With her mind so much in the past, she often missed the news and so hadn’t heard anything about the four friends who’d disappeared from Stonehenge. It wasn’t until just now that she caught the early afternoon telecast of the frantic rush to bring the story to the world. She frowned at that, as always, not pleased with the speed of modern living. They knew nothing of a quiet day without television. She was tempted to turn it off until a pretty young woman appeared onscreen, talking about their reasons for visiting the monoliths. Around her neck hung a pendant she kept playing with, drawing the eye as the camera zoomed in on it.
“By the gods,” Erin whispered, staring at the recognized stone, her wine glass slipping unnoticed to shatter on the lanai, the wine draining away like a rivulet of blood. Her face grew paler as the girl spoke of visiting the monument, vanishing for weeks, then returning as if nothing happened. She professed to have no recollection of the missing time, but Erin had been reading people in tough situations far longer than this pretty girl had and she knew a lie when she heard it. The spark of untold adventure in the girl’s eyes said it all and Erin rose from her chair with a light in her own.
“What have they done?”
A week after the firestorm started, it quieted to a dull roar as the media moved on to other stories and the flow of interviews trickled off, but all was not well with their lives. On the surface, little had changed for Ryan, whose parents had displayed more affection for him in a few days than in his whole life before that. In theory that was good, but the departure from their regular indifference and established lack of attention made him uncomfortable and didn’t seem to be letting up. In fact, it got worse, as they wanted to know his every move and even suggested assigning a 24/7 bodyguard. Their monitoring of where he drove the GPS-equipped car made him disable that and the tracking app on his phone. He was starting to feel like a prisoner in his own life and didn’t know what to do. When Daniel remarked on how annoying such hovering can be, the big guy finally understood his brother’s need for space.
Their reunion had been the happiest moment of his life, and seeing that Daniel had survived without him the greatest relief. While he’d come to grips with the violence he’d experienced on Honyn, the first sight of Daniel had made him flush with renewed guilt he couldn’t explain. He had to lie about his whereabouts to the one person who most deserved the truth, and since Ryan had never lied to Daniel before, he wasn’t good at it. His brother didn’t believe him, some awkward moments following. His friends watched with more understanding than ever and Ryan was glad he’d told them the truth about the accident.
Ryan’s initial call to Daniel had led to his parents knowing of their return and soon, the world did, too, via a press conference they arranged. Amidst police reports and interviews, they’d finally flown home to meet their relieved families and friends. The question dodging had become painful, but the four friends stuck together, their ordeal creating a bond.
Things hadn’t turned out quite so well for the others. All of Eric’s martial arts students had moved on to another teacher in his absence, and the guy who had first been a temporary replacement during his “vacation” had taken his job. The owner, Kim Jung, was less than kind, asserting that Eric had abandoned his position and students and wasn’t welcome back. The students and even his replacement were more forgiving and understanding, but ultimately it didn’t matter. He had lost his job, a fact that made headlines. The backlash on Jung worsened after he stupidly aired his opinion on camera. Many of the school’s roster went elsewhere, a move that both pleased and embarrassed Eric, who wasn’t used to such shows of loyalty. He received a dozen offers from other schools, and many of his former student’s parents withdrew their children to follow Eric to his new job.
Matt took a few days off and then reported to work as usual, though he got little done the first week with geek co-workers jokingly asking what being abducted by aliens felt like, or similar half-baked theories. Being at work dealing with irritating tech problems felt wildly uninspiring and he increasingly longed for more in his life. Not an hour passed without dreams of the power that was once his. He could be a different man with it, and life just wasn’t the same without that energy coursing through him, like his black-and-white life had been infused with color only to cast him back to greyness. He’d tried to perform magic here without success despite his clear memory of the spells, which he’d written down in his own book. He hadn’t yet been hypnotized to see what of Soliander’s memories he retained and wasn’t sure if it would matter now anyway. Besides, he’d need someone he trusted to do that.
Perhaps the biggest change had been for Anna, whose position at the hospital had been filled by necessity, though a similar one had become available. Jack Riley had never packed her things despite her father’s request, but she learned of the intent anyway and was quite upset with being written off so quickly. Her father’s lukewarm response to her
