He smiled bitterly before turning away. “Of course.”
“Wait!” I demanded, following Alaric out of the storage room and into the hall. “What does this mean?” I held up the ring he put on my finger. “Does it have to do with what you said earlier?”
He hesitated at the top step, foot hanging mid-air as he contemplated his response.
“You’ll know soon enough.” He turned his head toward me, the same look of sorrow reflected in his eyes. “The ring and your necklace should help for now.”
I glanced down at my amulet, the white jade faintly glowing just like the ring. When I looked up to respond, Alaric was gone, and I had more questions than answers.
Chapter Six
It took some convincing, but Sara-Kate finally agreed to walk me home without a detour to the hospital.
“That shit was scary, Mari,” she chastised, hiking her backpack higher up her shoulders. She glanced at me like she was afraid that at any moment I would fall to the ground in pain again. “Like, for real.”
I sighed, absentmindedly rubbing the new ring Alaric had given me. I hadn’t taken it off and had no plans to. For the first time since I landed in New York, my mind felt clear. Like a fog had been lifted, the pain was finally gone.“I know.” I glanced at Sara-Kate. “I’m sorry. But I swear, I’m feeling better. And I promise to let my uncle and aunt know about it.”
“Good,” she replied, her voice and face suddenly becoming serious. The most serious I had ever seen her. “I lost one friend this year, and I’m not about to lose you too.”
I stopped walking as we came to the front of my apartment building and pulled Sara-Kate into a hug, squeezing her tightly to me. She reciprocated, sniffling, and when she pulled back, there were tears glistening in her eyes.
“Some weird shit is going on, Mari.” Sara-Kate’s voice was trembling. “And I’m worried.”
“Me too,” Ireplied honestly. “But we will get through this together. I promise.”
She nodded, releasing me from our embrace. Before she turned to walk home, she reminded me, “Don’t forget to text me before you go to sleep and when you wake up. If you don’t, I’ll assume you’re dead and will call the cops on your ass.”
I laughed, nodding and waving as I headed through the entrance towards the elevator.
Part of me still felt guilty for not telling Sara-Kate all the weird shit that was actually going on with me. But every time I felt like admitting something, I stopped myself. It sounded unreasonable, but I knew I needed to talk to someone. While Alaric obviously knew something I didn’t, I had a feeling my Uncle Dan knew something too. And it was time he laid it all out.
I had to wait up for Uncle Dan to get home as he was working late at the office. Again. Tiffany sat up with me, her furrowed brow getting more intense every time she glanced at the clock. At half-past nine, Uncle Dan finally came in, swooping by each of us with a kiss on the head and a mumbled apology before going straight to his home office.
I felt bad for Tiffany, who watched him leave the room longingly. It was clear she was feeling lonely, but also that this had become a normal occurrence.
“Well, I guess I’ll head to bed.” Tiffany stretched, yawning as she stood up. “I’ve got an early Pilates class and then a meeting about that old church restoration at St. Patrick’s Cathedral.”
“I think I’m gonna head to bed soon too. Goodnight Tiff,” I replied, noting the smile that lit up her face at my nickname for her.
“Goodnight, sweetie.” She leaned forward, planting a kiss on my head just as Uncle Dan did before. “Don’t stay up too late.”
As soon as she left, I packed my notebook up and headed to Dan’s office. Without hesitation, I knocked on the door and then opened it, not waiting for permission this time.
Dan looked up, startled. “Hey Mari. Is everything okay?”
“No,” I finally said, the honesty washing over me like a much-needed shower. “We need to talk.”
It took me twenty minutes to fully explain everything that had happened since I had arrived in New York. All the abnormal headaches, terrifying dreams, and odd run-ins with Alaric. To Uncle Dan’s credit, he sat and listened, never interrupting me, hands folded, his brown eyes concerned but serious. The only moment of hesitation was when I showed him the ring that Alaric had given me earlier today, which had essentially cured me of my terrible headaches. He straightened up in his chair, his eyes wide with awe and reverence. He reached across the desk, his fingers gently tracing the bright red sigils on the sides of the ring that looked as if they were pulsing with life.
I had feared he wouldn’t take me seriously or look at me like I was some crazy, drugged-up teenager. But he didn’t. He listened, and when I finally finished, he spoke with such sincerity and authenticity.
“You’re not crazy, Mari,” he began. “This is something your Nana tried to protect you from, and I should have done more to seek you out, prepare you, but I was just trying to do right by you and her.”
I sat stoic and silent, urging him to continue.
“What you have been experiencing is an awakening. It happens to some people in our family who possess the Bloodwright gene,” he sighed, taking off his glasses and placing them in front of him, on top of his piles of papers.
“What do you mean ‘Bloodwright gene’?” I asked, the word feeling foreign on my tongue.
