Selene wrapped her arms around me again.
“I know it’s not easy to come to a new world where dreams are a reality, and to not know where you belong must be ten times worse,” Selena said. “But I promise you Chastity, you are going to meet people, who I know cannot replace the old ones, but can make your new place feel like your home.”
“So I can’t go back home?”
“I’m so sorry, sweetheart, but it’s not a possibility, besides, you will love Revera. The way I see it, you were taken from a world you were never supposed to leave. It does happen from time to time that my Light Casters stray, I mean they are beings too and have their weak spots. They find love in an ordinary human and the product of that love is sitting right here. You are not the first, but you were supposed to be given to your father when you were born. This was supposed to be your home, not the Domain.”
I nodded and wiped my eyes.
“Hey, cheer up. From what I hear you are quite a feisty young lady.”
I smiled
She looked at Tom. “So, Guardian it is. Dingle will be out of his element when he hears this,” Selene said. “We will meet again in three months and we can chat some more then.”
“Sounds like a plan,” I said.
“We will get you some Guardian attire, everything you need and then take you to Fox’s quarters.”
“Fox is no longer a Pursuer?” Tom asked.
“She asked if she could be transferred,” Selene said, “and I agreed, I think she has plenty to offer guiding our younger Guardians.”
Tom didn’t like this, but he nodded as if Selene’s decision was law.
I, on the other hand, was relieved. She was another familiar face I would see every day.
I really hadn’t expected Selene to be so warm and wonderful. She gave me another hug as her assistant came waltzing into the room with a stack of files in her arms. “Selene, the board is waiting,” Donna said.
When I got up the cat was all over me, walking between my legs so much that I almost tripped over him.
“Sorry,” I said softly.
“What is up with Mr. Grey?” Donna asked.
“Don’t know. He’s never acted like this before.” Selena just looked at him, who I was still sure was a she.
The minute I bent down to say goodbye to Shades, the cat ran, as if something had scared him, to another part of the apartment.
“What did I tell you about cats?” Selene gave a small giggle which made me smile too. Still I had this horrible feeling that I wouldn’t see that cat again. It was probably the darkness in me that he sensed and that really started to freak me out.
Selene stopped and hugged me again. “I really hope you are going to love Revera, Chastity. It’s really a dream to live in.”
“Thank you,” I said.
“Tom, can we please speak in private? Donna will take Chastity to the institute.
He nodded as Donna led me toward a golden door.
“Goodbye Chastity, it was a real experience meeting you.” He sounded so sincere that I just stared at him. Then he turned on his heels with Henry still lodged on his shoulder. The owl hooted a couple of times as if he too was saying his goodbye and I waved.
I was scared that whatever was behind that big silver door could be my last test, but something told me that the tests were finally over. I’d seen the cat, and the more I thought about it, the more I knew it was Leigh’s sign.
Lost in thought, I ran to keep up with Donna. The door led down some stairs and another door appeared. We went through that one and I knew I was never going to know Revera like Donna did, but the sight made me gasp and I stopped in my tracks.
Color had finally come back. I now understood why I wasn’t able to see it before as a rich brown color that almost sparkled made me squint. It was so vivid and so rich. The color was brown, but it was a brown I hadn’t seen before, and the color was just the bricks on the wall. The steps were the same, a beautiful grey stone and I almost stumbled on them when red came through too.
Donna finally realized what was happening to me and she giggled. “You will get used to the colors, or so I’ve been told. I can’t imagine a world where the colors aren’t like these.”
“Dull, you mean?”
“Dull?” She shook her head. “Nope, can’t imagine that.”
I was mesmerized every time a new color found its way into my life. The bright ones made me extremely happy, like giddy happy, which was something I’d never experienced before.
The hallway we were walking down led to the beautiful lobby of an enormous house. It had an old staircase going up and plenty of paintings of professors on the walls that almost looked like they were alive.
Another wall held lots of names on small brass plates. From what I could tell they belonged to important Casters that had graduated from the institute, or whatever this place was. The walls were covered from floor to ceiling with brass plates and I just hoped there wasn’t a detention class that involved cleaning these walls.
As we stepped forward, the door opened and a very young, beautiful man, probably in his late twenties/early thirties walked in. He had blond hair, big shoulders and was extremely friendly. Confidence streamed from his body in waves.
“Donna, let me guess, this is the new Caster from the Domain?”
“It is, and Selene wants to see how she’ll do as a Guardian.”
“A Guardian, how exciting!” He smiled at me. I could feel my cheeks turning red and I had no idea why I had a stupid crush on the teacher, or whoever this man was.
Donna gave her beautiful smile and turned around to look at me. “This is where I have to leave you now, so good luck, Chastity.”
“Thank you,” I said, sounding like an idiot who only knew two words.
She turned around and started to walk into the direction we’d come from.
“Oh, before I forget,” Donna said again. “Your clothes will be waiting at your house, so don’t worry about that, okay?”
“Okay,” I replied, “Thank you.”
I took a deep breath. This place really sucked. I kept losing the people I was starting to know.
“I’m Mark, and it’s nice to finally get another Guardian. We don’t have many of them around here. For some reason everyone wants to become Designers, or Socialites.”
I giggled. “I don’t know what a Socialite is and I’m definitely not Designer material. I’m Chastity Blake, but everybody calls me Chas.”
“Okay, Chas. Let’s see what the Guardians are up to right now,” he said. As the words left his perfect lips, a door with the word ‘Guardians’ appeared out of nowhere inside the walls.
THIS PLACE WOULD NEVER STOP TO AMAZE ME.
I’d thought my first day at the Institute would be like the first time I entered Revera with Fox and her team, but the two were nothing alike. We were still inside the learning center, but it sounded more like an institution the way everyone was talking about it.
The decor inside looked like it belonged at one of those posh, private schools my mother had shown me once.
They weren’t shy about the use of color either. The walls were painted in a soft purple with a rich, darker charcoal black below. Big grey stone tiles lined the floor broken up by lush rugs. The walls were covered with pictures of famous people, like Mark Twain, Albert Einstein, a couple of American presidents, even some royals who lived in the Domain and many portraits I didn’t know.
Mark seemed too young to be running an entire school or learning institute like this, but if I’d learned one thing in Revera, it was that age wasn’t a factor here.
We walked to the edge of the hall and turned down another. Light seeped through big glass windows and I peeked outside.
I stopped and moved closer.
It was like I was looking through God’s window.
Mountains were right in front of us and the drop to the surface was staggering.
Mark stood next to me and stared out the window too. “Beautiful, isn�
�t it?”
“I don’t understand. How can we be surrounded by mountains?
“Because the Institute is built on one and some of the floors are actually inside the mountain.”
“Are you serious?”
He raised his eyebrows playfully. “Shall we?” he stretched out his arm and I followed him once more.
We turned another corner and the windows stopped as lights molded into the roof took their place. More doors filled the hallway. I couldn’t stop looking around as various vibrant colors that you wouldn’t typically find in a school welcomed me. It made the colors back home seem dull. There wasn’t another word to explain it, except it seemed the Domain had gotten all the leftover colors.
We stopped in front of the last door and Mark knocked.
An older guy with a grey mustache opened the door. He had a friendly smile; grey highlighted his raven black hair and the bluest eyes I’d ever seen.
Mark smiled. “Good morning, Dingle. I have the new girl, Chastity Blake from the Domain; she’s going to be a Guardian.”
The guy looked at me and smiled. “A Guardian you say?” He looked at Mark, and back at me. “Well Chastity Blake, welcome to Guardian training.” He stepped out of the way and stretched out his arm for me to enter.
“Fox will pick her up this afternoon.”
“Fox is no longer a Pursuer?”
“Nope, she asked for a transfer, she’s now the headmistress of the Guardians’ home for girls.” He looked back at me. “Chastity, if you need anything, please don’t hesitate to ask,” Mark said as he waved goodbye and flashed me his super gorgeous smile again.
I sighed as the door closed, and was quickly brought back to reality as I followed Dingle into a slightly dark classroom. There was absolutely nobody in sight.
“Please tell me I’m not the only Guardian?”
He gave a heartfelt, warm laugh and it lasted for almost a minute.
“Sorry, Chastity.” He coughed to clear his throat and took a seat behind his desk.
I took a seat on the first open desk I could find.
“I was thinking we should get to know one another a bit before you join up with your other class members.”
He opened a file and started to read from it. “It says here that a Shadow Caster kidnapped you.” He stared at the file and his eyes rose as he read further. He slowly looked up and stared at me again, closed his eyes and shook his head softly.
“You know who Vinicola was?”
I shook my head. Lied again.
“She’s an extremely dangerous Shadow Caster. One we thought was dead, until recently. It might, one day, be useful to know what she wanted from you.”
I didn’t like how he said that, like I was some sort of bait to lure my mother out of her hiding spot.
He kept reading further.
“You were in the Guile too?” he asked with slight admiration, or disbelief, I couldn’t tell which, in his tone.
I nodded.
“What was it like?”
“Horrible,” I answered with the first thing that came to my mind. “I thought I was going to die.”
“You are definitely a Guardian if you survived the Guile.” He smiled and carried on reading.
He read quickly and a couple of noises escaped his lips. He trailed off as pure shock filled the age lines of his eyes. “They only put you through one test?”
I nodded.
“How long were you inside the Virtual Realm?”
“About three weeks.”
“Three weeks!” He looked at the file again and his eyes scanned through the report I assumed Elliot wrote.
“You know Max?” he asked again.
“Yes, they thought it was wise that someone was with me in the test. It really felt so real.”
“They came early this morning, him and Margot and I have to say, the things the twins experienced is going to make this an exciting year.”
“Max and Margot are already here?” I asked and he nodded.
“They’re helping me with training. It was a wise decision to get sub-teachers to help with training the new guardians. I haven’t been in the field for a long time, and I’m sure there are quite a few new things that I’m not familiar with.”
I didn’t like the fact that they were already here.
I let him finish reading my file and then he closed it.
“One thing I ask, Chastity, is you will soon discover that my methods are not entirely curriculum standard, but I do it for your own safety, to make you as strong as you can be. Facing real danger everyday is what Guardians do, and I’m the guy to help you learn how to deal with it. So there is a bit of discretion and loyalty when it comes to sharing my methods with others, that is all I’m asking.”
A cold finger ran up my spine, I felt adrenaline rushing though my body just hearing those words leaving his mouth. I had no idea what was waiting for me or whether I was going to like it or not, but I nodded.
He smiled again, clapped his hands once and got up from behind the desk. “Great, excellent to have you in my class, Chastity,” he said and walked past the tables and chairs to the wall at the back of the room. There wasn’t a door or sign of another room. But as we got closer, the floor shifted and steps that led down to a lower level appeared before us.
The steps rumbled slightly and I could hear other voices coming from below. Someone shouted a command, others cried out, army-style, with a lot of yes and no sirs. I sighed. As if I hadn’t had enough of that back home.
We walked in on at least a dozen kids standing in a circle inside a huge training room similar to the one my mom had trained me in. There were target boards and ropes dangling from the roof. A huge grey padded mat was in the middle where I saw two students fighting as the others cheered them on. The leader couldn’t have been much older than any of the rest of us and then I gasped as I finally realized that it was Max. He’d cut his hair army-style short and was shouting commands at the two individuals fighting inside the ring. I looked around for Margot but didn’t see her.
Everyone stopped when they saw Mr. Dingle, and Max blew his whistle. “Cadets, in line!”
They all moved into a perfect line and saluted Mr. Dingle. An urge to laugh out loud and shake my head filled my core. Clearly choosing to be a Guardian had been the biggest mistake of my life.
“At ease,” Mr. Dingle said softly and they all, in perfect unison, took a step to the side with their arms behind their backs.
My gaze fell immediately on Margot. She was one of the girls in the ring, and I saw four others standing beside them. A parrot flew from nowhere and landed on a girl with bright, golden brown curls. She kissed his beak once and pretended to be a soldier again. Seven boys stood right next to the girls. All of them were big and masculine with broad shoulders. Max took his post next to Margot but I swore I saw a small smile tug at the corners of his mouth as he looked at me for a few seconds.
“I want you all to meet Chastity Blake. She came from the Domain a couple of days ago.”
“Sir?” one guy asked.
“Yes Rudy.”
“Is she the one that escaped Duke and Kyle?”
The class was extremely quiet waiting for Mr. Dingle’s answer. He had a soft smile on his face.
He just nodded and all of them gave a small chuckle and giggled.
How many of them know about that day?
“Let’s not spread it around, please,” Mr. Dingle answered. “It’s not good for the Seekers’ status.”
“Max, I need you to train a bit with Chastity one on one for the next couple of weeks so we can see where her strong and weak points are,” he commanded.
Max smiled. “I’m sure I know where her strong points already lie, sir.”
“Still, we need to make one hundred percent sure.”
“Not a problem, sir,” Max said.
“Welcome to Guardian training, Chastity.” Mr. Dingle smiled and went to sit in a chair against the wall, observing us.
I si
ghed as Max gave the others the command to continue. They didn’t cheer on Margot and her previous opponent anymore, but started forming groups of two and began fighting against each other. Some of the girls were fighting against the boys which made all of this feel so unreal.
“I told you that you would be seeing me again soon.”
“Yes, you did.” I sighed. “Too soon.”
He smiled. “Are you ever going to forgive me for that stupid test?”
“Sure.” I shrugged. “So what now? Are we going to fight too?” I looked at the others who all seemed as if they wanted to tear each other apart.
“Here.” He threw a roll of duct tape at me which I barely caught. “Make sure you tie your fingers up.”
I stared at the roll for a couple of seconds and back at his own hands and found duct tape taped around his knuckles and hands. I started to wrap my own hand with the tape slowly, and as tightly as I could manage without feeling as if I’d cut off all blood circulation to my hands.
It didn’t look as neat as his and when he chuckled I looked at him again. He shook his head softly and took the hand that was already mummified, started ripping off the tape.
“Ouch,” I yelled. “I actually need skin to cover my hand if you don’t mind.”
“The faster the less painful it is, Chas.”
“I have to disagree on that.” My hand burned and I contemplated giving it back to him, thinking that I had to go through all of this again when we were done.
“Give me your hand.”
I did and he rolled it around my hand again.
“See, through the fingers, once, make sure that your knuckles are well protected so that the punches don’t hurt.”
“Punches? You mean we’re going to fight?”
“Don’t look so surprised Chas, this is Guardian training. Fighting is what we love to do and something you are quite good at.”
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