up. My parents told me they would do it so I wouldn’t have to watch it happen. They promised that it would be painless, that you wouldn’t feel a thing. I did everything I could to make myself forget you. I drank, smoked, anything to keep my mind off you. But it never worked. You were always on my mind, a constant presence in my thoughts. I just couldn’t stand the thought of you dying and me not being here. I was planning on doing it myself, quietly while you slept. I didn’t want you to feel any pain. Then she came and—”
“Shut up, Jack. You asked for time to give her an explanation, but time’s up.” Delilah stepped into the room, standing between me and the door. “Now it’s my turn.” She grinned in the most menacing, evil way I could have imagined. Small bursts of lightning were coming from Delilah’s palms as she started walking toward me. Jack was lying on my bed now, screaming more than crying.
My mind raced. I tried to think of anything around me that I could use for a weapon. I knew that my best option was to hide until Rowan got there, but I had to have a way to defend myself until I could find a hiding spot. If I could make Delilah move from in front of the door, I might be able to run fast enough to get out of the room. I grabbed a stack of hardcover books off my shelf and started throwing them at Delilah while running toward the door. It seemed to annoy her more than hurt her, but it didn’t matter as long as it distracted her. I would be forever grateful for spending the extra money on hardcover books rather than paperbacks.
I ran down the stairs and into the kitchen as fast as I could. I could hear Delilah screaming at Jack to stop crying and start helping her. I grabbed a large frying pan and a large knife before hiding in the pantry. I shut the door behind me and immediately took my phone out of my back pocket. I couldn’t exactly call nine-one-one and tell them that my faerie boyfriend’s psycho ex-girlfriend, who was apparently part of some prejudiced faerie cult, was trying to murder me by shooting lightning out of her hands. They’d probably just tell me to check myself into the mental ward at the hospital. Rowan was already on his way, but I sent him a text updating him on the situation. I also sent messages to Ginger and Giselle, asking them to bring whatever help they could.
I put my phone back in my pocket and attempted to hide behind a large bag of rice. I held the knife with my right hand, pointing it toward the pantry door. I heard footsteps on the stairs and tried to quiet my breathing.
Delilah started talking. “I know you’re here somewhere, Lily. It’s only a matter of time before I find you. Do you know why I want to kill you? You probably think you do, but you’re wrong. Neither I nor my family are watchers. I was just lucky enough to overhear your redhead besties talking about your miserable little love triangle. I decided that I would find this Jack person and make a deal with him. If he helped me ruin your relationship with Rowan, then we would both get what we wanted. He could finally be with you, and I could be with Rowan. But when I finally found him, I realized I’d come across a family of watchers. Of course, he doesn’t call himself one yet, but he will eventually. I was thrilled to find that he’d already been given the task of killing you. Unfortunately, he was planning on doing it painlessly, which I would not agree to. So I simply told him I was going to come here and kill you myself today, with or without him. As you can see, he decided to come along. Of course, I’ve now realized that his help is absolutely useless. He doesn’t seem to have much of a tendency toward aggression. But none of that is what’s important. What’s important is that you’ve attempted to steal what’s mine. My mother told me from the moment we were born that Rowan and I were destined to be together. When she was still alive, she used to tell me how she and Rowan’s mom, who was her best friend, had talked about how their children would fall in love. They’d talked about our wedding, how many children we would have, and even what type of house we’d live in. It was their dream for their children to marry. So you see, Lily, he was mine all along. He was promised to me!”
At that moment, my phone started ringing.
Before I even had time to panic, the pantry door was flung open. Like any person would, I acted instinctively, standing up and lunging forward. The knife went into her right shoulder, causing her to scream. The knife fell from my hands as I ran behind her. With all the force I was capable of, I swung the frying pan, hitting the right side of her face. She screamed louder, tugging the knife out of her shoulder to reveal a mess of butchered flesh. She aimed the knife, now drenched in blood, at me. With terror beating through my heart, I sprinted out the front door, running into Jack, who was standing on the porch. We both fell over, landing beside each other. He started to sit up, but I hit him with the frying pan, knocking him out. In all honesty, I had no idea that I could hit that hard.
Delilah burst out the front door, blood still dripping from her shoulder. She glanced down at Jack, unconscious on the porch, and screamed. She kicked his unconscious form, still screaming. I couldn’t tell whether she was screaming out of frustration or pain.
I stood up, backing into one of my pots of plants. My fingers grazed the leaf of a sage plant. I felt a sudden tingling in my fingers, which quickly extended throughout my body. Delilah approached me, knife in hand. Something inside me seemed to tell me to wrap my hands around the stem of the plant. I followed my intuition and willed whatever was going to happen to happen quickly.
In a moment of absolute amazement, I felt a burst of energy, both physical and mental, escape my body. The energy flowed through my fingers and into the plant. The stem started to grow in size and was soon large enough to pass for a small tree. Without making a conscious choice to move, I stepped back, staring at the plant in shock. My hand was shaking uncontrollably. I honestly couldn’t believe what I was seeing. The plant placed itself like a wall between Delilah and I. She dropped the knife, staring in horror, her mouth wide open.
I heard running footsteps and looked toward the driveway. Rowan was sprinting toward the porch with an expression of pure terror on his face. Two more cars pulled into the driveway. I could hear another car racing down the street. Delilah took one look at Rowan and ran. She jumped off the side of the porch and dashed into the woods behind my house. Jack was still unconscious.
The plant started to angle itself between Rowan and me. He stared at me from the steps of the porch, looking as if he’d seen a ghost. The same instinct that had led me to touch the plant before directed me to touch it again. I placed my hands on the plant, directing my energy toward it. This time I paid more attention to the sensation flowing through my body. The action itself was draining, like running a marathon without any conditioning. If I concentrated hard enough, I could understand the plant communicating with me during the energy change. It was almost as if it could understand my thoughts. The plant shrank back to its original size just as quickly as it had originally grown. I looked at my hands, holding them up in front of my face.
Suddenly Rowan was wrapping his arms around me. He picked me up and carried me into the living room. With all the force I had left in my being, I curled my body into him, letting his familiar scent distract me from everything that had just happened. He laid me down on the couch, kneeling beside me. Something within me acknowledged that I could hear people talking outside—comfort coursed through me as I recognized Ginger, Giselle, and Marie’s voices. It took all of my energy to turn my head to look out the window. Forest and Clay were standing with them. My head was spinning; the whole room seemed to be going in and out of focus. Rowan was looking at me with astonishment and fear equally displayed on his face. He whispered soft, reassuring phrases in my ear. I didn’t think I had enough energy to process anything else, but then I heard Jack’s voice. Jack ran into the room, Forest and Clay right behind him. Forest grabbed both of Jack’s arms and held them behind his back.
“Lily! Please, just let me say one more thing to you. Please! I’ll leave you alone for the rest of your life if you’ll just give me the chance to talk to you. Please!” Jack’s eyes pleaded with me, begging me to let him speak.
Forest looked to me as if asking for my permission to let Jack talk. I nodded.
“What I said to you earlier was true! I love you! I’ve always loved you! I was wrong to try to hurt you. I don’t believe the same things as my parents. You and I, we were made for each other! We can run away right now, just you and me. We can have a life together! Please, Lily, I love you!”
“Liar!” Rowan roared. “You didn’t try to hurt her, you tried to kill her! You’re a filthy watcher, just like your parents!”
Rowan was standing up now, his hands balled into fists. I still felt like the room was spinning a hundred miles an hour.
“Lily, please, come with me,” Jack spoke so quietly that I could barely hear what he’d said.
“She’s not going anywhere with you ever again!” Rowan’s fists were shaking like they couldn’t wait to be put to good use.
“That is her decision, not yours!” Jack yelled.
Forest tightened his grip on Jack’s arms, causing Jack to wince in pain. Clay had found a rope somewhere and was beginning to tie it around Jack’s wrists.
“Lily, please.” Tears were now falling down Jack’s cheeks.
I took a deep breath, realizing that I was crying too. Rowan was staring at Jack with what looked like pure hatred in his eyes. Jack was only looking at me.
“The Jack that I knew is gone.” I turned my head away from him, closing my eyes.
It was impossible to ignore the tears falling down my cheeks. My body was shaking, and I could barely breathe. Rowan knelt back down beside me, taking my hands in his. He pushed my hair out of my face, which was now drenched in layers of sweat. There was something within my chest urging me not to look at Jack. In all honesty, I was afraid that if I did, I wouldn’t ever be able to look away again.
“You have precisely twenty-four hours to collect your things and leave,” Forest said. “You are never to try to contact Lily again. If you do attempt to contact them or do not leave within twenty-four hours, you’ll be seeing us again.”
I heard the front door open and close. Jack was gone, and I knew that a not-so-small part of me was gone with him.
I felt Rowan pick me up off of the couch and carry me upstairs. His muscles were tense, filled with unused rage. He laid me down on the bed and pulled a chair over to sit beside me. He held my hand, gently stroking my thumb with his. I felt the tears drying on my cheeks and mixing with the already dried sweat. The room went fuzzy, even more so than before. Colors no longer seemed to exist as the room turned into a sea of white, grey, and black. The edges of my vision disappeared. Everything was fading away. The pain in my head slowly became a gentle pull toward sleep. Then I gave into the darkness.