Chosen at Nightfall (Shadow Falls #5)(76)

Sure, Kylie was almost certain the ghost had brought the head around just to get attention, but something a little less dramatic would have worked just fine. Holiday also said to consider everything the spirit did or brought with her to be a clue. Like the sword that kind of looked like the one that appeared at the falls.

Was the head a hint or a sign? Then again, weren't clues supposed to be subtle? There was absolutely nothing subtle about a severed head. That last thought led Kylie back to believing it was just a ploy to get attention-mostly because the ploy was working. Here Kylie was worried about the ghost and not her quest.

Not that she didn't need to figure out both; she did. But her quest seemed to take priority right now. Or it would if the ghost would stop pulling her thoughts away.

Hayden stood by the board and pointed to the homework assignment. She started to jot it down when something landed in her lap with a thump. A pretty heavy thump.

Startled, her butt came off the desk chair a good half inch. Only her dislike of being singled out in the class had her swallowing the yelp that rose in throat and planting her butt back down.

Considering there was a desktop covering her lap, the whole "thing falling in her lap" didn't make sense.

Then again it didn't have to make sense, because nothing else in her freaking life did!

Kylie hesitantly reached under her desk to feel the cold metal object. Just as she suspected, it had a long vertical shape with a handle. The sword was back.

Kylie heard a clearing of a throat a couple of seats away. She glanced over at Derek, who was on shadowing duty, and he mouthed the words: You okay?

Obviously Derek had sensed her emotional dilemma, but hadn't seen the sword, or he would have at least glanced down at the dang thing. She nodded.

After only a minute, Hayden dismissed class. Kylie pretended to be reading her notes and didn't move.

Burnett didn't want anyone to know about the sword, and suddenly brandishing a weapon in the middle of science class that looked like something straight out of a video game would likely draw some attention.

"Kylie, you coming?" Derek asked from the door.

"Uh, no, I need to discuss something with Mr. Yates. I'll be out shortly." She glanced at Hayden, who studied her with concern.

"Just wait outside," a worried-looking Hayden told Derek.

When Kylie glanced up at Derek, she saw Lucas standing right outside the door. His blue gaze met hers, but dang it, she had too much on her plate, not to mention a sword in her lap, to start fixating on losing him, on how much it hurt. Yet, when she saw the concern in his eyes, the complete affection with which he looked at her, her heart did another nosedive anyway. Begrudgingly, she couldn't deny that there was a part of her that wanted to hang on to him, to grasp on to what they felt. But that would be foolish, wouldn't it?

"Shut the door," Hayden told them, and walked over to her desk.

Shut the door. Hayden's words echoed in her head. She had to shut the door to her feelings about Lucas. But how?

"Is something wrong?" Hayden asked.My whole freaking life. Kylie met the teacher's eyes, pushing away her ache over Lucas. "Yeah, there's a sword in my lap."

"The sword?" he asked.

She made a face. "Well, I haven't looked at it, but I'm assuming I've only got one sword that just magically appears and breaks all the rules and theories you just covered in class."

Hayden grinned and tilted his head down to see the sword. When he rose up, he said, "Yeah, those theories aren't worth a crap sometimes when magic is involved."

"Same sword, I assume?" Kylie asked.

He nodded.

"Great." Then she realized something he'd just said. "You think it's magic doing this, like Wiccan magic?"

"Or something equally baffling," he said.

"So you really don't think it's some chameleon powers?"

He twisted his mouth. "Chameleon powers are in part Wiccan powers."

"Yeah," Kylie said, and her mind went back to her latest quest. "Which completely confuses me as to why it's bad to be us."

He looked puzzled. "It's not bad to be us," he said, and then, "Let me get my hoodie and I'll wrap it up and we'll take it to the office."

He went and snatched his sweatshirt from the cabinet behind his desk, then came back with it stretched open. "Do you want to bring it up?"

No. She didn't like touching the thing, didn't like it sitting on her lap, but she did it anyway.

She reached down and carefully grasped the handle and brought it up and out. Before she had it all the way up, it started glowing again. She dropped the weapon in the hoodie then looked up. "If it's not bad to be us, then why do you hide your pattern? You even wear a hoodie so no one will see it. And why do the elders think they have to hide all the kids?"

"I hide the pattern because people wouldn't understand, because in the past that led to us being persecuted, but not because it's bad to be a chameleon."

"But wouldn't it be better if you didn't have to hide it? If we could just wear it proudly like the others do?"

He stared at the sword as if half listening to what she said. "Someday that will happen."

"No it won't," Kylie insisted. "Not if everyone keeps hiding."