The Blaze

Thirty

River:

I drove Karin wherever she needed to go now, on Ms. Kross' orders. Karin had just been waking up when Ty and I had finished our training and she apologized to me. I had hugged her even though I was still a bit sweaty and found myself crying as I held her to me, forgiving her. She had hugged me back with a fierceness I hadn't felt from her in a long time. Then, she gave me her phone number in case we needed to get a hold of another, shyly saying she had purchased it herself for situations such as this.

Now, a couple days later, her mom had insisted she go back to fencing practice and Karin had agreed. She said she had missed it anyway, so now I was driving her there in Ty's car while he did some more research with his grandma. She had smiled when I dropped her off at practice and held up her phone in one hand. "I'll text you when I'm done, ok?"

"Ok," I replied, holding my own up as it finished charging in the vehicle's middle console. Then, setting it back down, I asked, "Are you sure you don't want me to just go in with you? I can wait for you to be done, I don't mind."

Karin shook her head, securing her bangs back with a couple black pins, half of her black hair held back in a ponytail. "Nah, I'll be ok. Besides, I know there were a few other things you wanted to get done today, right? I'm gonna be here for about two hours anyway, so you might as well take advantage of the time."

"True," I nodded and gave her a short wave. "Ok, get going then, so you're not late."

With a small smile, she had shut the door and given me another wave before disappearing inside the building we were parked in front of, a few other students shuffling in and out the doors as well. I noticed that nearly every other student avoided her, however, and it made me strangely angry and sad at the same time.

"She'll never have it easy, huh?" I sighed to myself as I pulled away from the curb and started toward the bookstore.

I had to pick up a few books (if I could find them) to help us in our search to get over to Zephryn. What was becoming increasingly clear was that a Rip could technically lead to anywhere and to pick a specific place, you had to have an insane amount of control, which is exactly what the Researchers had. Either that or a Dimension Key would work, but as Grandma Fields had explained, a key would take us exactly back to Zephryn but that the portal could open anywhere, and it would only last a couple of minutes. It made the process tricky, but it also meant we didn't have to try and sneak into a Researcher's lab and get through whatever portals they had access to.

So, Grandma Fields had given me a list of books to look out for and sent me on my way. Ty had wanted to come, but she said she needed him at home, so he wished me luck and handed me his keys. "Call me if you need anything, ok?"

I had affirmed him I would call if needed and headed over to Karin's house to pick her up for practice. Thankfully, the bookstore wasn't far from where Karin's practice was taking place, so I would have more time to look around and less time in traffic.

Upon stepping out of the car, I realized it was definitely getting colder and that I was glad I had worn one of my favorite sweatshirts; a navy-blue color with the words "Not Your Babe" printed on the front. I wasn't sure why I liked it so much, and normally I wouldn't wear it outside the house, but today I felt confident. Locking the car behind me, I walked up to the automatic doors and stepped into the warm, paper-scented store.

Pulling the list from my back pocket, I began searching the shelves, stopping only to grab a deeply honeyed green tea at the café. I had a couple hours to burn and I was going to find as many materials as possible.