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“If something’s wrong, we want to help,” Meredith said softly.
Warmth ran through Elena, soothing away that sorrowful ache, and she reached for her friends’ hands. “I’m fine,” she said, gripping Bonnie’s square, small hand and Meredith’s long cool one. “Only … everything’s changing, isn’t it? It’s our senior year, our last year together.”
“Nothing’s going to change,” Bonnie said uncomfortably. “Nothing important. Just school and stuff.”
“Elena’s right,” Meredith said, turning her hand to thread her fingers through Elena’s. “Next year at this time, who knows where we’ll all be?”
“You’ve both been such good friends to me,” Elena said in a rush. “When my parents died … I couldn’t have gotten through that bad time without you. I don’t want to lose you guys, not ever.”
Bonnie sniffed and pulled away from Elena to wipe at her eyes. “Don’t make me cry,” she said, half laughing. “My mascara will run, and then I’ll look like a raccoon.”
“Let’s swear an oath.” Elena said determinedly. “An oath that we’ll always be true friends.”
They’d sworn a blood oath in this graveyard the first time she’d lived this. Bonnie and Meredith had sworn that they would do anything Elena asked in relation to Stefan. And Elena had sworn not to rest until Stefan belonged to her. Not even if it killed her.
And, well, it had killed her in the end, hadn’t it? It had killed both of them. An oath like that—sworn in blood in a graveyard—had true Power.
“Wait a minute,” Meredith said, as Elena had known she would. She let go of Elena’s hand and unfastened a pin from her blouse, then jabbed it quickly into her thumb. “Bonnie, give me your hand.”
“Why?” Bonnie asked, frowning suspiciously at the pin.
“Because I want to marry you,” Meredith said sarcastically, and Elena smiled a little. “Why do you think?”
“But—but—Oh, all right. Ow!”
“Now you, Elena.” Meredith hesitated and then jabbed at Elena’s finger, their eyes meeting for a moment. She held out her own thumb, a plump drop of blood swelling on its pad, and Bonnie and Elena pressed their thumbs against hers. Bonnie’s eyes were still shining with tears and Meredith looked pale and earnest. Affection for them both swelled inside Elena. These were her sisters.
“I swear that I’ll always be there for both of you,” Meredith said steadily. “I’ll be on your side and do everything I can for you, no matter what happens.”
“No matter what,” Bonnie said, closing her eyes. “I swear.”
Elena, pressing her thumb hard against the other girls’, ignoring the twinge of pain, said softly, “I swear, I will always be there for you, no matter what.” She felt breathless and expectant. This was sacred.
A gust of cold wind blew through the cemetery, lifting the girls’ hair, and sending a flurry of dry leaves across the gro
und. Bonnie gasped and pulled back, and they all giggled. A flush of satisfaction filled Elena. Whatever happened, however the world changed now, at least she knew she’d have Bonnie and Meredith.
Elena rested her head in her hands, staring down at the scratched surface of her desk as her classmates settled into their seats for trigonometry class. Ignoring their chatter, she went back over her meeting with Damon in the graveyard the day before. Was there something she should have done differently?
She knew she’d intrigued him. She had seen his pupils widen when he leaned in toward her, his eyes curious and hungry. She’d half expected him to appear at her window that night. But he hadn’t.
Although … that morning she’d heard the caw of a crow and whipped around just too late to see the bird. All the way to school, she’d had the disquieting feeling that she was being watched.
Halloween was coming. The night Damon had killed Mr. Tanner. Shifting uneasily in her seat, Elena remembered how Mr. Tanner’s head had flopped lifelessly backward against the altar in the Halloween house of horrors. His throat had been caked with blood. Elena squeezed her eyes shut tight, trying to block out the memories.
Damon had been at the Haunted House that night, and seeing Elena and Stefan together filled him with jealousy and seething resentment. He had lashed out by feeding on Mr. Tanner when Mr. Tanner stuck a dagger into him. Damon had killed him out of surprised rage and pain.
According to Mylea, that was when Damon’s fate had been sealed. If Elena didn’t manage to change what happened, she would die. Stefan would die. And Elena couldn’t imagine the Guardians would let Damon live, not without Elena to rein him in. They would all be doomed.
So far, she’d successfully avoided Stefan. In history class she tried to close her mind off, scowling with concentration as she chanted multiplication tables or dialogue from old movies in her mind—anything to drown out whatever part of her might call to Stefan. He didn’t try to talk to her, either. She’d had to pursue him last time; he hadn’t wanted to be reminded of Katherine, hadn’t wanted to connect with her.
But Elena could feel him watching her in the halls, as clearly as she could feel Damon watching her on the streets. The other day, she’d glanced at Stefan in class without meaning to and seen his green eyes fixed on her. His gaze had been soft and longing, hungry. She wanted to comfort him, but Elena already knew how that would end.
The speaker set high on the classroom wall crackled, jolting Elena out of her thoughts. She half listened to the morning announcements, snapping to attention as the vice principal’s voice said, “Senior Homecoming Court nominations have been tallied. This year’s nominees for Homecoming Queen are Sue Carson, Caroline Forbes, Elena Gilbert, Bonnie McCullough, and Meredith Sulez. Voting will take place in the cafeteria over the next week. Congratulations to all the nominees.”
Elena gripped the edge of her desk, a sudden panic running through her. No. No way.
Homecoming had been when it all began. A dizzying whirl of images rose up in Elena’s mind’s eye. Herself, determined that Stefan wouldn’t turn her down. Leaving the dance in Tyler Smallwood’s convertible, the taste of whiskey sharp in her mouth, her hair blowing wildly in the wind as they sped down the highway. The lid of the tomb in the ruined church shifting under her hand. The ripping sound as Tyler tore her dress.
