Bad Boys Can't Date Persephone: Part 3
Flora's new acquaintance takes a surprising turn.
It was raining heavily. I was freezing, with no means of transport. If things were different, I’d have said no. But they weren’t.
“Yes. Please.”
He held out the helmet.
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah. Climb on back behind me.”
I put the helmet over my head and clambered on the back of the motorbike, wrapping my arms around his waist.
“Hold on. And don’t let go.”
The motorbike shot off into the storm. I shut my eyes tight for the first few minutes but then opened my eyes to see rain streaming down the shield. It was impossible to make anything out.
His back was solid and warm against me. I didn’t want to fall off, so I held on with everything I had.
I hadn’t told him where I lived. Where exactly was he taking me?
Soon, the motorbike came to a stop.
“Look, I know this is gonna sound weird, but my place isn’t far from here. Do you want to wait it out?”
“Do you want your helmet back?” I yelled.
He shook his head. “You need it more than me.”
He wasn’t wearing protective gear. He was just as soaked as I was.
“Yeah,” I shouted, my voice muffled by the helmet. “Yeah, let’s wait it out.”
What was I doing? What was he doing? What was I thinking?
I really hoped he had plants at his house. I could text or call Mum and tell her where I was; she’d come to collect me as fast as she could.
About five minutes later, the motorbike stopped again. We both leaped off it and he wheeled it into what looked like a small shed. Shivering, I glanced up at the house in front of us. It was small, with grey walls and dark windows but it looked like a palace to someone who was as cold as wet as I was.
Was that a tree by the side of the house?
“Come on!” he shouted. We hurried into the house, and he shut the door behind us.
It was warm inside.
“Thanks,” I mumbled. Both of us were dripping water onto the floor.
“Wait there.” He disappeared into another room. I unzipped my bag and reached inside; had the rain soaked through my bag and reached my phone?
He reappeared, holding a pair of jeans and a black T-shirt. “Want to get changed? Your clothes are…”
“Thanks.”
I slipped into the nearest room, locked the door and got changed, squeezing as much moisture as I could from the clothes I was wearing and my hair into the sink.
I should at least ask this guy what his name was.
Just as I left the room, he emerged from the other end of the hallway. His hair was still damp, and his T-shirt was tight around his torso.
“I’m Flora,” I said.
“Hayden.”
“Hi. Thanks for the…”
Suddenly everything went dark. Hayden’s eyes widened and he moved past me, throwing the door open and rushing outside. I followed close behind.
In front of the house was a writhing wall of shadow. It stretched up right over the building and down the other side, just touching the hedge. Either the rain had stopped, or the wall was blocking it.
The daylight was gone.
“What’s happening?” I gasped. Glaring at Hayden, I demanded: “Did you do this? What’s going on?”
He didn’t take his eyes off the dark shield. “The wards have activated.”
“You mean protective wards?” Why would Hayden have those around his house? “Are…are you in trouble?”
“I am now. My family’s in the area.”
I looked at the wall uneasily. “OK. What do those wards do?”
“If they detect someone from my family who isn’t me, they shield the house from view until that person leaves the area.”
“Maybe your family’s just passing through,” I said. Topaz Coast had a lot of visitors in spring, summer and autumn, especially around the beaches.
He looked at me now. “Maybe they’re not.”
“You think they came here to look for you? Who is your family?”
Hayden held out a hand, palm upwards. A swirling ball of shadow the exact shade as the shield appeared above his fingers. “The Ashcrofts. Perhaps you’ve heard of us?”
I had. The Ashcroft family were rich, powerful and influential, and from what I’d overheard Larisa Harcourt, Claire de Winter and Blake Starfyre saying at college, they were also completely unpleasant.
At least, that’s what Mum would say about them. The words Claire, Blake and Larisa had used hadn’t been nearly as polite.
If all that wasn’t bad enough, the Ashcrofts also had shadow magic.
“Yeah,” I said slowly. “I’ve heard of the Ashcrofts. Look, if they are trying to find you, I won’t tell anyone you’re here. Promise. Can I stay here until the rain dies down and then hitchhike or something?”
Hayden laughed disbelievingly. “You want to hitchhike?”
“Well, I’m guessing you don’t want to give me a lift into town now you know your family’s here. And if the shields keep the house hidden, you won’t be able to find it either.”
He put his hands in the pockets of his jeans and grinned. “They’re linked to my magic. If anyone can find them, I can.”
“Good. I’ll just see if it’s still raining.”
I walked up to the shield and put out a hand, expecting it to go straight through.
Nothing happened. The shield was as solid as a wall.
“Hayden? Is it meant to do that?”
He came up beside me, frowning. “What do you mean?”
“Is it supposed to be as solid as that?”
“No, it’s not.”
Now he tried to touch it; his eyes widened with alarm when his hand wouldn’t go through.
“Back away a few paces.”
I did so. He waved a hand at the shield, but again nothing happened. Then he held out both hands and pulled, the muscles of his shoulders and arms straining.
A tiny window appeared in the shield. Outside, tiny needles of rain fell from the grey sky.
Suddenly Hayden gasped and staggered backwards; the window disappeared, leaving the shield looking intact again.
“Are you OK?” I cried.
Hayden was gasping for breath. “Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine.” He straightened up and wiped away tiny beads of sweat from his forehead.
“Um…I’m guessing that’s not good either?” I said, gesturing towards the shield.
He shook his head. “No. I think we’re stuck here.”
“Until your family goes away?” How long would that take? “I need to call my mum.”
I hurried inside the house and rummaged inside my bag; luckily, my phone wasn’t damaged, but my heart dropped when I saw the tiny circle with a line through it.
No signal.
I left the house again, intending to ask Hayden if I could use his phone instead, but he was trying to open a window in the shield again. He managed to make it a little wider, his arms tense and straining as if trying to push aside something that was far too heavy for him.
I held my breath. Would he be able to do it this time?
The window vanished and Hayden collapsed, hands and knees hitting the ground heavily. I ran over, shoving my phone into the pocket of the borrowed jeans.
He was struggling to breathe.
I reached out with both hands. He grasped them tightly and let me help him to his feet.
“Come on, let’s…Can I put my arm around you?”
He nodded, sweat trickling down his brow.
I wrapped one arm around his back while he put his around my shoulders and gripped tightly. Slowly, we moved back into the house; I headed towards the kitchen and saw a room with two old-looking chairs, a TV and a table to the right of us.
We went inside. I eased him into the nearest chair; he collapsed against it with a sigh, head tilted back.
“I’ll be right back.” Dad had made me take a quick course on what to do if someone overused their magic; two of the most important things to do were to monitor their breathing and keep them hydrated.
I shivered as I entered the kitchen. It looked almost bare, with a single glass and cup on the side right next to the sink, and a table and two chairs right in the middle. I grabbed the glass and quickly filled it with water before taking it back through to Hayden.
He seemed to be concentrating on taking slow, deep breaths. According to the course, that was the best thing someone in his position could do. Since he had magic, he’d have been taught that.
Or maybe this wasn’t the first time he’d overused his magic.
“Here.” I held out the glass; he took it with a nod and sipped slowly.
I wasn’t sure how long we stayed there, but after a couple of minutes his breathing became natural and steady again.
“Thanks,” he said, holding the half-empty glass.
“How are you feeling?”
Hayden shook his head, his eyes closed from exhaustion. “Not great. Kind of tired.”
“Do you want a blanket?” There was one folded up on the other chair.
“I’m fine. I’m used to this, just give me a moment.”
So this wasn’t the first incident. How many times had he overstrained himself? Why would he think this was OK?
“Hey, um…” I felt awkward asking this, but what choice did I have? “I don’t have any signal on my phone. Can I use yours?”
“Yeah. It’s on the kitchen table.”
“Thanks.”
Sure enough, there it was, right in the centre of the table. It was a small, dark thing that luckily didn’t have a passcode.
I looked at the screen and felt my heart sink. There was no signal on his phone either, not even for emergency calls.
How long were we going to be here?