The Legend of the Eight: The Twisted (Book 3)

2: Hypervigilance

TWO: HYPERVIGILANCE
MARCH 30
NICOLE BRADLEY

THE MORTAL WORLD WAS HOME—at least, it used to be. All her life, Nicole lived there and knew everything about the world—which, at the time, she believed to be the whole world. But in a matter of months, she'd discovered there was more to the world—more to her—than she ever thought possible.

She was a wizard and her true home was the World of Magic, a place where she could never return.

The safe house where she and the others were in the process of moving into was enormous. Nicole's bedroom was on the second floor, across the hall from Chloe Lawson's, and next to that was Kate's. Wil and Phoebe shared a bedroom down the hall and upstairs, on the third floor were three bedrooms for the boys to split up. King and Queen Diamond (who recently insisted they be called Walter and Clarion) took the master on the main floor while Mr. Donovan (er, Damon) was in the guesthouse out back.

That afternoon, Nicole was in her new bedroom, half-unpacking and half-stalling around. Every few minutes, she checked her phone for new messages, despite the fact that it no longer had service. Walter was fearful that the group could be tracked down so he deactivated everyone's cell phones—though not before promising to replace them with new ones soon.

On her bed, Nicole stared at the four suitcases in which was every item she brought with her to the Academy. It seemed like she'd only unpacked in her dorm and yet she was moving again. Only that time, she wasn't going back.

None of them were.

SOMETIME LATER (SHE'D LOST TRACK of time), Nicole's unpacking was interrupted by Kate who barged into the room without knocking. She brought with her a light blue journal that Nicole had seen many times before. It belonged to Clarion twenty-six years ago and Kate was reading it in hopes of finding answers about the Eight. But no matter how many times she read and reread those entries, she never learned anything new.

"Nic!" Kate said with a cheerful smile, finding a seat on the desk by the window. "Hey. So I've been thinking."

It took everything in Nicole not to groan. It was silly, really, to think they could actually escape the constant cycle of researching and crafting conspiracies.

"Remember when we were at Luke Heart's and he gave us that spell?"

Nicole nodded.

"You mean, before Bartemius came and kidnapped us?"

Kate tilted her head to the side as if to ask, "Seriously? We're still talking about that?"

"Well, we must have lost it in the midst of being kidnapped and tortured. But we know that the spell exists. Now all we have to do is find it. And I'm sure there's a grimoire somewhere around here that has it. And then we can—"

"Kate, stop a minute," Nicole interrupted, pushing her hair out of her face. "Just... Stop. Aren't you tired of this? I mean, it's been months of this and for the first time since it started, we're out of it. At least, we could be. We could live our lives here in the Mortal World without all of this Eight nonsense. We could go to school and graduate and have a shot at actual, normal lives. You just found out that your boyfriend is still alive. Why don't you just enjoy your life again?"

Kate huffed.

"Because I can't. I don't know how to. Do you? And if you do, please enlighten me. I don't remember how to enjoy life without constantly looking over my shoulder all the time. I don't know how to not always expect the next thing to happen. How do you do that?"