Elixir by Hilary Duff

Author:Hilary Duff [Duff, Hilary]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2010-06-04T04:00:00+00:00

nine

“CLEA?”

It was Ben’s voice this time.

“Are you okay?”

Was I okay? I honestly had no idea. Was I going crazy? Maybe if I could tell Ben what I had seen, he could help me put everything together in a way that made sense. This was all far more his thing than mine.

My dad. I had to concentrate on my dad. Whatever Sage was, he was my only hope for finding my dad. I needed Sage for that, and if I told Ben what I’d discovered, he’d jump to the worst possible conclusion and do everything in his power to keep Sage and I apart.

I had to keep what I’d seen to myself. I had to act like nothing had changed.

“Clea?”

“I’m fine, Ben!”

I finished up, practiced a smile in the mirror, then emerged.

“Sorry about that,” I said.

“Are you okay?”

“Yep, I’m fine.”

“Did you see that Sage has an original Michelangelo? And a Rubens? And he has an original printing of Paradise Lost.”

Of course he does, I thought. He probably knew all of them personally.

“Wow,” I said instead. “He must spend a fortune on eBay.”

“Right, because who doesn’t buy million-dollar antiquities online?”

“Okay, so maybe not eBay …”

“Clea?” Sage’s voice rang out as Ben and I walked into the main room, and when I looked up I screamed.

Sage was brandishing a knife.

“Clea? Are you okay?” he asked.

“Yes … sorry, I just … that’s a huge knife.”

He laughed. “I heated up a turkey I had in the fridge. I was going to make us sandwiches. Does that work for you?”

A turkey. The knife was for a turkey.

“Yeah, that’s great. Thanks.” I pasted on a smile.

Sage went back to carving the bird, but looked at me like I’d lost my mind. “Maybe we should take you to a doctor.”

“I’m fine. Just a little disoriented from … you know.”

“Right.”

Somehow I managed to keep hold of my sanity for the next fifteen minutes. Sage finished making sandwiches, double-checked to make sure he had all Larry Steczynski’s necessary documents, and put together a small duffel bag of clothes. Every time he looked my way, I couldn’t help but feel that he knew exactly what I’d seen and done. He didn’t like it, and he’d find a way to make me pay.

Once we got out of the house, I felt like I could breathe again. I stuck close to Ben as the three of us made the short, moonlit trek to the garage. No way was I sitting next to Sage. I told Ben to ride shotgun and pretended I still felt a little nauseous so I wouldn’t have to talk.

Had Sage and I been reincarnated again and again over the centuries, only to wind up together each time? In a way it would make sense, except I’d been four different women that I knew of and he’d been … Sage. So that meant he’d what? Been alive for the last five hundred years?

I inwardly rolled my eyes at my own absurdity, then realized that all my other options were just as absurd.

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