They Who from the Heavens Came (The Wisdom, #1)

Frustrated, both mentally and – it had to be confessed – physically, Itzy flopped back on the bed. Her hair billowed up around her, making her look like a gothic angel.

She twisted and reached over to the nightstand beside her bed. She grabbed her phone, with the intention of texting Devon to tell her what had just happened, but when she looked at the screen, there was a message.

It was from Aidan.

I’ve been wandering. Been all over town since the morning. Considering seeing you. If you want.

Her heart stopped. Lord, this was turning into a complicated night. But she knew her answer right away.

I want. I just don’t know how. Are you far?

After a moment, the message came through:

Been driving up and down your road for the last ten minutes. I’m outside the house, now.

Itzy started. This was taking impulsive to the extreme. She wasn’t even dressed. She was still in pyjamas, now wrinkled from her tousle with Seth. He had also ruined her hair. But if Aidan was already downstairs, there was no time to change.

She quickly dragged her fingers through her hair and smoothed it as best she could. For the second time that night, she tiptoed down the stairs. She grabbed the bag she’d left at the end of the banister and slipped her feet into black satin pumps just in time to receive his next text:

Will you meet me?

She didn’t bother replying. She grabbed her denim jacket from a hook by the front door and headed outside.

Aidan was standing in front of a classic Jaguar, staring down at his phone. When he heard Itzy come outside, he shot her a broad smile. There was something different about him, though she couldn’t pinpoint what it was. She supposed it was just because she knew him, now.

Sort of.

He was simply stunning. He looked like he had in the cornfield, his clothing uninspiring and easily overlooked – but he had presence. He also had that same hungry look in his eyes that she’d seen the night before, appraising her from head to toe.

He slipped his phone into his pocket and opened the passenger door for her. The car looked almost black under the streetlight.

‘Dare I even ask how you came by such a car?’ Itzy asked as she climbed inside.

He walked around to the other side and got in next to her. ‘It’s my da’s,’ he said.

She caught some undercurrent to his words and shot him a conspiratorial grin. ‘Does he know you have it?’

‘Oh, aye,’ Aidan said with a theatrical nod. ‘I mean, he must do by now.’ He turned the key and gunned the engine. ‘Sorry. This car doesn’t know how to be quiet.’ Then he tore out of her street, his eyes on the road before them, not daring to glance at her.

It was the first time Itzy had ever been out with a boy on her own after midnight. There was something thrilling about it, but also something slightly scary. It didn’t help that it was so dark out. Even the moon seemed to have disappeared for the night.

‘I saw yer friend leave, as I was pulling up,’ Aidan said.

Itzy stared out the windscreen. ‘Seth,’ she said. ‘I didn’t know he was coming round. He just turned up unannounced and –’

He touched her arm and a spark of electricity shot through her – literally. She met his eyes and saw he was smiling.

‘Ya don’t need to explain yerself to me,’ he said. ‘I was just commenting. He looked cross, like.’ He replaced his hand on the steering wheel and refocused on the road.

‘Oh.’ Itzy slumped back in her seat. ‘Yes, well…I suppose you could say he didn’t get what he wanted.’

Aidan laughed. ‘It’s like that, is it?’ A moment of comfortable silence passed between them. Then he said, ‘I can relate. Melody…she can’t always accept that we’re over.’

‘Is she why you came to London?’

‘No,’ Aidan said quickly. He threw her a look like this was a very important point. ‘Melody made it convenient, aye, because I had somewhere to stay until I found my own place. But I didn’t come here for her.’

This was the time, she thought – when she should tell Aidan about her discussion with Oz. She wanted to share her theory that he might somehow hold the Wisdom, perhaps without realising it – but she didn’t know how to begin.

Just as she’d garnered the courage to say something, Aidan asked, ‘Mind if I play some music?’

She blinked herself out of her reverie. ‘No. Of course not.’

He flicked a switch and the car filled with stormy guitar riffs and reverb. It wasn’t the sort of thing Itzy would have chosen to listen to, but it matched the atmosphere of the night. She sank into the cream leather seat and let the sounds drift over her.

Aidan didn’t appear to have any destination in mind; he simply drove. His left hand rested on the wheel, while his right elbow leaned on the open window. He looked like a Generation-Y James Dean.

After a while, Aidan started singing along with the music. Like Seth, Aidan was a terrible singer who couldn’t hit a note in tune, which made Itzy smile. It lent him a certain vulnerability that was touching.

She could see what Aidan had meant about driving. There was great freedom in just getting out and going. So much of life was so goal-orientated, which carried with it the possibility of failure. But that failure was removed when you took away the goal and concentrated on the journey itself.

And there was freedom in feeling so alive and aware while everyone else around them slept. It was like they were the only two people in the world; they could do whatever they wanted and didn’t have to worry about anything.

Just like Aidan clearly didn’t worry about sounding like a drowning cat as he warbled along with everything, including the distorted guitar solos.

Almost an hour later, Aidan stopped the car.

‘Where are we?’ she asked. She sat up straight and looked out the windows. They appeared to be at the edge of a river – just like in her dream.

Aidan shrugged, and then grinned. ‘I’ve no idea.’

Itzy unbuckled her seatbelt and turned to face him. In the dark, she could just make out his shape – and, of course, his eyes. They watched her, examined her – every inch of her. How can grey be so bright? she thought. There was a glow about them. She wondered if he made them do that, with his power.

‘No one can find us here,’ he said, his voice quiet. ‘No one can tell us there are things we ought to be doing, or that we’re wasting our time. For a little while, like, we can be whatever we want to be.’

There was a story behind his words. It pulled at Itzy’s heartstrings and opened places inside her that she’d thought closed forever. It was a miracle that they’d found each other, she decided.

‘Why were you there, that day?’ she asked. ‘In the field?’

Aidan eased back and drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. ‘That would be a strange question to answer.’

‘I’m getting used to strange.’

He smiled sleepily. ‘Alright, then. Something told me to go.’

Itzy waited for an explanation. He seemed reticent about giving one, so she prodded, ‘Something?’

‘Aye. It’s like that for me, sometimes. I woke up and thought, I need to go. I brought Melody and Verdi along because…I dunno. As difficult as things have been with them, lately, there’s history. We’re a team, like. I didn’t know where I was going, though. I just knew I had to drive. So I kept going until the wee voice in my head told me to stop, and there we were, at the field.’

‘Where Verdi had made the patterns,’ Itzy filled in.

He nodded. ‘Melody kept asking, Why are we here? Why have we come back? I didn’t know what to tell her, so I said maybe we’d find out, like. And then I saw ye.’ He turned and looked out the window, perhaps at the memory of that day. Then he turned back to her. ‘I can’t say why, but when I saw ye, that wee voice in my head told me, This is why ye came here.’

Itzy’s heart pounded. ‘So you thought you’d test me?’

Aidan gave a slight shrug. ‘You…more than all of yis…I knew ye were powerful. Ya don’t realise it, do ye? But ye fill the air with it. I reckon ye could blindfold me and I’d know when ye were here.’

Again, they stared at each other. Finally, curiosity consumed her, and Itzy said, ‘Show me. Show me what you can do.’

‘Alright,’ he said softly.

She leaned her head against the seat and prepared herself for whatever he might be about to unleash on her. A moment later, the interior of the car grew light, while outside it remained dark and mysterious.

He didn’t stop there. She felt the same tingle go up her arms that she had experienced in the restaurant. But this time, it grew and spread throughout her body. Her mouth ran dry and she gripped the edge of the seat to cope with the sensation. Her heart pounded, her head pounded, everything about her beat to a rhythm he controlled. She felt powerless under his spell. And she wanted him. She wanted to kiss him with the same hunger she had seen in his eyes.

Then all at once, it switched off. Her body was hers once more.

But her mind was not. She was still thinking about him, yearning for him.

‘So. I showed ye mine…,’ he teased.

She knew what he was asking, but it was so hard to concentrate after what he’d just done. She wanted more than anything to impress Aidan, to show him she had power. She wanted to make him feel as weak under her spell as she’d just felt under his.

She shut her eyes and forced the thoughts out of her mind. Focus, she told herself, willing the images to be replaced with black, a blank canvas. The letters swam before her, slowly, lazily. She mentally yanked on them, dragging them together to form words, until a sentence blazed in her mind’s eye. Her physical eyes flashed open, just in time to see Aidan lunge for her.

He knocked her backwards against the door and pressed his mouth to hers. Unlike with Seth, she was ready for it. She’d made him do it. And not as an accident or some unconscious desire making itself known; this was undeniably deliberate.

Tendrils of darkness scurried through the car, like spaghetti, but she chose not to think about it.

She stretched up to meet him, throwing her arms around him and making a small noise as he ran his lips down her neck, to the top of her throat. His hands strayed, and she let them. It was a strange situation to be in: she was utterly in control of him, and yet she was completely out of control of herself. He pressed his weight on her, making his own noises and sending chills down her back.

Then, just as she thought they might cross a line there was no going back from, he pulled away. He jolted to the other side of the car, his back pressed against the door. He stared at her with animalistic eyes, panting.

She gathered herself and sat up, straightening her top. ‘What’s wrong?’ she asked. She didn’t bother to disguise her frustration.

‘What did ye do to me?’ he whispered. He sounded positively petrified of her, like she was a wicked sorceress who had cast a brutal spell over him.

Itzy was nonplussed. ‘What do you mean? What did you do to me?’

Aidan shook his head slowly. ‘No. No, no. Ya don’t understand. No one does this to me.’

She balked at him. ‘Are you angry?’

‘I’m not.’ He shuddered as if someone had walked over his grave. ‘I’m not angry at all,’ he assured her. His voice had softened, but it still sounded edgy, frightened. ‘Melody used to try her powers on me,’ he explained. ‘She puts sounds in yer head, and she was forever trying to make me fall into some romantic mood, like, with her music. It works on anyone else. If she wants ye to be happy, ye’ll be happy. If she wants ye to gouge out yer own eyes with a spoon, ye’ll do that too. But it never worked on me.

‘And Verdi? The wee plants don’t touch me. I don’t know why, and I promise I’m not trying to sound vain here, but he tried and they steered right clear of me. But you –’ he said, his eyes large with amazement ‘– you affect me.’

His words sent a new chill through her. She was thrilled to be the only one to hold such power over him. Then again, it was terrifying to think just how strong she was without realising it. What was the reason? And what more was she capable of?

Then she was struck by something else. Something her mother had been trying to tell her.

‘We balance each other,’ Itzy whispered.

Aidan nodded in shocked agreement. ‘Aye, I suppose we do. And here I was thinking no one would ever match me.’

Itzy licked her lips, struggling to get the next words out. ‘Do you…do you regret inviting me out, tonight?’

‘I don’t,’ he said, his wild eyes on her. ‘Never. But ye still scare me.’

She gasped. She wasn’t stupid; she knew how the other boys in school had always drawn away from her, before Ash. She knew something about her intimidated them. But Aidan? Aidan? Scared of her?

Itzy lifted herself from the seat and leaned toward him over the gear stick. He flinched and pressed himself into the car door, unable to get any further from her. She hovered inches away from him, wanting him more than she’d ever wanted anything in her life.

‘Kiss me again,’ she said. ‘This time, your own way, yeah? I promise I won’t do anything to you.’

Aidan hung back, and their eyes locked for a long time. Then he placed his hand around her neck and drew her close. He kissed her softly, gently. She felt herself sinking, falling deeper and deeper into something she thought might be love, even though she still hardly knew him.

He detached his mouth from hers, but his hand remained around the back of her neck, his eyes searching hers. She didn’t need to try to understand what he was feeling, now. She could see it all over his face. It was like looking in an emotional mirror; everything she felt, he felt too.

‘I wasn’t entirely honest with you at the restaurant the other day,’ he said.

Itzy’s eyes grew in surprise. ‘You weren’t?’

Aidan sighed and ran his fingers through her hair. ‘The truth is…before he died, yer da made me promise to look after ye.’

The floor seemed to have dropped from beneath Itzy’s feet. She gripped the edge of her seat to steady herself. ‘He…he made you…?’ she stammered.

‘I didn’t know yer name,’ Aidan continued his confession, ‘and I didn’t know where to find ye. Yer da had this idea that…fate…would bring us together.’

Itzy’s mouth felt desperately dry. ‘Fate,’ she echoed in a whisper.

‘Aye,’ said Aidan. ‘I didn’t really believe him…but now I wonder if he was right. Because here we are.’ He held her eyes.

‘Yes,’ she managed to find her voice. ‘Here we are.’

He smiled. ‘I should drive ye home, now,’ he whispered.

‘No,’ she begged.

His mouth bent into the loveliest smile, brighter than the glow illuminating the car and matching the gold of his skin. ‘Aye,’ he said, ‘or yer ma will kill me.’

As much as she hated to admit it, he was right. She slinked back into the passenger seat and re-buckled herself. The seatbelt felt like prison bars keeping her from him.

He put on his own seatbelt and revved the engine again.

* * *

By the time they made it back to Itzy’s house, it was after four. Aidan parked the Jag outside her house and leaned back in his seat. He looked like he wanted to say something to her, but couldn’t think how to begin. Finally, he reached for her hand and pressed it with his fingers. Warmth flowed into her. It tingled up her arms and spread through her body. Itzy didn’t know what he was doing to her, but she didn’t want him to stop.

With apparent reluctance, he pulled away and got out of the car. He walked around to the passenger side and opened the door for Itzy.

Aidan smiled. ‘Ya know, tonight, I kept toying with my phone, thinking, Should I or shouldn’t I? I couldn’t make up my mind, like, if this was the right thing to be doing. But now I’m thinking, maybe there was only ever one choice.’

He kissed her one last time. His hands found their way into her long hair, pulling her to him with insatiable voraciousness. Itzy threw her arms around his neck and sank into the embrace. He breathed in as she breathed out, and vice versa, until she felt like she was hyperventilating and had to break apart for air.

And the words rushed into her head against her will: I love you.

She’d never believed in love at first sight, but with Aidan, she was struggling not to let the words escape her. She might have given in to the urge if she hadn’t been so frighteningly certain he would have said he loved her too.

He put his hands on her shoulders, his eyes roaming all over her face. ‘I wish I’d known ye all along,’ he said. ‘Something tells me I might have been happier, like.’

She kissed him in response.

Aidan disentangled himself and got back in the car. She looked at him through the window. His image blotted out the car and the street and all sensible thoughts. All she could see were his eyes.

Then he turned the car around and drove away, leaving her alone. His kisses still lingered on her lips, and she could feel the aftermath of his touch all over her skin.

Itzy dragged her feet to her front door and fumbled through her bag for the key. When she was inside, she let out a long sigh. She closed the door and slid down its length, to the floor.

Her phone beeped. When she retrieved it, there was a message from Aidan:

You’re beautiful.

She smiled and counted her blessings that fate had brought her something good, at last.