Chapter 3-2
595 Words
Zoe and Katie already had their wands out and pointed into the fire pit when Penny joined them.
“You’re too tense,” Zoe said, grabbing Katie’s wand arm and giving it a little shake. “You gotta relax a bit.”
“And what,” Katie asked sourly, “let The Force flow through me?”
“What’s The Force?” Ronan asked, pausing at the creek’s edge.
“I’ll tell you what The Force is,” Penny said, “if you tell us what we’re preparing for.”
Ronan didn’t respond to Penny’s bait. He leapt across the creek to the stone ledge on the other side and vanished into his cave.
“Way to go, Little Red,” Katie said, wrenching her arm free of Zoe’s grip with a look of irritation. “You pissed him off.”
“You’re not relaxing,” Zoe snapped.
“He’ll be back,” Penny said, unconcerned.
She kind of hoped he was annoyed, though, at least a little. Ronan was still keeping stuff from her, stuff about her, and she was beyond annoyed about that.
“Why do I need to relax?” Katie asked, turning her irritation back on Zoe.
“Because it’ll help you face your fears,” Ronan answered from the mouth of his cave.
All three girls turned to face him, startled by his sudden reappearance.
“I’ve let you fight this alone for too long, Kat,” he said, and he sounded almost mournful. “I didn’t want it to happen like this.”
“Didn’t want what to happen?” Definitely exasperated now. Definitely not relaxing.
“I hoped you would be able to conquer your fears alone,” Ronan said. “But you haven’t, and you won’t ask for help. I didn’t want to be the one to drag them into the light.”
It was a long moment before Katie could speak. She regarded him with something like horror.
Penny met Zoe’s eyes and saw her own confusion mirrored in them.
“Don’t,” Katie whispered. “Please.”
“What is he talking about, Kat?” Zoe tucked the black wand into her pocket and walked to Katie’s side.
Katie flinched when Zoe put a hand on her shoulder, but her eyes never left Ronan. “How can you know?”
“I know,” Ronan said, and he sounded regretful, ashamed of himself. “But I don’t know what.”
Katie watched him, her cheeks glowing in embarrassment. Penny saw the wand rise in her shaking hand, and for a moment she thought Katie was about to attack Ronan. Instead, she held it over her shoulder and Zoe took it from her.
“You have to tell us, Kat.” Ronan stepped to the edge of his stone shelf and dropped onto his belly. “Tell us what happened.”
“It’s nothing,” Katie said. Her astonishment seemed to have evaporated. Her voice was brisk now.
But Penny saw that it was something. It was hurting Katie to even think about it.
“Tell us, Kat.”
“Ronan, why are you doing this?” Penny marched forward and stopped between them so Ronan would have to look at her. “You’re upsetting her!”
“Because I have to,” Ronan said, and stood again. “Because she shouldn’t have to face her fears alone. It was wrong of me to let her try for so long.”
Zoe’s stunned expression was slowly hardening, her mouth pulling into a thin line of disapproval. “Leave her alone.”
“No. I won’t … I can’t.” Ronan paced further down his stone ledge, peering around Penny to catch Katie’s eyes again. “And Kat knows I can’t.”
Penny turned to face Katie and saw her anger slipping away as quickly as her astonishment had. In the past minute, she had run the emotional spectrum from shock to anger and now to embarrassment.
Katie looked skyward. Penny thought she was struggling not to cry, but when she faced forward again, her eyes were dry.
“He’s right,” Katie said. “There’s something I need to tell you about.”
- Writer
