Testimony of Children (Alice Gray Book 2)

8

Before I could come up with anything, I found myself pressed against Thomas's chest in an embrace that felt different, cooler than our usual desperate exchanges.

But even though I knew something was wrong, it didn't matter. The physical contact was enough to make my whole body relax into him. A sigh escaped my mouth, and my eyelids fluttered closed despite my best intentions.

Then it was over.

Thomas was gone.

A gaping hole in my centre sucked everything inside until emptiness was all that remained.

I'd finally done it. I'd stretched Thomas's patience so thin that he could no longer pursue his feelings for me.

Well that was fine, it would save me a lot of physical discomfort. I grasped onto the indignation, knowing that it was the only emotion that would displace my heartache.

How dare he walk away from me?

The recrimination held no real force and the outrage flickered and died before it could get me through the initial pain of Thomas's abandonment.

Who was I kidding? I had pushed him away. Hell, I'd outright rejected him more times than I could remember. How could I expect a man like that to stick around? The obvious answer was that I couldn't. I'd known that all along. It was the reason that I had pulled away all those times.

I truly believed that I would give it up if I could, and go back to my average life. A life where Thomas would not look at me twice. Now I needed to put the hurt and emptiness away so that I could focus on finding a way to exist with my power. Only then would I have a chance to win him back.

Emily's apartment was just across the hall in the priory. No voices could be heard from outside the door. I knocked, a flicker of anxiety making me shuffle while I waited. I knew that they wouldn't leave me unprotected in Sheffield, but they were all I had right now.

Emily opened the door, a backpack slung over one shoulder and the strap of her messenger bag full of books draped diagonally over her body.

"We're leaving right now."

"No, wait. What about my stuff?" I objected.

"We'll pick you up a change of clothes when we get there. I have whatever else we'll need. You have to pack light in this game."

"But the tree?"

The silver tree had been with me for the last five years. What looked like a small ornament that could sit on the palm of your hand, was really something far more powerful.

The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.

It symbolised my life-force; and its lesson was a hard one. Power is both a blessing and a bane. But more than that, it is a burden. It was my responsibility to keep the tree safe, and to keep others safe from it.

A mirthless snort erupted out of my nose, causing Emily to look at me like I was a feeble-minded child. That tree had brought me power beyond anything that my imagination could have conjured. But my life was now just one big mess of history and relationships.

Whatever advantage my life-force gave me was a grain of sparkling diamond in a desert of dull responsibility.

"Do you trust Anne? Is the cottage secure?" Emily asked, eyebrows drawn together creating a stern look of warning to pull myself together.

Oh yeah, I'd just snorted like a pig.

To myself.

I was seriously losing it.

Our family home was probably the most secure place in the country, warded by my ancestor Alice Gray's great power.

I had to stop a second snort exploding out of my face. Why the hell couldn't I have been blest with the Gray's gentle golden life-force like my cousin Anne? She could influence others to her heart's content, without a single fear of the consequences.

But, I had to admit that for once that power was working in my favour. It made the cottage the one place where I knew that Anne could hold her own against the coven. As usual, Emily was right. The tree was safe there.

Seeing that she had made her point, Emily nodded towards the door, indicating that it was time for us to leave. I could hear Stephen's car running outside.

This was it. I took a lingering look around the priory as we made our way outside. A faint buzzing sensation still agitated my skin, telling me that Thomas was around here somewhere, but not close. Most likely in his downstairs apartment, waiting for us to leave so that he could get on with his life.

Emily took the back seat and immediately curled up. I slid in next to Stephen. He looked straight ahead unwilling to engage in a conversation that would inevitably return to our sordid history. He had been nothing better than a gigolo, and I was the naïve dupe who had fallen for his charms. And more pathetically, had believed in his love.

It felt like the last four weeks were a segment of life removed from reality. I was returning to London, where I had started, with the very person whose betrayal I had been trying to escape.

Alice has come full circle, but London is sure to hold new adventure!
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