“OK,” I said, getting excited, “how about November 26, 2015.”
Chloe took a slow breath through her nose and closed her eyes. “All right, I’m there. I am still standing in this spot, at the same time of day, only what I see is this spot and time on November 26, 2015.”
“What do you see?” I whispered, as though talking too loud might break her trance – or whatever it was.
“Not much. All the buildings are the same. That tree needs a trim,” she said raising her arm and pointing to the tall willow on the other side of the footpath. “A full Walker would be able to walk around to other parts of campus, or the world for that matter, with no problem. But as soon as I try to move…” She took a step forward, hesitating for a moment, her eyelids tensing up like she was trying to hold onto something. After a long moment she sighed and opened her eyes, deflated. “I lose it.”
Well, that was… anticlimactic, I thought to myself. Not at all like Alex’s Casting demonstration.
“See, like I said, no big deal.” She sounded so sad.
“Hey, it’s more than I’ve got,” I said, as we began walking again. “Alex said that the fact that I graduated two years early from school is my ‘ability’, how lame is that?”
She smiled, perking up a bit. “Yeah, I suppose it’s all right. I just wish I were more useful. What I really want is to be in the Order, but Jocelyn says I’m not strong enough and that it’d be too dangerous.”
“The Order? What’s that? Help with what?”
“Oh,” Chloe bit her lip, looking apologetic, “I should probably let Alex tell you about all that. He knows more about it than I do.”
A particularly cold breeze caught us and we both gave a shiver. “Come on then, let’s get on to Lorcan and get warmed up. And on the way, I can give you a tour!”
“OK,” I said, smiling at her sudden enthusiasm, glad that she was back to being bubbly.
We walked along for about ten minutes, Chloe naming all the buildings we passed, and giving me any pertinent history she knew about each one. Most of the halls were named after Irish saints – Cian, Niall, Aidan, Martin, Cillian – the majority of whom I’d never heard of. She talked about the history of the grounds, and the names of the trees and plants, and said hi to the occasional passerby, though they were few and far between as it was getting dark, and most people were in for the night.
Try as I might to pay attention, my mind began to wander off on its own tangent, namely Jocelyn. I was suddenly acutely aware of the fact that for the first time in ten years we were in vicinity of one another. Every time Chloe pointed out a new building or hall, I realized that he could actually be in there. My heart started to beat faster and I had the urge to duck into a doorway and hide, as if I were actually afraid that he was going to pop out from behind a bush or jump out of a tree at any moment.
Yeah, right.
It was long past time to get a grip. With a huff, I stuffed my hands in my pockets and forced myself to listen to Chloe’s never-ending river of dialogue. She pointed out the cafeteria, and the library. Showed me the dorm where Ryland was housed, and all the different academic buildings that Ryland would have his classes in. We turned onto a smaller footpath that seemed to be leading us away from the campus proper. As we passed through a line of trees, I wondered aloud, “Seems like everything is back over there.”
“Don’t worry, nearly there,” Chloe told me, pointing down the path, and sure enough, there was one building left. In fact, one of the largest buildings we had seen so far.
“Here we are,” Chloe said as we arrived, resting her hand on the banister of the large stone steps leading up to the entrance, “Lorcan Hall.”
It was one of the coolest buildings I had ever seen. It was as though someone from the eighteenth century couldn’t decide whether they wanted to build a church or a castle, so they combined the two. Huge columns framed the giant oak doors, each with two ornate iron hinges and a knocker that looked too heavy to lift. The windows were all stained