Read Online 03 The Fate Of The Muse - Marina's Tales by Derrolyn Anderson - Free Book Online Page A

No anger allowed.
    And that’s when it happened again.
     
    I struggled to open my eyes, unable to move
or cry out, and could feel my body being lifted as though it were
weightless. The sharp smell of smoke filled my nostrils, underlined
by the pungent stench of dirt and sweat. I could feel myself being
carried, bouncing along at a rapid clip. I coughed, fighting to
catch my breath, overcome with nausea.
     
    “Marina! Marina!” Megan’s voice was shrill,
and I raised my throbbing head to see her panicked face. From the
look of the mess I’d made, I’d just keeled over onto the table, and
as I sat up I could feel all the eyes in the room on me.
    Bill rushed over with a bar towel, “Are you
okay?” he cried, “Did you burn yourself?”
    I looked down to see the coffee I’d knocked
over spattered onto the front of my dress.
    “No… no, no,” I said numbly. My tongue felt
thick.
    “Should we call an ambulance?” Shayla cried,
“She just face planted!”
    I took a deep breath, and the familiar pain
in my head began to subside, “I’m fine… I’ll be fine… I just need
to go home and get some rest.”
    Great. Another weird vision– why did this
always have to happen around other people? I stood on shaky legs
and apologized to Bill for the spill. My mind was racing, trying to
figure out what this one meant. I couldn’t even really call it a
vision, for it was mostly just sounds and smells. Strange.
    Megan offered to drive us home, but once I
got out into the cool night air I was nearly back to normal. I
managed to convince everyone that I was fully recovered, but the
look in Megan’s eyes told me she knew what had happened, and I had
some explaining to do.
    “Call me,” she said as I pulled away.
    Shayla and I drove along in silence, and I
could feel her speculative eyes on me.
    “What?” I snapped, “Spit it out!”
    “Marina?” she asked solemnly, “Are you
knocked up?”
    I laughed for a while, stopping when I
realized that she didn’t believe me.
    “Shayla, it’s not possible… I mean we
haven’t… we don’t…” I could feel my face burning.
    “Really?” she said incredulously.
    I bit my lip, embarrassed, “Well, I never
have, so we’ve been kinda taking it slow… and with everything
that’s happened, the timings never been quite right… and now we’re
thinking about–” I stopped myself, wondering if I should tell her
about our engagement.
    “Whoa,” she said quietly, “Ethan’s a really
good guy.”
    “I know.”
    “Man,” she said, looking out the window, “All
the dudes I’ve ever dated would dump you if you didn’t put
out.”
    “You just haven’t met the right one yet.”
    She sighed, “That’s for sure.”
    I wanted to tell her not to worry, that soon
she’d have more suitors to choose from than she could handle, but
instead I dropped her off at her mothers, arranging to pick her up
Monday to get started on the studio clean-up. When I pulled up at
Abby’s, Ethan was waiting for me on the porch, and I could swear my
heart skipped a beat when he stood and smiled at me.
    “Hey,” he said softly, as I climbed the
stairs, “How did it go at Evie’s?”
    “Great,” I said, slipping into his open arms,
“Shayla got an agent, and she’s coming to Paris for fashion week
with us.”
    “What happened to you?” he asked, looking
down at my stained dress.
    “We stopped for coffee,” I said sheepishly,
“I had a little accident.”
    “Are you okay?” he asked, brushing the hair
from my eyes.
    I kissed him, and I think he got the answer
he wanted.

CHAPTER FIVE
    RIVAL
     
     
    I woke up late that beautiful Sunday
morning, my strange vision from the night before slipping away as
if it were simply a bad dream. Pulling the curtains aside, I let
the bright sunlight stream cheerfully into the room. School was
finally out, and summer stretched out before me like a long, lazy
cat.
    I thought about my plans for a summer spent
on the waves, just me and Ethan, and