Post by StoryGirl83 on Mar 3, 2010 19:52:05 GMT -5
Chapter Ten – How Do You Trust
That was one idea that had never occurred to Chris, but as he watched he saw Emily amuse Melinda and Seth with parlor tricks. Nothing fancy, but she certainly seemed to be well practiced at it. As if she sensed their eyes, Emily turned around suddenly and looked at them. Her eyes turned from amused to guarded in a second. She looked at Chris and after a moment a smile lit her lips that erased the unease in her eyes.
“You’re supposed to be at The Manor,” Chris accused and then mentally swore as her smile fell.
It didn’t last. She chuckled. “I don’t think your one to talk, since you left first.”
“Did Drinka approve you’re leaving?”
“Did she approve yours?”
Chris scowled.
Emily laughed. “Yeah, I thought not. I want to know what happened in there.”
“And I want to undo it.”
“Do you?” She looked at him uncertain. “I looked at the cabinet after you left. I think I might have gotten badly injured if you hadn’t done whatever you did.”
Chris closed his eyes and sighed. “Okay, I don’t want to get you hurt, but I could have insisted on helping you with those dishes or something.”
“Or you could accept that you didn’t and explain what you did do,” Emily suggested, her smile returning.
“What exactly did you do, Chris?” Melinda asked suddenly, her curiosity getting the better of her.
Chris moaned. “I can’t just tell you that,” he insisted. “It’s not exactly . . . I don’t know you that well, Emily.”
She shrugged. “Exactly how will telling me what happened make things worse? I was there. Remember?”
Chris exhaled slowly, trying to think. “It’s not that easy. It’s not just something I explain to people.”
“Oh no,” Melinda groaned as realization came to her. “You didn’t.”
Chris ignored her and stared at Emily. “I just don’t know you well enough to know how you’ll react and if I don’t know that . . . There’s no way for me to know.”
“Look. That was no sleight of hand. There was not distraction or misdirection. There was smoke or mirrors. I know all about magic tricks. That wasn’t one. I’m not here to expose some big secret to the world. I’m here to find out why I’m not lying dead in the morgue or at the very least on my way to the hospital with knife wounds. I need to know why.”
“You say that,” Chris looked at her. “But how do I know? You could just be saying something to make me drop my guard.”
“No offence, but you already did. You . . .” Emily stopped and looked at Melinda and Seth. “Maybe we should go somewhere else to have this discussion.”
Chris shook his head. “There is no discussion to have. I have no way of knowing if you are telling the truth.”
“I’ll forgive that insult since as you say you don’t know me that well,” she glared at him. “You can do that. Surely you have some way of proving I’m not lying.”
Chris opened his mouth to answer and stopped. He frowned as he remembered something. “Maybe.”
Melinda frowned, but she didn’t know enough to know the look on his face was trouble. Wyatt couldn’t see Chris’ face, so he didn’t realize it either. Seth’s eyes widened and he shook his head hard. “Whatever you are planning, Chris, stop now.”
Chris ignored and looked at Emily. “I have an idea, but if it doesn’t work, you have to agree to forget all of this.”
“As if I could forget.”
“I mean it,” Chris insisted. “If I do this, you have to agree to that. It will let me know if you can be trusted without any doubt. You insist you can, so you shouldn’t be worried.”
“You can’t just make me forget.”
He nodded. “Considering what happened in the kitchen, you really doubt that?”
She stared at him. “And if I convince you I am trustworthy.”
“You remember and we never speak of this again.”
“No deal.”
“Don’t you want to know?”
“I want to know, but I don’t want my mind messed with.”
Chris closed his eyes and sighed. “Okay. What if mine was too?”
She frowned and looked at him. “What do you mean?”
“If you forget, then so do I. If you remember, then so do I. I ask my questions and so do you. And we both tell the truth, no matter what.”
“How would I know you’re telling the truth?”
“The same way I’ll know you’re telling the truth,” he informed her, “it’s in the spell.”
“Chris, no,” Melinda rose from the couch and started toward him.
Wyatt shook his head and she stopped. Then, he turned Chris around to face him. “Are you insane? Who’s always telling me “no personal gain”? And casting a spell on an innocent? Are you absolutely gone mad?”
Chris looked at the different people in the room. Emily eyed him with pure curiosity. Wyatt looked at him with a mixture of concern and pity. Seth clearly thought he was as nuts as Wyatt did. And then there was Melinda. Melinda’s eyes were filled with horror. Chris remembered that she’d grown up forbidden to use her magic, with the knowledge that it wasn’t demons that had brought down her family. It wasn’t demons that hunted them. It was humans. Looking back at Emily, he just couldn’t believe she had anything in common with the humans that Melinda had learned to fear. “You’re choice, Emily. Walk away now or let me do this.”
“What about the problem I mentioned?” Seth piped up.
Chris turned to look at him. “You said it’s not happening today and it’s not happening for at least a week. This is happening now.”
Seth shook his head, but closed his mouth.
“A spell you say,” Emily mused. “So you are a witch. Or is the term warlock?”
“Definitely not a warlock,” Chris informed her with a scowl. “I only answer questions if you agree.”
“Chris, this is a really bad idea,” Wyatt protested.
Emily waved him away before Chris could reply. “I disagree. I think it’s a fascinating idea.” She looked back at Chris. “Done.”