5. Gemma

5 GEMMA

A while later, I’m in my room, lying on my bed, trying to work on a school paper. My father had to take off for some mission and told me he’d be gone for a few days. Normally, I wouldn’t think much of it—he does that often—but with how strange he’s been acting, I’m a bit concerned. Plus, to add to the mix of confusing madness, we were supposed to go to the council dinner tonight, but then my mother sent me a random text that merely said: Dinner plans canceled. Got called out on a mission. Won’t be back for at least a week. It’s not a total anomaly for that to happen, either, but the formality of the text didn’t sound like my mother had sent it.

These worries bounce around in my head as I listen to music playing from my computer with a bowl of candy in front of me when my bedroom door open and Aislin wanders in.

“I knocked, but no one answered, so I let myself in,” she announces as she walks into the room, tossing my bag onto the floor beside the foot of my bed. “Anyway, your delivery has arrived. Although, I so confused why my brother was the one to tell me to drop your stuff off.” She plops down on the bed beside me, the mattress bouncing under her. “Are you guys hooking up?”

“Ew, no,” I insist, moving my laptop aside so I can sit up. “There was just an incident at the academy today that forced us to spend time together.”

She’s lying on her back with her arm draped over her forehead. “You sure that’s all it was?”

I throw a dirty look at her as I stand up. “Yes, I’m sure.” I put my laptop on my desk. “Why would you even ask that? You know how Alex and I feel about each other.”

She pushes up on her elbows. “Do I?”

Crossing my arms, I face her. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

She lifts her shoulders in an awkward shrug. “I don’t know.” She sits up and examines her perfectly manicured fingernails. “Sometimes I feel like the hatred you feel for him is really because you like him.”

“Ew.” I pull a face, even though Alex is far from ew. He’s hot, for sure, but that doesn’t mean I like him. “Look, I know he’s your brother, but he’s an asshole. And he doesn’t like me either.”

Instead of remarking, she presses her lips together.

“He doesn’t,” I stress, shifting my weight from one foot to another.

Just because Alex didn’t say that mean thing about my eyes all those years ago, that doesn’t mean he likes me. He’s never shown much interest in me other than to tease me.

“And I’m going on a date with Henry,” I remind her as I sink into the desk chair. “Why would I do that if I liked your brother?”

She snorts a laugh. “You don’t like Henry so that doesn’t prove your point.”

She’s right. And it’s annoying.

“Fine, you want to know why Alex and I were spending time together?” I ask, and she nods.

I spend the next several minutes giving her the details of all the wildly strange events that have occurred today. By the time I’m finished, her lips have parted in shock.

“That all happened today ?” she asks, gaping at me.

I nod as I swivel the chair from side to side. “Yep. And we didn’t get answers as to why.”

She mulls this over with her forehead creased, but then her eyes suddenly light up. “I know how we can get some answers,” she says as she leaps to her feet.

“Huh, how?” I stand up, unsure where she’s going as she rushes out of my room.

“I can do a cause-and-effect spell,” she declares as she hurries down the hallway. “It can give us the cause of what effect caused you to go into the vision. Well, if I can pull it off.” When she reaches the front door, she throws it open. The wind is howling like a wolf at a goddamn full moon.

“Holy crap, that storm picked up quickly,” I mutter, thinking about what my father said. Then I shake my head back to reality. “What if it wasn’t even a vision we went into? I mean, Alex proposed to me in it. How can that be the future?”

She gives a lazy sort of shrug. “I don’t know. You tell me.” When I give her an unimpressed stare, she sighs. “Look, even if it wasn’t a vision, this spell can help us figure it out. But I need to go to the store and get some supplies. Do you want to come with me?”

I eyeball the storm that’s going crazy just on the other side of the screen door. The tree branches are flailing around, leaves blowing through the air, and the rain is so thick that the houses across the street are barely visible. Thunder is booming, and lightning blazes across the sky, lighting up the clouds like some sort of strobe-light-obsessed club. But I’d rather go hang out with Aislin than sit here and obsess over everything that’s happened.

“Sure. Let me get my jacket.” I backtrack to my room, slip on my leather jacket, and then put on a beanie. Then Aislin and I head out.

We run to her Jeep, our boots splashing in the puddles. We’re fast, but even so, the bottom of my pants and my jacket are soaked by the time I hop in.

“Holy freakin’ troll babies,” Aislin says as she starts up the engine and flips the wipers on. She shudders as she swipes raindrops off her forehead with the back of her hand. “This storm is so crazy. And it came out of nowhere.”

“I know.” I reach for my seat belt. “My dad was acting weird about it earlier, too, and I got this feeling that he might’ve had a vision about it.”

With her hand resting on the steering wheel, she glances at me. “About the storm?”

I nod, fastening my seat belt. “Yeah. I don’t know what it was about, but that’s the vibe I got.”

“You didn’t ask him?”

“No. He never talks about the visions he sees. He says if he does, it could alter the future and make a big mess of it. I guess it’s like rule 101 in the foreseer world—never mess with visions or time reset.”

“They can time reset?”

“No, but there’s a device that can. Or so legends say. At least, according to my father.”

“That’s creepy.” She visibly shivers as she places her hand on the shifter. “What if we’re like in a world that’s been reset?”

“No, there’s no way.” Right? “Why would you say that?”

“No reason.” She shoves the shifter into reverse to back out of the driveway.

Aislin has never lied to me, but I have this feeling that she just did, but that doesn’t make any sense.

If time were ever reset, how would she know?