“When are you going to get a car?” she asked and I climbed in beside her. “Where’ve you been?”
“I went to see Geiruna.”
“The sea witch?”
“She’s not a witch. She’s really nice.”
“Ah,” Tiesa smiled, shifting into first. “Then she likes you.”
The wind picked up her red hair, flinging it messily about her face.
“Lucky you!” she continued. “You on your way home?”
“Yup.”
“Home, Jeeves!” She yelled and floored it.
Chapter Eight
Back To Normal
It took two weeks before Thayde was strong enough to sit up on his own and hold an extended conversation. I went through the motions of going to school and prayed for the day to end so I could return home to be with him. My routine was simple: get up, check on Thayde, eat, go to school, return home, check on Thayde and stay with him until I got so sleepy I had to go to bed.
Tammer was withdrawn. He didn’t love the fact Thayde and I were together. Mom knew what Thayde meant to me. It was how she felt toward Tammer. It was kind of nice actually, having a parent who understood how you were feeling and didn’t try to stop you.
This whole world of the impossible was hard to get used to. If you’d told me that all this existed a few months ago, I’d have thought you were mad and stayed as far away from you as I could. But this was my life now and my old life seemed so, well, unimportant. Insignificant. Boring.
It was Friday and thankfully school was over. The walk up the drive was a muddy mess, as we were experiencing yet another torrential downpour. Mom met me at the door looking happy.
“What’s going on?” I asked, dropping my backpack and pulling off my drenched raincoat.
She handed me a package wrapped in purple paper.
“Open it,” she said.
The wrapping fell to the floor as I opened the gift. After a few minutes of struggling with the box, I opened it to find a beautiful dive knife complete with a sheath and arm band.
“What’s this for?” I asked.
“Tammer wanted you to have it.”
“It’s really cool!” And it was thoughtful, too. I smiled at her. “Please tell him thank you.”
“I will.” She changed the subject. “Thayde’s doing very well. He’s able to walk around a bit now and is getting stronger each time he tries. I think he’ll be good to go in a few days”.
“That’s great,” I said, walking past her and heading for the guest bedroom.
“Morgandy,”
Turning, I could see she had something she wanted to say.
“He won’t be staying here long after he is better.”
“What? Why?” Where else was he supposed to go?
“Sweetheart, he’s a junior at Columbia University! He has his own apartment. He needs to get back to school.”
I shook my head. “But things have changed now.”
“He can’t stay here forever, honey.”
“But he’s got me now!”
“What do you expect him to do? Completely drop everything and come and live with you forever after?”
I stopped. Well not really, but I hadn’t even thought about what would happen next. Surely we’d be together.
“I don’t know,” I said.
“He’s twenty-three in human years, Morgandy. I understand you have corded, but honestly, you hardly know each other. I know that that doesn’t matter much to you, but it would be nice for the both of you to at least wait to be together until you graduate.”
I knew she was right, but the selfish part of me didn’t want to hear any more. Turning away, I hopped up the stairs, two at a time. I’d have to finish high school. Then, maybe I’d just go to the same university Thayde was attending. We could be together then, but I didn’t want him to leave. Could he put his school schedule on hold? Now I really was being selfish.
I knocked lightly on his door and when he didn’t answer, I cracked it slightly. He was curled up in the middle of the bed, fast asleep. Squeezing through the door so as not to make any noise, I tiptoed to his bed. A sheet was wrapped haphazardly around his body and his hand lay next to his handsome face on the pillow. I noticed the red marks around his wrists were considerably lighter. The scarring on his face was still red, but much better than before. His chest was still wrapped tightly.
What was I going to do? If he was better, which he certainly looked, that’d mean he was leaving and that was the last thing I wanted. We hadn’t even been on a date yet. Frustrated, I plopped down into a chair next to the bed, and held the topaz pendant that hung around my neck. I had to come up with a plan.