Eliza's Shadow Read Online Free

didn't see you." I mumbled and began to back away from
him.
    He smiled
knowingly and his eyes searched my face. "Leaving so soon?" He asked
amused.
    As if we
met here on purpose?
    "I…
have to study for a quiz." I sucked in a breath and felt the heat of
embarrassment slide across my cheeks. I stumbled forward a few feet in an
attempt to escape. Then gathering my wits, managed to assume a smooth gait down
the hallway.
    "Later
then." I heard him remark to my back.
    I crossed
the atrium and headed for the exit to The Quad. My heart was racing and wings
of panic fluttered against my ribcage. As I stepped through the doors, I had to
resist the urge to run away and not stop until I was safely in my room under my
comforter. Instead, I sank onto a bench nestled between two large oaks in a
quiet corner of the yard. Ignoring the bustle of students strolling between the
buildings, I plummeted into thought.
    What was
happening to me? A cyclone of emotions whirled in my chest. Like a human
magnet, I was powerfully drawn to Ren and equally repulsed… even afraid.
    Then I
felt something else, something old and hidden. Icy fingertips along my spine,
like the touch of death, a warning before it takes you.
    I began to
shake before I even comprehended the gravity of what was happening. Like lava
from a dormant volcano a searing tide of memories oozed from deep within my
psyche. Long buried emotions burned through me, scorching my chest. I was going
to be sick.
    Jane will
call. She'll take care of this, I reasoned as I started to walk slowly across
the yard and away from school, then quickly as the tears spilled.

 
     
     
     
     
     
    3
     
     
    The walk home was a blur. I
ran like I was being chased, though I knew what lingered on my heels was not
something I could ever outrun. The air stung my cheeks and made my face itch
where the tears dried. I dashed by all my usual stops, the town library where
on a normal day I would have stopped off for a couple of hours to finish
homework and then moved on to Bishop's Tea Room to lose myself in a novel
before heading over to Viva for dinner with Jane. When I finally reached my
building, I charged up the steps desperately seeking the solace of home.
    Jane wasn't home. Yellow afternoon light filtered
into the living room through the large windowpanes overlooking Main Street.
Relieved to be alone, I allowed myself to give in to the pain that roiled in
the pit of my stomach and curled into a ball on the couch. Pulling a crimson
throw around me, I sobbed. My tears didn't provide an immediate sense of relief
but as they slowed the ache subsided. By the time my eyes cleared, the light in
the room had changed and it was evening.
    I allowed myself to turn inward. It was as if a
secret panel to a vault deep within me had cracked opened and all the contents
lay in the darkness waiting to be explored. To find out why Ren Alden’s arrival
blew the cover off the vault, I had to look inside. I had to remember.
    I closed my eyes, breathing deeply and stepped
inside.
    Within moments I was back in Moco, hiding under
the covers in my mother’s bed, the night she had disappeared. I had prayed that
when the storm cleared, my mother would be home. Despite myself, I had slipped
back into sleep cocooned in the warm scent of my mother’s blankets. When I
woke, clear light streamed through the windows. The craggy branches of the live
oak outside the window bobbed on a gentle breeze, bearing the burden of the
wispy Spanish moss draped over them.
    A familiar scent drifted through the bedroom door.
My heart quickened and I slipped out of bed racing for the stairs. I heard a
sizzling noise the moment my feet hit the landing at the top of the stairs.
    “Mother?” I called out.
    No answer came.
    The glass from the shattered picture frame was
gone. But my heart sank when I saw the damaged portrait resting on a table in
the hall. It hadn’t been a nightmare after all.
    That was the first time I laid eyes on Cora Jones.
    She