Unmasked (The Vampire Diaries 13)

Elena bit back

a laugh and turned away, letting her eyes slide over the crow as if she hadn’t noticed it.

Damon. She had almost forgotten that this was the first time she’d seen him, that he’d watched her—frightened her—as a crow this first morning. There was a glad little bubble of joy rising in her chest, but she suppressed the urge to call out to him. It wasn’t the time, not yet.

Instead, she took a deep breath, hopped off the porch, and strode confidently down the street. Behind her, she heard a harsh croak and the flapping of wings, and she smiled to herself. Damon couldn’t stand being ignored. She didn’t turn back around.

It was only a few blocks to the high school, and Elena spent the walk reminiscing. There was the coffee shop she and Matt had gone to on their first date junior year; there was the little health food shop where Aunt Judith had insisted on buying her special organic cereal. There was the house of the terrible Kline twins, who Elena had babysat during her sophomore year of school.

In her real life, it hadn’t been that long since Elena had been to Fell’s Church, but things had changed since she was in high school. Stores had closed and opened, houses were remodeled. This was the way it had been when she’d lived here, the way it was supposed to be.

At the school, a crowd of her friends had gathered in the parking lot, chattering and showing off their new clothes. It was everyone who mattered, plus four or five girls who had hung around them in the hopes of gathering some scraps of popularity.

Elena winced. Everyone who mattered. The nasty thought had slotted right into her mind. The Elena who belonged here had thought that.

One by one, her best friends hugged her in welcome. They looked so young, Elena thought, her heart aching. They all thought they were so sophisticated, but their seventeen- and eighteen-year-old faces still had childish curves, and their eyes were wide with thinly veiled excitement at the first day of their senior year.

Caroline, her green eyes narrow, laid one cool cheek against Elena’s for a second and then stepped back. “Welcome home, Elena,” she said dryly. “It must feel like the backwoods for you after Paris.”

Her expression was stiff and resentful, and Elena wondered at how she had managed to not notice then how much the other girl hated her.

Elena shrugged and laughed a little, feeling awkward. “Paris was nice, but there’s no place like home.”

For a moment, she tried to focus in on Caroline, to read her aura, but it was hopeless. Elena wasn’t a Guardian here, and so she didn’t have those powers anymore. It was a strange, helpless feeling to lose them.

Then Bonnie flung her arms around Elena, her red curls tickling the taller girl’s chin, and Elena relaxed.

“Do you like my hair? I think it makes me look taller.” Bonnie fluffed up her bangs and smiled.

“Gorgeous,” Elena said, laughing. “But maybe not tall.”

Once Bonnie let go, Meredith moved forward for a warm hug. Raising one elegant eyebrow, she considered Elena. “Well, your hair is two shades lighter from the sun … but where’s your tan? I thought you were living it up on the French Riviera.”

Wait. Elena remembered this. She lifted her own pale hands and said, “You know I never tan.”

“Just a minute, that reminds me!” Bonnie grabbed one of Elena’s hands. “Guess what I learned from my cousin this summer? Palm reading!”

There were a few groans, and someone laughed. Elena’s breath rushed out of her. Of course; she had almost forgotten. This was the first time Bonnie had shown her Power. She’d seen the future in Elena’s palm. Slowly, Elena flattened out her hand, opening it to Bonnie’s gaze.

“Laugh while you can,” Bonnie said serenely, peering into Elena’s palm. “My cousin told me I’m psychic.”

There was something Elena had said then, the first time this happened, but she couldn’t remember exactly what. It didn’t matter anyway. What had mattered here was what Bonnie had seen in her hand: Stefan.

“Okay,” Bonnie said, frowning as she traced the lines on Elena’s palm with one finger. “Now, this is your life line—or is it your heart line?” In the crowd around them, someone snickered. “Quiet. I’m reaching into the void. I see … I see …” Bonnie frowned. “I don’t get this. It says you have two loves, Elena.”

Elena’s chest tightened. This wasn’t right.

Bonnie touched one end of the line running across the center of Elena’s palm. The line forked there, splitting into two lines wrapping around the side of Elena’s hand. “See? Your heart line divides into two.”

“Greedy,” Caroline said, not quite jokingly.

Elena blinked, bewildered. Bonnie should have started talking about Stefan. She was supposed to say he was dark and handsome, and he had been tall once. But instead Bonnie must be seeing something of what had happened in the time after this, the truths of Elena herself, the one who didn’t belong here.

“I can see the two loves,” Bonnie went on. “But there’s something else here. …” Her eyes widened, and, with a quick, sudden movement, she dropped Elena’s hand as if it had burned her.

“What’s wrong?” Elena asked, suddenly frightened. She reached out to her, but Bonnie backed away, tucking her own hands behind her back.

“It’s nothing,” she said. “Palm reading’s silly anyway.”