Covet (Clann)

magic.
    Which seemed incredibly unfair. Why shouldn’t I be allowed to use an ability I was supposedly born with? If I did have any of the Evans magic in my blood, then it was as much a part of me as having two hands and two feet!
    Dylan and the Brat Twins only messed with me and my friends because they knew my family had promised never to teach me how to protect myself against them.
    Then again, Mom and Nanna had made that promise. I never did.
    If only I had access to some spell books…
    “Finally!” Anne said as she helped Carrie and Michelle and their dates throw away their trash. Then she hopped back into her truck and started the engine. “Time to party!”
    Half an hour later and minus Carrie’s and Michelle’s dates, we all crowded into Anne’s room in our PJ’s and settled in for a movie fest. Thankfully the girls chose a comedy instead of their usual romantic favorites, and they pretended not to notice my phone attached to my hand all night.
    Emily texted at eleven to say Tristan was okay and sleeping peacefully. Finally I could breathe deeply again. It was going to be all right. I still didn’t know how to protect him or Anne from Dylan. But Tristan was alive and recovering. For now, that was enough.
    As my friends alternated between laughter and gasps over the movie, I let their happiness soothe my raw nerves. It was the first time I’d found a good use for my usually annoying ability to sense others’ emotions. Slowly but surely, the tension eased out of my neck and shoulders, and I found I could even smile sincerely again.
    When I’d watched the ambulance take Tristan away, I had thought I would never survive the night. At the very least, I’d expected to pace for hours alone in my bedroom, sick with worry and fear. No way would I have imagined spending the rest of the night in my comfy cotton pajamas with my three best friends, huddled around the TV in Anne’s bedroom, alternately groaning or grinning over a movie about a crazy bunch of bling-wearing, Segway-riding vamps. And yet, that’s exactly how one of the hardest nights of my life ended.
    Tonight, I had faced my two greatest fears. Almost losing Tristan had shown me that, as long as he was alive somewhere on this earth, I could survive pretty much anything else the world had to throw at me. It had given me the courage to face my second biggest fear and tell my best friend the truth, something that I’d been too scared to even attempt for over a year now. And I’d discovered that Anne was capable of being a far greater friend than I’d ever given her credit for.
    The resulting relief meant, instead of being able to outlast everyone like I usually did, this time I was the first one to crash, my phone still clutched like a magical talisman in my hands under my pillow. I thought I felt Anne throw a comforter over me at some point, which made me smile. Who knew she had a mothering bone in her body? Then I was out cold.
    * * *
    A buzzing in my hand woke me the next morning at eight-thirty. Emily’s text message read:
     
     
24 stitches on head, 26 staples on lft. arm, 2 brkn ribs, lft. leg brkn 2 places reset & cast, lft. wrist brkn reset & cast. T pretty as ever. Says brakes failed???

CHAPTER 10
    I had to read it three times, twice to get over the numerous injuries listed, and a third time to make sure I’d read the last part right. The phone’s plastic case creaked in warning as I gripped it too tightly.
    Brake failure. Just like Dylan had oh-so-casually suggested.
    Could he really be behind it?
    He could have heard about it from someone else in the Clann, or even from someone at the sheriff’s department and used the rumor to mess with me, as Anne had suggested.
    But if Dylan hadn’t tampered with Tristan’s brakes, then why had they failed?
    An image flashed through my mind of a dark silhouette ducking into the woods after Tristan’s wreck. Could it have been Dylan?
    But how would he know where and when the brakes would give out?
    Anne was right. Dylan probably wasn’t that smart.
    Unless he was smart enough to pretend he wasn’t.
    Okay, this was getting ridiculous and giving me a headache. I was just being paranoid. Brakes failed all the time, right?
    In a relatively new, perfectly maintained truck? Sure they did.
    I got dressed in the bathroom across the hall, then gathered up my things as quietly as I could. The girls must have stayed up pretty late last night after I conked out; Michelle and Anne always snored, but